pictures!

First off, the lovely shelves we put in our garage. This was all just stacked on the floor before. Moving that big box up onto a top shelf really gave us a lot of space to put stuff. Oh and that blue box by the bike trailer went in the recycling yesterday.





This is the big scary spider that crawled out of the strawberries as I was pulling the grass away from them. Ahh!




Here's Jon working on our patio!




and me!




and Alex!







And the patio ALMOST done!



And here are some good Alex pictures for you!



diaper wedgie




booger sucking (yes, he loves this thing and loves it when I suck out his boogers. Weirdo!)


and playing outside last night

Israel

As I was perusing the internets this fine evening (thanks for another late night, dear!) I happened across a post on the Bloggernacle talking about Israel.

For some reason this reminded me of what the word 'israel' means in its native Hebrew. (Sidenote: I wish I could read Hebrew, Arabic, Greek, Latin and a whole host of near-eastern languages. Portuguese and Spanish will have to suffice for the present.)

'Israel' in Hebrew roughly means 'one who struggles with God' or 'wrestled with God.'

What does it mean for someone to wrestle or struggle with God? How often should we wrestle with Him? What are outcomes of such an action?

I don't profess to have all the answers but improving my relationship with God is something I've been pondering recently. I've also been thinking about how one goes about teaching children and my Primary kids about attaining a greater faith in God.

Seeing how the first principle of righteous action in men is faith in Deity, what are ways to help others build faith? I'm sure these are things that most religious leaders think about on regular occasions. Its also something I thought about for a couple years. It hasn't been until recently that I've had this desire rekindle inside me; not only how to increase one's faith but also how to help others do so.

Enos wrestled with God through mighty prayer. Jacob wrestled with an angel. Moses wrestled an entire nation from the hands of Egypt. Brother Brigham (I love that name) wrestled with mobs in Nauvoo and later struggled across 1500 miles of wilderness. Others struggle with different challenges.

Health, money, shelter, food, clothing, addiction, depression.

I don't myself struggling with much at the moment. Is that the reason I find myself not wrestling with God? Probably. The times in my life where its been the hardest are the times I turn to the Lord. The scriptures frequently talk about how slow men are to turn to the Lord except in their times of need. Why do we wait for extraordinary situations to call on the help of God?

I believe that developing a deep, personal relationship with God is a fundamental aspect to this life. Doctrines, practices, beliefs, dogmas, etc. are far secondary to building this relationship. Comprehending His will for us by doing unto others as we would have done unto us comes by understanding who He is. By loving God we come to understand why is it so important to love and serve our neighbor. It is through us that He accomplishes His work.

"If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other."
-Mother Teresa

Thanks for letting me share some thoughts with all y'all (thank you, Texas.)

Have a marvelous and safe Memorial Day weekend!

Nope. Didn't clean my house.

You can thank Amy for that.
I'm not quite sure what the original reason for coming over was... something about her doing laundry?
It evolved into me bringing my valances to work on. And I got 2 of the 4 done! Yay! And they look fabulous! Amy was a little confused that I was bringing a piece of a 2x4 in to her house, but you've gotta do what you've gotta do.

And I just have to add that in the ways of season finales, Grey's Anatomy was GREAT tonight and The Office was AWESOME last week!

I also wanted to post a great recipe I got from my friend Lauren.

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
4 tbsp. butter or margarine
2/3 c. honey
1 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. mustard

Place the chicken in a greased 9x9 inch baking pan. Bake, uncovered, at 325 degrees for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, combine the butter, honey, salt, and mustard. Cook and stir over low heat until well mixed and heated through. Pour the sauce over chicken, then bake, uncovered for 30-35 minutes more, occasionally basting chicken with sauce. Serve chicken with remaining sauce.


My modification is to poor the sauce over the chicken from the beginning and cook for about 40-45ish minutes, with a bit of basting. You can also add some brown sugar or bbq sauce to the sauce. We made this last week and I kept the left over sauce and made it again tonight, but added bbq sauce. It was very similar to Chick-fil-et's honey mustard bbq sauce, so if you like that, you'll like this.
I still have some sauce left, so I'm going to cube the chicken and cook it like that so the sauce further permeates the chicken. I've also considered coating cubed chicken in cornstarch and frying and then serving the sauce on top (it would be like saucy chinese styles of chicken).
I love that I only had to make the sauce once (I did make a little more than the recipe called for) and we get to eat it three times!

So there you have my rave about a yummy easy recipe you should all try. Thanks Lauren!

The nature of the beast

Whenever I full on clean my house (as in vacuum and all), it's a mess the next day. Seriously, what's up with that?
I guess I can only blame myself (and probably my husband and child) for not staying on top of it and picking up the little things.
Tomorrow= more cleaning. Surprise surprise.

On a happy note, I had a mostly successful day at Kohl's. I found myself 2 lightweight "sweat" cut off pants. One even in bright pink. I can't wait to pull them on tomorrow. Oh wait... visiting teaching. Maybe not the best fashion statement to make when going to visit.
But they will be fabulous for wearing to the pool. Or outside working on the yard. Or, my favorite, hanging out at home in. I can hardly wait.

I only say mostly because I was also looking for some new denim capris/bermudas. The capris I currently have actually still fit me when I was about 7 months pregnant with Alex. Needless to say, I wear a belt with them. ;)
I found a really cute pair of bermudas at Kohl's in the misses section and was really mad when the 4's were too big. Seriously. I wanted them to fit. And they should have. I even got a pair of plaid capris made by the same company that the 4's were slightly tight on me. I was so mad because I have a hard time finding bermudas/capris that look good on me (pants shopping is not a good kind of shopping for me) and these looked great except for being slightly too big when they shouldn't have been that big! And do they make 2's in misses? I don't think so. GRRR.
Thus the mostly successful.
And the saddest part? I have to put more time and effort into finding a cute pair of denim capris/bermudas. I was thinking about getting some from mimi maternity, but I'm still trying to decide if the they are worth the $88. Nearly every part of me says YES because they are ADORABLE. And I could still wear them while pregnant. BUT I don't want to spend $90 on maternity shorts and then have them not fit me while not pregnant. I know... why should they fit me if I'm not pregnant? Well, they have this super long belly panel that stretches with your belly. Or so I tell myself. DaNae? Courtney? How do you think they'd work for non pregnant me?



Anyway...
thanks for letting me tell you about following through with lounge pants and cleaning plans. And sorry I'm not more exciting. I need to mix things up here a little more. Jon?

jeans are over rated

Every day I put on my jeans, or even just my casual cargo capris I wonder why I even wear them. All I want to wear are my capri sweats.
But I only have one pair.
So I think it's time to add more cute cut off sweats to my wardrobe. Just think of all of the advantages! I can wear my hair up and people will just think it goes with the outfit. When I do go out in them, they are normal enough to be considered okay to go out in public with, they are cooler (temperature wise) than wearing jeans, and so much easier to move around in!
Aeropostale, here I come!

You always left me happy and satisfied

... that's what she said.
Ahh... one of our favorite things from The Office.

Which reminds me, while in Utah I did pretty much the best that's what she said of all time, thanks to a nice set up from Ryan. If you want to read it, it will be at the end of the blog. Obviously, it's not G or really even PG rated since it's "that's what she said". Read at your own will/risk.

But the reason for the title is that I am ending my day happy and satisfied. I accomplished so much today and when I actually do stuff it always makes me feel so good!

I recently copied one of my friends and stole her weekly cleaning list broken down into days. I love crossing things off of lists. I decided to go above my usual, "get dressed, eat breakfast, put alex down for a nap, make bed, general pick up" list and added bathrooms, vacuuming, window cleaning, mopping, and weekly room cleaning to the list. Today was family room day and I cleaned my windows and vacuumed! I also went above and beyond my goal of just doing laundry and actually folded the laundry on the same day I did it (I have the folding and put away scheduled for Tuesday's on my list, so that was one less thing I have to do tomorrow!). I also dusted my blinds and wiped down my window sills.

And to top the day off, I made a delicious turkey dinner in about ten minutes. I had cooked the turkey last night and put it in a container, so it just had to be reheated. And then 5 minute stuffing, potato pearls, thickening gravy, and frozen veggie zapping! It was so delicious and super easy. We'll probably be having the same thing later this week and I plan on freezing a couple of turkey broccoli casseroles. Ahh... the joys of cooking a whole turkey!

Jon was also wonderful and gave Alex a bath and put him to bed for me. And that was after he helped me empty the dishwasher! He's the best!
While he put the boy to bed, I went out and planted a couple of lilies I got from a lady in our ward (I almost killed one of them!) and I am excited to see them grow (and hopefully the one makes a good recovery).

It's only 9:30 now, so since I now have the correct color of thread to make my window treatments I may head upstairs to work on those for a little while. My fabric is ironed and waiting for me!



and FINALLY... the that's what she said quote.
(Ryan, talking about his tight pants) "you'd have to grease yourself up pretty good to get in these pants".....

that's what she said.

The amazing speed of learning!

I read in my little toddler packet this week from the pediatician (oops! I forgot to share the stats!)
that toddlers can learn new words at the amazing rate of something like 2 words per hour.
I just found THIS ARTICLE which was actually really interesting.
Another little thing I remember reading is that the toddler/child's mind is at it's peak and as parts (synapses maybe? I don't remember...) aren't used, they go away. What a great time to teach your child.
So I need to be better at teaching Alex new words and I think now would be a great time for Jon to teach Alex more Portuguese (come on honey! How fun for you would it be to be able to carry on conversations with your son in Portuguese?!).

Today Alex totally surprised me by saying Hi completely on his own. He had never said it before, even with much prompting and tonight he was all about it. It was very entertaining!
Yesterday we taught him brick and now I'm excited to see if he can actually recall it the next time we go outside.
I know that I constantly am teaching Alex new words (like newt...) and have him try to say words when we see pictures in a book, but I never know if he's actually learned them because he is slow to use them, if that makes sense. He knows the word but doesn't always point it out and say the new ones. Guess I need more repetition! Haha... the story of life with a toddler. Repeat, repeat, and repeat some more.

I'm hoping to get some projects pumped out and shown off this week! My downstairs is clean, so I'm set up for success. At the very least, I plan on having clean windows, bathrooms, and bedrooms (all of which are hit and miss for me most days besides the daily making of the bed).

Oh ya, and Alex cried in nursery today. BUT he did sit with another of the mom's in there and did okay when she was holding him. I think he just likes to have someone to stake his claim on that will give him attention and comfort in a situation he still isn't too sure of.

Another day working on the patio

I was going to sew my valances today, but by the time I figured out how much fabric to use, un-picked a wide hem, sewed a new hem and realized that I needed to use a green thread instead of white, I was done. So I went out and helped Jon move the pavers into the backyard and then we proceeded to lay them. Most of them are lain now, but with the pattern we did, we have square spaces where we need to cut a block in half. So now we have to figure out how to cut concrete paver blocks in half. We're hoping that our lovely Home Depot down the road will be of some help.
After getting those last little buggers in, we'll just have to top with sand and do some more tamping (using a big metal plate on a stick to forcefully set the pavers in place). It looks awesome and Alex has loved playing on the bricks and digging in the sand with Daddy.
The best thing about working today as compared to last Saturday: about 10 degrees cooler. It was a WONDERFUL day to work outside!

Sadly, we didn't get our beadboard up because we were focusing on the patio since it was such a nice day out. So maybe next weekend we can do the beadboard. Hopefully.

Pictures to come later (of both the patio and the nice clean garage I posted about earlier this week).
Also, be sure to check out the movie on my previous post that I finally got up and going!

We didn't die!

We didn't even get the golf ball sized hail. And it wasn't even a very rainy or windy storm. I think the worst hit just to the north of us. We were a bit disappointed though.

Alex has a new word to share with you. We were at Half Price Books the other day and we were reading a book that had a newt in it. So I asked Alex to say newt and he said it really well! And he just says it so cute that it makes me laugh.

I also finally got him to say mommy and daddy, which is an accomplishment. As you will see in the video, he reverts back to mama and dadda even when I ask him to say mommy/daddy.
The other fun thing he does is sing. But not just the yayaya's that he's done before. I'm teaching him "Let it Be". He's not the "Hey Jude" youtube kid yet, but give him a year or so! After doing the video, he was over playing and would randomly sing "let it beeeee", so I guess he likes it!

Also on the video is him saying no since he said it differently just a couple of weeks ago. I really like his new no... very pronounced.

enjoy!

Tornados On The Way!

Speaking of moving both cars into the garage, we're under a tornado watch with winds up to 90 MPH. Its looking like it'll be here in about 19 minutes with up to baseball sized hail.

So I just moved the miscellaneous things in our garage so that both cars are now snugly fit. The storm is currently over our friend Kenn and Amy's neighborhood. Carrie just called to warn them and they had no idea it was coming.

They are also currently sounding tornado sirens to the city directly north of us...

Here's to dangerous Texas weather.

Workin' on getting both cars back in the garage

Today Alex helped me put together the plastic shelf we got on saturday. It's pretty much pvc-ish tubes that slide into holes in thick plastic shelves. Probably not the MOST durable, but it serves it's purpose. Alex was so funny helping me. He's really into copying lately and so as I was grunting and uhh-ing, so was he. And he was so serious about doing just what I was doing. It made me laugh and I (of course) wish I could have gotten it on video.

It works perfectly in our garage. There are a few more things that need to be cleaned up in there, and the pavers all have to be moved out and then we should be able to park both cars in. I am really annoyed at having to keep our garbage can in the garage. It wouldn't be a problem is our garage was big enough, but even with nothing else in there, Jon still had to do a tricky little maneuver to park in there. We now have it situated on the small ledge that I put the shelf on right by the door in hopes that the tricky maneuver could be avoided. It could go between our 2 cars if the door into our house wasn't right there.
We also have the problem of a bike trailer. I'll probably end up keeping it folded when we aren't using it. A little more work to get it hooked up to go, but hey... 2 cars will be able to fit in our garage again if it stays folded.
Note for next house: get an extended garage or 3 car garage to hold all the "stuff" which I imagine only multiplies as children grow and more children are added.

Tomorrow: pictures of the pavers and the garage shelving. Lucky you!

And now for something completely different

You may be asking yourself, "Self, isn't this a joint blog? Where is Jon these days?"

Funny you should ask that. I've decided to be more of a participitatoror instead of a bystanderer in this whole blogging business so here we go.

At work the last week I've had four or five people ask me if I've lost weight. Why yes! I have! So what you need to know is that Jon has been getting into tip-top physical shape and is willing to let you in on his amazing, phenominal, incredible weight-loss secrets! (For the low monthly rate of $19.95!!!)

Since I decided to stop being fat I've gone from around 210 to the ultra-thin and lean weight of 191 lbs. After a vacation of a few weeks enjoying the blessings of having family in town and visiting Babylon, I'm back on the plan with another 15 or so lbs to go!

Without further ado, Jon's Amazing Weight-Loss Secrets (or How I Lost 20 Pounds By Drinking A Lot Of Diet Coke):

1. Buy a used stationary bike. I don't care if you think you're going to bike to work if you got a real bike instead and enjoy Mother Nature's gifts. The primary benefit of a stationary bike is that it allows you bike at any time of the day you happen to be at home. It also enables you to enjoy semi-Mother Nature-ish gifts like artificial lighting, television, the internets, mp3 players (do NOT say iPods, we don't appreciate profanity like that in our home), ceiling fans and air conditioning. Biking outside means I actually have to avoid real dangers like potential stalkers and the paparazzi.

Why a used exercise bike? Because if breaks you'll be glad you didn't by a broken new one.

2. Eat cereal. By 'cereal' I mean quality stuff like Kashi and Frosted Mini-Wheats. Trix, Corn Flakes, Cinnamon Toast Crush are not going to cut it- high-quality, fiber-rich cereals only! Eat as much as you like of this quality product in the morning. Yes, any milk over 1% is a sin.

3. Tuna, mustard and whole wheat bread for lunch + Diet Coke. Diet beverages are a wonderful blessing that should be enjoyed as much as possible (i.e. three times a day.)

Aspartame is your friend. Diet drinks seem to be getting a bad rap these days with "studies" by "scientists" doing "research" about how they increase appetite, blah blah blah. Well, you know what I do to avoid increasing my appetite after a Diet Coke?

I eat lunch.

1/2 can of tuna (don't reach for the soaking-in-oil tuna!) with a nice dose of mustard in between two slices of fiber-rich whole wheat, washed down with a fresh, crisp, clean Diet Coke! Mmm, mmm, mmm!

4. 3 0'clock snack = BBQ Baked Lays and another Diet Coke. Did I mention that diet sodas have zero calories? What a marvelous blessing! (and soon they may actually use a natural super-sweetener instead of aspartame! But until then, enjoy the formaldehyde!)

Baked Lays are terrible. Do not eat them. On the other hand, BBQ Baked Lays are absolutely delicious! You do have a 20 chip limit at this table. Do not exceed it.

5. For dinner, eat whatever your wife makes. If she makes something you think might be unhealthy, just eat it. She'll make something heathier tomorrow.

6. Remember that exercise bike? Yeah, USE IT! 40-45 minutes every night. By every night I mean at least 5 nights a week. This is why they televise sporting events- in order for you to watch them while riding a stationary bike!

For those of you who are really serious, run in the morning on an empty stomache. (Good luck with that one...)

6a. Wait an hour after eating before you bike and only drink water afterwards. But if you feel like some Milky Ways or Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream right about an hour before you run, eat them!

7. If you feel like lifting weights, DO IT. Otherwise, do it tomorrow.

8. Voila, watch the pounds come off!

Obviously I'm being triteful about all this but in reality that's about all I've done. Burn more calories than you consume. Also worrying about every little thing you eat at night isn't a big deal. You know you're going to eat that snack so just do it and stop feeling guilty.

But you may want to run an extra 5 minutes if you do ;)

For info on which I based my amazing, phenominal, incredible regimen go to johnstonefitness.com for actual tips from people who know what they're doing. I've customized their super-incredible advice for me, myself and I. Don't even think about trying this at home without consulting your own doctor, yadda yadda yadda, don't sue me.

Have a great day and go lose some weight!

And make those three MOLARS!

Amazed at 3 teeth at once, I was feeling them a bit more and they are indeed molars. Remember the gummy gap? That's where his canines will come in. And next to the canines? MOLARS! So hooray for Alex for getting his 1st year molars in at the ripe age of 18 months!
Here's a little diagram for you!

Make that THREE teeth

Today I felt Alex's one tooth that I knew came in yesterday, but then decided to feel the other corners of his mouth. I found that he didn't have just one tooth come in, but THREE! So in addition to his little rows of four on the top and bottom front he now has one in every side of his mouth except for the lower right. Whats funny is that they didn't come in right next to the existing teeth. Each of them skipped at least one space, so now he's going to have gummy gaps as if he were missing teeth. Hopefully he's not too funny looking, but even if he is, I guess I could still love him.

Alex also recently (as in 4 days ago) changed how he says no. He no longer says "na" he actually does an "oh" sound.
He also loves calling for me whenever he can't see me. It's all very cute and grown up.

Sonicare vs. Crest ProClean

or in other words, $80 vs. $8.
Plus the replacement head cost. $30 for 2 vs. $8 for 3.

The dentist said get the the Sonicare. My wallet said get the Crest.
Which did I listen to? My wallet.
I know... the Crest probably doesn't do as good of a job as the Sonicare. BUT it does do a better job than just a manual brush. And I'm combining it with ProClean toothpaste and still doing multiple brushings. I'm just trying to get good motion on my gums to help with improving the little bit of gingivitis I have left. Plus, when I went to the dentist last I didn't even have much build up, so the manual brush was doing the job.

So if you can give me a good reason why having a Sonicare would be essential, let me know and maybe I'll end up with one eventually. I just can't justify spending that much on a toothbrush!

Another Mother's day post

I wanted to include a tribute to my mom, but didn't want to lump it into one big post about my day.
Things I love about my mom:

-Always there for important stuff! She seriously never misses anything. Choir concerts, sports games, YW/YM stuff, graduations and on and on. I know that my mom will do anything to be there for the important things in her kid's lives. Sure she misses some stuff, but it's rare.

-I love (and hate sometimes) her tornado like abilities. Really annoying when she'd throw away a homework assignment and I'd have to dig through the black can for it. But it was awesome for getting me to get rid of the clutter that would build up in my room. And she was great in helping me get packed for our move to Texas.

-She's very organized. She doesn't like to keep unused stuff around and everything has a place.

-She keeps a very clean house. She is always very good at getting all the little things picked up every day and staying on top of laundry, dishes etc. Her bed is made every day. Did I mention that she worked full time (and still does) for the majority of my life?

-My mom is an amazing cook and always has something in mind that is easy and delicious. Man... I need to get more of her recipes! Now that I cook and have to have a dinner ready I am amazed at her ability to think of things and then prepare them in the window of time between getting home from work at 4 until 6ish when we would eat.

-We always have something to talk about. I love that we can sit and have discussions about things with deeper meaning now. It's so nice to talk as adult friends with your mom! It's been fun to exchange opinions and thoughts that neither of us knew that the other had before.

-She loves her grandbabies. She is always so eager and willing to see and play with Alex. And it's not just because we live far away, she's the same way with Aubrey. It's one of my favorite things to see her and Alex interact. Alex loves his 'ma.

-Her concern for those she cares about. So it may have driven me crazy a few years back, but now that I have a child and a husband, I understand. Amazing what kind of insight becoming a mother gives you. My mom is always very concerned about each member of her family. I love how much she cares for each of us. She also cares very much about the other people close to her... her coworkers, friends, and neighbors and ward members.

-And all the funny little things that make me smile. When she just stops telling a story or has a long drawn out pause. Or when she fast forwards time (Brent, it really was quarter to 7 when she was telling you it was 5 to 7). Crying during most movies. And tv shows. I smile when I think about her infamous exercise video (wash your windows!). The fast breaks to the potty. I know there are countless others, but these are the ones that stand out in my head right now.

I love you Mom and love trying to be like you. You truely are a huge role model to me and I try every day to become more like you (yes, I even throw away stuff on my own instead of letting it collect!). I wish that we lived closer so that I could spend more time with you, because I honestly love every minute of it. Thanks Mom for being such a great mom! I love you!

Mother's Day

How my Mother's Day has been thus far:
-Alex was awake, but happy in his crib until 10:30.
-When I went in to get him, he had a poopy diaper, so I changed it. (Jon was in the shower)
-We had cereal for breakfast... as usual.
-Alex has a mama need going on, so he wanted me pretty much all morning. Actually, make that all day. This made getting ready for church really fun.
-Jon got Alex all dressed and ready for church.
-On the way to church, I discovered I have the biggest blister I have ever had on the inside part of my thumb thanks to the paint roller.
-Once at church, I got to take out the screaming Alex while the sacrament was being passed (the mama need thing).
-I told Alex to give his slimy banana to daddy during sacrament meeting (he always tries to give me whatever he's put in his mouth and taken back out) so that Jon got to have a mommy moment. That was one of the highlights of my day.
-Jon took Alex to nursery and for the first time ever, he didn't cry!
-All I had to do for my class today was make copies! (for 3rd hour, the men/YW took over so the women could go to relief society)
-My sunbeam class was really good in sharing time today. Maybe it was having one of the girl's mom's as a sub for the past 3 weeks that did the trick. Or maybe they just liked doing a craft instead of sitting in their chairs. Or maybe the excitement of seeing their mom's favorite shirt being held up front. Whatever it was, it was a good day without as much tickling and roaming around the front.
-I got a big ol' cookie, just for being a woman/mom!
-I actually got to learn something today by going to relief society!
-And it was pretty much the best relief society EVER. Besides having a great lesson, we were also served cream puffs, mini eclairs, a piece of dark chocolate, a stawberry, and sprite. I know... you can all be jealous now. Really though, just being in relief society was nice enough.
-Alex was happy the whole time in nursery AND came running out to me to give me a little poem with his handprint on it. I think I almost cried it was so cute.
-Alex woke up an hour into his nap and I discovered he has a new little tooth poking through. That was exciting, the waking up crying and being ornery... not so much.
-But he then happily wanted to go back to sleep.

The day isn't over yet, but it has been full of the regular highlights and not-so-highlights but still a very good Mother's Day. After all, being a mother is what Mother's Day is all about. And I am thankful that I am a mother.

Talk about projects!

Today was a project day.
Since we had funds to use, we decided to get some of our bigger house projects done. It's nice that our Home Depot just opened on Thursday and it's only 5 minutes away.

We did go to Lowe's first though because we had a $10 off of $50 coupon. So we got a new filter for our fridge, a shelf thing to go in our garage, and a tool hanging rack for the garage.
Obviously, organizing the garage is on my list of things to do.

Then to Home Depot.
We got bead board kits to go on the kitchen island (I still need to pick a paint color to go on it. Black or dark brown? What do you think?) and in the bathroom upstairs, some paint supplies to paint the bathroom upstairs, some landscaping fabric, and some crushed granite.
We came home, put the boy down for a nap and went our separate ways.

Jon headed outside to work on our extended patio, which we are constructing out of pavers. This project has been in the works for about a year. It didn't help things that it was exceptionally rainy most of the summer last year. So Jon got the rest of the grass dug out, the ground mostly level, and spread the crushed granite that we had out.

I went upstairs and mixed up the green and blue paint that we had leftover from Alex's room and then added some off white (a gallon of oops paint that we got for $6! yay!). When I got the right tone, I started painting. Good thing it's a small room. It's not quite done, but as soon as I'm done with this I'm heading up there to finish it off.
The beadboard still needs to be put up, but we should be able to do that next week.


The biggest adventure of the day was going back to The Home Depot to pick out our pavers. We found some that we thing will look really nice. I would show you a picture, but they don't have them on their website. So are you asking why the big adventure? I think I can sum it up by saying that we only have a car and we needed to get 152 12"x6" pavers back to our house. Each of those guys weighed about 12-15 lbs (according to how one felt in comparison to how Alex feels since I carry him a LOT). We ended up taking 3 trips. Did I say how glad we are that our new Home Depot is only 5 minutes away?

So now we have pavers, some more crushed granite, and some sand so we can finish our patio. We're going to have a bbq with the guys on Jon's team at work here in June, so we want to have it done by then.

It's nice to have good productive days. I remember working every Saturday with my parents and I hope to do the same thing with my kids. I know that we hated it, but it taught us a lot and I'm sure my parent's appreciated have the extra hands ;).

We're Home!

Wow. Talk about a day at the airport.
It all started out okay. Well mostly okay. As we were standing in line to go through security, Alex decided to throw a fit about being in the sling. I hate it when he does that. It always seems to be at the most inopportune times (in line at the store, in a store that he absolutely cannot walk in, etc...)
We got through and had to get Alex's shoes and each of our hands swiped. Can anyone tell me why they do that swipey thing? LOL... we should have said "Swiper, no swiping" (that has to be one of my favorite lines from Dora the Explorer).
After security we went right to the gate and got right on. We got seated and there was a seat between us and the guy next to us, so Alex was happy he had a little space. At 9:00 am we pull out from the gate. at 9:05 am they told us that we were grounded for an unknown amount of time because there was a storm in Colorado so they grounded all traffic from nearby airports. GREAT.
The flight is 55 minutes and my flight to Austin would be leaving at 10:55.

We left at about 10:15 and got there at 11:25.
Next flight to Austin: 3:20.
GREAT.

So Alex and I got to hang out in the airport for, oh... 4 hours. During his nap time.
We did a LOT of walking.
The happy news is that he fell asleep within 5 minutes of take off and stayed asleep until about 10 minutes from landing. So I got to take a nice nap as well.

It's nice to be home and see Jon again. We've missed him!
And he happens to be a wonderful husband and cleaned up the whole downstairs for me! He even washed the sheets on the guest bed and put them on. How great is he?
He also cut Alex's pizza up for him, played with him when we got him, changed his diaper and put him to bed, changed his poopy diaper a few hours after he went to bed, and got him up this morning. Alex cried when he left for work. He must love his daddy.

And have I mentioned how nice the weather is in Texas? It's pretty warm already and getting humid. I missed the best weather while I was gone and now the best weather in Utah is starting. Good timing.

We had so much fun in Utah with our family and friends! Thanks everyone for making this trip so fun just by being there and doing stuff with us!

The Last Days...

...in Utah. Our flight leaves tomorrow at 9 am. Alex only took a 1.5 hour nap today and also went to bed late-ish. We'll be up and leaving at about 7/7:30 and I plan on drugging him after our experience last time. Especially since I don't have Jon there to assist or rescue me if I get stabbed in the eye by crayons. I would rather hold a non wiggly sleeping little boy. Wish me luck!

I've had fun the past few days. It's funny how at the end it's suddenly a cram to get all the last minute stuff in. I got a couple of aprons made and I also made an awesome sling for my friend, Marie (Go UTES!). Yesterday I helped my mom spend her Pottery Barn gift card, but I didn't get a chance to help her put it together. Sorry mom! We also didn't hang the mirrors in the guest room that we put off every time I am here. Sorry again mom!
I got to go to a fun playdate with my internet mom friends today (hehe... such a nerd) and it was really fun!
After that, I got my ring dipped and polished. It's been about 2 years since that has happened. We don't live near a Shane Co. and always forget or put it off and then run out of time while we are here. Now I have a pretty, sparkly shiny, no longer yellow tinted ring! Hooray!

We finished the day off by going swimming at the rec center. I took Alex down the big curly slide a couple times (the first time he was pretty anxious and the 2nd he just screamed a little as we got to the end and we were going pretty fast {he doesn't like fast crazy stuff like that... he screams when I spin him in a circle and he gets dizzy}). He eventually got used to getting water in his face (so did I... it wasn't that bad! But I still don't like water in my face.) and he loved chasing me, grandma, aubrey, mathis, and melanie around in the lazy river. His favorite thing was probably the little jet sprays coming up out of the ground on the toy. He thought they were great! He also really liked going down the little slide all by himself and getting caught at the end.

When we got home and bathed, Grandpa pulled out the camera for some last minute pictures and The Boy finally rolled into bed (Aunt Cindy read him a story and put him down) it was pretty late. I hope the swimming, short nap, and late bed time/early rise works tomorrow!

Speaking of which, I need to get to sleep myself. If I'm going to have a stressful day, I'm going to need some rest!

Go Jazz!

I'm not an avid fan, but it's always exciting to get through at least ONE round of playoffs. So good for the Jazz and I hope they continue to do well. I'm also glad that Tim gets to keep his fan status.

So I'm not a Guitar Hero...

...yet. I played for the first time today and didn't do too swell. My fingers are a little sore... Sally the expert's advice, relax the fingers. Uhh... easier said than done!
So I'm going to go at it again and improve on my skills so that I can impress people whenever the chance to play Guitar Hero should arise. Seeing as it hasn't ever, I could still have a few years to up my skills before I have to show them.
Rock on!

crap. i ruined the pictures on my blog

So I was feeling the need to organize my pictures on photobucket today. Well, since I moved them into more specific folders there instead of keeping them in the massive general folder, they don't show up anymore.
So maybe later this week I will go back and fix them all. *sigh*

how awesome is it that this is my 3rd post in a row?! I'm such a loser!

Drug the boy up!

Today was an eventful day. Alex got his first antibiotics. Hooray for him for making it to 18 months without a serious illness! And all we know about this one is that he has something. He had a high fever on Sunday (104.2 and then 102.4 in the middle of the night) and has been having loose bowel movements multiple times a day. He had a high fever a couple of weeks ago when we were in San Antonio and has been having the loose and frequent BMs since then, so it's been an on going thing.
I hoping that the antibiotics and probiotics clear him up of whatever is going on with him and if they don't then we will go from there.
Thank goodness for having a family Dr. here in Utah that will see us and get us the stuff we need! Thanks Dennis!

The car was still there!

Along with everything inside of it!
So last week as we were running into the airport to catch our flight (oops... we took a little longer to leave in the morning and then Jon said these magical words, "I think our flight is at 6:30 and not 6:45") Jon forgot to lock the car. He realized this as we were sitting on the plane after catching our breath from running down the full length of the terminal. (yes, our gate was the LAST one in the terminal... couldn't have been at the beginning or even middle. DEAD LAST.)
Well ladies and gentlemen, it has been determined that the best car to leave your car unlocked for a week (and I guess then, the best place to go looting for cars?) is the long term parking lot at the airport. Worked out great for us!

Crazy Utah Weather

One of the reasons I hate visiting Utah in April... packing for the unpredictable weather. Lucky for me I leave my coat here (no need for it in Texas) because I'll be needing it today. But yesterday I was very comfortable in my short sleeved shirt.
Yesterday Alex was outside in shorts for a couple of hours for pictures. Today he is layered with a onsie, thermal shirt and sweat pants. It's freaking snowing! I guess it's a good thing I brought his new snow boots.

a few pictures from our last day in San Antonio

this is actually from a day or 2 before the fam all came down. These are the "serious rain boots" we got for Aubrey that Alex wanted to try out.


here are the guys that sang to us for the small price of $6.


Alex and Sally playing


mommy putting an unhappy boy back in the stroller


Some of Alex's favorite people


this was just a cute picture of Diana. She looks so pretty!


Jon and I at El Mercado


Hand carved tilt top table at The Guenther House. Isn't is gorgeous?!


beautiful piano imported from Germany at The Guenther House


me in the parlor of The Guenther House


Me and Jon on the balcony of The Guenther House overlooking the river. It was gorgeous with all of the trees!


Alex checking out the vent thing. He loves walking on stuff like that.


a few cute shots of Alex




Mommy and Alex walking (He LOVES walking around outside and being free!)




More Mommy and Alex




Attack of the hair!



Sally, Tanner, and Diana up in the Tower of The Americas. SO windy! Their shirts were blowing up. I love Sally's hair in this first picture and Tanner's billowy shorts make me laugh.




Being silly at the park


cool park!


The tower


and this last picture is us on the airplane to Utah. Alex is holding one earphone while watching Baby Signing Times. That lasted all of about 3 minutes.

I should have known better

In reference to last night's post and falling asleep. Turns out early in the morning Alex decided to have a diarrheal explosion. It was not pretty. Oddly enough, I was either still slightly awake or I have super mom powers because I heard the bubbling and rumbling and knew it was not going to be good. The poor kid had poop oozing out the back of his diaper. The whole leg and part of the sleeve of his pajamas on the side that he was sleeping on were soaked. Good thing we had a towel in the room cause after I took the diaper off, there was no way it was staying in there.
Okay, I'll stop talking about poop now.
The whole waking up in the middle of the night thing to feed the baby or clean up poop or throw up is just one of those fun aspects that come along with being a parent. I greatly miss being able to sleep soundly through the night.
I think there is nothing worse than having your sleep interrupted in the middle of the night. You have only been asleep for a few hours and probably had just fallen into a good deep sleep. And then you get to go back and restart the whole process and then have to wake up for the day just when you had fallen into a good deep sleep.
I always am so happy when I have a good nights rest. It seems to happen less as I'm constantly kept awake by my super mom powers, hearing every cough and cry and wondering if I should leave it or go check it out/do something about it. And if there are no coughs or cries, I worry about everything being okay. I can only see this problem getting worse as new children are added. Great. I'm so excited.
I hope all of you other mom's out there are able to get good sleep in at least as often as I do!

Travelin'

So we sent Jon's family home on Thursday afternoon and we took off for Utah on Saturday morning.
We have been up since 5 am and on the plane ride wasn't the best one, even with Jon being there. I'm not saying that Jon wasn't helpful. He was extremely helpful. If I would have had to deal with Alex for all 3 hours, I may have gotten off that first flight in tears.
I know some of you probably have flown with an 18 month old and I'll quickly tell you that it was MUCH easier flying with him before he could walk. Today I got poked in the eye by a handful of crayons, ate 2 soggy animal crackers, was told no 1000 times, was kicked, heard a lot of whining, enjoyed flashes of light as the window shade was opened and closed (and crying when he couldn't get it open), and had my arms wiggled out of too many times to count. I also got to try to figure out how to keep a little boy from from screaming, but still making sure he wasn't doing annoying things (like kicking seats or running up and down the aisle or opening and closing the window shade or slamming the pull down tray up and down or putting the arm rests loudly up and down (including trying to keep him from pushing down the ones from the seat in front of us).
All of my tricks that I thought would work lasted 5 minutes each. Baby Signing times, One Fish Two Fish (and many other books), Elmo magnets, cars, cookies, and the binkie and blankie I thought for sure would get us through 3 hours. It didn't. We read part of one book and then he was just sick of all books. We would eat one cookie and then it was no to anymore cookies.
I drugged him toward the end of our first flight and he actually slept for about 1/2 hr. through the second one. AMAZING! But when he woke up he kicked the tray that was down and spilled my cup of ice. Good thing it was just ice. Bad thing was he wasn't going to sleep after that (even though I could tell he wasn't ready to wake up yet).
Needless to say, after an early morning and long trip on the airplane, I really should be in bed right now.
So off I am because nothing sounds better to me than collapsing into bed and falling into a deep sleep. We'll see about the deep thing... Alex is bunked in our room tonight.

I bet you'll laugh

This video was posted on Mormon Mommy Wars today and I about died laughing while watching it. I hope you enjoy it as well!

Getting geared up for Utah!

I've had two great chats today and am so excited to go to Utah!
After talking to my dad, I found out that everyone on his side of the fam is going to be in town the Saturday that we get in. My aunt that lives in Georgia who I haven't seen in, like ten years (?) is going to be there! I'm pretty excited that we happened to all coordinate so well.

I'm also excited to see my cousin's and one of my friend's new babies. Yay for babies!

More excitement coming from possibly getting to see some other friends' new house (when are you guys moving in? Have I mentioned that I'm going to call you tomorrow? ;-)

I'm super excited for crafty days with some of my favorite girls. On the agenda: apron making! And of course fabric shopping for said apron. Who wouldn't be excited for that?

And now a possibility of playing Halo late into the night? Even better... getting together with GIRLS to play? It just makes me smile as I imagine myself running around in circles and doing the one thing I do well... sniping. Maybe one of these days I'll get the rocket skillz down.

I think I'm going to be excited for playing the Wii with Mathis and Mel and down in the O-town as well. Jon and I love playing tanks (so fun to have a shooter and a driver- so total of 4 players) and duck hunting. It's usually me trying my best to catch up to Jon's accelerated learning curve. I also love wii golf. I think I could play that for hours!

PS. It's pouring rain here. I love it. You haven't experienced real rain until you've experienced a good Texas storm. You know what I mean Dad.

If you want to hang out with me during my 2.5 weeks in Utah, please let me know!

San Antonio!

We've been having a great time in San Antonio! Well, except for the lack of naps. Hopefully Alex will be glad to have his routine back soon.
So let's see... what have we done? We came down to San Antonio on Sunday night. We stopped at the temple. The grounds were closed, but it was cool to see at night. As we headed down the freeway, we found that it was closed, so we got to drive downtown on a lovely very skinny 3 laned road (each way) with poor quality paving most of the way. It was similar to State Street in SLC, but much thinner. Oh, and we also got to drive next to a nice old cadilac with some big vibrating speakers in their trunk. It's a little weird to see those cars and hear the metal on them vibrating.
Anyway...
A few hours after going to bed on Sunday, Alex woke up and we brought him into our bed (which, by the way we were upgraded to Sleep Number beds. How are they? Eh. They are just full sized, so maybe having a queen size and 2 controls would be different. As is, Jon sinks in and then I have a firm slight slope/rise. I think I would have liked to have just had the regular old queen beds.). A few hours later he woke up crying and he was so hot! Probably the hottest I have ever felt him. I am SO glad that I grabbed the motrin at the last minute. He was so hot that even though the Motrin did bring his fever down, he still felt hot. Jon and I didn't get a lot of sleep.
In the morning everyone left to go see The Alamo IMAX and get some lunch. We dosed Alex up again and took a much needed nap. Then we walked downtown and went on a riverboat ride and then went to see The Alamo. We then ate dinner at an Italian place on the river. Alex had a fever most of the day and was pretty lethargic. He slept again while we were at The Alamo. Thank goodness for reclining strollers! I can tell you though that a canopy extender for the stoller is definitely on the need list. I was going to get one last summer, but then never did. Alex HATES having the sun in his face, but he won't keep his hat on and if we hang his blanket over the edge, he pulls it off. We even tried using the sling and he pulled that off too. Luckily, if he's tired enough, we can get away with the hat coming down over his eyes a little. Sadly, it only works if he's tired.
So yesterday was fun and today we went to the San Antonio Zoo. They had so many cool animals that I had never seen before. I also really enjoyed all of the green everywhere. It was such a difference from the Hogle Zoo. All of the habitats looked very natural. Alex's favorite thing was the alligators and the fish. They have this little cave type area with glass wall areas that you can see into the water and see all of the fish. They had some awesome bright colored fish that Alex got such a kick out of. He would sit on the little ledge and I'm sure it looked to him like the fish were just swimming right there next to me. i'll have to post some video (as long as it's not like a ten minute video or something) and/or some pictures.
All of us, I'm sure, ended up with some good tans. Thank goodness this mommy did remember to bring the sunscreen.
And for dinner today we ate at this yummy italian place, The Spaghetti Warehouse. We were very impressed with the food and the prices. It was very similar to The Spaghetti Factory in feel/decor (complete with old trolley car).
Tomorrow we are going to an art museum to see some Van Gough and Picasso! I am SO excited!!! I think that someone else will have to be in charge of entertaining The Boy so that I can enjoy my art moment. I still get so mad at myself for being a dumb highschooler and staying for all of a 1/2 hr. to an hour at the freaking Metropolitan in NYC!!!! I can't believe that I missed out on that and am praying that I get the chance to go back some day.
We are also going to El Mercado and probably going to see some historic mansions. Do you even have to wonder if I'm excited about seeing old homes? Yes I totally am. I think I'm more excited about that than anything. After our day here, we are sending some people to the Spurs game and the rest will be going with me and Alex back up to Austin. Of course, we will be stopping in San Marcos to check out the outlets for a bit... and hopefully getting home at a decent bedtime for Alex.
Thursday is an hang out at home and go swimming day before we take the fam to the airport to say goodbye.
And because we couldn't get enough of them, we're heading out to Utah on Saturday. Jon is going for a week for work, so I figured I may as well go so that the 2.5 weeks that I will be there won't be as long to be separated.
So, just like the last few days, I'm only going to be blogging every few days instead of every day because I just have so much going on and am gone all day.
I'll try to get pictures and stuff posted on Thursday or Friday!

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!