GO UTES!!!

What an awesome game!!!

I'll let Jon take over from here...
13-10 13-10 13-10 13-10 13-10 13-10 13-10 13-10 13-10 13-10 13-10 13-10 13-10 13-10 13-10 13-10 13-10 13-10 13-10 13-10 13-10 13-10 13-10 13-10 13-10 13-10!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


(carrie again)
ya... we're a little excited over here!

Pictures, Pictures, Photographs!

I just posted a ton of pictures from Halloween and the Texas State Fair on Facebook. Here are links to the albums.
Not to worry, if you don't have a Facebook account you can still see the pictures. Just click on the links.

Halloween pictures

Pun Kin Pace

Texas State Fair part I

Texas State Fair part II

And when Alex saw his face...

He decided to wash it. And I just let him go at it while I ran for the camera. I'm such a good mom.

I love that he's sticking his tounge out in this picture.

That's concentration!

uh huh and no thank you

lately, when Alex has been asking for stuff or even just talking about stuff that he's doing or wants to do he'll say what he wants and follow it with an "uh huh".

So this morning I heard,
"pumkins? uh huh."
"special teet? uh huh."
"animals (dvd). uh huh."
(on the way outside) "ow side. uh huh."
etc.

It's usually repeated several times, as is the usual case with Alex.

This morning we were playing in bed (doing monkeys jumping on the bed) and he'd fall down and sometimes I'd put my legs with my sheet on them over him. After a couple of times of doing so, he told me, "no thank you, mama, blankies".
SO FUNNY!

I got an even better one when we were eating our cereal (which was, of course, eaten from the same bowl since Alex demands it).
I looked over at him and gave him a big cheesy grin and he looked at me and said, "no thank you, mama, happy face." with the utmost seriousness.
Well okay then buddy! No happy faces for you!

Note to self: Don't forget to put markers away!

And oven mitts for mysef

You know, I never really thought of how easy it would be to make oven mitts. AND cool thing... you don't have to have large pieces of fabric to make them. They can be made from scraps!
http://www.michaelmillerfabrics.com/Blog/oven_mitt_pattern.pdf

This is being added to my crafty list over there ---->

Bean Bag chair pattern. And Michael Miller fabrics are awesome. He has some great child prints!
So I know what I'll be making Alex for Christmas!



http://makingitfun.blogspot.com/2008/09/bean-bag-chair.html

Good Job!

That's what Alex said quite loudly, with clapping, after every song today in church. It had me cracking up!

tue tee. num num

Alex must have been hungry this morning because he went a scavenging. And he brought his various finds to me in bed.
First it was almonds. These I think were just on the couch in their big ol' Sam's Club container. Nonetheless, he carried the nearly full container all the way up the stairs and brought them to me saying, "ah mons?"
I denied him the ah-mons because in most cases, they end up getting spit out in my hand.

He wasn't happy about the denial and ended up going downstairs with Jon to share cereal (you know... his new favorite thing to do) and after Jon left for work, I was brought more spoils of Alex's treasure hunt.

This time the treasure came from up on the counter. Alex has caught on that we keep all the good stuff up there. Since he figured out how to step on the bottom rung of the barstools to look up and reach the stuff on the edge, we have learned to keep all the stuff we don't want him getting away from the edge. Luckily, he hasn't figure out how to climb all the way up the barstools!

I was awakened by Alex happily coming up the stairs saying, "tue tee! num num!" over and over. Apparently I didn't put the little container of sugar cookies from Monday far enough away from the edge. :)

Luckily I have a good little boy who didn't get into them at all and brought them to me to help him open them (even though he easily could have done so himself... he just never tried!). Cookies at 9 am are not considered a good thing at this house, so I had to deny him. He was quite sad.

He did however get to enjoy a fully frosted tue tee num num while we stood in line for an hour and a half to vote. And yes- tue tee is always followed with num num.

I have bragging rights

Last week I got a request on my Etsy store to make a 7 year old girl a mermaid costume- just a bigger version of the baby ones I made.
This is my favorite part of the request,
"She wanted to know if you could make it a solid tail so when she's at home she can look like a real mermaid...and then have velcro to open a slit on the side so she can slip her feet out to do the halloween parade at her school?"

My mom teaches 2nd grade and I can totally see one her 2nd graders saying the same thing. I thought it was adorably funny!

So mermaid tail was made in a RUSH because they found out that they needed it by Wednesday the 29th and this was on Thursday night (the 23rd), so I knew that I needed to have it done and out preferably the next morning so that I was absolutely sure it would be there in time.

I stayed up really late and made some dumb mistakes which made me stay up later, but it ended up looking great! I didn't take a picture before we ran out the door to the dentist the next morning, so I've been waiting on a picture from the lady that bought it.

She send me a little message today that said that her daughter came in 2nd place in their town's Halloween Parade for "Prettiest Costume" and that she made the front page of the newspaper!
So here is a picture of the newspaper that my customer sent me. That's my mermaid tail in the newspaper! Sweet!

My thoughts on this:

Funny cartoon!

The first time I saw this I chuckled and was instantly reminded of family parties where there was a pinata. Or our big family egg hunt. MUCH candy in either instance. Everyone had a good time getting what they could.
Yet everyone knew that at the end, all of the candy/eggs would go into a pot and it would be divided up so that everyone got the same amount.
We still got a lot of candy. Maybe not as much as we originally were able to grab, but it was enough to keep everyone happy. And I always liked that if I weren't pushy, even to the point of being mean, I wouldn't have to worry about going home with only a few pieces of candy while some of the other kids enjoyed massive amounts of it.

So, by me not jumping in and being overly aggressive because my personality is more reserved mean that I am more lazy?


Let's go back to trick or treating. I remember when I was 13 going down to the valley in my friend's neighborhood so that we could RUN from house to house and get a LOT of candy. I think my sister went with her friends/my parents up in our neighborhood on the hill. She got probably about half of the amount of candy that I did.
Now, when my parents asked me to share with my siblings (and them ;) ), it was hard to do, but I knew that if my sister had been given the opportunity and had the ability to run to as many houses as I did, that she probably could have gotten a lot of candy as well. And really, did I need THAT much candy? So sharing it was.
Often, all of our candy was put into one big bowl and we all got to eat from it.

Now in the case of this cartoon, I took a second to think about where the candy would be going to.
Certainly it's not just lazy kids who don't trick or treat. In fact, I think those kinds of kids are probably in the minority. I bet some of my candy would be going to the kids in hospitals or kids that are too sick or disabled to go trick or treating. And probably some of it would go to the some kids who maybe live in The Projects where maybe there isn't as much candy because no one really gives any out because they don't have money for it. Maybe some would go to the kid who can't go trick or treating because his neighborhood in unsafe. Homeless kids- I'd want them to have some. Maybe some would go to kids who just don't know about trick or treating because their parents never taught them.

Opportunity, education, circumstance. Three huge factors.

And thinking about giving on a religious level, I told my Sunbeams a couple of weeks ago the story of the loaves and the fishes. One boy had enough for himself, but he was willing to give it to Jesus and in turn, many were blessed.

Sadly, I have a hard time trusting people in our nation to freely give of their means. I know it's hard even for myself to recognize that I, in comparison with a huge portion of society, live in abundance. Things that I sometimes think are necessary are HUGE luxuries to many. And it's terribly hard to just stop acquiring things and stop wanting them. But as I stop thinking of myself and trying to live a simpler life, I am better able to give.

For me, if I am living a simpler life, taxes aren't as much of a burden because I don't want many things. Less want means more money left to give instead of spending on myself. Taxes become a way for me to give to those who may need some help.

So what about dependency on the government? Well, I agree that it can become a problem. Do I personally know of a way to fix it, no. I do think though that there are better and more efficient ways to do most things, so yes, adjustments should probably be made to many programs. But how can adjustments be made without costing more money (at least initially)?


Those are all the thoughts I have for now... I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments!

How many times have I heard demands for CANDY today? Way too many.

And we're not even to Halloween yet.

My baby boy takes after his mama. He LOVES candy. And always wants MORE.

I gave him 5 candy corns today and he was then climbing on the bar-stools to see if could at least see the candy corn and demand more of it.

Yesterday, after licking the frosting off of his cookie, refrosting it, and then eating it, he was, of course, demanding more cookie.

Today at the Trunk-or-Treat he had a GREAT time eating little "m ms" with Daddy. And when we went to go do some activities, "m m's" were demanded. No time for silly games when there are m m's around!

And while going around to each trunk, there was no interest in walking. It was all about getting that one piece of candy and then eating it. He could have gotten 1 piece of candy and been happy. But then of course he would have wanted more after eating it.

We did let him have a couple of pieces at the trunk or treat, but in the car on the way home, Alex was yelling CANDY CANDY CAAANNDDYYY! at me. A monster has been created.

We still have NI's halloween party tomorrow and then the actual ol' hallows eve on Friday. Suddenly I want there to be at least 3 people in the neighborhood handing out toothbrushes instead of candy.

No wonder the pediatrician told us last week that we should be brushing his teeth 2 times a day. She knew what was coming.

Pictures to come of Alex's awesome costume later! He didn't want to hold still tonight (m m's were far more important!)

How my mornings go

I don't get up until at least 9. Sometimes 9:30. I usually need a good half an hour of gradually waking up so that I can be a pleasant person. I just don't do abrupt wake ups.

How can I wake up at 9 and not have an abrupt wake up when I have a toddler? It just so happens that my 2 year old is a very good little boy and sleeps until 8:30.
And I have a husband who needs to get up then for work anyway. Getting Alex out of bed is a guaranteed way for Jon to get out of bed. I love that I don't have to abruptly wake up and deal with a little boy in the morning. I love Jon for doing this.

My wake up call usually starts at 8:30 when Alex runs over to my bed saying, "Mama! Mama get up!" I then have to lift him up into bed with me. Most of the time, he lays on Jon's pillow and we laugh and he "sleeps".

At some point when I have my eyes closed, Alex will pat my cheek or shake my shoulder and say, "wake up Mama. wake up Mama." It's so cute. I can't resist waking up with a smile on my face when he does this.

We then laugh and play in bed for a little while and then I am ready to wake up.

As much as I hate waking up, I absolutely love being woken up by my sweet little boy. I always wake up happy!

Another fun thing about fall in Central Texas

Migrating monarch butterflies!

It's probably weird that it makes me happy, but I always smile when a bright orange butterfly flutters in front of me. It happens a lot when I am driving and there were tons of them flying around when we were at Six Flags a few weekends ago.

Here is a video from a news station that shows a large swarm of them in south Austin.

Indulgence

I've been meaning to blog this for a while, but hadn't taken the time to get the picture onto the computer.

During a recent trip to the grocery store, Alex decided he needed to indulge himself in the checkout aisle.

After putting all of the groceries on the belt, I found Alex with this guy and he had actually opened it! I'm still amazed that he got it open. I guess when you need indulgence, you'll work at it until you get it.

Mama/Daddy Cereal

Alex's new favorite breakfast routine is to share a bowl of cereal with Mama/Daddy.
This started out as a Mama only thing. We had to sit on the same chair and he wouldn't eat a bowl of cereal without me.
In the past few days, Alex has decided to let Daddy in on the fun and has shared a bowl with him. Alex will actually eat Daddy Cereal on his own though.

This is him after his nap today. He demanded Daddy Cereal. Doesn't he look so big?!

Sorry for the poor image quality. The lighting wasn't great.

Proud New Owners...

of this little guy

Isn't he just adorable? We love him because he got the aforementioned monkey soap out of our carpet without as much effort as was originally forseen.
Jon was especially impressed with the suction power. Typical.

We're happy to have this new member join our family. We're looking forward to many happy years and lots of spills.

Damn you monkey shampoo!!!

You would be damning the shampoo if it was on your carpet too.

Alex got a cute little Curious George shampoo set for his birthday. He was obsessed with it. The first thing he said this morning when he got up was, "monkey soap!"

He liked taking the lid off, pretending to put some on his poof, and then putting the lid back on. The shampoo was sealed, so I thought that there shouldn't be any harm in letting him play with it for a few days before I hid it.

Well I didn't hide it soon enough. Somehow the seal broke and I heard uhh ohh and looked over to see Alex DUMPING out the shampoo!

Luckily, it was just a small bottle and some of it did end up on his legs and not the floor. It was also a good thing the most of it ended up on the rug.
But some of it got on the carpet. And I'm not thrilled about it being on the rug (the rug is just better for it to be on than the carpet). And it's right by our couch, which is a high traffic foot area, which means dirt. Shampoo attracts and holds dirt.

What do I do to get rid of shampoo on carpet? I don't know if I'm prepared to spend hours with alternating between wet and dry rags.

Sleeping! And the Dr.

Alex was awake until 9:45 last night doing birthday stuff. I was pleasantly surprised when he didn't wake up until 10:15.
Well I suppose he could have woken up earlier. When I went in to get him up to go to the Dr. he was just laying in his bed awake. When I said hi to him, he looked at me with a smile and said, "sleeping!".
It was a very pleasant way to start my morning.

The Dr.'s appointment also went surprisingly well. I have been talking to Alex here and there about what the Dr. does so that he would be prepared when we went for his 2 year check up.
He let the Dr. check his tummy, heartbeat, lungs, and testicles and look in his ears, eyes, and mouth without any tears. Getting weighed on the table and measured still made him really nervous and he screamed when we were trying to get him to stand and get measured. But he didn't scream when they took his temperature or measured his head, so that was progress!

He weighs 26 and 1/2 lbs (40%), is 37" inches tall (95%), and his head circumference is in the 20th percentile.
Tall and skinny!

Birthday Boy!

Happy Birthday Alex!

Yesterday was Alex's 2nd birthday! My baby boy is 2. I can hardly believe it. He's still just as cute as ever and even though I get frustrated with him, I still love him like nothing else!

He can do so much and there are so many little things that he does and says that just make me smile.
I love that he always wants me to color with him. (okay, it does get annoying, but it's still cute that he's so insistent on it). I love his fascination with trucks, tractors, school buses, trains, and cars. When we're driving he always sees these things way before I do. And the passion for driving! I didn't know a 2 year old could get so much joy from being behind the wheel of a real car. Alex thinks it's the greatest thing EVER.

I really hate that I have to be the enforcer of the rules for him. I hate to see him sad when he doesn't get something he has his heart set on. This is probably why he got to lick the bowl of red velvet cake batter today, despite the mess. He would cry a little and then remember to ask nice and would say please in just the cutest little voice. Who could deny him after he put so much effort into actually saying please?
I love his little "no thank you" and I love it when he says, "I love you mommy" every night.

Even though I hate getting up and night when he cries, I cherish those precious snuggling moments I only get during that time. It makes me laugh when he repeats what I'm saying, especially if it's a "grown up" thing to say like "dang it" or "that driver is ridiculous!".

I love his little attachment he has to his binky and blankie and that he thinks it's hilarious to run into whatever room I'm in with them and hear me say, "HEY! What are you doin' with those?!". Giggles every time. I love hearing him giggle and have to kiss his neck nearly every day just to hear them. I love finding new things that make him laugh.

Here's to many more years of laughter and funniness in our lives thanks to Alex. We love you booger boy!

Ack! Spiders everywhere!

Tonight I went out to get a bag of sand for Alex's new sand table and saw a big ol' spider on the driveway near me. I looked at it and it had some weird textured back. "Hmm...", I thought. "That's kind of strange. Well, it's a spider (a rather large one!) and so it should be smashed". And then "Oh hey! I have a big heavy bag of sand in my hands. Handy!"
I dropped it on the unsuspecting spider and then lifted it up to find thousands of baby spiders dispersing from the large spider. AGH! One of the freakiest things I've ever seen. I'm REALLY glad I didn't smash it in my house!

Well it was our ever typical Wolf Spider carrying her babies on her back, which I didn't know that they did. Here is a picture of a Wolf Spider with babies on her back. Hmm... no wonder the spider looked textured!

I actually see tons of Wolf Spiders. They are very common here. Jon killed a HUGE one last night. It was bigger than a quarter. Like just the body length was probably as long as a quarter's diameter. It was the biggest spider I have ever seen since living here.

So if you see a spider with a textured back... don't smash it if it's in your house. Just get out the bug spray and be prepared to do a lot of spraying!

Underwear!

Alex has been in his "special underwear" (meaning his Gerber training underwear) for about a week and we really haven't had many accidents. We've gone out quite a few times and he hasn't had any accidents and he actually kept them dry the whole way to Six Flags, the whole day at Six Flags, and the whole way home from Six Flags on Saturday. After that I was pretty sure that we were set to go.

And then today happened and we had 2 pee pee accidents.

Isn't potty training fun?
I won't complain though because at least he's going pee pee in the potty the majority of the time. Oh! And no poopy accidents yet, which I especially love. Not having to change poopy diapers makes the occasional pee pee accident totally worth it.

So it's been a gradual process, but I feel pretty safe saying that Alex is potty trained! Yay!!!

So Nummy!

I asked Alex if he wanted some banana bread today and he, of course, got all excited and said, "nanana bread!" and then "so nummy!" I think I've said, "so yummy" to him a few times about things, but to actually hear him say it from his own thought process was pretty funny.

Good thing I have lots of "so nummy" nanana bread on hand!

A whole lot of banana bread

So last week I got some bananas that had spots on them for .05 cents/lb. So I loaded up because Alex had been begging for banana bread pretty much every day. We love the stuff around here.
I was going to get bananas anyway just to make a loaf or 2, so I was thrilled that they were so cheap.

Last night I made 4 loaves. And I have batter for 4 more loaves mixed up. And enough bananas to mix up 5 more loaves worth of batter. If we eat a loaf a week, we'll be set until January! YUM!
Off to get more cooking!

Oh! I have one other thing to brag about!

Okay... or 2.

1- we went to Six Flags again today!

2- we got gas for $2.65/gallon!

Bragging

About my AWESOME husband.
He just got his pay raise which was good, but the cooler thing was that he was told that he was #2 in the WORLD in his company for providing proof of concepts for their customers. He was behind a guy in Taiwan or something that had 3 times as many.

So Jon is good at his job.

He told me that in 2 weeks he's flying out to do some on site assistance for the company that makes Blackberries. Cool.

So if you're anything like most people, you're probably wondering what exactly Jon does and what proof of concepts are.

Jon's company make testing software and hardware that major companies, universities, etc. use to make sure that their products, applications, etc. work and perform properly.
They often have current customers get in contact with their local field sales engineer and present something that they would like to accomplish.

This is where Jon comes in. His job is to find a way to prove that their products can accomplish whatever the customers would like it to. It's very cool. Jon is very cool.

So I just have to brag about how cool and wonderful my husband is!

And if you want to check out some great videos "sponsored" by Jon's company, National Instruments, check out this blog. Apparently it's quite popular among engineers.

Losing sight of yourself when you're a mom

This is a problem that many mom's have. As I frequent an LDS forum for moms, this has come up a lot. Many moms feel like they don't know who they are anymore.
I definitely feel this way sometimes. I remember the person I was when I was in high school and college and I feel so different now!

So of course, this called for an analysis!

Lucky for all of you who know me now, but not then, I'm sure this will be a real treat for you!

Here are some high school pictures to start things out...

These are my yearbook pictures. Dazzling, aren't they?

and some dance pictures. Gotta love those!

and just some general pictures that I had floating around

So me in high school... I was in choir and hung out with the major players in choir. You know, the ones that were above and beyond and were in show choirs and musicals and took oodles of AP classes. I was in photography (took all the classes I could!) and on the yearbook staff. I was pretty shy and had a hard time really reaching out and talking to people who didn't make an effort to do so with me first.
In my group of close girl friends I was definitely one of the sillier ones. That was the real me. Silly and funny and very carefree. However, not a lot of people got to see that.


On to college!

That first picture of me is famous, I'm sure, on the internet. Well at least on LDSmingle. ;)
I love that picture of myself. It was taken in my first week down at Snow College. The second picture was taken in my 2nd year of college. My cute roommate on the far right of the picture, Kristin totally changed me for the better. It was probably more of an evolution than a change. That silly carefree person that I was with only my close friends came out more when I was with Kristin in groups of people.

I was social and would do more crazy things in public than I ever thought I would do. Example, I wanted to learn to skateboard and so I did. I skateboarded every day to my job at Western Watts. I would even skateboard to school. It was awesome. For an institute activity I actually walked into the quiet computer lab and asked random guys (loudly and with fully convincing desperation) if they were my husband. I actually invited guys I liked over for dinner. I bid for a date with another guy I liked. And wasn't nervous at all while on it! I could actually carry on a conversation with a boy without worrying about what to say! (seriously. In high school I used to think for a while of what to say before calling a guy).

I love my college self. That is someone I look back to frequently and try to be more like that... in a less crazy more grown up version.

Here are a couple more of my favorite pictures from when I was about 21.

Here is my engaged and newly married self. (excuse the crappy cell phone pics!)

I liked the secure and settled version of myself here. I liked feeling more grown up and having a job that I loved in the industry I went to school for. Everything felt like a big accomplishment (granted, there were a lot of major accomplishments going on at that point in time!). But I feel that I lost some of my social life. Meeting others and being social didn't really matter anymore.



And then we had a baby and a little boy and my life has really been consumed with that for the last 2 years.
Last week Jon made the comment that he didn't even know that I could sew or liked it so much when we got married.
And yesterday I found my mp3 player and remembered that I used to listen to some really cool music. I had such a fun time taking my "me time" and sewing while jamming to all of my music. Every song that came on was like, OH! I LOVE this song! It was so enjoyable and made feel happier than I have in a long time. It was different than the normal and it felt good to remember that part of me that has been absent for a while.

From both of those things happening in the last week and a recent comment from my friend Amy who said her husband recently asked her when she went on a crafting frenzy what happened to the hard-A he married, I got to thinking about how I was and how I am now and if I'm happy with the person I am now. What do I miss about who I was then and what am I doing to be the kind of person I want to be in the end?

Some new things I love about myself that I didn't have "then":
1-actually passionate and opinionated about political issues.
2-confidence in my creativity and craftiness
3-a desire to keep my bed made :) (my mom is probably gawking right now)
4-my environmental self. (I actually used my reusable bags today at the grocery store!)
5-wanting to wear classic and "grown up" clothing. You know... the pearl necklaces and high heels and all. I actually never owned a pair of heels besides a lone pair of heeled sandals until last year.
6-enjoying and being able to cook a wider variety of meals. I used to thrive on pot pies, pasta roni, and totino's pizza.
7-did I mention that I love my new passion for craftiness? It seriously makes me so happy to come up with new things to make and then actually make them.


So point of this blog post (and hopefully you've made it through at least some of it!) is that it's important to evolve and grow up, but it's also important to hold on to those good traits and talents that you've picked up along the way. Try to remember things that made you happy then and incorporate them into your life now. I think it makes for a much happier mom which is always good for everyone around.

Almost done!

After many hours of working today, the rag quilt that was started HERE, is ALMOST done!!! All of my blocks are sewn together. I could technically leave it as is, but I want to do a border with some freehand stitching down the sides. I think it will make it look more finished than the standard rag quilt.

This next part is for anyone that wants to give advice and lend their expertise on quilt finishing.

And then the question of finishing the outside edge comes to mind. And deciding if the back is soft enough (it's a cotton/linen), since this is baby/toddler sized, or if I should put some minky or flannel on the back. And if I decide to put minky or flannel on the back, how am I going to attach it to the already made quilt top?
Tying would look weird and I don't think free hand quilting would work. Well... I suppose it could, I'm just not sure I trust myself to do a whole quilt with a free motion quilting. Especially on a standard (not long arm) machine. It does work in my favor that this is just a small sized blanket.

I do worry about making the quilt heavier than it already is by adding a layer and batting or 2 layers of minky/flannel.

And the edge of the border... I do want a clean edge and not just a frayed edge, so that leaves me with a few different options (that I know of). If I do a backing it should be easy to wrap around and just topstitch (I know... it doesn't look as nice, but whatever) it to the front.
But what should I do if I don't do a backing? Should I do a cording? And if I do cording, should I do the seam on the outside so that it frays?
I suppose I could just stich the right sides together, turn it, and then topstitch.

Hmm... lots of options here. Someone please give me their guidance so I can get this thing finished!!!

"Tongue Hurt"

Alex just walked over to me saying, "tongue hurt". If he's walking toward me saying that something hurts, that means he wants it kissed.
Yes, I kissed his tongue.


It really isn't as gross at it sounds. It wasn't a huge ol' smacking kiss. It was just a light little peck with very minimal contact. Thankfully, that was all he needed for his tongue to feel better!

The find that made my day

All I can say is, duh... why didn't I think of it before? The Internets and I have a very close relationship. I should have known to go to The Internets first.

After all of my upset-ness over my broken sunglasses, and taking the effort to find the same pair and having to buy a new not-as-cute pair at the high price of $12, I have found my original pair online at Aldo for less than I originally paid! AND I found a code for free shipping. They were $5 total. I ordered 2 pairs. Seriously.

I also ordered some cute flowery ponytail holders. I think I may get a couple more for Christmas gifts for all the cute girls I know. They were $2.98. I ordered one in every color. Luckily, there were just 3 colors. They had tons of cute accessories (Like these little bobby pins and this cute necklace) on sale too. I can only buy things if they are on sale. I inherited this from my mother.

Oh and I got this hat for $5. I'm hoping it looks good on me.

So if you like these sunglasses,

get them HERE.

AND because I can't let you feel like you aren't getting a good enough deal, here are some codes.

15% off JXLMGQ08
or
free shipping VIPCLUB

Enjoy! Hopefully you can end you day as happily as I did!

The mommies on the bus...

go shh shh shh.
This is Alex's favorite part to his new favorite song. This is how we got him to finish his dinner last night. The things we do to get our kids to do things....

Looks like I have some massive amounts of mermaid fin sewing to do!

I made a fin today. It sold a few hours later. Time to kick into sweat shop mode. Thank goodness for a TV and toys in my craft room!
I'm glad for all of the fabric I have, but it will be nice to be done with the mermaids when it's all gone! Hooray for having an adorable product to sell!

p.s. I did a fun little photoshoot with some adorable twin girls today. Here they are showing off their mermaid fins! Thanks Mindy for being so awesome! Cookies are coming your way this week when I break out of the sweat shop.

Mermaid tail and top in my Etsy store!

Head over there and check it out. It looks much better than the pic I posted on here the other day!

Now... off to sew some more of them!

No Thank you

Raising a polite child has to start early, so I make it a point to always use please and thank you and no thank you as much as possible. It works out rather well that I have a little parrot on my hands and will repeat (and thus learn) the things that I'm saying.
Lately we've been working with him on saying no thank you instead of just NO. In the past day or two, he's actually started to say it more on his own!

Tonight, Jon couldn't find Alex's binky for bed time so he just put him to bed without it. I was told that this resulted in many tears. I came home about 30 minutes after the tearful bedtime and after a quick trip upstairs, Alex apparently was not asleep and started crying again. So I went in and he was pretty hysterical.

Jon had apparently tried to put the beloved shee baa baa (sheep) into bed with Alex to serve as a replacement for the binky. I made a comment on having the sheep to Alex and he picked the sheep up and in a very tearful, gaspy, cry voice told me, "no (insert cry noises here) tane (and here) k (and here) ooo"

It was oh so cute, funny, and heartbreaking all at the same time.

Politics: The Post Turtle

I'm prefacing political posts with the above prefix. This way if discussing or politics upsets you, feel free to peruse to another post on the blog. However, even if you don't agree with my stance I encourage you to read and examine what I write on with an open mind

As the current president (Texas native) and one of the two major party candidates enjoys giving folksy stories when explaining policy issues and current events, I thought this adage was appropriate in light of the pending debate on Thursday.

While suturing a cut on the hand of a 75-year old Texas rancher whose hand was caught in a gate while working cattle, the doctor struck up a conversation with the old man. Eventually the topic got around to Sarah Palin and her bid to be a heartbeat away from being President. The old rancher said, "Well, ya know, Palin is a post turtle."

Not being familiar with the term, the doctor asked him what a post turtle was. The old rancher said, "When you're driving down a country road and you come across a fence post with a turtle balanced on top, that's a post turtle."

The old rancher saw a puzzled look on the doctor's face, so he continued to explain. "You know she didn't get up there by herself, she doesn't belong up there, she doesn't know what to do while she is up there, and you just wonder what kind of dumb idiot put her up there to begin with."

I could have possibly supported McCain even though I leaned Obama before his selection of Sarah Palin. I don't have enough negative words to express my feelings about how terrible of a candidate she is.

Trainwreck.

Nightmare.

Disaster.

Every interview she gives (two total, three if you count Sean Hannity lobbing softballs for 20 minutes) exposes how insanely unqualified this individual is to lead the United States of America. If you have not watched either interview with Katie Couric, please take the eleven minutes to do so.




I can understand that people may question Obama on the grounds that he lacks experience to serve as president of our country. I share some of those reservations.

However, watching Obama give an interview is like night and day compared to Palin. It is obvious that she had never spent a day thinking about national issues before she was chosen as McCain's running mate and it shows.

Some examples: she cannot speak with any substance about relevant domestic and foreign issues. She continues to cite her states' proximity to Russia as a foreign policy qualification. The lunacy of this logic is hopefully apparent to anyone reading. I can see the moon from my house, does that make me an astronaut?

Contrast the above interview with Obama's recent interview with Bill O'Reilly, distinguished humble correspondent for Fox News and note any gaps in his knowledge and understanding of domestic and foreign issues.









It is rather obvious from the interview that Obama has spent a great deal of time thinking about a range of issues that are relevant to our nation. You may not agree with him on many of them, but I believe it worthy to note his intelligence and understanding of what is going on in the world. This was also apparent in the first debate with McCain on Friday.

The last point that I would like to make is that John McCain is the oldest man to run for a first term as President. He is a four-time Melanoma survivor. His last surgery for it was in 2000:

McCain endured 5½ hours of surgery to remove a patch of skin including the blemish, roughly 5 cm (2 in.) wide. The diagnosis: Stage 2A melanoma, an invasive form of skin cancer that claims the lives of up to 34% of those diagnosed within 10 years.[1]

He has not and probably will not release his complete medical records before November 4th.

If McCain is elected the 44th President of the United States, Sarah Palin will be one tick of his heart away from becoming the 45th President of the United States.

Even if I agreed with her on every issue, the prospect of having Sarah Palin in the highest office is unacceptable. I will not vote for a McCain/Palin ticket.

Tune in next time for why a McCain/Romney ticket may* have enticed me.

*Even though he's a Mormon (j/k)

See that cute chandlier down there to the right?

That's a link to my new etsy store!
It's not full of stuff yet, but it will get there eventually. Especially if that stuff that is there sticks around for long.

Want a preview of what's coming up? Well good, cause I'm so dang excited to show it off!

Waa Laa!!! Mer-Baby!
If you live near me and know of a new baby (0-3 months) that just may want to try this on and possibly take some pictures in it, please let me know! I need to do this ASAP so that it can get up in my store ASAP. Halloween is only right around the corner and I could end up making quite a few of these...

I'll also be making bigger sizes to fit toddlers and little girls.
(If you already know you want one, let me know ASAP so I can pull out some fabric for you. I only have so much fabric!)

I'm pretty sure I'll be making mermaid tails all month. Hopefully I can use up my 4 yards of fabric quickly and be able to move on to aprons. I have some adorable fabric set aside for aprons! Not to mention the nearly done one for my awesome friend Amy and one already ordered by my friend Jen. Apparently, aprons are a hot item. I even have male friends requesting them! ;) Hi Jay!

I'll let y'all know when I get new stuff up. There are a LOT of things over there on my stuff to make list. I am sure at least some of them will be put into my store. I'm really excited!

Oh and I have to brag about my little logo because I totally made it. Hooray for having a knowledge of where to look for cool chandeliers (thank you Duncan Lighting!). And hooray for Photoshop.

I'd better go to bed. I was just way too excited about my little store not to share it right away!

A downside of having kids

I've had to beat (not really) Alex off of my purse NUMEROUS times today. Well in a moment when I wasn't around, he got into my purse and pulled out my hot new sunglasses (see Six Flags pictures) and FREAKING BROKE them.
This is the second pair he has broken. In less than 6 months. And he always breaks them within about 3 weeks of buying them. WHY???!!!!

Now, some may say, "what's the big deal? Just go find some new ones." That's a little bit hard for me because it's SO difficult for me to find a pair that looks good on me. Jon can attest to this. I loved this pair WAY more than the last 2 pairs that I had.

So go back to the store I got them from. Umm... Aldo in Utah? Ya... I'm in Texas. AND they were on sale (possibly clearance), so there is no guaranteeing that they would have them.

Glue them you say? I tried super glue on my last pair to no avail. Gorilla glue? Well the break happens to be on the frame around the lens. Imagine and big ol' glob of hard glue filled with tiny bubbles there since the stuff expands. NOT HOT.

Argh. I'm so bugged.

The Office!!!

This is our favorite show. We get the new season for Christmas every year. We faithfully watch every week. We frequently find ourselves saying, "that's what she said".
You can imagine how thrilled I was when I went to Target today and saw The Office merchandise in their DOLLAR bins!!!

Here's a fansite that shows pictures of the many things available.
http://www.officetally.com/office-goodies-in-the-target-1-bins

My Target did not have some of the stuff I wanted (uhh... World's Best Boss mug), so I think I'm going to visit another Target tomorrow.

How lovely that my find coordinated with premiere night!

Six Flags!

Anyone who knows me well, knows that I love roller coasters. I just never get sick of them. I tell Jon all of the time (or maybe I just tell myself) that we should have gone to Six Flags for our honeymoon. At least 2 days of it. Even better would be Six Flags AND Busch Gardens!!! I was lucky enough in my teenage years to have my family take me on such a vacation where we got to go to BOTH roller coaster super parks. I think I may actually consider that trip one of the highlights of my life so far.

That's how much I love roller coasters.

Imagine how THRILLED I was when Jon's company, National Instruments announced that they were holding the company picnic at Six Flags (down in San Antonio) this year! And, if that weren't sweet enough, they reserved the whole freaking park just for NI!!! This meant no fighting with the crowds of the general public and season pass holders and SHORT SHORT lines!!! AH! I'm excited just thinking about how awesome it was!

It was not a blazing hot day, we got free drinks all day in free souvenir cups, a free lunch, and a FREE TICKET to come back again before the 12th of October!!! SWEET! And it cost $15 + gas. Also, I didn't have tons of kids to take on rides and Alex didn't demand to be on a ride every second, so with the short lines I was able to go on all of the roller coasters and still ride some rides with Alex.

So with all of the greatness of the day going on, it's no surprise why I'm still feeling a high from it. It was an AWESOME day. Thanks NI!

Jon still had (and has) his vertigo going on, so he didn't go on any rides with me. He did go on the carousel with Alex and I and he said that was a bit much for him. I was surprised when he wanted to go on the teacups with Alex. After he got off of that, he was pretty dizzy.

My favorite rides were

The Poltergeist



The Twister




I'm embedding both of those for their uniqueness. I was cracking up on The Twister the whole time. I was one of 5 total people riding and it was so funny being spun that way.

Poltergeist was awesome because instead of going up a hill, it blasts you off. Totally took me off guard (even after 3 times). I also loved how strong the g-forces got. It hugged me right to my seat!
There was no line on this one, so I just stayed in my seat and went on it 3 times since Jon was waiting in a long line to ride on the little cars with Alex.

I also really liked Goliath and Superman. Both were bigger roller coasters and were SUPER smooth.

And speaking of smooth, I found a ride to AVOID like the plague! It's called The Rattler and it's a HUGE wood roller coaster. Problem is that it is NOT SMOOTH. It was so rough that I was being slammed (seriously. There is no better word to describe it) around in my seat. I have a huge bruise on my arm because of it and about 1/2 way through I started experiencing pain in my back. I thought it was really cool that it was such a big roller coaster, but after it got going I was really wishing it was a short ride.

Here's a video of it to illustrate how horrible it was. People can't even scream because it is so bumpy and they are just trying to deal with all of the bumps (and pain!). HORRIBLE RIDE!!!




Alex had such a fun time going on all of the rides. He loved everything, but it didn't surprise us that his favorite was the little trucks. That boy was so happy on the trucks! He also rode his first roller coaster, which made him a little nervous and he wanted to get off early. It was a similar story for the little swings we went on.
I was thinking how great it would be to go childless with our free ticket, but I loved how much fun he had on the rides and would love to see him that happy again.

Here's a little slideshow of our fun day!

Mustard and Mayonnaise

These are some of Alex's favorite "foods".
Alex happens to be addicted to hot dogs (no worries, we get the light turkey/pork no byproducts kind) and he doesn't really care for ketchup to dip them in. He's all about the mustard and mayonnaise. What a weirdo.

Vertigo

I totally forgot to blog about this! Sorry Jon... you really are important!

Jon came home from work early on Tuesday feeling really dizzy. He said he all of the sudden felt like the world was spinning and he was thinking it was just something going on with his head. So he shook his head and he said that made it a LOT worse. Driving home was an adventure for him.

The next day he still wasn't feeling great and he noticed something going on in his leg. He was thinking maybe a blood clot and that was causing him to feel lightheaded. We're a little paranoid of blood clots, so after talking to the dr., Jon went in to the ER. He figured he'd better get things figured out since he was going to be driving down to San Antonio to pick me up from the airport that night.

They did a blood test and no clot. They figured it was just a muscle strain and the dizziness was coming from Vertigo.

So Jon got some prescription strength motion sickness pills and some xanax for anxiety caused by feeling dizzy (I think... not exactly sure why the xanax...). We have no idea if this will last for days or weeks or more. Hopefully no longer than a week or so!

Until then we'll be taking it easy around here (moving his head a lot can bring on or worsen an attack of dizziness) and I'll be doing a bit more driving.

Here are some pictures from the day

Alex has a new love of pockets. I'll randomly catch him sticking his hand in his pocket and walking around like that. It makes him look oh so cool...





This is the adorable apron I made for my friend Janel! I should get this out to you tomorrow Janel!



reversible!




And we went to see our friends Kenn and Amy's new baby, Beckett. All 10 lbs. 14 oz. of him! Look at those rolls and chub! He's 1 day old people! They are in a hospital that opened just a few months ago, but he holds the record for weight so far. Go Beckett! He's absolutely adorable and I think I may have to spend even more time over at Kenn and Amy's holding him. It's quite unfortunate that Alex gets upset anytime I hold any child other than him.





Caleb and Alex hanging out in the hospital room. Can you tell what roll Alex plays in the friendship? He's the watcher/follower.




Caleb hadn't seen his mom in 2 days and was in a little hospital room at 8 at night, so he was a little hopped up...

Random Alex Stories

Jon was amazed yesterday with how much more Alex is talking just in the 2 weeks that we were gone. He says random things all of the time and surprises me. I'm also impressed with his memory!

He just barely picked up a little cup off of the floor and said, water. Then he remembered that he had a cup of water at the table, so he dropped the cup and ran over to the table to get his water. I love the independence!

And after that he was sitting on the floor and started saying, "PaDa, a-toens?" (grandpa. acorns?... he would go out on walks and find them with grandpa carlson).

For lunch I made him fish sticks (he ate 9 of them!!!) and while they were cooking I said they were almost done. He associates the word almost with driving to grandpa's house (we would constantly hear a little "ah-moes" from the backseat whenever we were driving), so when I said almost he piped right in with "ah-moes a PaDa how-s!?"

On Tuesday we were driving to the zoo with my mom and dad and and my dad sneezed. From the backseat, Alex says, "bess ooo" (bless you). Tawna, did you teach him that while we were down there?

When we were at the airport we saw a big airplane pulling up to the gate, so I told Alex that the airplanes come to park at the gate. so the whole rest of the trip at the mention of airplanes, Alex would say, "air-pane. park a gate" Very cute.

Could it be that easy?

First of all, I have to share my excitement of having 2 dry days! The first was on Tuesday when we went to the zoo. At about 2 I took Alex in to change his diaper figuring that he would be wet. I was surprised to find that he was dry, so I took him in to the potty and he went! Yay!
Then I went to change him when we got home at 5, he was still dry and went potty again.
To top the night off, before he went to bed he told me "poop" and I took him in to the potty and he went poop! Yay!!!

Today he was naked for the morning and he actually told me when he needed to go pee pee. Awesome! I just got him up from his nap and he was dry (!), so I took him potty and we had another pee pee!

So he's currently wearing his new gerber padded/absorbent underwear and having a great time!

This has been a gradual process that I've noticed Alex showing signs of readiness for about since June that I've just kind of gone with as he's wanted to do things. He's gotten better at recognizing when he needs to potty. I'm going to venture to say that the Kushies diapers that we were using with the cotton inner (as opposed to wicking fleece or microsuede) helped him recognize things earlier. Hooray for cloth diapers! So not only did they save us money, they also saved up the cost of pull ups and the length of time actually in diapers (which if we had been using disposables, we may have ended up buying diapers for a longer amount of time). I don't know if my theory of cloth is entirely factual, but I do think it had something to do with it.


*UPDATED* I knew I was probably speaking too soon and jinxing myself with the underwear. Alex peed in his nice new underwear just before Daddy got home at 6. I asked the kid if he needed to go pee pee numerous times... it's just not that easy. Oh well, the undies needed to be washed a few times so that they can actually absorb something (ya... they didn't absorb a whole lot...)

We're Home!

We made it back to Texas! Alex was really good on both airplane rides. There was no extra seats on either flight, so I got to sit with a little boy on my lap for 3 hours. He did well with it, but my legs ended up pretty tired by the end.
Alex was really sad to leave Grandpa Carlson behind at security. He wanted PaDa to come with us. He loved the airplane ride though and was very happy to see Daddy!
I have quite a few pictures from our trip -going to the state fair and the zoo and such- which I will have to post later. Hmm... I don't think I ever posted about our trip to San Antonio with my parents in July... SLACKER!

Alex riding the 4-wheeler outside

Alex riding the 4-wheeler outside from Jon M on Vimeo.

As always, go to the actual video link for the HD version.

Broken and Squishy

On Friday night, Aubrey was watching as I was changing Alex's diaper. Aubrey is the only child in her family, so she only knows what she sees. She stared at Alex's boy parts with concern for a minute or so and then told me, "uh, Alex is broken ....(pause).... I just think he's kind of umm broken".

My sister-in-law is going to kill me for writing this, but it was just too funny of a story not to share.

On the way home from the fair, Aubrey rode with my mom and I and Alex. We were riding along and Aubrey decided to share some of her newest findings, as any chatty 2 year old would. From the backseat we hear her say, "and my mommy is just kind of chubby.... ya, she's chubby.......(pause during which my mom and I were cracking up!)...... and she's squishy (more laughter). Ya she's kind of squishy. And chubby."

As we found out at lunch the next day, my brother had gained a few pounds when he stepped on the scale the other night and told Aubrey that he was getting chubby. Melanie said that she told him not to tell her that because she knew what it would lead to. Well, she was right!

Aubrey was on a roll that day (the broken comment came after the ride home from the fair). What a funny little girl!

Sleeping Stories

The night that we got here, Alex woke up screaming early early in the morning, so I went in the extra room and got him out of his pack n play and took him into my bed. He was still screaming and freaking out for who knows why. He finally got himself calmed down and through the last sobs he took his binky out and told me, "tem -poe?" (temple) He wanted me to sing I Love to See the Temple to him. It was so cute!

Later that morning he actually was talking in his sleep. I giggled a little when I heard him say, "froggie... slide down". We had been playing froggie slide down in the airplane and it's one of his favorite games to play. It was funny that he was dreaming about it!

We Made It!

Well we made it to Utah all right despite flying during Alex's usual bed time. I was thrilled that Alex did so well. Luckily, there were extra seats, so Alex got to sit on his own seat. He loved wearing a seat belt like mommy and didn't scream or cry at all on either flight. He thought it was great fun to bump bump bump as we were taking off and landing and loved going up in the sky.

He actually fell asleep for about 40 minutes on the second flight from Denver to Salt Lake. One minute he was sitting there and the next minute I looked over and he was out. He was pretty tired since he hadn't had a nap that day.

We're having a great time in Utah! Alex has loved playing outside and racing with PaDa and Brent and jumping on the trampoline with MaNa and Aubrey. We're off to the State Fair this afternoon and we may go swimming with Cindy tomorrow (after which, Cindy and I will be going to the U game!!! YAY!).

We're a little cold and I am all about the long sleeves and jackets where as most people are probably thinking it's perfect weather for short sleeves. Going from 95 to 75 is a bit of a shock.

We are having a great time, but it seems like the days are going by way too fast. We love being here!

What little boys like to do with watermelons

Besides eat them, that is.

Alex often has naked times as we try to do the potty thing (plus, he just loves being naked). He saw our watermelon sitting up on the counter and was pointing to it saying "ride". "Uhh... you want to ride the watermelon?" "uh huh!"
So I got it down for him and he jumped on it and rode it like it was a horse (complete with bouncing up and down from one end to the other and then falling off of it) for a good five minutes. It was pretty random and very silly so I HAD to take pictures!

Labor Day

I'm not so sure if it was Jon's ideal way to spend his Labor Day, but I had a great Labor Day.

Today I dragged Jon to several furniture stores trying to see if we could find a queen sized bed (headboard etc.) at a decent price. He was such a good sport and we had a great time walking around with Alex. He wanted to sit on every chair/couch/ottoman we walked by. He thought it was very cool that there was a store full of couches and beds. They had a little kid sized table and chair set at one of the stores that he thought was awesome! I guess the Ikea table and chair set we're planning on getting him for Christmas will be a winner.

I also dragged Jon to Joann's. He has been scarred in the area of fabric stores from many long trips with his mom when he was a kid and really hates going. I like to have him come to entertain Alex though. For this trip he had to come so that he could assist in picking some fabric for curtains for our room. He's usually pretty opinionated and I actually really like having his input. We found a great fabric and now I just have to sew a rod pocket and hem the sides and bottom. Good thing I recently discovered my rolled hem foot! And thank goodness that I only have to make 2! Oh and then a valance for my bathroom. And of course the 2 valances I have left for my kitchen. Good thing I got my crafty room done and am on a crafty high. I have a lot of projects!

We also scored some clearance decorative rods at Joann's ($10!).

When we got home, I made the wall hangings for my crafty room. I got the idea for these from my friend Erin. They were really easy to make and I love how they look. I have to say that I am now addicted to mod podge. I have a bunch of scrapbook paper (it was on sale 6 for $.96 at Joann's!) that I am planning on mod podging to the back of my cheapy bookcases just so that they look cute.


We finished off our evening with a barbeque at the house of some ward friends. We had good food, a good time with the many balls, played Wii and Alex got tackled/knocked over by their dog. The night definitely ended with a bang!

Alex was already a little nervous about the dog. He wanted to be held when the dog was around and would pull his legs up and get all tense if the dog got close.

Jon and Alex were racing outside and the dog came out to play. He's still a puppy and doesn't understand the he can't jump on little people and when he saw Alex running with Jon he got excited and ran right into Alex and knocked him flat on his face. This of course, terrified Alex and he had a good long scream/cry.

We wanted to show him that the dog was okay and that he was just playing so we hung out and looked at and petted the dog for a little while. We probably won't be talking about the dog jumping on him for a good long time since when Jon mentioned it in the car on the way home, Alex started crying again. We'll just try to reinforce that the dog is a nice and funny dog and he wanted to run and play with Alex. It will be a good story to tell down the road.


And since I've slacked on posting pictures for a good while, here are some pictures of my crafty room w/wall hangings -I'll have to take some in the daylight later.