Bath Time

The Bug loves baths.  He runs in the bathroom and throws his toys in the tub and yells "Juice! Juice!"  (He calls any kind of liquid is juice.)  It's adorable when it's the tub and less adorable when it's the toilet.  We lost Matt's inhaler to the toilet this week.  Sigh...

I had to take some of the classic "naked baby in the bathtub" pictures. I have to have something to show his future girlfriends... I wouldn't be a proper mama if I didn't.

Let me in!

I let him be naked for like 5 seconds and he pees all over the living room... Notice the puddle on the floor.  Lesson learned little bug... Lesson learned. 



What We've Been Up To Lately...

Oh Blog, how I've missed you!  Who knew being a stay-at-home (hot) mama would be so time consuming! BAH!

Staying home with TC is an experience I am so grateful to have.  I don't know how long I will be able to do it, but I am going to enjoy every day that I can.  Everyday he makes me laugh - he is hilarious! We go to playdates, to the park, and Tiny Tot Tales at the library.  Besides the little attitude he has developed, I am loving every minute!  He is talking up a storm now, Matt and I counted 20 words.  Not bad for a one-year-old.  This kid is so smart its scary!

He loves helping at Grandpa and Nana's.  He has jobs like taking out the dog, and feeding the cats.  He also helps Grandpa with the irrigation water. 

I decided to take a photography class and learn how to use my camera.  I figured if Matt was willing to sell his X Box so I could have it, the least I could do is learn how to use it like it is supposed to be used.  I learned a lot, and now that it's over I'm wishing it lasted a little longer.  Here are a few of the Bug I have taken. 

We moved into our new apartment!  Special thanks to my parents for letting us stay with them until we found a place, but I am so excited to be in and be in my own space again.  Going 2 months with everything you own in boxes is maddening.  I can't tell you how happy I am to get everything out of the trailer. 

Pregnancy was not kind to me.  Besides the 50 extra pounds, my feet grew a size and a half.  For a while I was in denial, and thought they would return to their proper size, but it just didn't happen.  Because all my shoes were too small, I developed a really bad ingrown toenail. Geh.  After a year, I finally went to the doctor and got part of my toenail removed.  Double Geh.  I'm hoping it looks somewhat normal by sandal weather, but hoping hasn't gotten me very far with this situation so we will see I guess. 

Matt and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary on the 20th.  Confession:  I completely forgot about it.  I never claimed to be the perfect wife.  I am HORRIBLE with dates.  I actually thought we got married on the 21st.  After a quick consult with our marraige licence, I realized I have had the date wrong this whole time.  Like I said, I never claimed to be perfect.  Matt bought himself the new Halo video game, and I bought myself a new purse.  We are great at picking out gifts... Thank you Baby!  In all seriousness though, I really am so blessed to have Matt in my life.  He is truly the love of my life and makes me so happy.  Love you Babe :)

We all went to the USU vs. Fresno State game in Logan. We love our Aggies!

The next weekend, we headed out to Wendover with my parents, my sister, and her boyfriend, Craig,  for the air show.  TC loves airplanes, and we thought he would love it.  We were right.  It was a lot of fun watching the show, but we had a little problem with seating.  We brought camp chairs to sit in because the show is from 9-3.  Unfortunately, the chair I borrowed from my parents had 3 out of the 4 legs broken.  Great.  Why they kept the chair after it was literally on its last leg is something I am still trying to understand.  Nevertheless, it was all we had and my mom was determined to make it work.  She rigged the legs together with the straps of the chair cases, and my dad volunteered to sit on it.  At first sight, I knew this chair was a ticking time bomb.  It was not an "if" but "when" situation.  Sure enough, as dear old dad was reaching for the sunblock for the baby - SNAP!  My sister signaled me to look back and there he was, booty on the ground, still digging for the sunblock like a soldier.  A little boy behind us ran up with a pice of plastic that shot off the chair and handed it to my dad.  I. Was. Dying.  After laughing for roughly half an hour, I ended up sitting in the baby's stroller for the rest of the show.  Notice TC and I are not the same size - it was not cute, but it was fairly convenient... I could roll to wherever I wanted without having to get up.  Niiiiice.  Not to long after, my sister's boyfriends chair went SNAP!  Seriously???  What are the chances?  We. All. Were. Dying.  I really haven't seen Matt laugh that hard in a long time.  Since we were quickly running out of chairs (and strollers) we decided to bail.  I wanted a picture of myself with a jet, so I had my sister take one for me.  Notice the lack of "jet" in the background.  Uhhh... thanks anyway, sis :)

The boys and the remaining spinters of chairs.  We decided to leave them there.  (The chairs, not the boys.)

So that's about everything that is new with us... staying busy!  I promise I will try and update more often, but at the moment TC is dancing to J Lo (which is right up my alley) and I think I should join him.  Until next time America...

The life of a single mama...

I like to compare football season to a mistress that sneaks into our relationship every year and wisks my husband away into a love affair whirlwind of rankings, statistics, rivalries, and all things pig-skin.  Matt lives for football.  From little league to the pro's - he doesn't discriminate. This leaves me as pretty much a single mama from now until January. 

When we first started dating I loved his obsession with football... Or maybe I loved his little football booty.  Eh, I'm not one for details.  I thought it was so cute how he would get so excited about the sport. 

To date, however, this obsession to me has gotten a little, well, bland (for lack of a better word).  How can a someone be content to sit in front of the TV all day 6 days a week watching the same thing over and over again?  PS - thank you, football people for leaving me ONE FREAKING DAY of the week with no football games.  And thank you, ESPN, for using that one day to recap the other six days.  You people deserve a swift slap. 

The other day, Matt told me he thought I would like football more if I understood more about the game.  Now, I get the basics - 4 downs, 10 yards for a first down, how many points are in a touchdown or field goal blah, blah, blah.  So I decided to give it a shot.  Quality family time on the couch is better than no quality family time, right?

We watched the Boise State vs. Someone Else game.  I thought it went great.  I asked a lot of questions.  I even made a funny joke about how their quarterback looked a little horsey and could double as Boise Sate's mascot, the Broncos.  See below - I was spot on with this one. 

Later that night I asked Matt if he had fun watching the game with me.  He hesitated and said "Ummm... yeah... it was alright.  I mean, besides you asking a million questions and saying the QB looks like a horse EVERY time he came on the screen."  (Guess it didn't go as great as I thought it did.) 

I can't help that I compare the players looks to celebrities or animals.  I do what I have to do to stay entertained.  The sport alone just doesn't do it for me.  I guess the passion just isn't there - oh well, you can't say I didn't try. 

The Fastest Year in History

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday, my baby...

Happy Birthday to the best thing that has ever happened to me.

I Love you Bug.

Surprise!

For those of you who don't know yet.... We are moving from here...

...back home to a state that is a whole lot easier to draw. (I don't believe in living in states that I am incapable of drawing - even if I trace it - so we're outie.)

Really, Matt got a transfer to a Lowe's in Sandy, so we are moving back to the saltiest of cities!  I am really sad to leave Hanford (it has really grown on me) and all of our friends, but I am going to get to stay home with the cutest little boy in the whole world so the decision wasn't all that tough.

TC's New Look

Uhhhhh.....

Yeah.  This resemblence is a little too striking. 

I invest a lot of money every year in hair products that promise to volumize and give body to my locks, but on TC it's not such a good look.  I don't think anyone can blame me when I decided it was time to take my mini Don King for a little visit to the barber shop for his first cut. 

Of course he did great - a lot better than me.  I started going into panic mode when I saw his baby curls dropping to the floor.  Bah! 

Handsome little Mann!  Doesn't he look like a little grown up?

Camping

It's that time of year people.  Time to leave our air-conditioned, technology filled apartments with full-sized furniture to spend a week in the wilderness under the stars on beds designed for little people (or people who are a hell of a lot smaller than meme), swarms of flies straight out of Jurassic Park, and a handful of wild beasts... oh, and my family. 

All joking aside - I LOVE camping.  I love being out in wide open spaces, fresh air, riding 4-wheelers, shooting guns, taking several naps a day, and sitting by the fire with my family telling stories of the "old days".  There isn't a whole lot I would choose to do over camping.  (I'm still working on converting Matt to this type lifestyle - but the insects seem to be a bigger road block than I had originally anticipated.  He is a pretty good sport though, and I think the 4-wheelers just might win him over.) 

Disclaimer:  This blog includes a picture overload. 

Of course TC was in heaven - dirt, space to run, and the constant availability of family members to take him on rides and he was sold. 

Thank you Auntie and Big C for buying me this big ball!

Uncle Curt and TC

Baths in the trailer

He wanted to get in the lake... and I wasn't hurrying fast enough. 

This is our family tree... Literally.  It's a little tough to see, but we added Matt's name under mine when we got married, and put TC's name on the list last summer :)

Naps with Grandpa... Notice the similar haircuts...

Must be genetic - either that or poor grooming.  Take your pick.

Four generations on the mountain where we all grew up.  Pretty awesome. 

I'm already looking forward to next year!

11 Months...

... and spoiled rotten.  I can't help it... If you had the cutest baby in the whole world you would spoil him too!

Here he is at 11 months...

I have NO IDEA where he got the dramatic gene, but I'm thinking it is probably Matt ;)

Wife-Swap

I think it was Ludicris who said you can't turn a ho into a housewife... but I'll be damned if I don't try and turn my husband into one (a housewife, not a ho).

After a looooong stressful week at work, I got off on Friday in desperate need of the weekend to regroup. I walked into my apartment only to find it looking like the aftermath of the great San Franciso earthquake of '89. Now there are two obvious problems with this.

Number one: there was no earthquake - this is just how we are living. I swear I dedicate my entire weekend to cleaning my house and within just a few days it looks like I have never touched a broom in my lifetime. Is this just me? Maybe I got some kind of faulty apartment... the kind that undoes everything that is done. Maybe I should ask for a refund.

Number two: The year is 2010. Call me not-so-much old-fashioned, but the times of a woman's place being in the home are pretty much non-existant anymore. Excluding the lucky few, the cost of living is so high it often takes a duel income to provide a comfortable lifestyle for a family... well, this is the case for Matt and I anyway. To be honest, I love my job and I love what I do but it does get tiring working full time and being a full time mom/maid/cook/laundry service on top of that. I guess I just feel like if it is going to be 50/50 in the workplace, it needs to be a little more 50/50 at home too.

So Matt and I had a little conversation about it, and I'm sure all he heard was me saying "blah, blah, blah, blah, blah... I bet YOU couldn't do it". And the bet was made. We decided to switch places for a week (well mostly I decided, but Matt played along with it). When I got off, I got to relax, read, watch TV and play with the Bug. Matt got to do dishes, laundry, pack diaper bags etc. It was pure heaven. H.E.A.V.E.N...

...Until the fourth day, when I got off I came home to a large sack from Comcast containing our DVR for the cable that needed to be installed and software upgraded. I asked Matt why he didn't get it set up, and not missing a beat he said, "it's your week for that". I couldn't help but laugh (on the inside - I can't let him know I think he is funny sometimes, it only encourages him). Now you have to keep in mind that only recently figured out how to change the settings from "TV" to "DVD" on our system. It's just not really my forte.

After about an hour with no success AND technical support on the phone, he stood next to me with his arms folded... "Need some help?" I stuck out my bottom lip and nodded yes. He smiled and said "Hmmm... that's funny, 'cause I could use a little help putting away the laundry."

Ooohhh I hate it when he wins. :)

10 Months

This keeps getting better and better everyday. It's amazing how fast he is learning - I swear he picks up on something new all the time.

Here's a list of new things:

• We're walking! Still a little weeble wobble, but he is doing so good.


• He smiles at everything... Especially strangers. What a little flirt!


• He found the toilet. And the toilet paper. And he figured out how to spin the roller until it ends up as a gigantic pile on the floor. Clever little butt.
  
• He loves to dance.
  
• He still is obsessed with birds.


• He still is obsessed with his little peeper.


• He loves swimming. We go swimming every weekend and he loves to splash.



• He loves to be silly!

Here are some videos of him walking and playing with Dad :)

Vegas Trippin'

Aaaahhhhhh.... Vacations. I live for vacations. And it doesn't take much to please me... All I really need is a pool and my ipod and I'm pretty much set. I guess technically I could vacation in my backyard... but it's even better when the vacation is in Vegas.

When Matt decided to try out for the football combine in Atlanta this year, it just happened to be over the same weekend as my mom's birthday. Now I know an opportunity when I see one, and I can't say that it took me long before I was persuading my mom and sister to meet me for a girls weekend in Vegas. But if you know my mom and sis, you know it didn't take much persuasion and we started booking flights and hotels and it was settled.

We spent the weekend of sleeping in, mornings at the pool, afternoons at the mall, and evenings at the buffet began. Any girls dream come true... Or at least any chunky girl's dream come true. At Maggiano's I concieved a "food baby" and it made me pretty miserable for the rest of the night. But what was I supposed to do? Creme brulee doesn't exactly eat itself. I don't care if it put me in a bad place... their food is so damn delicious.

We wanted to take mom out for her birthday. I wanted to go here...

But she didn't seem really enthusiastic about it so we went to the Lion King instead. It was fabulous of course! But if I'm going to expand my exposure to the diversity of other cultures, I must say I would have chosen to do so with Austrailian hard-bodies than people dressed like animals. Eh, ya win some ya loose some.

I flew home on Sunday only to find out my fridge had gone out AGAIN. I was having de ja vu from Thanksgiving break. Appliances! Matt used to sell them, and ever since he has changed positions they keep going out on us. Like they know he turned his back on them. Weird.

We finally got that mess all cleaned up and went and picked up my own southern hard-body and my little bug on Monday. I missed my boys! And now it's back to normal. I guess that's the worst part about a vacation... They all end eventually and we go back to work. If you know of anyone who is hiring a professional pool-layer-outer, I have quite an impressive resume.