Happy Thoughts

I was really excited for Christmas. Basically because I had high hopes that J would love all of the fun presents. Originally it was going to be a table and chairs plus an easel and maybe some art supplies, but we were blessed to be able to get some add-on's too, like the froggy seat cushions, the Igloo tent and the city/road map rug. He loves the frogs even more than I expected, I caught him trying to hug one today.

The table is perfect and the various art supplies are loved beyond measure. It amazes me how this little boy will sit down and draw or color. The "Washable" Crayons and Markers are also quite mind blowing.

The easel has been a pretty big hit as well, though he did get offended the first time I tore off the used piece of paper.
Most everything has been moved downstairs and within a few days I hope to have it all in place in the "Children's Art Area". It has been my dream, my happy thoughts, for so long, it is hard to believe that it has come true. Guess I need a new dream.

It pays to Discover....the charges on your Statement.

Ken found, what we believe to be, TWO unauthorized charges on our credit card yesterday. I googled the name of the company and found out that somehow we had signed ourselves up for a Shopping Essentials Discount Club- for the price of $19.95 per month. I called Shopping Essentials and told them I felt the charges were fraudulent and wanted them to cancel my membership AND refund the two $19.95 charges, from 12/24 and 11/24. The associate who was helping me was very very willing to cancel my membership and refund ONE of the charges.

I then called Discover Card and asked if there was anything else that could be done, as I had no recollection of signing up for the service and I never used the service, is there a way that I could dispute the charge that the company was refusing to refund. I was told YES! It is so nice to talk to a Customer Service Agent who seems to want the best for you. She explained that since I had spoken to the Company - Shopping Essentials- and told them I felt the charges were fraudulent that they were responsible to refund up to 6 months of fees. She then told me that she would watch our account, and if after 15 days both charges had not been refunded she would open an investigation into the company and our charge and do her best to resolve it.

So Thank You, Summer, from the Utah office of Discover Card! You made our day just a little better. And Ken and I have learned that we really need to watch our statements closely each month, if we had found the first charge earlier we could have had it canceled before the second charge appeared and then we wouldn't have had to deal with disputing the charge. (That would be in a perfect world, unfortunately I found plenty of stories on-line that talked about charges continuing even after they had been assured that their membership had been cancelled. Summer said that she would watch out for extra charges).

Christmas Morning for Little J

I saved $5 per month, for about two years, so that I could buy furnish my "Children's Art Area" and this summer I planning on taking my savings and heading on down to IKEA. But then I thought "Why not wait until Christmas and kill two birds with one budget, I mean stone? " And that is how this magical Christmas came about.

From his reaction I think it was a good idea. The fact that IKEA has recently been lowering prices- which enabled me to get about twice the fun stuff is just the frosting.

Where'd my Little Baby Go?

Last week I made a horrible realization. Little J's Curls are not coming back. I cut his hair a few months ago and as I cut off the precious curls I quietly said to myself, "They will grow back, They will grow back" and I realize now that I lied. This is a picture of J last week. Sure, it has a little bit of a wave too it, and if I work hard and use some product I can coax a few curls out, but it is just not the same.

So on Saturday night, I cut his hair again. Previously I have used the scissors on the top, or maybe I should say "Attempted" to use scissors, because I kind of like a little length, but this time I decided to make it easy on myself and use the clippers for everything. We used the largest guard we have, #8 or 1 inch, for the top and then #4 for the back and sides.

The first thing I realized it that J's hair didn't want to be cut that short. It would willingly flow right into the guard on the clippers and then somehow manage to get out without being cut! I guess I need lessons. I fixed the situation by holding on to the chunk of hair that I intended to cut so that it couldn't get away. Soon, my little baby looked like a scared little sheep that had been sheered for the first time.

When I went into his room the next morning I did a double take. Even worse when I picked him up from nursery I looked right at him and didn't recognize him. I guess I will get used to it, unless we start paying for someone else to cut his hair, this is what he is going to look like for the rest of his childhood. I am thankful for the little bit of a wave that his hair has, as my sweet cousin pointed out, that waviness will hide a multitude of his mothers hair cutting mistakes! He really is a Cute Little Boy, isn't he. I guess he is not my baby anymore.

Anyone know where I can find a new baby?

Cold!

Over the past month of so I have been collecting items to make Snow Fun! Last week I bought a Toboggan. In my head I pictured Little J and one of his parents sitting on the disk toboggan together and sliding happily down the small hill next to our house, when I got the toboggan home I started to read the fine print- Max Weight 150 pounds. Well that ruled parents out of the picture and so Baby J got to ride down the hill alone. I don't know if anyone else noticed, but it snowed on Sunday and Monday and so after Ken got home from work on Monday J and I forced him to go play in the snow with us.

We placed J on the toboggan and gave him a push, he quickly fell over.
Then we had the bright idea to lay him on his stomach, and Viola! Perfect Sliding! Down and down he went went with a big old smile on his face.
He was able to slide down that hill so fast that his hood and hat both flew off. At the bottom of the hill he would slow to a stop, usually he was able to keep his face out of the snow.
I think he liked it! I may even brave the cold sometime later in the week and take him out to play again. Maybe if the high temp gets above 20.

Santas and Ladders and Beards, Oh My!

What a fun few days we have had. Our church had a Christmas party. Surprisingly, Little J was afraid of Santa, he was also up past his bedtime and on the verge of a melt down so he may have liked Santa and just not been able to express it.

The Party had a Mexican theme and J really enjoyed his burrito, it was the first time he had ever had one, but I think he will be having more in the near future. He was especially cute to watch as he attempted to get the whole thing into his mouth at once.

After a Nativity program they broke out the Piñatas, they even had one especially for kids between 18 months and 3 years old. I don't think it will surprise you to know that it took quite along time for these kids to break the piñata. It may look like J was about to wail on that thing, but he was all bark and no bite he would approach with a mighty swing and then lightly tap the piñata. It was hilarious.

Ken and I worked together to put Christmas lights up on our house. It took about 3 hours and when we were done we noticed that one of the strands wasn't working. I plugged them in the next day and the strand in question was working, then I checked a few hours later and it was out again- Maybe it is on a really really slow blink....... who knows, at some point this week I am going to climb up the ladder again and push in all the LED's to make sure their connections are good, hopefully that will take care of the problem.
Do you remember last winter when Ken got some strange sores around his mouth and chin? The Doctor thought is was Staph, but it turned out not to be, and they went away so we didn't bother finding out what it was. Well the sores came back a couple of weeks ago. Ken learned his lesson last time, the lesson being, Shaving the sores causes them to spread. So he took a few weeks off shaving, ending up with the good beginnings of a beard. Well the sores were pretty much gone and so Ken decided it was time to shave.....
What do you think? From the nose down he kind of looks like Wolverine. Don't worry, he shaved the rest of it off too, eventually.

This Christmastime!

Last year we put the tree in a corner and surrounded it with furniture facing the opposite direction- this protected the tree well from tiny little hands but made the tree hard to see. Our tree was also a hand-me-down that a kind coworker had given me a few years before. The tree was big and beautiful but my friend was a cat owner and the cats had loved the tree, Ken is allergic to cats. So after Christmas was over I went to Wal-Mart and bought a new- cheap tree and because of a tip from a friend I also bought a few packages of branch garland. I rounded out the shopping trip by purchasing some new Shatterproof ornaments. Did I mention that all of this stuff was 50% off, I loved that. So I brought my Christmas dreams home and quickly put them in the basement storage room. where they would wait for 11 months.

Well it is now CHRISTMASTIME! and today I rearranged the living room furniture, this time with the couches facing the spot where I wanted to put the tree. And then I put up the new tree- the picture on the box was of a beautiful, full, well lit tree. Well when I got the tree up I discovered that it was well lit. But it was not beautiful or full. I fluffed it, but there were still several places that you could see straight through. So I took out the garland and started stuffing it into the bare spots- WOW! It worked great.

Now the Tree is decorated and Little J is learning that he is not allowed to touch let alone take the ornaments off. He is actually doing very well at this. He likes to be praised for obeying-(that was Sundays lesson in nursery and our FHE lesson last night- "I will Obey")- I have plans to buy another free standing baby gate if he suddenly decides that obedience is no fun.

I even found a place to put the Alpine Trees that I got the day after Thanksgiving a couple of years ago. Since the Christmas Tree is upstairs and we spend time downstairs too, I think these trees will help us to feel the joy of the season while we are down there. You can't see them too well, but these trees even have little tiny ornaments.

Happy Holidays to all, and to all a Goodnight!

Telling Stories

A few weeks ago I got an email from Shutterfly offering me a free photo book. I made a photo book for our wedding album and it turned out quite nice and so I jumped at the chance to get a new book full of pictures from the first 18 months of little J's life. I quickly started to upload pictures, then discovered I had no Idea how to upload pictures and gave up. I thought the time limit had past but last week they sent me another email telling me that I had just a few days left to create and order my free book. So I did. I am so excited.

I had an idea, I wanted to make a story book. I asked Ken "If Jared could tell you a story, what would you want it to be about?" Ken answered that he would love to hear a story about Jared and his friends Peter- the Penguin and Griff- the Hippo and how they saved the world from Bad Guys! So I wrote a story- it is called Dad-Napped and it is about a day when J wakes up to find that his Dad is missing, and he, Peter and Griff set about to find him and save him from the Bad Dad-Nappers- because after all if Dad is missing then someone must have taken him, right? They fear that if they don't rescue Dad that they will never have any fun, ever again.

After the story was written I took a few pictures , and then put the book together. It took a few hours but it will be well worth it when it comes in the mail, just in time to give to Ken as a Christmas Present- and yes Ken knows about it, he read and approved the story and even participated in the photo shoot- there are some surprises that I added to the book later though.

Here is one of the scenes from the book- Little J, Peter and Griff are climbing into the loft because that is the last place they remember seeing Dad.

I also told a different and true story to Utah Valley Magazine today. I put in an entry to participate in their annual Fitness Challenge. Every year they pick 4 or 5 Utah Valley Residents and give them a Trainer for a year, then they track their progress in the Magazine each month.

I figured I would put my name in for it, because you can not beat a free trainer, and I feel like I am at the point where I could use some help with my weight loss.

I told them that I felt I would be a good contestant in their challenge because-

1- I have a great need to lose weight- no I am not obese- but I do have a strong family history of Type II Diabetes as well as other weight related issues- high blood pressure, high cholesterol- and that I have been told by several doctors that if I could loose weight and keep it off I had a good chance of postponing the onset of those disease for several years.

2- I have a son who was born with a Congenital Birth Defect, that it was not life threatening but that he needed surgery to fix it. I participated in the National Birth Defect Study and after I was done they sent me information that they had learned from the study. To my Horror the first thing I saw was that one of the biggest risk factors for my Son's Birth Defect was the Mother being Overweight. We have a 10% chance of future sons having the same problem, if I am a normal weight I may be able to lower that percentage even more. If I had known that my weight could affect my sweet baby, that I could have possibly prevented his pain from Surgery, I would have.

3- I have lost and gained and lost the same 15 pounds over and over again over the past 3 years. I need help, I need a Mentor, someone who teach me how to prevent injuries, how to make the most of my workouts- as a Mom you really don't get a ton of time- and how to nourish my body well so that it is willing to give its precious stores of fat. I believe that type of Mentor would call themselves a Trainer and I do not have the resources to pay a trainer.

4- I realize that I am not Obese, but I am overweight, and I consider myself a good example of a Utah Valley Mother, right in the middle of the road, trying hard but not quite getting the results I want. I would be an amazing success story if they chose me. I have been able to lose that 15 pounds again on my own, but I want to do what the doctors have told me I need to do, I want to lose about 40-45 more pounds, I know I can and I know I can do it within the next year with their help.

This is the picture I submitted. It was taken this last summer before I lost the 15 pounds (though I didn't tell them that...I mean I told them I had recently lost weight on my own but not that this picture was pre-weight loss)

So, if you could remember me in your prayers, maybe if it is meant to be, I will be blessed with a trainer for a year.

Sickeys- It should be our new last name.

What a week we have had. A couple of weeks ago I whined about being stuck at home, quarantined, and possibly even sick with the swine flu. Well, I was never quite sure if we actually got it. Little J had a low grade fever for about 5 days, at times he was slightly fussy, but mostly he was just J with a fever. He could have been teething- we have been dealing with the pending eruption of the eye teeth (is that how you spell eye in those teeth? You know, the K9's, or as I have decided, his Vampire Teeth) for a month or two already- so it is hard to tell if he was sick or not. Well I decided that he was better and that he needed to re-learn how to get back to sleep in the middle of the night without Mommy intervention. After all, Mommy needs to sleep at night too.

I think there are a lot of Mom's out there like me, I can not stand to hear my baby cry, let alone SCREAM, when I know the reason he is crying is because he wants me. But I also know that SLEEP is very important and very underrated and so I am having to learn how to deal with letting my baby cry. The Wheeler family is big on White Noise and their favorite kind of White Noise if from a Box Fan. So each night there is a box fan in each bedroom, turned to the highest setting possible. I also place a pillow on top of my head to muffle any other noise that my Mommy ears can pick up. The first couple nights were really hard. I could still hear him, and worse I could hear phantom crying- I hate phantom crying! (Does anyone else hear babies crying when they aren't?) But finally, FINALLY we started to get full nights of sleep again. Then on Wednesday morning I woke up around 2 and I couldn't go back to sleep, all seemed quiet in the house and so I wandered downstairs and watched the History Channel until I was tired again and then slept on the couch for a few hours. Ken came to see me before he left for work and about an hour after that I went to get J up for the day.

As I entered his room I could smell it. Vomit. Yuck. I am not good with Vomit, in fact I call myself a sympathetic vomiter, because usually just the smell or sound of it is enough to get me to join in the Non-Fun. Luckily some sort of Mommy Override kicked in and I was able to help my sick little baby all day with out being "Overly Sympathetic". The poor baby had a fever as well and so he was super cuddly all day long. He and I both had to change our clothes a few times. I did 4 loads of laundry and discovered that I can cover my couch in blankets and protect it from the yuckiness....I didn't think about covering the carpet until it was too late.

It must have been a 24 hour virus, because by 2 am the next morning he was hungry. How do I know? Well he was sick, so I raised my ban on Mommy visits in the middle of the night and when he cried I went to comfort him. As he lay on the changing table I noticed that he was signing. "Milk" he said. "You want some Milk?" I asked "Milk, Milk, Water." came the signed reply. "OK, do you want Milk or Water?" "Food, More Food, Milk, Water, More Food" I am pretty sure there were a couple of "!" in there too. Those little hands were flying and I was laughing. So we got the new diaper and then took a Sippy full of milk down stairs. He had been so forceful about his need for Milk, Water and Food, but in the end he only drank about a 6th of the milk then he turned and put his head on my shoulder. We sat together like that for a few minutes and then I took him back to bed. I went to bed smiling, envisioning those little hands telling me exactly what he wanted. "Food, More Food"

Thursday was a pretty normal day- No Vomit- that is all I really cared about.

Friday wasn't quite as normal. I made a decision about my physical well being that day. My knee has been hurting me the past couple of weeks and I decided that the wait and see period probably needed to come to an end. I needed to make a choice. The first choice I made was that I would have to stop running for a while, and so on Friday I walked....my knee still hurt. I decided that I needed knew shoes, maybe that would help, after all my shoes are too old and they needed to be replaced anyway. So I did some research online and after Ken got home from work we took a shopping trip so I could try on some new running shoes. We hit two or three stores and then it was time for dinner. Luckily there was a Wendy's nearby and so we had a Value Menu Meal.

About an hour after eating, I started to feel sick. I knew then that I should have taken my Chicken Sandwich back when, after taking my first bite, I felt that it wasn't hot enough. So I had what I believe was a very cleansing case of Food Poisoning. No fever, just aches and pains and Non-Sympathetic Grossness! Yuck. I HATE being sick. Luckily Ken was there to make sure I was OK as I sat on the bathroom floor in the middle of the night. On the bright side on Saturday afternoon I weighed 3.2 pounds less than I had on Friday. Too bad that on Sunday I gained 2 of those pounds back, Food, it will do that too you. Anyway, I am feeling fine now.

Ken had taken a bite of my sandwich and all through the day on Saturday he was fine, but when the night came he started having similar symptoms, Nausea, Aches and Pains. Unfortunately for Ken the fan was on High and I had a pillow over my head, so I didn't hear him when he was awake in the middle of the night hoping for an end to the sickness....Sorry Sweetie.

We were both pretty tired from the week of wretchedness at our house and so last night we went to bed at 9:30. This morning I woke up at 5:15! Bright Eyed, and if I had a tail I am sure it would have been bushy. We are happy to be healthy again. Here hoping that we stay that way.

And finally, I want to update you on my exercise and weight loss...After my venting email my Brother in Law, Lets call him T-Dawg, or maybe Mr. Soprano, (hmmm you know who you are, what do you want to be called?) anyway, he sent me a message telling me that he understood where I was coming from and that he was trying to get in better shape- he doesn't need to lose weight, just stay healthy. He invited me to be his Workout Buddy- well his words were "Let's follow up with each other" but that, to me, means that we are Buddies. So anyway, it has been really nice. I always tell Ken when I work out and he always smiles and tells me I am doing a good job, but when I don't workout, Ken doesn't push the subject. But now I have someone who will push me, and I can push him. The fact that we are separated by 500 miles or so will keep us from physically hurting each other if we slack off too much. But so far both of us have done really good I think. So Thanks Workout Buddy, Your Great!

Hopefully I will have new shoes soon, and a few weeks of walking will be good for me. I also need to do more and better stretching exercises, so if anyone has some favorites, let me know. Next month I am going to give running, in my new shoes, a try and if my knee still hurts I will go see a Sports Medicine Doctor. Wish me luck.

St George- To Good not to Share!

What do you do when you are stuck in the car with your Mom (who is sleeping) and your Dad (who is listening to French Pop Music)? Well, you sick your fingers in your ears of course! I just had to share that part....but on to the rest of the story.

In the middle of October we took a trip to St. George. And Boy, Oh Boy, did we enjoy it. We stayed at the Worldmark St. George Resort.

We had planned to go to Branson this summer for the Wheeler Family Reunion (Ken's Grandfathers decedents) and we saved up our vacation credits for 3 years so that we could get a really nice, really big Condo at the resort in Branson Missouri. We even had a condo booked and then found out that no one else from Ken's family was planning on attending the reunion. So we cancelled- but I desperately needed to go somewhere and we needed to use a good portion of our credits or else we would lose them. So I booked us the Presidential Suite in St George. When we checked in the clerk said "Oh, You have the Fun Room!" and it just got better from there.

Our Suite was on the 4th floor one of the buildings, we had the entire floor to ourselves, 3 bedrooms (two of which were masters), 4 baths (did I mention that the two master suits had SWEET Master Baths too- I love huge jetted tubs!), our own private deck (with our own private hot tub and really nice BBQ Grill, the deck ran almost the entire length of the suite) and a great room and kitchen that were, well, more like an Awesome Room- if there were such things as Awesome Rooms in homes.

This is the view from the TV area of the Kitchen- Granite counter tops and all.

This is the view from the Kitchen to the TV Area, you can't see the comfy leather couches.

Our Friends the Westovers came down to St. George with us too. Here are some of the fun things we did.

We went to In & Out Burger and J discovered a love of Ketchup and French Fries

And he also discovered Chocolate Shakes

We went to Snow Canyon where we discovered that J is just a little too young to hike.... but his was cute enough that he entertained the other groups of hikers as he ran around and tried to climb on the rocks.
OK, this next part is really cool- at least I think it is cool. I think I heard that Snow Canyon because of those mountains in the distance- for some odd reason, they are White, like Snow. In the fore ground you can see the typical red rock of Southern Utah. And in between the White rocks and the Red rocks is a Lava Flow!!!! LAVA! I think that is cool, I want to go back to Snow Canyon someday.

We then went to the Sand Dunes

Ken and I made sure that we shook the sand out of our shoes before we left Snow Canyon, but we forgot to do the same for J's shoes...oops. J was able to smuggle quite a bit of Red Sand back to our Condo. (And, check out that tile inlay in our entryway- BEAUTIFUL! I miss that place)

We figured that there was no better way to cool off after our morning at Snow Canyon, than spending some time in the Pool, I loved the Waterfall.

Ken and J spent some time in the Baby Pool too.

After the pool, we put J back in his pajamas and put him down for a nap. He woke up screaming after about 90 minutes, not the best nap but long enough, we thought. So we let the boy get up, he quickly fell asleep on my stomach......and proceeded to sleep for another 2 hours.
We had a relaxing and wonderful trip. Ken even thinks he might like going back to St. George someday, if we can get the Presidential Suite that is......

The Waiting Game

You would think I would be used to it by now. Waiting. I've been doing it my whole life.

As a Child I waited for summer. When summer was over I waited for Christmas and after Christmas I waited for my Birthday. Junior High came and I waited for boys to notice me. High School came and I waited for it to be over. I waited for my First Date and my First Kiss. I waited for my real life to start. I eventually found myself waiting to fall in Love and waiting to get Married, which then led to waiting for children to come......

I really, really dislike waiting.

I think it is hitting me hard today. I am feeling a little lonely because I and many other members of my extended family are under a quasi-self imposed quarantine for a couple of days. On of the cousins has the Swine Flu and so in order to be good neighbors we are staying inside just in case we have it too. In another 24 hours we will know if we do or don't and then we can get on with our lives, but for now we are waiting.

I once again allowed myself to believe that I could get pregnant, and this morning I took a test, I was wrong. Within an hour or two of the negative test my tummy started to hurt- it was mocking me, telling me I would have to continue waiting. I live in the wrong place for someone who is forced to wait. There are too many incredibly fertile 24 year old women around here, maybe we should move to an area with a lot of retirees or something. Maybe that would help me forget the fact that I am still waiting. I have a near perfect son, at least in my eyes he is near perfection, some of his Aunts might disagree, but he is perfect for me. But with all the little tiny babies around I can't help but want my own tiny one too. Little J even seems to love the babies. And so I wait. It was worth the wait with J.

I am also waiting for my desire and my energy level to catch up with my dreams. I dream of being healthier. I dream of losing 45 more pounds. I have lost 15 yeah for me! but I haven't done anything but maintain for a month or more. Maintaining is good, but not when your goal is to lose. I have been worried this month about weight loss. As I said, I had allowed myself to believe that I could be pregnant and so I was wondering what my Doctor would say about trying to gain as little as possible or even trying to lose weight (eating good, healthy foods- getting enough calories- exercising) during pregnancy.

It is amazing how expressing these things is suddenly putting some things in perspective for me.

Let me share.

When we were trying to get pregnant in 2006 I received a very specific answer to a prayer. My question was, When, when will I be blessed with a child? The answer was June. I of course thought- great it is May, we will get pregnant next month. Well we didn't get pregnant. I then thought how silly I was, June would be our due date- of course- we would get pregnant in September. Well, September came and went and we had no baby. A year went by and in July of 2007 I found out I was pregnant- we had conceived in June! My Prayer had been answered and I had been blessed, I just had to wait for it. Did I say I don't like waiting.

So anyway, I have once again been asking that question of God. When. I beg. I plead. I haven't had the same type of answer, but I have had two very distinct impressions. The first being that I do need to lose weight. I feel that my body doesn't quite work right and it would work much better if it were in better shape- that should be enough to get me on that treadmill everyday don't you think. The second impression was that little J would be a wonderful only child, I would not lack for love if he were my only one. As I have been typing away today those two impressions came back to me and kind of wrapped themselves around me. They have brought me comfort and kind of made me sad all at the same time.

I think- now remember the story about June- when I decided what it meant I was wrong both times, so chances are I am wrong with this too- but anyway, I think that God has given me something to do while I wait, which is get healthy, get in shape, get ready for what is coming next. If I can do it, then maybe a new child will come into our family- maybe that child will need a mother who is strong and at her peak physically, maybe I will need to be really strong.But if it doesn't work out that way, if we are blessed to have only One Amazingly Fantastic Child, he will be enough, he will be able to give this Mother all the baby love she needs.

Speaking of which, that baby just woke up, guess I am done waiting for nap time to be over.

Trunk or Treat...

...or as some would call it, Trick or Trunk, was tonight in the parking lot of our local church. Ken and I went as rivals- Ken "The Devilish Ute" and me "The Angelic Cougar" it's funny because Ken would burst into flame if he ever set foot in one of the classrooms at the U, and I never attended BYU- though there could be a chance that someday I might try it. People thought Ken's costume was great, but no one really understood mine until they saw him.

Then there is this guy- if you saw the post about our new puppy then you have already seen him in his costume- but this picture turned out so perfectly, (look at that smile and those Eyes! The human eyes, the puppy dog eyes are kind of scary) he is even holding his little bucket out, as if to say "please sir, may I have some more", it was just too cut not to share.
Happy Halloween to all!

Our New Puppy

Check out our New Puppy!

He did not understand my need to have a full body photo of him

My photo needs conflicted with his needs for CANDY

But at least I figured out how to get him to wear the hood on the costume. (don't cover his ears and he won't try to pull it off)

After eating so much candy- it took an hour for this puppy to realize that it really was nap time....sleep little puppy, sleep.

There's a Vampire in My House!

Over the past few weeks I have been finding a red "Stampin' Dot" in odd locations around the house. I never found any ink spots anywhere- and especially never on Baby J. I figured he thought the ink was his toy, but that he didn't know how to get it open......that was a foolish thing to figure. Here is why.

This morning after breakfast, Baby J wanted to stay in kitchen and yell at the trees and leaves in the back yard. I went into the front room....after a while there was no more yelling....then there was no sound at all. I went to investigate.

And found this Vampire!

Doesn't he look Scary! you can almost see remnants of blood running down his chin, and that scowl! OHHHHH it sent chills down my spine. But then I realized it wasn't a Vampire at all, it was just Baby J, after he sucked on a small red ink pad.

Since taking these pictures I have scrubbed his face, hands and teeth. I got a lot of ink off- at least the wipes turned pink, but he still has beautiful red lips, a slight tinge of pink to his teeth and blood red thumbs......

Any tips for getting ink off skin?

Not According to Plan

I haven't posted anything in a while, not because there is nothing to talk about, but more because there is just too much. Hopefully I will be able to tell you all about the past month soon.

But I had something I wanted to talk about. In the past 16 hours I have had two people tell me that they won't use Facebook because they prefer "Real" or "Tangible" relationships. I disagree. I don't feel like Facebook promotes fake or intangible relationships, in fact it has helped me reconnect with friends who I probably would have never seen or heard from again- and it has helped me get to know family members, Sisters, Cousins, Brother's in Law, much better than I ever have before. Now I have some guesses as to why these people find No Joy in Facebook- for one of them, they simply have never tried it- preferring to make a judgement based upon other peoples experiences maybe. For the other, I am assuming that the world did not laugh at every joke that was made and maybe someone didn't respond quickly enough to their friend request....who knows.

For me, I enjoy the daily life experiences that are shared. I also enjoy the fact that I can hide certain friends addictions to applications (I am glad that you have a virtual zoo and that your zoo makes you happy, but no, I really don't care to hear about your new panda- same for your virtual aquarium). I have a cousin who at times is Hilarious and at other times she can be as foul mouthed as a drunken sailor, I haven't hidden her but I have learned that if you give her a day or two she is back to her old self and you can read her updates with out fear of having to wash your brain out with soap.

I enjoy being able to vent frustrations or triumphs and have people understand and give advice or even just a "like" or "dislike" in real time, like my friends are right here with me. Maybe it is a Mother thing, when you spend all day with people who don't speak your language it is nice to know that there are people who understand- just a few key strokes away.

I also like being able to pose questions- I really like the fact that my friends are not afraid to oppose each other, even when the question is Political. I love that about my friends, they are real, they have real feelings and real thoughts and they are not afraid to share them.

Maybe I am just lucky. Maybe I have the right mix of friends to make something like Facebook worthwhile for me. I will take that luck and be happy that it is mine.

(Those are my thoughts, it was nice to share them using more than 240 characters.)

My Little Comedian

Baby J has been very entertaining the past few days. On Sunday we had the Sister Missionaries over to watch a session of Conference. Baby J felt that it would be a good time to preform, and so after he showed us; how he can dance on top of the coffee table, his great ability to be charitable and share at least one toy with each guest, how he can hit people in the face with a fly swatter (yeah, that one made me feel like a good mother), Ken took him over to his toy area and helped him play. Pretty soon he was emptying off shelves and doing this.......

Later at my Mothers house he showed us how he truly will be some lucky girls "Knight in blue plaid short-alls" someday. Isn't he handsome!
Yesterday I discovered jumping on the new couches. Lot's of static on those couches.

The pictures do his "Tesla coil" hairstyle no justice. I assure you, there was no product of ratting of this hair, just lots of jumping on and rubbing his head near the microfiber.
And Finally, the Coup d'Cupcake! Ken had a great idea for a Family Home Evening activity. We would make some treats and take them out to members of our Stake. He had 3 families in mind and thought that 24 cupcakes be just enough. I made the cupcakes on Sunday and then he frosted them after work on Monday put together 4 plates of 6 cupcakes each, covered them with plastic wrap and left them on the kitchen table. When I started dinner I saw them, 24 yummy cup cakes. I must have been really busy with dinner because I didn't even notice what happened next until I started to set the table.
My silly little boy turned stealthy and used his Ninja-like skills to score himself, not one, but TWO chocolate cupcakes with triple chocolate chunk icing. He somehow came into the kitchen, grabbed the treats and left the kitchen with out me noticing- this is an amazing feat because he is usually babbling to himself and saying "Ta Da" when he does something amazing. He then proceeded into the room where Ken was and was able to cross the room to his corner full of toys, climb up onto the old TV cabinet that is now his toy table and start to eat his treasures.

When I noticed the missing cupcakes I asked Ken if he had taken some out of the packages and set them aside. He asked if there were 2 missing, I said yes, he said that he hadn't taken them but he knew where they were. Cupcakes for dinner, what more could a little comedian ask for. My little stealthy ninja also did something quite miraculous, he didn't get a crumb of cupcake on the carpet, there were crumbs all around him where he sat eating, but no trail leading to him.

So Far......

so far today I have written 3 new posts....Ken felt like we had been neglecting our loyal fan base. There may be more...... just keep scrolling, it is worth it, I promise

Maestro

A few months ago I showed you some video of Baby J playing the piano and now I want to show you his more recent talent.....Conducting! I think one of the cutest parts of the whole thing is that he likes to hold a book when he conducts music and just like with the piano, every few seconds he will change pages and start a new song.

He started doing this just this week. I had no idea that they taught the nursery kids how to lead music, but they must. Baby J has always loved music, singing songs calmed him down as an infant, on our first major car trip we discovered that he didn't want to hear us talking, preferring to hear what was on the radio. He does the little bouncy dance that most kids his age seem to know. Our Neighbor is the Ward Nursery Leader and she also leads singing time for the 3 or 4 nursery classes we have. On Sunday she told us that not only did Baby J participate in singing time but he clapped after every song!

Wendy's Wedding

This last Saturday my my little Sister got married. She has never really been one to make what I would call "Adult Choices", she has preferred to live life Her way, whether society or her family liked it or not. A decade ago no one would have ever thought this day would come, well maybe no one but my Mother. My Mom has A LOT of faith!

Here she is, I made her get her hair done- I think it was a good move. Abby made her sit still long enough to give her a pretty good manicure and pedicure (I could use one of those too Abby, if you ever feel like practicing) Her Mother in Law made her dress....oh, and did I mention that they got engaged only 2 or 3 weeks before the wedding? yeah. It was quick, but it was great. So here she is, all ready, and waiting for the big moment- we brought Mom in to see her, there were tears.

The Happy Couple, Wendy and Ben.

Al and Bill's big happy family. (see my purple dress....I love it!)

We had originally planned to go up to Idaho this weekend, for a baby blessing, and so Ken had a few extra days off. I thought that Monday would be a great day to have Family Pictures taken, but Ken told me that he thought it would be more fun to go to Big O and get some new tires for his Honda...... Luckily Abby was willing to take some pictures of us after the wedding, she is so talented.

I like this one of my sweetie a lot! Man, he is Good Looking!

So, Back to Wendy. I am proud of her. She goes about life in a different way than I do, but over the past few months she has really grown up- (good thing too, after all she will be 28 soon)- I hope that she finds as much joy, happiness and love in her marriage and family as I have been blessed to find in mine.