Dinner with Jess

On Sunday we went out to Eagle Mountain to have dinner with my old college roomie Jess, and her adorable family. It was so much fun to catch up. The last time I saw her was at her sealing in Logan - Bret and I were on our way to ABQ to be married ourselves. She now has a cute little boy just 3 months older than Cole and the two of them, we hoped, we play together. Well, when we first got there they were kinda wary. Almost as if they were sniffing out each others territories - like dogs. But in the end advernture won and they were all over the place. In the toy box, jumping up and down, playing tag, basically destroying Jess and Tyson's house, but having fun every minute. They were pretty cute. Bret and I had a great time playing pictionary with them after a delicious dinner (thanks again jess it was yummy). It was just all around good fun. Always good to see old roomies.

SEVEN

I stole this from my friend Cheryl's blog. Thought it could be fun.

7 things I can do:

1. I can make my son giggle
2. I can get completely ready for the day in 30 mins or less
3. I can be creative
4. I can touch my tongue to my nose
5. I can be very competitive
6. I can clean a bathroom really well
7. I can love my family unconditionally

7 things I can't do:

1. I can't bake - I burn. It is an amazing talent
2. I can't stand being home alone at night when my hubby is out of town.
3. I can't see without my glasses or contacts.
4. I can't help but cry on some bad days.
5. I can't do math in my head.
6. I can't ever find my keys.
7. I can't eat peas or strawberries.

7 things that attracted me to Bret:

1. He didn't try to "get some" of anything on our first or second date.
2. He is the most caring/thoughtful person EVER.
3. He loves to create things.
4. He loves children, especially ours.
5. He is an amazing chef
6. He is a hubba hubba hottie.
7. He makes me laugh no matter what.

7 things I say most often:

1. I love you!
2. I'm hungry.
3. No. No. No.
4. What do I want to eat?
5. Dang.
6. Silly Boy!
7. Are you stinky?

7 People I admire the most:

1. The Savior
2. My husband
3. My parents
4. My parent-in-laws
5. ALL my siblings
6. My amazing friends
7. All other mom's who seem to have in together.


7 favorite foods

1. Fajitas
2. Chips and Salsa
3. Hot cocoa
4. French Dip Sandwhiches
5. Seafood and Sushi
6. Edamame
7. Anything I don't have to cook

7 people I tag

Tag! You're it.

Melts in your.......Mouth?!?! Yeah, right.

My sweet mother-in-law just brought us a ton of beef from the cow they bought at the fair. When she dropped it off she also included some Halloween goodies for us - one bag of pumpkin cookies, one bag of mixed candies - M&M's, skeleton sweet tarts, and some homemade chocolates. Well, I decided to share some candy with Cole this morning. I gave him two (count it 1,2 ) M&M's and 10 minutes later....

Socks, Beavers, and Vaseline

Boys will be boys. Whoever made that comment must have had just boys. It is amazing the funny things Cole does. Here are just a few from the past week -
We were all laying on mine and Bret's bed just playing and wresting when Bret decided to see what Cole would do if he put a pair of my huge fuzzy socks on him... the results - HYSTERICAL!!!! He loved it. He kept clapping his hands, rubbing his face, and biting the fuzzy socks. Then when we pulled out the camera he just got plain cheesy. We laughed so hard and the next morning he asked for us to put them back on him again. Silly boy.















Cole has also recently gone a HUGE chewing spree. The picture to the left is what he did to his crib. Yes, the boy became a beaver. It looks a lot worse in real life. He took quite a chunk out. He also started chewing on book corners (one returned to the library was missing several corners -:( and has taken to eating dirt clods off the bottom on our shoes. I tell him not too but sometimes I just don't catch him in time. So why is he doing this you ask? I can only think of two things - he is cutting more teeth and he is missing trace minerals in his body and has taken to finding them on his own. We are treating for both. Hopefully one will work and my crib will not be a casualty anymore.
So any mother knows that sometimes taking a shower isn't the easiest thing when they start to walk. You either get up before the kids wakes up (not an option in my book since he is waking up at 5:30am), wait for him to nap ( means you are in your pj's for half the day) or find a way to entertain them for that short time period. I usually put on a Baby Einstein showso that I am guaranteed at least 15 minutes before he starts wreaking havoc. Well, today that didn't work. I am in the shower - blind because I can't wear contacts right now, attempting to shave my legs, when suddenly Cole is in the bathroom playing peak-a-boo with me. Nothing big. But then he finds my bottle of Vaseline on the counter. He has inspector gadget arms and seems to be able to reach everything he shouldn't, I think it comes as a standard installation with all toddlers. Well, I am trying like mad to finish my shower before any damage is done when everything goes quite. Never a good thing. I jump out, Cole quickly hands me the bottle of Vaseline, with the lid on - no harm done. WRONG. I hear this sickly sticking noise as Cole runs off clapping his hands. I grab my glasses and look into the bottle where a 3 inch deep crater now resides. Groan. I run to grab Cole just in time for him to start playing patty cake with everything he can find. Of course he is having the time of his life with hands full of Vaseline. I can't really blame him. My bedspread got the worst of it (notice the tiny greasy hand prints in the picture) but we both got quite the laugh out of it in the end. I love my adventurous little boy!

Sugar Cookie Fun

Yesterday my friend Ashley R and her two daughters came over to make sugar cookies. This was a hoot! Ashley brought the dough and we started to roll it out on the table. Each child- Cole 17months, Daviny 2 1/2, and Keelee 12months - kept sneaking little handfuls of dough and stuffing it in their mouths. They were also COVERED in flour from helping us spread it on the table. We then cut out bats (they ended up looking a little bloated) and ghosts to take to the women we visit teach. Once we hit the point of cutting them out the kids pretty much lost interested (no frosting, no fun) and headed to wreak havoc on the house. Cole stole Keelee's goldfish and dumped them on the floor where Cole and Keelee proceeded to eat them and then stomp on the rest. Within 10 minutes I had goldfish pieces EVERYWHERE! But they had so much fun! We then frosted the cookies with orange frosting (which Daviny kept sneaking and eating). Afterwards Cole and Daviny started to jump on my bed while Ashley and I were looking at vinyl quotes. They were just laughing hysterically while they jumped and fell and rolled. It was adorable! At 5:30 we finally called it quites and I headed to pick up Bret. What a fun day!

An Amazing Birthday

This really wasn't my birthday cake - I don't like birthday cake but it was a cool pic

Monday was my 26th birthday and I must say it was AMAZING! So it started Saturday night after a HORRIBLE trip to the grocery store with Cole. I will not recap - just trust me - at one point Cole was screaming and begging people to free him from the cart. Anyways, I came home very frazzled and on the verge of tears and walked in to a beautiful dinner my husband had made for me. The lights were dimmed, romantic music was playing and he had sparkling cider glasses out. It was awesome. He made me salmon, wild rice pilaf, green beans, and shrimp cocktail. It was delicious! He had also made a separate meal for Cole to eat. How thoughtful! After dinner he then took me to Farr's Ice Cream for my favorite ice cream - peppermint stick. Yummy! We then put the baby to sleep and spent the rest of the night snuggled up watching movies.

On Monday he gave me my own bag of chips and salsa (I'm a chips/salsa aholic) my own canister of Stephen's Mint Chocolate w/ Mini Marshmallow Cocoa (to die for) and money for a fun shopping spree. Cole's gift to me was allowing me to actually sleep in past 6am. At 1 I dropped Cole off at my good friend Ashely R's house where she kidnapped him for the next 4 1/2 hours so that I could have some me time. Can life get any better than that? I then went to a craft store - by myslef for the first time in eons, got to visit with my dear friend Ashley L, my sweet visiting teacher, uninterupted, and then went clothes shopping - BY MY SELF! It was so nice to not spend my time chasing Cole around the store because he managed to escape again.

I then went at five to pick up my child and just about died laughing! He was out in the backyard in his diaper with the two girls both in their nothings playing with a hose and spraying each other, just giggling. When he saw me he came running up, gave me a huge hug, waved bye and headed off for more fun with the girls. I just love the fact that he loves these two little girls so much! They had also finger painted me a big birthday card ealier that day. That night we just relaxed and enjoyed. What a perfect birthday. Also, for a good part of the day I was on the phone with so many people wishing me happy birthday's! I have never felt more loved! Thank you to everyone! It really couldn't have been a better birthday!

Baking Bug

So yesterday, even though I was so tired from cleaning all day after having my parents here AND having the first of two random inspections from a bank for the apartment (we were so happily picked), and many other not so fun things - I got into the baking mode for some random reason. I made rolls, and cookies, and Jello. Yes, they were from frozen stuff but, as a "not interested in baking" type of cook this was a pretty big step for me. And amazingly enough everything turned out edible. Some of you may not realize this but I am better at making inedible things than edible - yes I have even ruined jello. Long story for another time. So there you have it. A picture of my rolls. Ta-Dah! Please hold the applause.

A Week with Nana and Poppy

This past week I had the fun of having my parents come and stay with us. We had such a blast but Cole I think enjoyed himself the most! We started off with watching conference. I couldn't help but snap this shot but they really were awake for most of it. They were only asleep for like five minutes before Cole woke them.
After conference on Sunday we headed to my husbands cabin so that my parents could see one of my favorite spots on this earth. It added to the beauty that it had been raining all day and the leaves were starting to turn colors. This shot does it no justice because you can't even see the river that runs behind the cabin. It is breathtaking! Then on Monday we went to the park and Cole dragged his "Poppy" all over the place. We also had one small mishap ...
Cole tripped and left a good part of his nose on the blacktop. You can't see it as well but this was the only shot I could get the day of. This one is two days later and looks a little better. He healed pretty fast. During the week we played at parks, visited all three of my uncles (all of which had never met Bret or Cole), went shopping, (I took Mom to Tai Pan Trading Company - talk about addiction for both of us), and just had nothing but good old fun and laughter for the entire week. Cole loved being the center of attention for his grandparents. I also took them to Gardiner Village for the Witch Days- what a blast. I could live there and always be happy!
On Friday night my parents spoiled us and kidnapped our child for the night so the we could go out on a much needed date. We went with some good friends and played Blackllight mini golf, and some arcade games. We ended the night at Farrs ice cream. A small touch of heaven. My parents took Cole and headed to a family birthday party for my 2nd cousin Blaine. It was a good night. It was hard to see my parents go because it is always so much more fun for them to see all the crazy funny things that Cole does instead of just hearing the stories but we will soon be in Albuquerque for Christmas and they can relive all the fun again. Love you Mom and Dad and thanks for everything.

Here are just some random pictures I have taken over the past couple weeks. Enjoy!
Playing on the sink of bubbles.
"Brushing" his teeth
Loving on my Halloween Bear- his new addiction is hearing her sing " Girls just want to have fun".

Childhood

I'd give all wealth that years
have piled,
The slow result of Life's decay,
To be once more a little child
For one bright summer day.
~Lewis Carroll, "Solitude"

Fun Outside

On a normal day I try to get Cole out at least once to expel of his abundance of energy. The other day I wasn't able to before Bret got home so we decided to go as a family and have a little outside fun and laughter before the weather turns cold. It turned out to be so much fun! Cole loves to play in the rocks outside the pool and throws them everywhere. He is developing quite a good arm.Thankfully he hasn't learned to really throw the rocks at anything in particular.
His very favorite victims when we go outside is all the bugs. He loves to chase them and try to catch them. Nothing seems to scare him at all. It is funny to watch him try to catch an ant or beetle. Most of the time they get away... sometimes they sadly don't.

After the fun of the rocks wears off he usually heads into the grass to play with mom and dad. Now the real fun begins.
I can't help but roll in the grass in stitches as we play tag, wrestle and anything else that comes to mind.
Man, I'm going to miss the warm weather and our daily romps outside. But for now we have made quite a few fun memories and I love the fact that my child loves being outside as much as his parents do!

Free Handbags

This awesome site is giving away free handbags on the 15th of October! It will cost you NOTHING and you don't have to give any personal info to get it. If I were you I would definitely check it out!

Jane Austin Quiz

I found this on a friends blog and just couldn't resist...

Take the Quiz here!