Logan- 9 Months Old

Nine months old and halfway to nursery! He really is this happy most of the time. He even had a shot today and has an ear infection. Go figure?

Today, was his scheduled well baby checkup and the doctor said he's looking great (other than the ear infection). He gave me some antibiotics for the ear and praise heaven. . . he gave me something for his constant spitting up. It's like 5-10 pukes per meal. We all have our fingers crossed it works (especially since it costs so darn much.)

Here's some 9 month milestones:

*Weight: 19 pounds 5 ounces. 31 % (What fat babies are throwing off this curve? Every book I have claims they shouldn't hit 19 pounds until 11 months?)

*Length: 28.5 inches. 60% (Apparently they are all fat and short?)

*Can pull up onto taller things like couches and chairs.

*Says mama, dada, and Ella.

*Pulls himself into a sitting position.

*Claps his hands.

*Doesn't like being left alone in a room, and will follow after you.

*Enjoys playing with toys on the floor and just roaming.

*Hesitates when you use the word "no".
*Loves to stick out his lower lip.

*Spits food everywhere if he decides it's too bland.



We love this little guy. Especially when he gives Hyrum the "what in the world are you doing" look.

Thirty, Flirty, and Thriving. . . Well Just Thriving Actually

In the months previous to my dreaded 30th birthday, I must have really convinced my husband just how much I was not looking forward to this birthday because he made it the best day ever!

He surprised me by showing up at lunch time on Friday (the day before my birthday) and had arranged for his sister Ruth and my friends the Prices, (who were driving up from Idaho), to come and watch the kids while he whisked me away to a secret location.

No we didn't get married again, (like I could ever fit into that dress ). We arrived at this charming bed and breakfast in Midway, Utah called Inn on the Creek. Everything was done in a European style and just felt like we had really up and gone to Europe (my deepest desire). Ben got the best room offered, the Romance Suite, and it was so nice to just get away from everything and spend time with Ben.

O.k. obviously this isn't us (I turned 30, not 60 and I would never wear a cardigan over my shoulders), but this is a good picture of the restaurant there. It was really fancy inside and the chef was amazing. We started off with some delicious bruschetta, and then I was brave and had the fettuchinni alfredo with shrimp (I'm usually not a seafood person, but you're only 30 once). And the best part was they gave us 40% off everything, which was great since it was a pretty pricey place to eat.

That night we had so much fun just watching movies and loading up on junk food. It was so nice not to have kids bouncing on you every second to try and get to the treats or ask what was going on.

The next morning Ben took me home and my friend Rachel gave me surprise #2. She took me to the mall to do some shopping (thanks to the husband and some spending cash he gave me for my birthday) and then she treated me to a fabulous pedicure (again not a real picture of my feet, but you get the idea). Not only did they give your feet the royal treatment, but we got to sit in these huge massage chairs. After the pedicure, and a HUGE wait, we had dinner at PF Changs. The food was so good, but seriously 1 1/2 hours to even get seated? I was seriously debating stealing a fortune cookie, I was so hungry. I am a big fan of the lettuce wraps and the Mongolian BBQ Beef though and thankfully no theft occurred.

Rachel was so funny at dinner because she acted like she was in a huge hurry. She wouldn't even let me stop to use the bathroom before heading home (I'm totally serious). Little did I know she was covering for surprise #3.

I drove home thinking this was the best day ever and when I walked through the door, there was a surprise party waiting. Ben had invited some friends over for cake and ice cream. The kids were so cute to decorate the house with streamers and balloons and had even made a little banner for me. I was so surprised and I didn't take a picture of a single thing (Rachel did though so I'll have to steal some pictures to post from her). Note: No creepy clowns of any type were actually involved in this party. Had they been involved, they most definetly would of been harmed (I hate clowns!)

It was such a great day and I really appreciated everyone who thought of me on this dreaded, but wonderful birthday. And a special thank you to my husband Ben who was totally creative and romantic, despite his claims that he doesn't know how to be.

Kitchen Re-model

Out With The Old!

In With The New!

We repainted the ceiling and all the baseboards/sideboards a cleaner white. Painted the walls a moss green color (it looks similar to the old paint in the picture, but the olds walls were actually a country blue). Then we painted all the cabinets white and replaced all the ancient gold handles. And finally we ripped off all the horrendous pink countertops and replaced them with the marble looking ones. And all for under $250.

Logan-8 months (and a half)

What can I say really? More chunk and even more cute! He's definitely more on the move too. Here's what Logan is up to at 8 months:

*Crawls using hands and knees (although he still likes to do the walrus flop)

*Pulls self onto stools and low objects

*Growls at anyone and anything

*Trys to drink from a sippy cup, but mostly just chews it

*Loves to eat baby toast, crackers, and anything not nailed down

*Is attached to his blanket

We're excited to see how much he weighs and how much he has grown next month at his appointment.

The Procrastinater Finally Reports Christmas

So, things have been super busy around here and I haven't hardly even checked my email in a month, let alone written anything on my blog. I actually started to dread writing a post, because the longer I waited, the more stuff I had to report, so out of sheer guilt I'm going to post something about Christmas for posterity.

Christmas Eve we had dinner at my house (that's the down side to not going home for Christmas, you have to cook your own dinner) and we invited Ben's sister Ruth and her husband Jeff and the Owens (a couple in our ward). I think I did nothing but cook all day, and got so tired of shooing the kids out of the kitchen that I just let them open a present from Grandma and Grandpa (I just happened to know it contained Kung Fu Panda).

So we did the big dinner thing, and the open the pj's thing, and opening presents from some of the grandparents (my parents), and left out cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer, etc. (Can you tell I'm trying to give a brief summary here?)

Then we read the Christmas story and laid out our new stockings, and despite the unruly behavior my children displayed all year, Santa still managed to come and spoil them rotten.

Christmas morning, was fun to spend together at home, and the kids had a million things to open. I was really excited to get a sewing machine from my parents (unfortunately sewing skills didn't come in the box). We made our traditional egg mcmuffin breakfast and then spent the entire rest of the day in our jammies playing the wii. We've had the wii for months, but there was a game that had a bunch of unlocked sections that we were determined to open. Eight hours later we were able to reap our reward:)

Later that afternoon we got on the webcam with Ben's family and the kids opened their presents from them. We took like 200 pictures over the course of the day, so I'll spare you all and just post a couple.

And here's a couple videos of the kids enjoying their loot!

We had a great Christmas, and the best of all was Ben and I took all our Christmas money and decided to remodel the kitchen. Then entire week after Christmas we were elbow deep in paint and sawdust, but it ended up looking great. We just have few things to touch up and then I will post some pictures of the final project.

Whew, now I can finally be rid of bloggers guilt (despite that fact that I crammed an entire month's worth of stuff into one blog:)

Alliances at the Yankee Swap

Ben's work has a tradition of having a semi-formal dinner and a game at their Christmas party. The game is yankee swap, but isn't like any version I have ever seen. In the middle of the room is a huge tarp/blanket covering a gigantic mass of assorted shapes. After dinner they remove the blanket to reveal the gifts. We are talking BBQ grills, bounce houses, big screen computer monitors, gps systems, ipods. . . you get the idea. It's exciting and stressful all at once.

Every couple gets a number. The first person chooses a gift from the pile. The second person can either steal a gift or choose from the pile. Each gift can only be stolen 3 times and can only be stolen once per round (a round ends when the stealing stops and someone finally picks something from the center).

Last year we won a complete Dell computer. This year I had my eye on a dual trainer elliptical/bike. We got the elliptical and of course it got stolen. Later got it again. . . stolen. Eventually it got stolen for the third time by the people sitting next to us. I was so bummed. Fortunately, we still had our eyes on the GPS system that was on it's second steal, and we currently had a fire pit set. We were discussing our strategy, when the people next to us overheard we were going for the GPS. They agreed that if we got the GPS they would trade. It was the next persons turn and Ben was peddling the fire pit set, while I was praying and they took the the set. So I came home with this:

Ah, a desperate and overweight woman's prayer answered.

The Real Santa Came To Our Ward Party!

This is the statement Hyrum has been repeating over and over ever since our ward party. "Santa" was a friend of our relief society president and I have to say he looked pretty darn convincing, white beard and all.

The best though was Hyrum trying to kiss up in front us Santa, literally. Any time he thought Santa was watching he'd lean over and kiss or hug Ella. Yeah, like that's gonna make up for a year of naughty :)

Here's some of the pictures of the kids with "Santa". They didn't hesitate at all to climb on his knee, although Ella talked more to me than to Santa. Logan just had a funny expression on his face, but he wasn't really scared. He hasn't gone through the stranger anxiety thing like the others . . . yet.