Quick Catch-Up

Ok - so it's been ages since I've posted... (sorry about that) ... Things here have been going well.

Alec has managed to finish his 3rd semester of grad school and is still alive. He's officially half-way done and feels pretty good about things. However, he's pretty much been running on fumes since Thanksgiving. He had a show that opened a week after the holiday and was super busy getting that all together. It was a series of 6 one-acts, so he had 6 times the people to deal with and meetings and it was kind of hairy for a while, but he worked it out. Then he went straight into finals week. And of course all the time he spent on the show was time taken away from projects and papers and whatnot, so he was busy still. On average, the earliest he's been home in the last month is about 2 in the morning... sometimes as late as 5. Poor kid. Oh well - it's all over now. :D

I've been keeping busy with Ethan, who is getting more and more mobile and more and more into everything. He's definitely mastered getting up on his knees, and just yesterday began consistently pulling himself up to standing at the only piece of furniture short enough for him - the tv stand.. Lucky him. Although the last few times I've gone to get him after naps, he's just standing there waiting for me.. Too cute! :D He's also developed a new sleep schedule, which means he doesn't go bed now until around 8:30 at night, but still wakes up around 8:00 in the morning. However, he doesn't wake up for a night time feeding anymore, which is nice. :)

You'd think with all of the sleeping he's doing I'd be getting lots of sleep, too. Not the case. I'm just SO addicted to this digital scrapbooking business - it's kind of ridiculous. I've been releasing a kit about every week, as well as doing pages for my own books. I'm currently selling at one online store and will be adding another in January. From the time Ethan goes to bed, I keep myself up until at least midnight every night with it.. But I love it, and so I'm ok with that .. Besides, we're more "night people" anyway..

Here are just a few pictures from the last month or so...

This is what it looked like outside when mutual was cancelled last week due to weather - with one exception. This picture was taken the morning after, and there is more snow on the ground than the night before. Sometimes I really miss my Utah snow... and I hear there's been a lot of it lately!

This is how Ethan prefers to spend his diaper changes. Trust me, it's a real thrill!

But he's just so darn cute, you can't get too angry with him...

A few weeks ago I was doing some organizing and needed to open the box of preemie-3 month clothes, and thought I'd take this quick picture. That little blue sweater was too big for him until he was about 2 months old. This green sweatshirt (size 12m) is now on the verge of too small.. Wow, how time flies!Ethan decided to help me re-pack the clothes boxes, and here's a page I made with some of the pictures. The {free} kit I used is Beach Bum by Digi-Designs by Nicole, and you can get it here.Now that Ethan is starting to be up on his feet more - and since it's cold, and since we have hardwood floors that are very slippery for stocking'd feet - we got Ethan his first pair of shoes. Mind you, it's not really the first pair, but his feet are "thick" from top to bottom and didn't fit into any of the shoes he was given :( so we had to spend a little extra and get some "real" shoes.. Here he is showing them off with his proud papa.

Well, that's about it for us.. We'll be in Utah for about 10 days later this month and will try to see as many of you as we can... However, we convinced Alec's dad to meet us there instead of going to AZ as well, so we'll have 2 families to visit with in a short amount of time, so no promises. Also, we won't be sending out Christmas cards this year, instead I hope to do something around Ethan's birthday at the end of January. So if you'd like one, send your address to: amberdawnlabau@gmail.com. Have a happy holiday! :D

He Loves Me!

Alec to Amber last night: "If my love for you was a hard drive, it would be a petabyte."
{That's 1,000 terabytes, which is 1,000 gigabytes}

Yeah, I had no idea what I was getting myself into!

Sasha Won

Ethan loves his kitties. The feeling is not mutual.

Ethan Layouts

I just wanted to quickly post these latest layouts I've done of Ethan.. I really like how they turned out... {I used the Boy Oh Boy kit that you can get here - I'm on the creative team at AhhhScrap and get kits for free - yay!}

Ethan Plays

Just a quick little video to show you one of Ethan's favorite pastimes. It's kind of hard to tell, but there's a mirror on the door... (And sorry it's so wobbly... don't know what the problem was there..)

We Voted!

African Safari

While Alec and I were out walking the other day, we spotted what looked like a giraffe - right in the middle of our neighborhood! We had to stop and take some pictures - otherwise no one would believe us! (I'm sorry they're not the best quality... the settings on the camera somehow got changed...)

Something to Blog About

Well... Our life here is a little doldrum at times, and that is especially apparent when this is the highlight of my day - maybe even my week.. A HEATED MATTRESS PAD. That's right, it's an entirely unnecessary foray into the world of consumer frivolity, but it is GLORIOUS! We put it on the bed last night, and I was in toasty-roasty heaven. Just one quick push of a button a few minutes before you hit the sheets, and your bed is all nice and pre-heated for you to take the plunge.. Sad thing is, it made it even harder to get out of bed this morning... Ahh, the life...

9 Months!

Wow! Can you believe it?! Our little bug is 9 months old! Time sure flies when you're having fun! :) No stats, yet - we go to the doctor Saturday... at 7:00 in the morning! YUCK! But, he does have 5 teeth - and we think we see #6... I'm guessing it's about 10 days away from coming in.. He can army crawl with the best of them, and his new favorite places to explore are the bathroom and our closet - weird, I know... He's also developed these cute little rosy cheeks that I love - however I don't love that they're probably related to the psoriasis that we think he has... :(

Here's a little video I took today. He loves to be tickled - doesn't everyone? Even though the camera was right next to us, he had calmed down quite a bit before I got it going. You can also see all of his teeth really well...

Celebrate!

I know I said I wouldn't blog about scrapbooking for a while... I lied. This is a layout I made with my latest kit - it's actually a collab with Nicole, a really sweet girl and talented designer. Mostly I just really like how it turned out, and wanted to share. If you like it too, you can get it on my scrapbooking blog HERE.

Diapers, Thigh-Highs, and Separation Anxiety

This is my life lately...

Diapers: When we went camping, we opted to use disposables instead of cloth - easier to deal with in the "wilderness", takes up less room when packing, etc. etc.... So that was all fine and dandy, we bought the smallest pack we could find (30) and figured that would be great... and it was... until I realized how inferior they are to cloth! #1: They stink! I know you wouldn't think so, but their chemically-created"powder fresh baby smell" sucks! Add pee and poo to that, and gross! #2: They're not any better at not leaking than cloth. After the first few days I was convinced they were, in fact, more prone to leaks.. . Looking back however, I think that's just because I forgot how to use them properly, but still... and #3: They accentuate the fact that Ethan has no bum, and I can't make them coordinate with his outfit... Therefore: I'm very glad to have my padded-bummed-baby back! :)

Thigh-Highs: When I was pregnant, I started wearing thigh-highs instead of regular nylons because they were just much more comfortable and convenient... and I've never gone back. However, in my past year's experience, I've never had a day quite like this: Last Sunday, I was wearing a relatively new pair (only been worn once before). As we're walking out to the car, the right one starts falling a bit.. "Hmm.. That's annoying," I think. "Oh well, I'll fix it when we get to the car." So I do... The day progresses... Ethan screams during sacrament, and not thinking, I just whip him out the door.. Luckily for me, the YW room is right across from the chapel because little Mr. Droopy had successfully fallen to my knee (my skirt was about 3 inches longer than my knee) and little Mr. Lefty isn't far behind... The day progresses with me being chained to my chair for fear that I will be spontaneously de-clothed right in the middle of church... (I made Alec take Ethan for the rest of the day)... So we're walking out to the car after church, and by the time we get to our car - which is parked in the front row - both legs have fallen past my knees and are well on their way to my ankles... Grr.. Let's hope we don't have a repeat tomorrow when I give my talk.

Separation Anxiety: This is a new experience for us. Ethan just won't be happy unless Alec or I are visible to him. And sometimes, even that is unacceptable. Take last Tuesday, for instance, while I was at YW. I'm the only one who can play the piano, so for opening exercises, I hand him over to the YW Pres - whom he loves and plays with all the time - so I can play the song. For the entire length of the song, he is SCREAMING... And the second he's handed back to me - silent. Ah, the joy....

Camping at Big Lake

This was an interesting and VERY fun weekend.... A much-needed break for Alec, and it was so fantastic for me to get outdoors - I didn't realize how long it's been and how much I've needed to see some sunshine! Despite the lateness of the season, we went camping with some of Alec's classmates at Big Lake State Park. It's about 90 miles north of KC, and very pretty. Here are some shots from the trip - as you can see, we were really roughing it! ;)

I was really worried about Ethan staying warm in the night.. 1 long-sleeved onesie, 1 pair stretchy pj pants, 1 pair regular pants, 1 pair socks, 1 hat, and one fuzzy footed pj later, I think he was okay...

The tents. Ours is technically the one in the center back, but a friend of ours traded us for the bigger one.. We could fit all three of us plus the pack 'n play in ours, but since she was only one person in that great big tent, we thought it made more sense to switch... What do you think?

Ethan's outdoorsy outfit...

His first time swinging - he REALLY loved it!

Hanging out by the fire.


Chillin' with "Uncle Ben" - one of Alec's classmates...


What, mom?


My froggy friend that lived behind the toilet..



Enjoying the breeze and the sun.


The lake we camped next to.


Ethan's first [I know, we're bad parents] experience with grass...

Yummy! :)


My TALL baby!

An Update

Well the last few posts have been rather self-indulgent and lacking in "content". So here's a quick re-cap of what's going on in our lives (sorry it's a bit long and short on pictures):

Alec
He spent the summer working for Actors Theatre Kansas City as a sound designer for 2 shows and sound engineer for 2 shows. (I was able to see both shows he designed thanks to a very generous stage manager friend of his who babysat). That kept him busy and away from home pretty much every night until Sept. 21. Things got a little crazy for him when school started at the end of August, but he made it through... He didn't get much of a break, though, because he went straight into tech for a show he was op-ing on the 24th and has been doing that ever since. Luckily they close tomorrow, and he'll have a little bit of time off until the show he's designing for the school kicks into high gear in November.

Things in the sound department have been a little crazy this year, because they only accepted one student into the program (instead of three) but they doubled their show-load because one of the professional companies here in town asked them to take over all their sound designs... So basically, we'll never see Alec again.. He has been having a really good time, and is even taking a composition class - he didn't get a choice - but he's learning a lot and really enjoying it!

Sasha
Has accepted the fact that she's no longer top-dog, and has relegated herself to sitting on my lap while I scrap ... that will fill the attention-needing bill for now...

Max
Is still scared stiff of Ethan - especially when Ethan's making noise and scooting around on the floor - which is pretty much all the time. He has also entered into what I can only hope is a phase of middle-child-rebellion by peeing all over Ethan's things... It used to just be the blankets we set out so he didn't have to play on the hard floor, but now its our laundry bags as well - with no respect to whether the clothes in the bags are clean or dirty... Yeah - we hope he gets over that one soon...


Amber
Has just been scrapping - duh - and that's really about it.. I was invited to sell at a real store, and they just had their grand opening this week - go check it out if you want. I've also been working around 10 hours a week at Sericol.. Alec finishes up with class and comes home so I can leave... We're hoping that I can quit pretty soon here... Maybe my scrapbooking stuff will pick up and cover the piddly (though necessary) amount of money I'm making at my very part-time job... ;)

Ethan
What you've all been waiting for - I know. He's just a-growin' away! He's been wearing 12-month clothes for about a month now (he's only 8 months old). He has two teeth with a third about 30 seconds away from cutting through... His favorite activities these days are razzing with his tongue, chewing on whatever he can get his hands on, rolling over during diaper changes, and bath time. He absolute LOVES bathtime.. One of these days when Alec is home we'll do a little filming so you can see him.. He just jets aroud that tub like nobody's business... He's eating finger foods (crackers and such) pretty well, so we just need to buckle down and start giving him real food.. He "talks" a lot by stringing different sounds together. His favorites are "bud-uh-buh", "ooh-ah," "tsi-uh" and "num-uh-nuh." And he's mobile! He's not quite crawling yet.. and it's not really an army-crawl.. more of a tummy-flex-pull.. But it definitely gets him where he wants to be. His big motivators are the remote, cell phones, and Max... This isn't the best example of his scooting abilities, but it will have to do... enjoy!

Happy Birthday, Dear Sister!

It's my sister's birthday today.. Here's a cute picture of us from back in the day... (Mom, if you know when this was, let me know and I'll add a date).

Happy Birthday, Dear Alec!

A tribute to the birthday boy:

WE LOVE YOU!!!