No good reason...

Other than the fact that it's funny.

a few random things...

Leanne is here this weekend making an appearance (yea!) so we went to lunch on Saturday with the whole gang. Over our lunch discussions she said she thought that I should post/pin the gift that I made her kids for Christmas this year. I am actually a little surprised that I haven't yet, because I am quite proud of them. So, here they are.....

Somehow I ended up without a picture of Marci's, not sure how that happened.... so you can see hers in the top left of this final pic. They were so fun to make, they hardest part was deciding on a theme for each kid. Marci was easy, her room is a beach theme and you don't get much more California girl than her. Garrett's I messed with for a long time trying to incorporate the actual instruments he plays into his. That got to be too much and I didn't like any of the designs, so I just did a basic staff. Chloe I tossed back and forth between singing and soccer... soccer won. Liam and grant, the hardest part was deciding who got guns and who got motorcycles, either way would have worked. Charly was easy, cute and pink, just like her. I got the idea for these from here, but you can see that mine ended up pretty much nothing like hers. But I love them just the same.
   Another random thing. I have decided I am over cooking. Not too shocking really. I do really well for a while and will cook everything and I'm so domestic it's crazy. Then I am over it for a while. I'm currently in the 'over it' stage. So here is my new solution. CROCK POT! For the next week I am going to make every dinner in the crock pot in the morning, dish it up at night. Easy peasy right? Roz lent me a crock pot cooking magazine and some of the recipes look great. I'll let you know how it goes!
   Random # 3. If you haven't yet, you must check out www.worldbooknight.org      It's program running in April to deliver 1 million books to non-readers throughout the nation. Check it out! Sign up to be a deliverer! 
  Random #4. Also book related, if you don't yet use the website GoodReads you probably ought to check that out also. Sign up for the 2012 reading challenge (I have set my goal for at least 12 books this year...) then friend me so I can see what you are reading! 
   That's about all the randomness I have in me for now. Later!

2012 Julia

For those of you that don't live here in good old Idaho Falls, you probably have not yet heard me chanting my new mantra. I should probably actually say mantras as it changes from day to day, but the purpose is always the same. This is the year I am better. Better at everything, including but not limited to: more organized, better mother, better wife, healthier, more fit, blog more, craft more, read more etc. etc... I know, overwhelming right? Nope, 'cuz in the spirit of being more organized, I have a plan! Jeff and I both (his might have been a little bit against his will) typed up New Years Resolutions addressing everything we wanted to fix/improve/begin this year. Then they got filed in my new "family binder" that organizes all the stuff that used to collect on my counter tops. Fancy right? So I have decided that you guys get to take this journey with me. Starting with the 52 week organization challenge. For those of you that have not seen the pin on Pinterest I have started this challenge: http://tinyurl.com/6m7lpv4  This week was 'pantry.' Oh man did I need this one! Don't believe me? Check it out....

 Jeff looked at those picture and pointed out that they are quite possible the BEST before pictures ever. I mean really, it's can't get any worse than that right? Honestly, I'm a little embarrassed showing them. My defense: Luke and Alex have recently decided that the pantry is their favorite place to play since it has a swinging door, hours of entertainment apparently. And since I knew it was coming up on the challenge I pretty much gave up on picking up after them. It may also be possible that I just started tossing stuff in there since there was no chance of finding it's assigned place anyway. I know, I know, it's a pretty weak defense, but it's the only one I've got. 
  So, to the cleaning. I decided if I was going to do it I was going to do it right. When we moved it and renovated the kitchen we completely ignored the pantry. So I emptied it out:

(I just tossed everything into the kitchen...)

made Jeff paint it (I helped a little)

Then moved everything back in, in a MUCH more organized fashion.

As you can see, Luke has not stopped terrorizing it yet. He loves that he once again has ground to run on in there! And I have sooooooo much more room, look at how many empty shelves I suddenly have! Next week is the fridge, finally an easy one!!

First Haircut!

Yup, you read right, Luke got his first haircut today! Poor kid had a mullet and the top was so long it either tipped over his 'hawk or hung in his eyes. So today when I was done getting my hair cut/colored Jeff brought him over and Nellie hooked him up. Before:

After:

A whole new kid! I know it's bragging, but man he's cute! Also, I know I have been slacking on the 30 day photo challenge, so I'm going to act like I didn't skip a few days and just move right along onto day 5. Day 5 was 'someone you love,' so I'm killing 2 birds with one stone and using Luke's haircut pics as the one I love also. It's not cheating, I promise.

How could you not love that face? Thanks Nellie for doing an awesome job!

I forgot!

Christine's STATS post just reminded me that I never posted Luke's stats from his 1 year visit yesterday. He is 31.5" tall (96%) and 24 lbs 5 oz (90%) Built like an ox and healthy as ever!

Day 3: I guess

So, I missed yesterday. I have a really good excuse, I promise! Yesterday's photo was supposed to be 'clouds.' So I look outside... no clouds. I look again a while later, no clouds. This repeats itself all day until finally it is dark and I couldn't take a picture of the clouds even if there were any. Great. So I decide to switch it up and I'll do day 4 on day 3 and day 3 on day 4. Perfectly logical, and since day 4 was 'my favorite color,' easy peasy right? Wrong. The taking of the pic was easy enough, my favorite color is green and Alex just so happened to be sitting at the cookie monster piano in a green shirt. Done and Done. However, I have decided to take all the photos w/ instagram (a program on my phone) and I could not get the photo of Alex OFF of instagram and onto my computer. Still cannot figure out what went wrong, so alas, no day 4 on day 3. So you will just have to pretend that you saw a darling pic of alex playing on a keyboard holding his hands with perfect form in a green shirt. And back to day 3 on day 4.....

STILL NO CLOUDS!!!! So instead you get a pic of the pretty at dusk, though cloudless, sky with a windshield reflection that looks like a UFO approaching earth in the distance. Go put on your tinfoil hats so they can't read your thoughts and I'll see you tomorrow!

The fat baby sang.

Oh man, what a party! As far as first birthdays go, this was a good one! We had sloppy joes for dinner (which i kind of screwed up but they came out ok,) followed by.... CAKE!!! A cake that started out like this....

And ended up like this.....

See what I mean about an awesome party? The best part was not actually eating the cake, but trying to convince the kids that it was not actual dirt and it was, in fact, edible.
Next? Bath (obviously...)
And then?  PRESENTS!!

All the cousins were there so Luke had plenty of help opening his gifts, and afterwards plenty of help breaking them in. We couldn't have asked for more!
  After the festivities were over and we returned home I set Luke down on the kitchen floor to help Jeff unload the car. He just leaned up against my legs and wouldn't stand up due to sheer exhaustion, so I just scooped him up and took him right upstairs to bed. As i rocked him he alternated between trying to jump off my lap and play and head back with his eyes rolling back and drool trickling out from under his binky. Since I kept laughing at him I decided to just toss him in bed and let him sort it out on his own. I'm downstairs now posting this story and I'll think he's asleep, only to hear a laugh and a "bah da ma da bah bah bah..." through the baby monitor as his sugar high fights to wear off. Yup, it was a pretty good day. Thanks to everyone who came or sent gifts, we appreciate and love you all!
  Oh funny story for Leanne: (background for all those of you that are not Leanne. In october we went to California to stay with Leanne, my sister in law, for a few days. That was the only time Alex has ever been there, her house is stucco, and her daughter's name is Charly.) So I'm putting the frosting on the cake today and it's buttercream frosting which is a little more airy than regular frosting. Alex looked at it and said, "Mama, that looks like Charly's house!'
 

Day 2: what I wore

An apron! Jeff and I have been working on Luke's birthday dinner and cake for the last few hours, thus an apron. Stay tuned for pics of the cake!

30 day Photo Challenge: Day 1

Ok, so I decided to do a 30 day photo challenge I saw on pinterest. I'm hoping it gets me to remember not only to take pictures, but to then post them. I'm also hoping it will break me out of the box a little bit and mix up what I take pics of and how I take them. So, of course day 1 was the hardest, turn the camera around... self portrait. Here goes nothing.

Jeff pointed out the blurry eye, it is actually an effect where everything but the very center is a little bit blurry. I thought about retaking the picture, but if I did it now you would see something like this:

So... no laughing! I mean it!

It Speaks!

It is official, Luke is talking. His first word was 'mama' which is pretty common. The next two were 'bye' also pretty common... and the not so common but all too fitting for a kid that NEVER stops eating... 'cracker.' We are unsure as to which of the second two words came first as it took a little while to verify they were in fact words, and not just random sounds. But we have our top 3!
  He has 12 teeth, tons of hair and understands pretty much everything. A few weeks ago he got an ornament off the Christmas tree and proudly took it Jeff. Jeff looked at it and said, "baby, you are supposed to leave those on the tree." Luke looked at the ornament, looked at Jeff, then went and put it back on the tree. A few days before that Jeff was sitting on the couch eating Doritos, feeding the occasional one to Luke. Luke must have gotten one he was pretty proud of because he walked over to show it to me, to which I said "where's mine?" He walked over to Jeff, held out his hand for another one, then promptly brought it to me and put it in my mouth. He's a smarty pants! He is also a pretty big boy, but I'll give size updates on Thursday after his one year doctors appointment.
  Alex updates: the kid is crazy. The end.
Seriously though, he's getting so smart! He speaks clearly and in complete sentences (although that is nothing new...) and is in the 'figuring things out' phase. He has to know how and why everything works, and he gets Jeff's tools to try to take things apart and put them back together again. He blesses the food all by himself, but he still loves to snuggle and give kisses (hooray!)
  Anyway, Luke's first birthday is on Wednesday and we are having a construction themed cake. I'll be sure and take pics before we shove his face in it!

Holy Heart Attack Batman

So there I was, finally removing the long past expired juice from the back of the fridge while my darling baby Luke was playing behind me. Or so I thought. I turn around, after a MAXIMUM of 90 seconds and the kid was gone. I hear Alex playing in his new favorite spot at the top of the stairs, so my heart skips a beat and I RUN for the stairs. Oh sweet relief, Luke isn't on them. I look all over the house, can't find him anywhere! So I walk over to where Alex is still playing on the stairs and ask him if he knows where Luke is. He answers "He's up here playing in his room."
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!
Not only did he climb all the way up my stairs (for those of you that haven't been here or don't remember, there are 21 stairs on this particular flight and they are old farmhouse steep. And they have no railing. And I fell down them 3 days ago,) but he did it in under 2 minutes. So once normal breathing resumed I did what any good mother would do.... got the camera, brought him downstairs and took pictures while he did it again.

Ps. how much do we love his camo boots?!

Happy New Year!

There wasn't a whole lot of action going around these parts for New Years Eve. We played Uno with the kids, and after they went to bed we played Scrabble Slam 'till the ball dropped then it was off to bed. I guess that's what you get when you have little kids, right? Buuuuuuut, I do have a few random cute pics I can share in lieu of crazy pole dancing pics... :0)

Happy New Year!!!