My Little Helper

I have the biggest little helper at home now - it's adorable to watch him go :) See, he does surprise inspections on the dishes to ensure I cleaned them well.

He sorts through and finds the pieces that daddy needs to put the new highchair together.

He even finds the instructions and throws them away since daddy wasn't going to use them any way! (His daddy's got a knack for figuring things out without instructions - more of an exercise for the mind that way I guess).

And, he demonstrates his wonderful skills of squatting, reading instructions, and blowing raspberries at the same time! Perfect for making mommy laugh. :)

Pulls out all of daddy's shoes so we can make sure that no spiders are making their homes in our closets. Plus this way he gets to practice his stacking skills.

My personal favorite, he LOVES to help mom spot-check the floor. Seriously, no matter what he is doing - eating, playing with toys, chewing on a phone - he'll drop everything and rush over to make sure mom gets all the spots on the floor. It's adorable!

Oh, and he helps his grandpa find a hat rack and take care of those nasty sticks all over the ground :)

Towels

I had an experiment in towel folding. The Mr.'s been pretty busy and I wanted to leave him a little reminder that I am thinking of him and love him. So I decided to fold up his towel like the do on cruises.

Name that animal!

I thought it turned out pretty cute - if I do say so myself! It was quick and easy, and the Munchkin enjoyed unrolling what I had rolled up :) Plus, I learned something new! Yay! In fact, I found that I enjoyed it so much, I wanted to try another with the baby's towel.

Ok, I definitely enjoyed doing the Mr.'s more, so I'll stick with the basic animals in the future. At least now I know how fun and simple it is! Thanks cruise lines for the great idea!

Strawberry Day's Rodeo

For those of you who have not attended a rodeo - you're missing out! I love summer and all the festivities going on all around. One of my absolute favorites are rodeos! The Strawberry Day's Rodeo, in particular, brings back moments of nostalgia and sweet memories of dad taking all of us children to the rodeo (every year) so mom could have a break. Mom was the best and always packed us a delicious lunch - hoagie sandwiches, chips (a rare treat growing up), carrots, and often a second treat like gummy bears or some other tasty-sugary-substance. :) Ahh!

Back to the present year :) Mr. took me to this year's Strawberry Day's Rodeo for a special treat! We sat just north of the announcer and were found by another family in our neighborhood who invited us to sit with them. I have to say that this was my first rodeo where I actually began to understand the scoring system (thanks to our wonderful friends)!

(Please note that NONE of the following photos belong to me. I, unfortunately, forgot my camera so these come either from utahvalley.com or flickr.com by a man who I cannot now find...)

As the American flag rounded the arena, I thoroughly enjoyed the very patriotic and inspiring monologue from the announcer. He showed high respect and honor for our country, our soldiers, and our flag. I definitely appreciated it.

 

Believe it or not, but of all the many times I have attended this rodeo, this year was the very first time I was actually able to taste the delicious and famed strawberries and creme. Can I just say, "yumm-oh!" I would definitely like to make that a tradition!

 

I have attended a few other rodeos in my day and I must say that the best clown-barrelman-entertainer I have found yet is this one: Mark Swingler. He is not crude and is quite funny at the same time. Love it!

The halftime show was performed by none other than Pro Tour FM. As a freestyle motocross team, D.J. Umphres and Brent Denton were incredible to watch as they rounded the arena multiple times increasing the difficulty of each jump as they went. I was very impressed with their work and especially loved the backward flip.

 

My favorite part this year was something I've never seen done before. At the very end of the show, they released all of the bucking mares and their foals into the empty arena. They quickly intrigued me as they moved around the south end of the arena almost in unison. With the grace of a river and the unity of a school of fish, they sped up to a trot, slowed to a walk, and changed directions as one herd. It was beautiful to watch and my desires to become a horse owner increased with each second the Mr. and I stayed to watch.

Thanksgiving Point Gardens

In celebration of our 2 year anniversary, the Mr. and I went back to where he proposed. It was so fun to relive that day and to remember all the things we have done together the last 2 years.

Unfortunately for us, we forgot a better camera and had to resort to documenting the occasion via our cell phone cameras.

The same area he proposed in - The Secret Garden

It's a beautiful area if you've never been. The day was nice and sunny with a cool breeze to keep the temperatures from getting to high. My favorite part was just having the time to focus on us and our relationship without distraction.

 

Don't get me wrong, we both love our little boy SO much! He just requires so much attention that we have to make a conscious effort to give the undivided attention to each other that our relationship needs. And really, how can we show our baby we love him more than caring for our own marriage? He needs us both so we need to stick together :)

We've decided water Lilies are beautiful!

Have I mentioned how much I love date night? I mean, I love my Mr.-time :)

Hot & Cold and Dada & Mama

Winter semester is officially over, but the poor Mr. doesn't get a break quite yet (enter in part-time job #2 & Spring term classes). He's doing very well with all the insanity though! His classes are rough, but he is rockin' them AND still spending time with his lucky family.

I recently got to learn a lot about swamp coolers. I spent 2 days last week leveling the dirt in the front shrub-patch and trying to make it look really nice for the owner - including sawing, hacking, and ripping out an old Juniper bush (for the record, those look great as ground cover, but once they need to come out it is SUCH a pain - think of your posterity before you put them in). And then promptly began working on the 8 swamp coolers for the complex. I think I went from knowing only that they use water to cool homes in less-humid areas to knowing how to fix just about any problem.

Clean up was messy, the roof was horridly hot, I scraped and cut my arms and hands multiple times, had to replace some of the tray drain/overflow tubes, put in new float valves, fix a leaky water line, and climb up and down an old ladder more times than I really should have. However, with the help of wonderful family and friends (those who helped out on the roof, over the phone, and those who helped by watching the Munchkin), I finally finished them. Just in time for a cool spring storm to come in. At least I can say that I can winterize and de-winterize my own swamp cooler later on in life. :)

In other news, I can't believe our little Munchkin is almost 8 months old! He has his 2 front teeth (on the bottom) and it's not even Christmas yet! It was a bit of a rough process for such a little boy. During the day, he is only slightly more irritable than normal, but at night, he just had a rough time sleeping. 

With two poking through, we thought we were done with this teething thing for a while. Unfortunately,  for the last two nights, Munchkin has been waking up 3+ times crying and only sleeps with his pacifier to chew on. In combination with more swollen gums on the lower level, I think he may have 2 more teeth trying to pop through. Wish we could find a way to get this little boy the good deep sleep he needs, but that won't happen when he's attached to his pacifier at night. Any ideas on breaking that habit now? Or do we just need to wait until the teething takes a pause?

Even with the sleepless nights, Munchkin is learning at a quick rate! He has almost got the crawling thing down! He's strong enough to get up on his hands and knees, but just hasn't figured out the coordination of moving the hands hand feet to move forward. Turning 360's on hands and knees as well as on his bum happens all the time. And, Munchkin has started pulling himself up on things (like boxes and the lovely handles on the desk drawers). Such a strong boy!

With all his strength, his smarts aren't far behind either! He's already figured out how to open a banana all on his own (promise, we did not assist at all)!

Most recently he has learned how to ask for mom and dad. He started with "da du du du du" and I finally connected that he was asking for daddy when the Mr. had to leave early for class one day and Munchkin kept turning toward the hallway and saying "da du du du du" all day until the Mr. came home that night. Just yesterday he turned that in to "ma mu mu mu mu." I went out to visit with some friends and was gone for about an hour. In that time, the Munchkin woke up from his nap and was super hungry. The Mr. told me when I came home that Munchkin had been saying "ma mu mu mu" since he woke up (and promptly started crying with hunger when I came home). He's totally figured out the beginnings of speech :)