Family Home Evening

On Monday we had to follow tradition and carve pumpkins, Josh's family does it every year right before Halloween, so we kept with tradition and here are pictures! Oh, by the way, these are "free style," meaning there were no patterns involved!

Here is Josh and a "before" picture of his pumpkin.
Here is Conrad studying my pumpkin stem's underside. He took a few tastes and pulled a few faces. He just sat there the whole time saying over and over again "bum-bum," for "pumpkin." He's really learning a lot of things up in the last week. Every day he learns something new. Today he learned where his belly button is! If you ask him, he starts lifting his shirt up and touching his belly.
Here is an "After" picture of my pumpkin. Just a silly random pumpkin head.
Here is Josh's pumpkin! A DRACULA JACK-O-LANTERN! He definately won the prize. Look at that nose! Such amazing art!
Here is a picture taken the next day, I roasted pumpkin seeds and they were DELICIOUS!
Here is a video taken before we had begun carving, and Conrad was saying "bum bum" over and over again.

Re-addressing

I just wanted to make sure everyone checking my blog noticed my new survey (on the sidebar at the top). I've posted a few posts in the last day, so my announcement post of this cool survey has been pushed down a bit. Click here to read what it says, or just scroll down a few posts. It's entitled "drum roll, please." I'm really excited about it, and I really want people to participate!

By the way, Conrad is finally signing!!! He signs "milk" all the time, he's figuring out "more" and today he finally did the "eat" sign. Yipee!

Brielle

I am finally getting it together and posting some pictures of my brother and sis-in-law's new baby girl. She was born last Wednesday, and we are SO EXCITED FOR THEM!!!
Yay for the new baby girl!!! She looks like she's already smiling in this one! Congratulations, Kim the boy and Brindy!!! I wish I could be there, good luck with parenthood!!!
ETA:

This is a picture of Conrad a couple of hours after he was born. I noticed how similar he and Brielle look! I know I look a lot like my brother, but... I am a cute version of him... with lighter hair and eyes. ANYWAY, Conrad (I think) has many of my traits (eyes, nose, ears, maybe chin) and I'm thinking that Brielle has many of her daddy's traits, but in a cuter version!!! Or, maybe it could just be the fact that all babies look the same. Oh, and I definately think you can tell that Brielle's features are more feminine than Conrad's (at this early age).

Sunday was a sad day

This picture is a picture of my dad yesterday... on his last day serving as a member of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. He served for 16 years, and LOVED every minute of it. He got to go to Jerusalem and see the empty tomb where Jesus was buried. He also was able to go to Spain and England and Scotland, and other European countries (of which I can't remember specifically). Their last tour was this summer, and my mom was able to go with him to the Eastern side of the USA to a lot of different states. Hey, Dad, maybe you could help me out with the details. Congratulations on your "Commiseration." I wish you good luck with future hobbies!!! I love you.

Personality Color Test

you are darkkhaki #BDB76B

Your dominant hues are red and green, so you're definately not afraid to get in and stir things up. You have no time for most people's concerns, you'd rather analyze with your head than be held back by some random "gut feeling". Your saturation level is lower than average - You don't stress out over things and don't understand people who do. Finishing projects may sometimes be a challenge, but you schedule time as you see fit and the important things all happen in the end, even if not everyone sees your grand master plan. Your outlook on life is brighter than most people's. You like the idea of influencing things for the better and find hope in situations where others might give up. You're not exactly a bouncy sunshine but things in your world generally look up.

the spacefem.com html color quiz

drum roll, please

Introducing... Josh's Question of the Week.

I decided that I needed to include Josh into my blog a little bit more. Hence, I've created a spot where Josh can survey my readers with a question about something he's learned about in school.

It's all fun, don't worry if you get it wrong. It won't tell you right away if you got the answer right or not, so I will post the answer weekly (probably Sunday or Monday, when Josh asks a new question). I am actually getting the question this week from what Josh told me he learned about on Thursday or Friday, I thought it was very important for women to know! SO, there ya go, I hope it comes in handy. And I hope to ask questions that are interesting and applicable to our lives (not something like the anatomy of a cell's atom, yikes!)

ETA (edited to add): Josh's Question of the Week appears on my sidebar (look to the right) at the top. I failed to mention where it was, I'm very sorry! (Thanks, Em, for being honest and helping me make things clear!!!)

First's

It happened already!!!
That pastey weird stuff you see on Conrad's hand is Aspirin crushed and made into a paste with water. Wonder why?
Conrad got his first bee sting. :( Major sadness.
We were at the park when it happened, and Mr D (which stands for Mr Delightful, how appropriate) didn't even cry all that much. I have the best little boy, he didn't even cry at a bee sting. Ok, ok, he kind of cried. It was more like whiney cry, like he was saying, "Mom, how could you let this happen to me? I didn't even do anything to deserve this!"

Fortunately, my cousin Chelsea was visiting and she saved the day!
Yay!!! I got a visitor! My "favorite" cousin Chelsea stayed here for a whole day! She is a flight attendant so she can go anywhere she wants practically, at the drop of a hat. She decided that I needed some family time so offered to sacrifice her time at the beach in Hawaii to come and sit around with her cousin who's a housewife. :) (Sorry Chelsea, that I was such a bore! I love you!) Thank you soo much, I look forward to future visits!

Conrad's Official Firsts!

Tonight I recorded Conrad's firsts, for your entertainment and pleasure. A lot of the things he say sound the same, but that's how he does it!

Another way cool thing is the birth of Brielle, my brother Kim and his wife Brindy's baby!!! If you remember, I posted about their announcement on here. Brielle was born about 4 hours ago and I am DYING to see a picture! As soon as I get one I hope to post one on here.... unless they miraculously make a blog soon.

Almost reminded me of Gracie

Today I made Peanut Butter Krispy Treats, you know, the kind with the ooey-gooey peanut buttery rice crispy treat goodness topped with chocolate/butterscotch frosting. YUM!

I left them on the table, semi-close to the edge, and went downstairs to rotate a load of laundry. All of a sudden I heard Josh yelling "DARLIN', GET UP HERE NOW!" and laughter. I ran as fast as I could and found Conrad underneath the kitchen table with a little bit of chocolate on his face. Josh was holding a chocolate-smudged rubber ducky. Turns out Conrad was holding the rubber ducky and flung it into the rice-crispy treats, grabbed hold of the pan and got his fingers into the chocolate. We found a little trail of chocolate on the table legs, the chair's seat and on Conrad's face.

There was no major harm done to my treats, no tipping over on top of Conrad's head or onto the floor, thank heavens. Just a little warning that I need to be more careful about leaving stuff on the table's edge!

To those of you that don't know Gracie, she is my neice. One occassion at a family party she found a tub of chocolate frosting and began to smear it all over her cheeks, chin, nose, arms, and probably in her mouth, too. The adults were in the front room and she was in the kitchen, so she was playing in it for a while before anybody found out. It was one of those experiences where you don't know whether to laugh or feel really bad for her parents (they had to clean her up and do the punishing!) Thank heavens it didn't totally remind me of this experience, but it was enough to give me a warning!

The Many Wonderful Faces of Josh

I love my husband, and I am missing him, so I decided to publish a post dedicated (mostly) to him. I know that some of you miss him, too (Cindy) so I decided to post something not about me or Conrad, but the MANY WONDERFUL FACES OF JOSH!!!

Here is a nice....close....normal face.

But, if you know Josh's reputation with cameras... this is what you'd see normally


The next two pictures you have to scroll up and down really fast to get the idea of what he was going for. (Pay attention to the clip on his eyebrows)

This was taken 2 days after Conrad was born. He was demonstrating how I felt with his face.
My, what big teeth you have...
This face is a result of being married to someone like me
Oh, and here we are on our wedding day! Let the funny faces begin! (It's kind of hard to see, but he's sticking his tongue out, being his silly old self).
This one is 2 days after Conrad was born, too. His face CLEARLY demonstrates how he was feeling.

I love my husband, and I am so glad that he loves someone like me! (or, exactly like me, I guess, hee). He is an amazing trooper through hard times. He works hard, he stays focused, and all while being silly and goofy, it amazes me! I love you, Josh!!!

The 5 Senses (TAG, I'm it)

My new good friend and neighbor Kim tagged me. Luckily, it's a short tag, so don't worry about me going on and on forever about myself! That's how these things normally work, right? Atleast that's how this tag went.

What is your favorite smell? I am in love with my dish soap. It's Palmolive fresh green apple. (I used it when Josh and I first got married, and everytime I do dishes I'm reminded of those blissful days!)

What is your favorite sight? the mirror in the morning. Ok, totally joking. Conrad sleeping (I never thought I would say that, particularly when he was a newborn and sleeping ALL the time!)

What is your favorite taste? I love when my mom makes Broccoli Normandy. I know it's just frozen broccoli and carrots and cauliflower steamed, but whenever I try and make it they're not as good!

What is your favorite sound? Conrad and Josh playing and giggling together (Well, Conrad doesn't really giggle, he kind of just grunts! I love it!) Or Enya. :)

What is your favorite touch? That's a silly question. I love to be touched by my loved ones. I grew up with a very patient and selfless mother that would "scratch/tickle" my back, arms, legs... it was so loving of her! Now I'm lucky if I get Josh to do anything remotely close to that... (No Dad, not that!) Josh is actually learning some O.M.T. (Osteopathic Manipulative Techniques) and he practices on me. It's almost like a massage.

I tag Brindy (I'm trying to kick her into making a blog!!! Maybe this will help), Cindy, Kim-the-girl, JENI (hey, how about you make a blog, too!?!?!), and Em.
Sorry Em, I know you get tagged all the time! My selection of fellow blog friends is very limited!

...continued on "Just Laying Around"

I "made" Josh stay home with Conrad yesterday from Church because normally I would have taken him with me to Nursery, but with his cough and temperament I decided it would best to let him stay home. Once I got home from church I was very happy with my decision because Conrad threw up while I was gone! So, he's got some sort of something. No fever (98.5 this morning). Just a cough, maybe a belly ache, and just laying around.

Just Laying Around

My Mr. D is not feeling so hot lately. I think. I only know because he doesn't have the normal amount of energy driving him to explore everything. He would rather do things like this:



But, he has mastered the stairs in the past week and a half, so that doesn't stop him from going down them on his own.
Mr D is sleeping 13 hours each night, and then he'll take 2 really good naps during the day. (Usually at least 2 hours long). The only other symptom he has is a cough, and it's just a regular old cough. So, I don't think it's anything other than a little cold. When Mr D gets sick, he gets very mellow and wants to just lay around. We are so blessed to have such a little angel!

Don't you think....

...Conrad looks like his Grammy Cindy? I do. At least, the shapes of their faces and the way they smile. The top picture is what "clicked" it for me. I've seen baby pictures of Cindy before, and I think they've got the same little face shape and smile. The middle picture we took when we went to Adam-Ohndi-Ahman. I love that picture, so cute of both of them. If only I could get Conrad to show his teeth. (By the way, he got another one this week. On the bottom, but not a molar.) Maybe now we can give him some steak? Or maybe that's just me looking for excuses to splurge a little.

Some new things

Conrad is finally walking! Ok, not consistently all the time, but he's certainly attempting it more often and getting the hang of it. He's not clinging to the wall like he used to, so this is BIG! Yipee!

Next, I got a new hair-do. I mentioned in a previous post that I was indecisive about it, and I've now made my mind up. I LOVE the coloring job, but I don't like the cut. Hmm, I'll just have to wait a while to get it fixed up. Luckily, there's a girl in our stake that does hair from her home at a very affordable rate, so I can keep getting my hair done as often as I was before (which is always too long of a waiting period, ahem, 3 months sound long to anyone out there with short hair?)

12 month old pictures

Ok Grandma's, the flood gates are opening.... let's hear those compliments! ;)

What the girls do when the boys are away

We pamper ourselves! Above is Heidi and Amy enjoying the foot soak. Below is myself (sporting a new do, which I am indecisive about...) and Kim and little baby Jane! Oh, also in the picture is Big Bertha.
We nicknamed the laundry bucket I soaked my feet in "Big Bertha" because... well, she was the big one!

Here is Kim and her daughter Jane. The boys went to bed (Will, Luke and Conrad) and Jane got to stay up with the girls and even get her feet wet, too!!!

We decided last minute to get together and pamper our feet while our husbands went to the Priesthood session and we all now have super-relaxed feet and beautifully painted toes. It was so nice to get together and talk to other women! (Aubre, we need to get you involved in our little group!!! I'm dying to get to know you more!)

So, I'm not going crazy here in Missouri while my husband is constantly busy and gone. We women keep each other sane!

3 Amigos

Aren't they cute?!?! Their ages (approximate): Will (far left) is 14 months, Luke (center) is 15 months) and Conrad is almost 13 months!) I baby-sat Will the other day and I called Heidi to bring Luke over so they could play all together. I had to capture this little moment for all to see the cute little boys that Conrad gets to play with. There is actually another boy their age in our ward but they don't live in the Townhouses so we don't see him as often.

We're not so far from Heaven, after all!

A couple of nights ago I took Conrad downstairs to visit Da-da while he was studying, because I knew that Da-da needed a break. Ok, maybe I needed the break. Anyway, while we were down there Conrad saw a picture of Jesus on Josh's desk. He got so excited and started repeatedly saying, "Da-da....Da-da....Da-da...," very adamantly. Every time he saw it! He would turn and look for it after he had been distracted by a "Ba" (ball) and then say "Da-da" again.

It just made me tear up to see how excited he was to see an old friend, more importantly, our Savior. That experience just made me realize how close Heavenly Father is, seeing that a little baby recognizes His Son.

Update on HUGE Calculator

Uh, let's just say I should've bought something else. lol. He doesn't love it all that much. The buttons on it are not clickety-sounding, they're like rubber, so he has to push the button just...so... in order to get a result. He would rather play with a little car dashboard my big sis, I mean, older sis gave to me. (I'm bigger than her, just for clarification, by about 15 lbs!... and I'm shorter.... lucky girl)

Sorry, a ranting rave struck. Moving on.... I should've bought some STEAKS or something we haven't had FOREVER instead of a $8.49 calculator!

Darn the impulsive urges!!!

Thankful

I am thankful today. I should be thankful EVERY day, but today I got to go to the Riverside Red X. The reputation of the Red X is very grim. People in our ward told us when we first moved in here that the only time you go to the RED X is on Saturday night when you need milk. Scary people shop there. People smoke while they're picking up their cheese and eggs. You can buy lumber as well as bread. Or how about buy a lotto ticket??? Or maybe, you could graze along their aisles and aisles of wine and beer. It's pretty much a grocery store inside a glorified dump. Actually, it's kind of like the infamous dumb store in SLC. It has a lot of cheap stuff.

Well, on the contrary, I'm happy to say that I LOVE the Red X!!! Whenever I go in there the workers are so friendly to me. The other shoppers are very courteous, too. I'm serious. I've never had workers greet me before I greet them (unless I was at a retail place where they have salesmen, cheeky salespeople. No offense please, Dad, you're a good one. I just don't like the stereotypical salesperson).

ANYWAY, the reason why I was going was because we got a "gift certificate" for $10 in the mail from them (one of those Welcome to the Neighborhood packages where there's all sorts of coupons from local businesses). I decided to put it to good use. And buy something. Originally I intended to buy some washcloths, but their washcloths were not the right colors.

I was browsing through the cardtables where there were things like Children's Books, Pottery, Duffle bags, day planners, porcelain dolls, when I stumbled upon a HUGE CALCULATOR! Just what I need! Really, I had been looking for one! My uncle Duane is a professor in one of Kansas' universities of childhood development. I think he's actually the department head. He told me that one of the best toys you can get for a baby Conrad's age is a big calculator. The button pushing acts as a stimulus because something always changes on the screen. I thought to myself when I saw the calculator, "What a great way to blow $8.49 of my $10 gift certificate!" So, I bought that and a can of pringles for $1. My total? $10.09. I did good, didn't I?

I love shopping! I'm very sad to say this, but I love to impulse buy. I get great joy out of a great deal! lol. And I'm thankful that I got to start my day out with a fun shopping trip.

OH, and I'm thankful that my neighbor brought me over a huge pan of RICE CRISPY TREATS (as a thank you for giving her a meal when she had a baby). I've already eaten a whole row of them. Good thing I have Zumba class tonight!

Conrad had to be put down for his morning nap right when we got home from the Red X, so I haven't got to see him playing with it yet. I hope he loves it!

Here are some pictures of Conrad enjoying his breakfast the other day. For the Grandma's. :)

Rain rain, go away

...Little Conrad wants to play. Mr D is not so "D"lightful about staying inside.