Late Resolutions

So I know it's WAY late for New Year's Resolutions, but I have had a lot of recent desire to do so. Last night I was sitting with my baby boy in my arms. I couldn't help myself and rocked him to sleep. As I sat there watching him, I was just thinking and thinking. He will be two next week. 2!! And how fast that has gone. How long will he let me hold him and cuddle him? Until he is 4? 5? It just all hit me so hard. This wont last. And it will be gone so quickly. No wonder Heavenly Father and Mother have billions of children. How could you stop? So I realized that I need to treasure this all now. Thus, my resolutions. First the ones centered around Dozer.

1. Spend more time just playing letters with him.

2. Take more pictures and random videos. I just want to remember how his voice sounds when he says his alphabet. And how he skips :)

3. Try to do something new once or twice a week. I know it will be hard in winter, but it is possible! I want it ALL to be special.

4. Get mad at nothing. Even when he colors on the couches with pen. Over. And over.

5. Sing more songs.

6. Go exploring outside more.

7. Read more books.

8. Try to get him to eat healthier foods.

Somehow I think this will be the hardest thing on the list :)

9. Get out of jammies every day.

10. Write in his journal at least every week. And make sure he know just how much I love him.

And resolutions for me :)

1. Eat my fruits and veges every day.

2. Continue with only whole wheat bread, and switch my rice and pasta to whole grain as well.

No empty calories!!

3. Decrease my sweets consumption. I do NOT need a treat every day. Twice a day. Or more.

4. Learn to cook something healthy and YUMMY a couple times a month.

(p.s. LOVE food.com)

5. Cook one meal a day.

6. Watch less TV

7. Keep practicing the piano every day.

8. Get back into an exercise routine. Even if it is just a walk or stretching. Do something!

9. Be more grateful. And express it more.

10. All the others listed above :)

A lot of these I have been working on for a couple months. I am good at getting into a routine, and keeping it for a while. But then life throws curves, and I have to establish it ALL over again! But that is how life goes. :) It is an entire process of improvement and setbacks. So, here we go again! On to 2011!

Christmas!!!!!!!

I have really been slacking on the blogging area, and I guess it's because I am either busy, or just don't have anything to report. But this time I do have something! CHRISTMAS FINALLY CAME!!!!!! I have been just waiting for Christmas for SOOO long! Partly because I was really excited about my presents. (we are AWFUL at keeping secrets from each other. We always end up spilling the beans way before christmas.) Here is my Christmas tree!!

Christmas morning! The dollar store slinky was a HUGE hit! haha!

My mom hid Dozer's letters to try to get him to play with his Christmas toys, but he did eventually get a letter toy (not from us!) and that trumped everything after that! haha! This kid is OBSESSED with letters!

Here is one of my presents! I just LOVE bunnies! And I love him! *squeeeeel!!* I got some clothes and dishes too that I was really really excited about.

Here is an innocent looking piece of styrofoam. Just a piece of trash that needed to go out after the Christmas hub-bub.

And Dozer turned it into this!

This was a few days after Christmas. Just beautiful! I LOVE the view of my yard!

The day after Christmas it snowed, and so we sent Dozer and T out to play! They had so much fun until they got cold!

T was just strolling around like this. It was so cute! Dozer on the other hand was running around crazy :)

This is why he just isn't allowed to be in nothing but a diaper haha!
He has been putting some letters together lately. Mostly it is random letters all pressed together, but sometimes he actually gets words! We got a laugh out of this one haha!
Can you believe I made these? Well I did! ha!
Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and a Fabulous New Year!

New Stages

I know it's been absolutely forever since my last post, but oh well. Life's rough sometimes. I've been experiencing the "next stage" in Dozer's life the last few weeks, and lets just say it's definitely new. I wasn't ready for it, and I'm still not exactly sure I've adjusted haha! Dozer learned how to crawl out of his crib on his own a couple weeks ago. And he doesn't land softly at all. After two tumbles over the edge of the crib, we converted it to a toddler bed to avoid a trip to the ER. I have been planning Dozer's new bedroom decor for months, but I have just barely acquired some of the pieces. I was going to paint, decorate, get a new comforter for him, THEN begin the process of moving him into an unfamiliar room. Now, I have to get him to stay in his own bed on his own since he isn't forced to anymore, then move him into another room. And as my luck would have it, I know I would have to start the whole "stay in your bed at night thing" all over again when we move into the other bedroom. I just know it. So now that I have a lot of the things for his new bedroom decor, I think I'll just let it sit for a good long time. Maybe next year when he is 3 and he can understand when we talk about staying in bed will I attempt it again. So my nights have been long to say the least :).

Other happenings: Dozer stuck a fruitloop up his nose on saturday. Why? I'd love to know. I was really shocked. I was sitting on the couch while he was finishing his breakfast, and he all of a sudden started crying loudly. I ran to him, and couldn't see anything wrong. He was pointing to his nose, so I inspected it, but I couldn't see anything in there at all. So I just dismissed it thinking he bit his tongue or something. Well, I got him down, he stopped crying, and a couple minutes later he was playing, and I saw this extremely shiny fruit loop plastered to his shirt. I know it wasnt there a moment ago. WHAT??!?! I couldn't believe it. In fact, I wouldn't believe it. I just said it must have been there and I didn't notice it. But then, he sneezed and out came orange snot with what looked like very very soggy remains of an orange fruit loop. I had to accept the facts. And it was gross. But all seems to be well now. No purple, green, or yellow snot so far.

More "stages": Dozer has also taken an intense and sudden interest in drawing. He LOVES pens. We try to hide them, but he some how keeps coming up with them. He has drawn all over my couches. :( Lots of scrubbing for me. I am not sure when to clean them up because every day he manages to put new marks on them. Should I clean them now? Or wait until he colors a little less? I don't know but I have a suspicion my laziness will win out. Haha!

Here are some pics :) First Christmas cookie of the year!

I took this one this morning.

This one was not fun to clean up. I pretty much had to pick it up by hand because it didn't vacuum very well.
Always a favorite: tear apart mom's organized bag.


The end :)

About me

I stole this from my friend's blog, and I was bored so I thought I would copy :).

1. Whats your favorite thing about your spouse or significant other?

So hard to pick. So, so hard to pick! That my weaknesses are his strengths, that he loves our son, that he works so hard for us, but most of all that he loves me no matter what state I'm in.

2. What is one of your proudest moments?

Definitely the birth of my son. That is simply the most treasured and amazing experience I have ever had in my whole life.

But second is my pharmacy school experience. I frequently feel like I am underestimated by people, and really it bothers me. I don't get taken seriously by so many people I come in contact with, and I am not sure why. Is it because I am a woman? Because I look young? Because I don't look smart? What ever the reason, it makes me mad because I don't like being judged. So, the experience starts before pharmacy school. I switched from an engineering major to pharmacy major the end of my freshman year. So, I was behind on my classes. Luckily I had taken a ton of college credits in high school, and I was really only behind 1 important class. So the pharmacy school counselor told me that to apply when I wanted to, I had to take Chemistry 2 at the same time as Organic chemistry 1. She looked and looked again, and said that I wouldn't be able to do it, but there wasn't any way around it. She told me to quit the college dance team I was on and any thing else I was doing outside of school. She told me to just focus on those two classes. She looked at me and said good luck in the most hopeless way I could comprehend. I was so angry! Really, do I look that dumb?! Anyway, I didn't quit my team. And I did take both classes that I needed to. I was a little nervous because chem 2 is a prerequisite for o-chem 1. So I studied hard. I got the highest grade in the class on my first o-chem test, 100% on my chem 2 test, and I did just fine on my team. I went back to my counselor shortly after that to have her help me complete my application. When she saw what I had done she was absolutely speechless. I just smiled on the inside. :) I continued to get the highest grade on almost all my o-chem tests (o-chem 1 and 2). My o-chem professor asked me to switch to chemical engineering major. I got into pharmacy school, I got 4.0's is several semesters, I was invited to be in rho chi society, I got the award at graduation that the teachers vote for. I got 128 on my NAPLEX. Overall a pretty stellar college career :). I'm not big on confrontation, but I would love to go to my 3rd grade teacher and ask her if she thought I still needed to be in special education. I'm still not sure why she yelled at me all the time.

3. Out of the jobs you've held, which one was your favorite? why?

Definitely definitely the poison control center. I love learning about why things happen and how to fix them. Plus its just amazing to know so much about EVERYTHING. It is the only job I've had where I had a bad day less than once a month. Plus the director and other trainers there said I was one of the smartest people and caught on the fastest than almost anyone else there ever.

4. What's one of your "not so obvious" talents? How did you discover it?

playing the piano i guess. I was good at it when I was younger, but (as most kids) I didn't like to practice so I made such a fuss my mom let me quit. But I've been longing to play again for a long time. I bought a piano a couple months ago, and I've picked it up again surprisingly well. Even my grandma is impressed!

5. What is your earliest childhood memory?

oh wow, I'm not sure. I remember my house before we remodeled it. Part of the living room was completely unfinished and there was a table saw there with sawdust all over. And the front door was blue.

6. All time favorite book? why?

I haven't read many books because I never was a reader, but out of what I've read so far The lord of the rings and harry potter. I love when the story is so hopeless that the odds are minuscule, but the good guy wins in the end!

7. So far in life, what is the biggest lesson you've learned?

To treat people how you want to be treated. I always have been caring and kind because I HATE for people to EVER feel bad about themselves. I know how it feels to be on the outside or teased. But I am learning more and more how much more damaging than I ever thought it can be to people to receive cutting remarks. Minds really are fragile, and any contact can have an impact. I want mine to be a good one.

8. How did your spouse propose to you?

Every night after dance practice for a week, he left a bouquet of flowers on the hood of my car with a little love note. The last one invited me to dinner at his house. He had cooked my favorite dish he makes (which is really the only one :) ) and we ate. Afterwards he handed me a fortune cookie. When I opened it, my fortune said I would soon be asked a very important question. And when I looked up he was on his knee in front of me. I said yes!!

So, I can't believe that it has been so long since I've posted! Wow. I already stink at this! Well, we've been busy traveling around again. I actually got to take my WHOLE family to my parents house for a family reunion! Yay for my husband not having to work for once! We had so much fun, and Dozer had a BLAST! He only slept when he couldn't stand anymore. Check out the video at the end!

Me and my most favorite little boy in the world!
Some of the fruits of my labor :). The tomatoes are Italian flavored using some spices from my own garden. I've never done them before, so I hope they taste great. Some more zucchini and more squash. I've been putting so much up I'm afraid that I can't possibly be excited for squash again next summer. And my very first batch of CORN!!! YAY!! It was sooo hard to put it in the bag without eating it all!
At the family party we painted the old shop. Then afterwards we took the boys for a wagon ride! They LOVED it! They sat and sat and sat in it. Then filled it with grass and sat some more. Fun!

This is evidence of Dozer literally not stopping until he dropped. I was getting so tired I just pulled up a pillow and blanket next to where Dozer was playing. He played and played until almost midnight! Then he slowly crawled around behind me, laid down, and was immediately asleep. SO cute!
T and Dozer playing. Or more like being irritated with each other since they both wanted the same toys. Typical for this age. Haha!
Family Foto!
My cutest boy!!
This is my FAVORITE picture. Dozer loves dirt. And lately Dozer isn't Dozer without dirt all over his face. We were at the park for the family party, and he was playing in the rocks and dirt for sooo long.
One empty water bottle: worthless.

Small pile of rocks: useless.

Hours of entertainment with both: Priceless.
This is his new favorite thing to do. He grabs random things, stands on the back porch, and throws it all outside. Yes, that is my kitchen rug.
He loves to stand things up. This is all my extra shampoos, conditioners, face washes, lotions, etc. All stood up and orderly.
When he wakes up, he immediately wants to go outside. Sometimes its all I can do to get him to eat breakfast. Then he plays all morning outside in the dirt. And then I try to feed him lunch and in seconds he ends up like this. Love him soooo much!
Cousin T! He was watching his mom suction out his brother's nose with this. and thought it looked like fun I guess. Haha!
Little T! So cute!
We were at my parent's house and just chatting away. Then we realized that Dozer wasn't around. So we went looking for him and found him just like this. He climbed on the chair himself and everything! Ha!
Chillin' watching his favorite. Word world.
This one really makes me crack up. My sister in law was visiting me this weekend, and had taken her shoes off at the front door. We were sitting on the couches and I could hear this thudding noise and couldnt figure out what it was. Well, then Dozer came waltzing in in these.
He has been sorting things by color lately. He can say several colors now, but he isn't very good at getting them right yet.

I need a better camera. He has the fattest cutest feet. But the picture just doesn't do it justice.
Laundry baskets are always a hit.
The sleepy video:

That's what's up with us! We are still plugging along and just living life! And we LOVE it!

Summer Fun!!

So, after our jam packed July, we have been trying to take it easy at home for a little while :). We go for walks in the garden and the back back yard every day. Well, when it looked like this. Now it is so big you can't even see dirt anymore. I'll do a little better at spacing things next time.

Then we eat. For some reason Dozer has been particularly stubborn at using silverware. At his 18 mo checkup one of the milestones was that he should be able to use a spoon or fork well. Ha. This kid wont touch one. So we have been trying to push spoon use without being too pushy so he doesn't rebel. It's hard! So, when he showed interest in eating yogurt with a spoon on the couch, I let him! Huge mess, but progress.

He has also had an infatuation with shoes this week. On Sunday his church shoes were still in the living room after we got home from church. So on Sunday and Monday he would bring me his sandals and want them on. Then 10 min later he would bring me his church shoes and want them on. Then he would want them switched again in 10 min. Now he wont even let me take them off. He even goes down for naps with them on!

Then we play outside. All day. He can open our back door now, so he lets himself out all the time. So I have been quite friendly with our patio furniture. He loves Scoop (the backhoe). He picks our awful looking grass, fills up the bucket, dumps it out, and repeats.
He goes down the stairs to our basement door and plays with the dirt around the drain.
And then he spends a good deal of time throwing stuff over the fence into the garden. I guess it has the same intrigue as throwing rocks into water. I'm not sure what it is, but it must be fun.
Then we try to play inside, but he doesn't have quite so much fun. So here are some things he tries. He loves things that go together, so he spends a ton of time with the car seat buckle.

This huge stuffed cow is a favorite too.

He also spends a lot of time moving toys from place to place. It is funny to me when I find them, and I also wonder what other things are hidden that I wont find for years to come. hmmm.

We also have the frequent sippy cup search. This time I was really lucky to find it happen stance without having to search for hours. Which I'm sure I would have because I hate when they start to stink.

He has also mastered Patty cake. Its a milestone for us because until recently he has shown little or no interest in ANYTHING but letters.

He has mastered his numbers (1-10). Except until just a couple of days ago he used to say "grog" (frog) for three. Because on his numbers book the page for 3 has frogs on it. And then, sometimes he is just too wiped out to make it to bed. Awww :)

The end.