Little Boy Love

I got lots of Little Boy love today.  I didn't have any school!  We used a free Redbox code to rent "Frankenweenie" and watched it with Dad before he left for work.  (We don't recommend the movie, especially not on Valentine's Day.)

After Dad left for work, we went for a walk and spent close to two hours at the park.  It was a beautiful day and we stayed as long as Hyrum wanted to.  While at the park there were a couple of other moms there with their kids.  They had a pink tablecloth on the picnic table and lots of snacks.  It made me think that I needed to stop being such a lame Mom.

So we went home and made sugar cookies.  Hyrum helped me cut them out and then frosted a couple of his own.  Don't judge us for not having a heart shaped cookie cutter.  At least we made pink frosting!  Surprisingly, he wasn't such a big fan of eating them.  One little lick of frosting (which he called ice cream) and he was done.

I love my boys.  Here are a few reasons why:

Hyrum:  His giggles.  How much he loves to be outside.  He's a great laundry helper.  He's a smartie.  He still gives me cuddles sometimes.  He loves to read stories.  He keeps me busy.  He has a cute face.  He's well behaved.  He's easy going.  He forgives me when I'm lame.

Husband:  He works hard.  He has aspiring goals.  He's my number one supporter.  He goes grocery shopping with me.  He lets me boss him around.  He is a handsome guy.  He holds the Priesthood worthily.  He strives for success.  He makes my bed because he knows how much I love a made bed.  He takes me on dates, even if it's doing Sudoku races after Hyrum goes to bed.  He shares his Red Cream Soda (that we have to buy in Utah) with me.  He forgives quickly.  He has good looking eye lashes.

I am one lucky Wifey/Momma.

Health According to Walmart

Do you ever stand in line at the checkout and judge the people in front of you?  I still laugh when I think about the woman buying a Jillian Michaels DVD and two gallons of ice cream.  More often than not I assess the amount of junk food and the ratio of fresh produce people are buying.  Sadly, this leads me to look at the kind of people checking out.  I'm never very surprised to see the state of their health.  When they have kids with them it makes me want to cry.  How sad that the poor eating habits of their parents effect them so drastically!

Of course I'd like to think that my junk food to healthy food ratio is quite acceptable.  It may look okay at the checkout, but can I really justify smothering my brown rice, spinach, broccoli, zucchini, and tomatoes in homemade Alfredo sauce?  Oh, but it tastes so good!  And Hyrum ate all of the green veggies!  That's not always true.  And did I mention that it was delicious?

Ice Cream for Dinner and Other Stories.

I've been wanting to blog all week long, but I haven't felt "inspired" about anything in particular.  I feel like we're in that moment in time when things are happening so fast and yet it doesn't seem like much is happening.

With Husband's new schedule, we hardly see each other.  We may say "Hello" at 2am when he gets home on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday nights.  Sometimes we all congregate at Grannie and Pop's house for dinner during the split in his shift, but if that doesn't happen, then "Hello" at 2am just has to do.

Hyrum has us running running running.  He is a busy boy who loves to talk.  He gets lots of one-on-one time with Dad, Grannie, and Mom.  Surprisingly, I've found that our one-on-one time is a happy trade for Dad being gone so much.  Being the only one home with him has forced me to slow down, set school aside, and do things Hyrum enjoys.  Some nights we have ice cream for dinner (aka: green smoothies).  We read stories, do laundry, go for walks, play at the park, run around in the backyard, and have a lot of fun.

Husband and I have started discussing the possibility of buying a house.  Sometimes I have panic attacks about being so grown up and making such a huge decision.  Then Husband tells me I'm too much like Marlin ("How do you know something bad isn't gonna happen?!") and should be more like Dory ("I don't!") from Finding Nemo.  In reality it comes down to the fact that we could easily pay the same amount to rent a two bedroom apartment as we could paying a mortgage payment.  That just seems silly, so now we have to see if  we can scrape together a down payment.

Baby has driven me to my bottle of Tums.  I also can't squeeze between people and bedside tables and patients at the hospital as well as I used to.  Hyrum thinks it's funny to point to his tummy and say "Baby!" because he knows he'll get the "No you don't! There's no baby in your belly!" reaction from Mom every time.

Husband is in the middle of two new temple paintings.  He's an artist.  You can pay him if you'd like. :)

I'm 88 days and 12 hours away from my official graduation.  We're getting there!

Chapter 42

We started a new chapter of our lives today.  I title it:

Chapter 42: Husband Starts Full-time Work While Wifey Finishes School

Today was the first day of the hustle and the bustle.  I had to hustle home from school so that Husband could bustle off to work.  Getting out of class half an hour early made it so that we could eat grilled cheese sandwiches together and say "I Love You"  before we said "Goodbye."

Tony was upgraded to full-time at the TSA.  Financially, this is a great thing.  Scheduling wise...doable, but a pain in the buns.  He works the split shift from 1:30pm - 6:30pm and 8:30pm - 1:30am.  Ouch.

So if you don't hear from us for a while, just know that we're surviving (with the help of Grannie), even if barely.

By the way...I asked Hyrum today whether he wanted Baby to be a boy or a girl and he said, "Play basketball."  So, boy or girl, as long as Baby plays basketball, he'll be happy.

Texas: Part 1

We were lucky enough to go to Texas for New Years/Christmas this year.  It will probably be Hyrum's last free trip on a plane.  Boy did he love watching the planes come and go.  He was also so well behaved on our flights to and from.  He would sit and read books or just talk with us and even slept some both ways.

Spending time with Grandma and Grandpa Brown always means having a good time.  They sure like to spoil us.  One of our first activities was to go the the Gaylord Ice! Show.  It's always neat to see all of the things they can do with ice.  And Hyrum was just too darn cute in his little blue parka.

We were also lucky enough to make another trip to Houston to visit Grandpa Burgess and the Joneses.  Dad, Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt Annette were able to take Grandpa Burgess to the temple to seal his sister to him and his parents.  They said it was a really neat experience.

Hyrum's favorite part of the trip was playing with the balloons.  Everyone else enjoyed watching him!  He would throw them up in the air and run around catching them and hitting them.  Of course, it's all fun and games until all of that running around results in severe leg cramps...at which time nothing is fun or ever will be fun again.

Hyrum also liked pushing Grandpa Burgess' walker around.  And Dad even gave him a couple of rides.

Dad's favorite part of Houston might have been getting Freebirds for dinner.  He will be a happy boy indeed if that restaurant ever makes it's way to Arizona.

We are so blessed to have such a wonderful family.  We have so much fun with them, whenever the opportunity arises.  We're grateful for Grandpa Burgess and the example he is to us!

Favorite Things

Little Boy has a few favorite things these days.

1. Basketball: this includes playing with the new hoop he got for Christmas, throwing any kind of ball, or watching any kind of sport.  It's all basketball.

2. Running and Crashing:  He loves to run.  He loves to say "run run running" when he runs.  He loves to purposely crash when he runs.  He loves to crash cars and trucks and tractors and boats.

3. Owies:  He is fascinated with owies.  He points at owies and hits himself and says "Owie!"

4. Apples:  He loves eating apples.  More specifically he loves eating oranges, which he calls apples.  He knows how to get them out of the fridge himself.

5. Stories:  He loves reading stories, especially "Little Blue Truck" and "Hop on Pop."

6. Holding Mom:  He loves having Mom hold him, even though he is getting too big and Mom is getting too big for all of this holding stuff.  He says, "Hold you me" when he wants held.

7.  Mater: First thing every morning he asks to watch Mater, which is Cars, Cars 2, or Mater's Tall Tales.  He asks again when it's over.  And again later when he thinks Mom has forgotten that he already watched it once (or twice) that day.

This little guy of ours is growing up.  He's going to be a big brother soon.  We're so excited to see what kind of personality this next one has.  We wouldn't mind if Baby wants to be just like Big Brother.

Busting the Binky

I am ever so grateful that my child was one of those kids that would take a binky.  They are lifesavers.  And luckily, weaning him from his binky all of the time to just at night and nap time was an easy task.  Unfortunately, getting rid of it completely has been a different story.

I tried a couple of months ago to "pull the plug."  I was in the middle of a busy semester and Husband was working nights.  Needless to say, after a couple of rough nights I gave in and decided that the binky would just have to stay.

Then, while we were in Texas (thanks to car trips to Houston and plane rides) the binky became the desired object.  The Boy would ask for his binky in the car, when he was tired, when he wasn't tired.  It got old fast. So, on our first night back, I told him that the binky was going "bye-bye."  He put up a fuss on that first night.  He wanted his binky!  But I didn't give in.  We sang songs and read stories until he fell asleep.  Yes, we had to get up a few times during the night to console him, but we were sticking to it!

Yesterday he refused to take a nap.  He was exhausted, but he just wouldn't.  So when bedtime finally came, he was ready to sleep.  We put on his new dinosaur jammies and brushed his teeth.  Into bed.  Covers on.  Let's read Dr. Seuss's Sleep Book.  He was out like a light.  AND he made it through the whole night with only a couple of love taps when he got a little fussy.

The next few nights will be the determining factor.  Husband will be back at work and as much as I'm in denial, school is in session.  But we're going to bust it.