Williams Family

Ultrasound Pictures

2012-01-25T20:37:00.006-07:00

I know...it's old news. But we are having a new baby boy in April. Hooray!!! Why am I bringing this up now you ask? Well, my friends, I am bringing it up because I just got around to scanning in the ultrasound pictures and I thought I might share them. Wow. 2 months later and I'm finally getting around to it. Better late than never, right? Actually, the real reason I am just getting to it is because our scanner died. So sad :(. It was a rough couple months for me. Who knew you would use a scanner so much!? So anyways, we got a new one so I could finally scan the ultrasound pics. Oh yeah, and the photobooth pictures from Bauer's birthday party that I have had sitting around since June. Let's not go there. So anyways, it was a lucky thing that we wanted to find out if we were having a boy or a girl because as soon as the ultrasound tech put the machine to my belly, this is what we saw...

Okay, minus the little letters saying "BOY!!!" but still, clearly obvious that it was right!? Anyways, we were thrilled.

They went on measuring and checking organs and everything looked healthy and perfect. That, of course, doesn't mean we are totally out of the woods and will sure have a perfect baby but it sure was a huge relief. Anyways, here is one of his cute little foot...

And one showing his little heart beating. What a relief!!!

We are so excited to meet our sweet baby boy in just a couple of months. We have waited so long to welcome him into our family. It's amazing how much you can love someone you haven't even met yet.

MY LITTLE ELF

2011-12-10T11:32:00.006-07:00

Story time...

Once upon a time, Suzzi found this really cute elf costume that would fit Kash. So she dressed him up as an elf and he was so dang cute that he of course needed his picture taken. So Suzzi tried to convince Bauer to dress up as either an elf or a reindeer and have his picture taken with Kash. Bauer was not having any part of that. Not gonna happen. So she let it drop for a few days and then decided she would try asking again and if she needed to bribe him, she would. I only heard Bauer's side of the conversation as I was bringing him home from school one day but this is how it went "Okay. Yeah. Hey Suz...would you buy me an elf costume?" What!?! Well come to find out, at school they had just talked about a special elf day that they will be having on the 20th and you can even dress up like an elf if you want to. How lucky was that! So Suzzi put a costume together for him and he and Kash had their pictures taken. Aren't they the cutest dang elves you ever did see!?!

Elves 2011 - make slideshow

PRINCIPAL'S AWARD

2011-12-08T10:09:00.004-07:00

I am so proud of my sweet Bauer. He got his first award at school today. He received the Principal's Award for the awesome work he did on his turkey in disguise. So this morning we got to go to a special ceremony honoring the students where he received a certificate and special reward. Well done Bauer!

BANANA OR BLUEBERRY?

2011-11-28T07:14:00.002-07:00

Years ago when we started trying to have another baby, we asked Bauer what we should name it. Banana. That was his answer. And for years he hasn't changed his mind. He has insisted that if the baby were a boy he would be named Banana and if it were a girl, she would be Blueberry. I am 19 weeks along now and since we didn't know if we would be having a Banana or a Blueberry, we put the two together and named it Smoothie until we did know. But the wait is now over.

Brian was sure it was a boy.

Bauer was hoping for a boy but was sure it was a girl.

And me? I honestly hadn't had a feeling either way. Which we know doesn't really matter anyways because Brian and I both would have bet on our lives that Bauer was a girl.

So which is it?

I will let Bauer tell you...

TRADITIONS

2011-11-27T11:29:00.009-07:00

Our Thanksgiving tradition growing up was for to make pies with my mom while we watched the Macey's Thanksgiving Day Parade. I have missed making pies with my mama so this year I started the tradition with Bauer. He was such a good helper and we had a great time making our pies and watching parades.

Then, the day after Thanksgiving is always our day to put up Christmas decorations and this year was no exception. (Except that we weren't able to finish it all that day because we went to the Utah football game. Brrrrr). But we are officially decorated now, complete with Bauer's own tree.

The heart ornament that says 'Love' is his favorite. He said that it was for me because it meant that he loves me and he surrounded it by green ornaments because green is my favorite color. What a sweet little stinker!

DISNEYWORLD

2011-11-21T06:37:00.033-07:00

I can't believe that after over a year of planning, our DisneyWorld vacation is already over. It seems like it came and went so fast. We had a 7-day pass so I won't bore you with the "day one we went to... day two we did..." instead I will just give some of our favorite highlights.

* Mae-Mae, Mo-Mo, and Doh-doh. (Grandpa's names for Bella, Malia, and himself)

* "This is my favowite paht!"

* "Wah-Der":

* All the cousins being able to spend time together:

* Stopping at every store and with every cast member to either buy or trade pins.

* Exhaustion:

* Sad faces:

* Bella thinking Indiana Jones was her dad and being afraid that the boulder was going to crush him:

* Everyone loves pictures:

* Swimming:

* Checking maps:

* Bauer's joke being told at the Monster's Inc. show:

* Searching everywhere for cream cheese pretzels.

* "I can't sit by those girls anymore! They just keep buggin' and buggin' and buggin'!"

* "And you are the deckhand. You will be scrubbing the deck." Scrubbing, scrubbing... "Oh no. You're under fire!" Scrubbing, scrubbing... "You better warn the crew!" Scrubbing, scrubbing... "Look up. Point to the sky. A helicopter is coming to attack!" Scrubbing, scrubbing...

* Collin's love for the nerd pins.

* Buddy's keychain getting stuck between his teeth.

* Nolan and his Puffles:

* Bauer's obsession with Stitch:

* Bella and her "suckas". "Daddy, I need anotha sucka.":

* "Tidder":

2011-11-12T19:52:00.000-07:00

After our adventures in Disneyland we headed on to part two of our trip: San Francisco. Our first day there we all settled into the house and rested up a little bit from our late night and early morning and then headed out to watch the Utes play. Let's just say the game didn't go quite so well as we had hoped but we still had a great time and lots of laughs. Especially at the grumpy lady behind us that screamed and was obnoxious every time Utah had the ball.

Utah Game October 2011 - free slideshow

The next day was the day that everyone had been waiting for the whole vacation: the Go Cars. Earlier this year, Lorna, Suzzi, and Heidi took a trip to San Francisco and told us all about these awesome Go Cars that they rented and explored the city in. They really were cool. We had so much fun in them. Each car had a navigation in it that would tell you where to turn and would teach you about the city. There were tons of interesting facts and cool places to see. We spent the entire day in them and still felt like we didn't have enough time. Such a blast!

Go Cars 2011 - Free Slideshow Maker

Unfortunately our flight was early enough that we didn't really have much time to do anything the next day before we left so we just went and explored the wharf and did a little last-minute souvenir shopping and then it was time to head out. We all had such a wonderful vacation.

2011-11-04T22:09:00.012-06:00

So...what has been happening with us since August? Well...in October we got to combine two of my favorite things: Halloween and Disney. You would think with all of the times we have been to Disneyland that we would have been during Halloween time but NOPE. Well, not until now anyways. It was so cool. One thing I love about Disney is that they overdo EVERYTHING. If it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing right? There were awesome decorations everywhere and all kinds of transformations.
AND...we got to see Ange!!! Matt & Ange moved to LA a year and a half ago and we have missed them so much. And when they came to Utah to visit we were in Lake Powell so we didn't get to see them. So we were so excited that she came to Disneyland to see us. It was so nice of Brian's family to let her tag along with us at lunch one day and then for the whole day at Disneyland the next day. There was a lot of crying when she left that night but it was so much fun to get to spend some time with her. And here I am crying again so back to the vacation...

Another really awesome part of Disneyland at Halloween time is that it seems like there a ton more characters around than I have EVER seen. Even princesses were roaming around the castle. Heidi bought the kids all an autograph book and they were completely filled within the 3 days we were there.

10-2011 Characters - slideshow maker with music

They have a new store in Downtown Disney called Ridemakerz where you can create your own remote controlled car. You choose a body, tires, rims, accessories, sounds, etc. Suzzi and Heidi bought each of the kids a car and they were so cool. The kids had a blast making them too.

The coolest part was that we got to go to Mickey's Trick-Or-Treat Party. Thanks Heidi!! The park closed at 7:00 to the public and only people with a trick-or-treat ticket got to come in. They had trick-or-treat stations where you could walk through the line and they would give you a handful of candy and at each entrance you would go through about 4 stations. They would fill as many bags as you had and they even had a healthy treat option at each station. But they would give you both the healthy AND the sugary kinds if you wanted. We didn't even go to all of the locations and we had so much candy that we couldn't even carry it. The next morning we were flying to San Francisco so we had to figure out how to get all of the candy home. We filled an entire small suitcase with just mini candybars, M&Ms, and Skittles and had about half of a pillowcase full of tootsie rolls and then a bunch of other bags randomly filled with apples, carrots, raisins, craisins, etc. It was pretty funny. The best part of the Halloween party though (in my opinion anyways) was the fireworks. It's the best fireworks show I have ever seen at Disneyland. They had a huge bubble screen on the side of the castle that had villains talking and singing throughout the show and the castle would light up with all different colors. I know...it doesn't sound that neat but it was really cool. By the end of the night, everyone was absolutely EXHAUSTED but we didn't leave until midnight even though we had to leave at 6:30 the next morning to make our flight out.

10-2011 Mickey's Trick-or-Treat Party - slideshow maker with music

Oct. 2011 Disneyland - slideshow maker with music

Disneyland was just part 1 of our awesome vacation. Part 2 to come later.

2011-11-03T20:04:00.007-06:00

Ya know...when I became stay-at-home mom, I thought oh man, this is gonna be so awesome. I'm gonna get so much done. I'm gonna have all kinds of time to catch up on my scrapbooking, update my blog all the time, make some of the crafts I have been "Pinning" for later..' and so on - you get the point. Well, as you can see by the status of my blog...that hasn't been happening. What the heck! But the thing is...I feel like I have been running around like a madman every day. So what in the world have I been doing? Good question. I'm not so sure. Anyways, the point of my ramblings here is that I really do want to keep up on my blog. I get so excited when I go into one of my siblings' blogs and they have a new post. So I want to keep mine up so they can see what's going on with us too. It makes me feel like we aren't so far away. Hopefully soon I will be able to make some time to update what's been going on with us since Lake Powell but for now I just have one awesome picture for you. Bauer will kill me if he finds out that I posted this but it was just too funny to not share. I sent him in to get his bag to go trick-or-treating and this is how he came out...

LAKE POWELL

2011-08-31T15:54:00.017-06:00

Lake Powell is one of our very favorite places to go as a family and this year we got to go for 10 days which was AMAZING. Here are some things we did (in no particular order)...

SURFED...

AND LET BAUER STICK HIS HEAD IN THE WAVE...

BOOGIE BOARDED (Bauer's personal favorite)...

GOLFED...

TUBED...

CLIFF JUMPED...

WAKEBOARDED...

CAUGHT FROGS...

SHOWERED OFF THE BACK OF THE HOUSEBOAT...

HUNG OUT WITH FRIENDS...

DROVE THE BOAT...

NAPPED...

HUNG OUT WITH FAMILY...

WENT SHOPPING...

PUT ON LOTS OF SUNSCREEN...

SAW A RAINBOW...

JUMPED OFF THE TOP OF THE HOUSEBOAT...

WENT DOWN THE SLIDE...

SWAM...

AND ENJOYED THE SCENERY...

How in the world would anyone not absolutely LOVE this place!?

GIFTS

2011-08-16T14:15:00.002-06:00

The other day, Bauer came to me with a handful of new pencils and said "Don't you think it would be nice if I gave these to people?" I kinda laughed and asked him who he had in mind. He wasn't sure. Maybe we could take a pencil around to each house in the neighborhood. I suggested that instead of doing that, we just take them around to some of his friends. Maybe we could go a little later. I figured he would go back to playing and forget about it but he didn't. A couple hours later he came back and said "I was thinking we could put a treat with those pencils. Can we take them now?" He wasn't going to forget about it. So we took a little walk around the neighborhood and delivered the pencils. He didn't want the people to see him drop them off though. He just wanted to leave them on the porch and run "like the delivery guy does."

IT STARTS...

2011-08-03T16:34:00.009-06:00

My baby is officially grown up and going to school. I can't believe it. That darn kid. Why couldn't he just stay little and stay at home with me forever? He sure is excited though which is great.

Brian was out of town the day Bauer started school and felt bad he couldn't be there so he sent Bauer a cute fruit bouquet. Bauer was so excited about his "mail." And it was so perfect for him because Bauer loves fruit more than probably anyone I've ever met. He said to me "they look so tasty, you just wanna put the whole thing in your mouth right when you get it."

Of course we had to take pictures of Bauer with the bouquet and then I let him eat a few pieces of fruit and then it was off to bed. He's struggling quite a bit with the whole going to bed early thing. "But mom. It's not even dark yet." That first night I left a little poem on his bed that talks about how it's hard to sleep the night before school starts because you are so anxious and excited but I made some magic confetti and if he put it under his pillow, it would help him sleep well. He wasn't falling for that but he humored me and put it under. So about 10 minutes after I tucked him in, he came out and told me "see Mom. It's not working." Little stinker. I told him that for it to work you had to actually TRY to fall asleep. So I told him to go back in and close his eyes and lay still and it would work. So a couple minutes later I went in and he was sound asleep.

The next morning we got up and had breakfast and got ready for school and then had to take some 1st day of school pictures. "Why Mom?" "Oh, just because." So we went out and took a few pictures and then when we went in I told him I wanted to fix his hair. So then after his hair was fixed, of course he wanted to take some more pictures. He kept saying "are we in a hurry? Maybe just a little bit of a hurry?"

I'm a big baby. And anyone that knows me knows that I would have Brian and Bauer with me every second of every day if I could. So I hate that Bauer has to start school. I knew it was going to be hard for me (and especially when I'm already a mess because Brian has been out of town) so I wanted to drop Bauer off at the last possible second. I knew that the longer we stood there waiting, the harder it would be for me to fight back my tears. And I didn't want him to see me cry and feel bad about going. I wanted him to be excited and love it. So when we got to the school we stopped to take his picture by the marquis to kill a little more time and then headed over to his door. It was perfect because we got there just as the teacher was taking the class inside so I gave Bauer a kiss and sent him off. Our friends were there and I didn't want to cry in front of them so I held it in as long as I could. But then as soon as I got to the car I bawled. I had to keep myself busy while he was at school so I wouldn't start thinking about him and Brian being gone so I mowed the lawn and went shopping. And before I knew it, it was time to pick him up. He was so cute. He had a great day and loved school and his teacher. But he told me he couldn't remember anything he had done.

This whole school thing is going to be a big adjustment for all of us. It's hard for Bauer to have to go to bed early and honestly hard for us to be home in time for him to. I don't really know where we are all the time but it seems like we're never home at that time. It's going to be and adjustment to not be able to just take off for a vacation when we want to. It's going to be hard planning our vacations around school schedules. And it's gonna be hard for me to let go of my baby and let him grow up. But I'm very excited for Bauer. I know he will do well and really love school. And he will meet lots of new friends and be able to grow so much more than if he were to stay home with me for the rest of his life like I want him to.

NEVER GROW UP

2011-07-21T22:15:00.001-06:00

These are the days I will cherish forever. The days where everything seems perfect and your heart is full. I have been struggling lately because in two weeks, my baby starts Kindergarten. I’m so excited for him and I know he will love it and will excel. BUT…I don’t want to let go. I just want to be home with him every day and I want him to be my sweet baby forever. I know that’s not how it works and I know it’s best for him to grow up and learn and make friends and get away but it’s just so hard for me. I think Bauer must know how I’m feeling because he has been especially tender the last few days. He has never been much of a Mama’s boy but for the past few days he has wanted to play and snuggle and has given me endless hugs and kisses. The other night when I tucked him in, he asked if I would lay with him for a while. “Don’t go Mommy.” So I promised I would stay as long as he promised to go to sleep and not to talk and play and try to keep himself awake. He begged to play with my hair for a minute. He loves to have me put it in a ponytail and to wind it around his hands and run his fingers through it. And honestly, I love that too. I’ve always loved having my hair played with. It’s so relaxing. So I let him do that for just a minute and then told him he had to sleep. So he scooted right up next to me, put his arm around my neck and his face against mine and hugged and that’s how he fell asleep. The next night as I was tucking him in he hugged me and said “Mama, you’re the nicest person in the world.” Then as I was leaving his room he said “I have a secret to tell you. Two actually.” So I went back and leaned in so he could tell me his secret. He said “Thanks for being such a good Mom. And thank you for working so hard for me and for making me a chore chart.” My heart melted. He is such a sweet boy with such a tender heart and he truly is grateful for the things I do. Things that most kids take for granted. Like laundry. When I make him put his clothes away, instead of complaining that he has to put them away, he thanks me for washing them. Granted, he has his moments of whining and complaining and “poor me” but for the most part he is an angel and I am so thankful for him. I think that is part of why it is so hard for me to let him go to school. I want him to stay pure and innocent and grateful. I don’t want him to grow up and say “mom, don’t hold my hand anymore okay”. I don't want to hear the “I hate you” that I know is coming not far down the road. But for now, life is perfect.

BAUER - 5 YEARS

2011-07-06T16:34:00.017-06:00

Bauer
Age: 5
Height: 43"
Weight: 38 lbs
Eye Color: Blue
Hair Color: Light Brown/Blonde
Favorite Color: Red & Black
Favorite Food: Carrots
Favorite Drink: Dr. Pepper
Favorite Cartoon: Superhero Squad & The Avengers
Favorite Movie: Transformers, X-Men, any Superhero Movie
Favorite Superhero: Hulk, Iron Man
Favorite Song: Baby, by Justin Bieber
Favorite Artist: Justin Bieber
Favorite Friend: Jackson Yen
Favorite Restaurant: McDonald's, Chick-Fil-A, Red Robin, Red Rooster Waffle Company
Favorite Toy: Superhero Masks & Weapons
Favorite Saying: "Your Face..."
Things He Has Learned This Year: Reading, Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division, How to Tie His Shoes
Things He Loves: Family, Friends, Sleepovers, Golf, Soccer, Basketball, Boating, Learning, Helping, Drawing, Crafts, Hanging Out With Daddy

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BAUER!!!

2011-06-06T08:28:00.000-06:00

My sweet Bauer is now 5. I can't believe it. I love you Bauer!

NYC - Day 5

2011-06-03T09:25:00.013-06:00

While we were exploring Central Park on Monday we came across the American Museum of Natural History, which is the Museum where they filmed ‘Night at the Museum’. Bauer thought that was pretty cool and they also had a big banner advertising their Dinosaur exhibit so he wanted to go. We figured that would be a good thing to keep us busy between the time we had to check out of the hotel and the time we had to leave for the airport.

Wow! It is absolutely GINORMOUS! We asked the security guard how long it would take us to go through it and he said “you could spend anywhere from 2 hours to 2 weeks.” He wasn’t joking. Honestly, I don’t know that even if you walked quickly without stopping to see anything if you could get through it in 2 hours. It is unreal the amount of stuff they have in there. From the time we walked in though, the only thing Bauer was interested in seeing was “Dum Dum, Me Want Gum Gum”. The big talking head from the movie that calls the main character Dum Dum. We didn’t have time to really stop and look at a whole lot but we did get Bauer’s picture with “Dum Dum” and we got to see the dinosaurs.

My favorite part of the museum was the bird exhibit. I hate birds. They’re boring and gross and just dumb. BUT… we walked through the exhibit and one of the first cases we came to was Booby Birds.

A little bit of background here: Bauer gets tended every Friday by my Grandma who is always teaching him all kinds of cool stuff. Well one day he came home with a picture of a Blue Footed Booby Bird. He thought that was pretty funny. Booby Bird…giggle giggle. Grandma had showed him a bird book and taught him about a bunch of birds and then he even drew a picture of the Blue Footed Booby. Check it out…pretty impressive for a 4-year-old I think. Heck, I STILL couldn’t draw one that well. Anyways, we got to see the Booby Birds in the exhibit. Then we walked down…owls…hawks…all kinds of random birds. Then we came to a case and Bauer said “oooh…is that a Ptarmigan?!” So I check the plaque next to it. Sure enough…it’s a Ptarmigan. Seriously kid! Then he proceeded to tell us how the Ptarmigan is so cool because in the cold and snow they turn white but when it’s warm they are brown or grey or whatever. I’m so amazed by the capacity of a child’s mind. How in the world does he remember crap like that?

We also learned in our little museum adventure that although the American Museum of Natural History was used to film Night at the Museum, it was only the outside that was used. The inside was filmed at another museum in a completely different state (I can’t remember which one). No wonder Dum Dum and Rexi were in different places than they are in the movie. Ha!

So anyways, that’s our vacation. We had so much fun. I sure love my boys. They were so much fun to be with.

NYC - Day 4

2011-06-02T09:23:00.010-06:00

After hauling Bauer all over the place to see buildings and things I’m sure he had absolutely no interest in, we let him decide what we would do for the day. Of course he chose to go to Central Park. This time we went to a completely different part of the park and saw all new things, including an awesome playground. It’s amazing that we could wander around there for 4 hours one day and then go back just a couple of days later and walk for hours again, not seeing anything the same. Wow. I didn’t realize it was that big.

On this trip we took a quick detour to get a treat at some bakery Brian had heard about that was supposed to be awesome (which, by the way, only sold like 5 different things) and while we were walking there we thought “I wonder where the temple is. It’s gotta be somewhere close.” So we looked it up and lo and behold, it was right by us. We had some time to kill while we waited for our dinner reservation so we decided that now was as good of time as any to go check it out. I put the address into the navigation on my phone and we headed towards the temple but when the little blue dot showing our location was on top of the little red dot showing our destination, we looked all around trying to figure out where it was and couldn’t see it. We walked up and down the street, looking all around, figuring we had to be right by it and then finally Brian looked up and starting laughing. There was Angel Moroni. We were standing right in front of the temple and had probably passed it multiple times while we were trying to find it. We must have looked like the biggest idiots! It was so weird to see because there was the temple, just in with all the other buildings, right under our nose and we never saw it.

After taking a couple of pictures of the temple (I tried to keep the picture taking to a minimum so it didn’t annoy Brian and Bauer), I turned around to take a picture of another cool building and Bauer thought it was pretty funny to keep jumping in front of the camera so I couldn’t get a picture. Look at his cute little gremlin grin. He was so amused by himself. Oh that kid. He makes me smile!

At dinner that night, we had been seated in the back of the restaurant and they sat an older couple next to us that seemed very annoyed at us having Bauer there. Every peep he made was making us feel like we were disturbing them with their sideways glances and eye rolling. And we heard the lady tell the man about some book she had just downloaded that was called “Go the F*&^ to sleep” (of course using the whole word) and about how it was this cute, illustrated kids book but then the last line of each page was “Go the F--- to sleep.” And then a few minutes later, we looked over and Bauer was dead asleep on Brian’s shoulder. We laid him down on Brian’s lap and the lady turned to us and commented about how sweet that was and how Bauer had been so well behaved. We were absolutely shocked! This whole time we thought they were so mad at us and that they were these mean people and it turns out that not only were they not annoyed with Bauer but they actually thought he was cute. We ended up talking with them quite a bit and they were very nice people. Afterwards Brian and I both talked about how that was the perfect example of why you don’t judge people. Because even if you think you are sure you know they are horrible people, you may turn out to be wrong. And the lady even told us about the book she had been talking about before but substituted that horrible word with “F” for our benefit. Wow! What a wake-up call to me.

NYC - Day 3

2011-06-01T20:12:00.002-06:00

Brian's favorite baseball team is the Mets and it just so happened that while we were in New York, the Mets were playing the Yankees at Yankee Stadium. Of course that was something we wanted to see so we decided to do the Sunday afternoon game, hoping that would be the warmest. Plus, Sunday was the only day it wasn't supposed to rain. We ended up scalping tickets and had no idea but we luckily happened to get perfect tickets for us. We sat in the wheelchair section so we had a cushioned chair instead of a bleacher seat and we had room all around us where Bauer could run around and play. And what's a ball game without some ballgame treats, right!? You should have seen the looks on everyone's faces when we passed on my way to the clean up Bauer's face. Ha ha! You would think the kid had never had cotton candy in his life.Bauer could give you almost a play-by-play account of the game. He loved watching the scoreboard and learning about what everything meant. And even though the Mets got their butts kicked at the end of the game, we still had a blast. And it was really cool to be able to go to Yankee Stadium. Such a neat place.

TripAdvisor became our best friend trying to find places to eat. It had suggested a place called Carmine's (I think)that we decided to try that night. We got the nightly special which was a sampler platter and it was absolutely GINORMOUS. This is it AFTER we had dished out 3 plates full. Wowza!

NYC - Day 2

2011-05-31T19:17:00.000-06:00

Saturday morning we took the subway (Bauer's favorite part of NY) to Battery Park with the intention of going to the Statue of Liberty. It's so cool because they opened up the crown so you could go all the way up. What we didn't know, however, was that you have to have a special ticket to do that and they are already sold out through September. "Once again information that would have been useful YESTERDAY!". So we stood on the dock and took a picture of Brian and Bauer in front of the statue. Close enough right. There is a cool statue of an eagle in the park that I was taking a picture of and Bauer thought it was funny to say "take a picture of me with it Mommy" and then run around it, hiding, so I couldn't get him in the picture. Well, those of you that know Bauer well know how graceful he is and in true Bauer style, he took off running without looking and slammed his head right into the corner of the base. That's what you get for not letting me take your picture. KIDDING! I'm really not that heartless.
Then we walked down to Wall Street, stopping at the famous bull statue to take a picture. Now this was a picture that Bauer actually really wanted to take because Bauer LOOOOVES bulls. Ya, you should see the chaos of everyone standing around the bull to get a picture. Bauer of course wanted to sit on the horn for his picture so when it was our turn I lifted him up there and Brian took a picture of the two if us and then I stepped out of the way so we could have a picture of just Bauer. As you can see, the lady behind me appearantly had to have her picture taken RIGHT THEN and jumped right in. Wowza people!

Next stop: the New York Stock Exchange. It was really cool for me to see but Bauer only cared about the bulldog that some random person was walking and had his picture taken with the dog instead of the NYSE. Next on our tour of the city was Ground Zero and the 9/11 Tribute Museum. The museum was not set up very well. You basically walked down a hall full of pillars that had quotes and information on each side and the same on the outer walls. But the problem was that there was no flow to it so it was just chaos of people walking all over randomly to each pillar. It brought tears to my eyes to hear the stories of the people that suffered through these tragic events.

Our final stop Saturday was Canal Street. When Brian and I first started dating, he and his family went on a vacation to New York and the thing I heard most about was Canal Street so that was a must-do for us. I was very disappointed. We didn't even buy anything. We did, however have some really good food in Chinatown while we were there. So at least that made it worth the trip.

NYC - Day 1

2011-05-29T19:07:00.014-06:00

Occasionally I go online and read blogs by clever and witty people and I think “I need to update my blog. I’ve been a slacker. I’m going to start blogging again.” And I think of all the things I have to blog about and how I’m going to get caught up. And then I sit down and start writing and think “I might be the most boring writer in the world.” And then I just get frustrated and quit because my posts are so boring. Other people can talk about absolutely nothing and have you completely engaged because they are just so good with their words and you can see their personality come through. Maybe the problem is that my personality is just boring so, in fact, my personality IS coming through. And maybe I just really suck at writing. Either way…it keeps me from blogging. BUT I have family out of state (and country) now and I LOVE reading all of their blogs and feeling like I’m still part of their life. So for all of my sweet family that wants to see what’s going on in our lives (and still love me in spite of my boring-ness), and anyone else that gives a rat’s behind, here is what we have been up to…
Recently Brian had to go to New York for work. Flights were fairly inexpensive and we have wanted to take a trip to NY for a while so Bauer and I decided to fly out on the last day of Brian’s work thing and have a little family vacation. It was our first family vacation with just the three of us and we had such a fun time. Bauer and I took the redeye out Thursday night and got into NY at about 6:00 Friday morning. We took a taxi to the hotel and obviously weren’t able to check in yet so we dropped our bags off and headed out for our first NY adventure (not counting the adventure of getting two large suitcases, two carry-ons, my camera backpack, a stroller, and an almost-5-year-old through the airport and to a taxi). The man at the hotel counter told me that there was a “nice little diner” just down the street and then we could head down to Central Park. Bauer, for some reason, was very amused with the words “nice little diner” and talked about it the whole trip. And he loved Central Park. It took us about half an hour to walk there from the “nice little diner” (not counting the 15 minutes we wasted walking in the wrong direction) and then we wandered around the park for about four hours, exploring. Bauer’s favorite was all of the huge rocks that he could climb on. He’s such a monkey. When it started to rain we decided to head back to the hotel and see if they had a room ready for us yet. Luckily they did and we were able to take a little nap while we waited for Brian to be able to meet up with us. Bauer wasn’t tired…just ask him…

Brian got to the hotel late that afternoon while we were napping and when our nap was over we headed out to do some more exploring. We took Bauer to FAO Schwartz, stopping to see St. Patrick's Church and to have dinner.

ZUMBA!!!

2011-04-02T13:39:00.003-06:00

I have this new obsession...Zumba. A couple of my friends invited me to go to a class with them a few months ago and I wasn't so sure about it. I almost backed out and I'm not really sure why but I was scared and nervous and felt really awkward. But I went anyways and from that time on I've been hooked. Zumba is so much fun and it's such a great workout. I have tried all kinds of other workouts: Turbo Jam, P90X, Insanity, etc. but nothing burns as many calories for me as Zumba. And the best part is that I honestly don't even feel like I'm working out because I'm having so much fun. So now I've decided to try teaching a class of my own. I'm going to teach at 8:00 on Tuesday nights at Canyon View Arts Center (12652 S. 2700 W. in Riverton). Classes will be free in April so if you want to come try it out, join me April 5th, 12th, and 26th.

MY BABY IS OLD!

2011-03-01T20:11:00.013-07:00

How do you know when your baby is getting old?...

* He has "Beiber Fever"
* You register him for Kindergarten.
* He uses words like 'actually' and 'seriously'.
* He has friends calling and coming over to play.
* He can get his own drinks.
* He ties his own shoes.
* He sings Justin Beiber songs while playing his DS and knows all the words.
* He reads Dr. Seuss books.
* He writes names on his own Valentines.

Just a couple funny stories...

* When watching a basketball game the other day he said "which team is West Virginia?" We asked how he knew West Virginia was playing and he walked up to the TV and said see..."West" and pointed to where it said West on the scoreboard at the bottom of the screen, "Virginia" and pointed to Virginia.

* Landon came over to play the other day and Bauer wanted to read to him. So he took Landon into his room and got out Go Dog Go. Then he told Landon that he would teach him how to read. Landon wasn't intersted but Bauer insisted that it would be totally awesome if he learned because then he could take Go Dog Go to school and read it to his friends and they would all think he was really cool. Landon said "I'll learn later. Like maybe when I'm 10."

* Bauer woke up the other morning and Brian was still asleep so Bauer got a movie turned on in his room by himself. When Brian got up, he asked Bauer how he knew how to turn it on. He said "duh...it's the one with circle around it."

I LOVE BEING A MOM

2011-03-01T12:00:00.004-07:00

Not long ago I almost posted about how bad it sucks to be a mom. It's hard work. And it's a thankless job really. You work your butt off trying to make sure they become independent, responsible, grateful, clean, smart, etc. You have the pressure of making sure that your child succeeds in life and becomes a good person. That's hard work. And quite frankly it sucks having to discipline. It sucks making them go to bed at night when they say "can't we just snuggle?" It sucks making them take a nap because what you really want to do is go outside and play ball with them. It sucks trying to keep yourself from spoiling the crap out of them because you know it will make them ungrateful. I want to be the one that never has to say no. The one who can do everything for them and not have to worry about how it's going to affect their future by making them lazy or inept. BUT...there is not a more wonderful thing in the world than being a parent. There is nothing more wonderful than driving to the store and having your little boy say "hey Mom...I love you." There is nothing sweeter than him hugging me when I'm having a bad day and telling me not to be sad. There is nothing more fun than spending the day with my sweet boy and being able to laugh and smile and play. Yesterday was one of those wonderful days that make you forget all of the screming and crying and back-talking. There was nothing huge and earth-shattering about yesterday. We just went about our normal routine. But Bauer was in the sweetest mood and didn't whine and complain when it was nap time and he did everything I asked and played nicely and gave lots of hugs. He asked to help me make pasta, which is what the picture is from and wanted to do everything himself. He did a great job cracking the eggs and out of 5, he only got one shell in. Then the flour...he was so cute and so precise. You know how Bauer is...everything has to be perfect. He got a knife and would run it along the top of the measuring cup to make sure the line was straight. And then if he accidentally dipped a little in, he would grab a pinch of flour in his fingers and sprinkle it on the top and then swoop with the knife again. It took quite a bit longer than usual but we sure had a great time.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

2011-02-15T18:28:00.002-07:00

I know it has been forever since I blogged last and usually I would create a long post updating you on everything that has happened since my last post but quite honestly...I don't feel like it. So here is what we are up to right now: Brian is working his butt off with work and Bauer just can't seem to get healthy. He had a cold and then the flu and now a horrible cough. The poor little fellah just hasn't felt well for weeks now. Maybe next week he will actually be well enough to go to school and babysitters and church. Keep your fingers crossed!

LETTER FROM SANTA

2010-12-20T08:57:00.004-07:00

A couple weeks ago Bauer wrote a letter to Santa telling him that he had been a good boy and that for Christmas he wanted Kung Zhu pets, the Kung Zhu Battle Arena, and some Kung Zhu armor. Well, Santa wrote a letter back and told Bauer that he would do his best and make sure there were some good presents under the tree for him. As soon as I finished reading Santa's letter to him, his eyes lit up and he said "should we write him another one?!" So he got some paper and markers and started to draw a picture. He decided to copy the picture at the top of Santa's letter and here is what his drawing looked like:

NEW BED

2010-12-13T14:25:00.009-07:00

Every year before Christmas we have Bauer go through his toyroom and get rid of as many toys as possible to make room for all the gifts he is about to get. We have 3 sacks: one for garbage, one for DI, and one to keep for future siblings. Amazingly, Bauer always does very well with this. He is very good about giving away toys that he doesn't play with anymore and throwing away anything that is broken. So we completely filled the 3 garbage bags that day. While we were cleaning out the toyroom we asked him if he was ready to get a real bed instead of his toddler bed. He wasn't quite sure at first but we told him that he could switch rooms and have a superhero bedroom. I know what you're thinking but no, unfortunatly we are not making room for someone else. Just a new room for Bauer. So anyways, we switched Bauer's bedroom and the toyroom and Rae-Rae gave him a superhero bedspread and sheets and even a backpack to go with it. He loves his new bedroom and his comfy bed.

BEFORE...

AND AFTER...

RANSOM

2010-12-13T14:11:00.004-07:00

On the day we were scheduled to move the nativity we got this note on our lawn, along with a pound of bacon. The lovely new pink, flying pig had been taken! Luckily we were able to pay the ransom and get the nativity set up at the Jensens' house in time for the baptism.

DECORATIONS

2010-12-07T21:22:00.004-07:00

We finally finished our decorating. The outdoor lights were up a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving, the indoor decorations were up the day after Thanksgiving, and now we have completed the decorations with our porch ornaments. Suzzi came up with this idea last year and came to help us get it put back up this year.

Oh...and then there's this decoration:

So for those of you that don't know about our little manger scene, here is the story: Brian's cousin always decorates for Halloween with a bail of hay and then keeps it up for Thanksgiving too but then has a tendency to just leave it out. Well, Brian's sisters have joked for years about buying a baby Jesus to put on the hay as a joke. So last year Suzzi did one better and bought an entire inflatable manger scene. She and Brian came up with a poem and everything to go along with it and decided to have it be a traveling decoration. So each person keeps it at their house for two nights and then takes it to another family member on the third night.

CHRISTMAS CRAFTS

2010-12-07T20:14:00.003-07:00

A long time ago when I was a little girl, my mom used to go all out on decorating for holidays and was always know for wearing festive shirts, earrings, and socks. Now I have adopted that in my family. I love to do festive things and I love to celebrate the holidays with Brian and Bauer. One thing that Bauer and I love to do together is crafts so on Sunday, we got out our supplies and did some Christmas crafts. We started by making a Christmas tree out of handprints. I thought Bauer would love putting the paint on his hands but he really wasn't very impressed by it so after humoring me and finishing the tree, I let him paint his own tree. He painted one red and one green tree, each for one of his grandmas. Then we looked online for some other crafts and he chose to make the Rudolph out of a paper bag and then even wanted to do the handprint Rudolph which I think is my favorite. Bauer is a little artist. He loves to draw and create and really does well with it. I am so impressed! Especially because I am about the least artistic person in the world. Anyways, these are the crafts my sweet Bauer did.

COUNTDOWN

2010-12-07T17:06:00.002-07:00

Bauer loves to countdown to Christmas. We have a set of blocks to count down and every day he gets a huge grin on his face and says "Mommy, how many days 'till Christmas now?" Well on Sunday our cute neighbors brought him this awesome chain they had made and he gets to take a treat out every day.

CHRISTMAS PARTY #1

2010-12-06T14:30:00.002-07:00

Nope, not a Wise Man this time. It's Joseph! Our ward party was on Friday and it was really neat. It was "Finding Christ in Christmas" and everyone was split up into 5 groups that went around to different rooms to meet and hear stories about Christ from different characters. Brian was asked to be Joseph and I was Mary and then there were shepherds, wise men, and I believe an angel. After the "scavenger hunt" we all met to have dinner and then Santa came to visit the kids. It was a lot of fun and a really cool way to remember that Christ is the reason we celebrate. I had a really cool experience being Mary too. As I sat and spoke about Jesus and how he loved little children, I saw the children in the room the way that He would have. It brought tears to my eyes to see their sweet, innocent faces as they listend to me speak about our Savior.

FAMILY PICTURES

2010-12-02T21:40:00.004-07:00

What a disaster!!! These poor pictures were doomed. We planned a day to take pictures for our Christmas card and of course it snowed all day so we weren't able to go. But we needed to get them done ASAP so we could create a card, get it printed, and mail it out. So we rescheduled for a couple of days later and I'm pretty sure it couldn't have gotten any colder that day. It was so miserable. Lucky we were wearing coats in the picture. We had to wait for kids to get out of school so by the time we got to our picture spot, we were already running out of time. As we pulled up, we noticed that the gates had been padlocked. Apparantly they close the Peace Gardens for the winter. Panick! Now what!? And we made our poor, sweet friends come out and then bring them to a place that we can't even get into. We ended up finding a place that snow had been piled up almost as high as the fence so we could just jump over. But then once we were over, we had to trudge through 2 feet of snow to get to a picture spot. So now we are freezing and soaked from the snow and have had to throw 4 kids over a fence and it's already too dark to really be taking pictures. So needless to say, they didn't turn out well. I feel so bad. We got enough to put on our Christmas card but I feel so bad about my neighbors.

HARRY POTTER

2010-11-29T11:22:00.008-07:00

Make fun all you want...I love Harry Potter. I do. I love the books, I love the movies, I love it. Brian, on the other hand, does not. So when the movies come out, I always make my parents promise to take me when they go see them and this year we decided to go on my mom's birthday. So my parents took me, Bauer, and Collin and we had a little Harry Potter birthday party. My mom had bought some cute wands and let each of the boys pick one to take. Bauer was really weird about it at first and didn't want a wand but then when he saw how much fun Collin was having with his, he decided he would pick one. And from that moment on, he and Collin didn't stop putting spells on each other. They took their wands to the movie and thought they were pretty cool and even learned some new spells.

LET THE CHRISTMAS SEASON BEGIN

2010-11-29T11:03:00.006-07:00

I love Christmas time! I am always a big baby about the cold but I sure do love the decorations and festivities. I have never been a huge fan of Thanksgiving but I hate starting to celebrate Christmas before it so I always put up my Christmas decorations the day after Thanksgiving. Well, this year I started a little early because I had two little boys that were so excited they couldn't wait. Collin came to sleep over on Thanksgiving night and I had told them that I would be putting up the decorations the next day. They were so excited that they asked if they could put up Bauer's tree that night. So as soon as we got home from our Thanksgiving party, Brian brought up the decorations (thanks Bri!) and the boys got started. They decorated the tree completely by themselves and they did an awesome job.

That night Brian started his Christmas celebration as well. Last year, he and Suzzi started a tradition among the family to set up an inflatable manger scene in a family member's yard and the manger stays at your house for a couple of days and then you pass it on to the next person. We were the last people to get it last year so we had to store it over the year and got to start the tradition again this year. So Thanksgiving night he and Suzzi went and delivered the manger to the first house. Oh, and did you notice the Wise Man in the picture? Look closely...

...oh, it's Brian.

Also, a HUGE thanks to Trevor and Tommy for puttin up our Christmas lights this year.

I REALIZED

2010-11-16T15:52:00.002-07:00

Today Bauer was getting dressed for school and came into my room, very excited and said "Mom, I just realized something." Realized hu? "I realized that my socks that look long like a stick like this (and he made a long kind of motion) are long socks and the ones that look like circles are the short ones." That kid cracks me up!

CONGRATULATIONS!

2010-11-01T20:06:00.001-06:00

Congratulations to Sam and Rae on their wedding. We are so excited to welcome Sam and his cute kids to our family. We love you!

HALLOWEEN 2010

2010-11-01T16:45:00.024-06:00

Those who know me know that I LOVE Halloween. I always have. So October is always a fun month for me. Bauer and I wear Hallowen shirts and socks all month and we try to do lots of fun Halloween activities and since I'm a total slacker with the blog, you're getting it all at once. So here it goes:

We started our Halloween celebrations by picking out our pumpkins for Family Home Evening on the 4th. It was an icky, rainy day but as soon as we got to the pumpkin patch, it stopped raining and actually turned out to be pretty nice. And it was perfect because since it had been so icky, we were the only ones there. Sweet! We picked out 3 pumpkins to carve and then Bauer picked out a "baby pumpkin" that he loved.

Bauer had his first Halloween party with friends this year at our neighbor's house. He was so excited to go and had a blast there. They had dinner and played games and got tons of fun prizes. Look at all those cute kids!

The other two parties we had were with each of our families. On the 29th we had the anual pumpkin carving party at Rick's house. The kids wear their costumes to show and then we always have a yummy dinner before everyone carves their pumpkins. This year Bauer even created a full pumpkin completely on his own. See if you can guess which one it is.

Baby Kash came to the party too and Bauer was so excited. If you know Bauer, you know that he has always loved babies. He has such a tender heart and loves to take care of them so of course he is completely smitten by Kash.

Unfortunately I was not able to make it to the pumpkin carving party this year because it ended up being the same night that I had Thriller tickets. It has been a tradition for me, my mom, and my sisters to go every year. Now that Tessa and Ange have moved, it's just me, Mom, and Rae left but luckily we have Collin and Abby that like to go and Sam even came with us this year. We had a blast, as usual, and Sam painted Collin's and Abby's faces so they looked like the zombies.

Our last party was at my parent's house on Halloween. Every year the kids bring their costumes and we have a spooky dinner of worms in blood sauce (spaghetti), bones (breadsticks), and a spooky drink and then worms in dirt (gummy worms in chocolate pudding and oreos) for dessert. This year the kids disected owl pellets and found all kinds of cool mouse bones and they even had sheets that showed them what each bone was. Then my mom and I made little Oogie Boogie men that the kids got to fill with bugs.

We trick-or-treated on the 30th this year since Halloween was on Sunday and boy was it yucky weather! Just before we had planned on going out it started pooring rain but that didn't keep the kids from wanting to go. It died down before we started but the wind started blowing about half and hour in and made it pretty cold. The kids were all troopers though and we all had a lot of fun. Me, Brian, Chad, Amanda, Heidi, and Suzzi all went and took Bauer, Paislee, Morgan, Marki, and Gabbi. They were so cute! And we kept laughing because every time people would call Bauer Michael Jackson, Paislee would correct them and tell them that his name was Bauer.

KASH

2010-10-25T20:38:00.004-06:00

Jared and Marti had a beautiful baby boy! Kash Jake Williams was born 10/25 12:44 pm 6 lbs. 7 oz. He is an adorable little boy and such a good baby. Congrats Jake & Marti! We are so excited!

FINALLY GAVE IN

2010-10-10T18:46:00.013-06:00

What have I been doing lately? Nothing! Absolutely nothing. Why? Because I finally had my shoulder fixed and am totally incapable of doing anything left-handed. You see...a long time ago, when I was a senior in High School, I dislocated my shoulder dancing. I know...how do you dislocate your shoulder dancing? Well, we were practicing for our novelty and trying this move:

My shoulder dislocated and when I went to the doctor, he said that once it happens, it's pretty much guaranteed that it will happen again. It took about a year or so before it did, but it did. From there, it would come out maybe about once a year or so but after a while, it started coming out once every couple of months and then about once a month, and for a while even once a week. Originally the doctor thought that the problem was that my ligaments were too flexible so they just didn't do a very good job of keeping it in place. He told me that he wouldn't do surgery until I had tried physical therapy. He was hoping that I would be able to strengthen the muscles and they would provide the support that my ligaments weren't giving. Well, I tried that and the week before I was supposed to be released, I dislocated it again lifting a small, empty cooler into my car. I kept trying my excercises at home but it didn't seem to help at all. I kept putting off surgery because I knew it was going to be ugly and there just never seemed to be a good time. Well, by now it didn't even matter anymore. Originally my shoulder would only come out by falling on it or throwing a baseball but eventually I got to the point where it would come out when I would reach up for things, grab my purse out of the backseat, and eventually the straw that broke the camel's back was when it came out in my sleep. So I finally gave in and scheduled surgery. The doctor said that he might just have to tighten up the loose ligaments but that it was also possible that a ligament had torn off and attached itself in the wrong place. Well, it turns out that not one...but ALL of the ligaments had attached themselves in the wrong place. So basically there wasn't anything holding it in place. He told me that when the put me under, he turned me onto my side to examine my shoulder and pulled just softly down and it came right out. He said "you had an incredibly unstable shoulder." DUH!!! So anyways, now here I am, in a sling and unable to move my right arm for a full month. Poor Brian has had to do everything for me. He has been amazing. He took care of me and refilled my ice, got my pills, brought me food, showered me, took care of Bauer, did the laundry, took care of the house...everything. And on top of that he has been busy at work and had to work his butt off. Poor guy! We have had so much help and support from family and friends too. We had meals brought in for over a week and I even had two sweet friends that would come over and wash and dry my hair, paint my finger nails, and give me a pedicure. Thank you so much to everyone that has helped!
I am doing much better now. I am able to do most things on my own and have even gone back to work. I am getting pretty frustrated with this dang sling though. I feel so useless and I get very impatient with how long it takes to do everything. The hardest thing right now though is the discomfort and inability to sleep. I just can't seem to get comfortable in this dang thing and I wake up in pain and will have to switch between sleeping in the recliner and in the bed. And then the weight of my arm in the sling pulls on my neck and back and makes them ache too. I can't wait to get this dang thing off! But I am trying really hard to be careful and follow what the doctor says because I sure as heck don't want to go through this again.

BOATING

2010-08-31T10:17:00.012-06:00

I'm still a little behind on the posting. I promise I am working on it though. I finally scrapbooked our boating trips for the year. I didn't take my camera to all of them but you get the idea. We had such a blast. We went out at least once a week this summer. I'm sure we won't be able to do that every year but we might as well go as much as possible while we can, right? So here's the scrapbook of our summer 2010 boating.

I KNOW

2010-08-13T18:56:00.005-06:00

I know...I have seriously slacked on the blog. I'm sorry. We have had such a crazy summer. It has been absolutely wonderful but we have just been running around like madmen and I honestly haven't even had time to go through the pictures I've taken, let alone blog about them. I finally scrapbooked Bauer's 4-year-old pictures (yeah, I took them in May) so I decided to start there with the posting. So here they are. I promise to update more as the summer comes to an end and life slows down a little bit. Antie Elaine...this one's for you...

FATHER'S DAY

2010-06-28T17:35:00.007-06:00

Okay, so I know I mentioned Father's Day in my extremely long catch-up post but it was at the end and I was tired of blogging so I didn't post any pictures. I know - I'm a slacker. So here are my cute boys on Father's Day. Bauer is very lucky to have a wonderful dad. I know everyone says this on Father's Day but Brian truly is a wonderful dad. He is so loving and caring and meets Bauer's every need. He is a supporter, a coach, a playmate, a teacher, an example, a provider, a protector, and Bauer's best buddy.

Bauer gave all of his grandmas a boquet with pictures of the two of them for Mother's Day so it seemed only fair that his grandpas (and his dad) got the same. But since grandpas love treats more than flowers, we made a different kind of boquet for them...

And speaking of boquets...check out this beautiful boquet that Brian and Bauer gave me for my birthday...

Alright, and the last picture...me and my daddy celebrating our special days together...

SWIMMING LESSONS

2010-06-28T17:30:00.002-06:00

It's that time again - swim lessons are here. Bauer went back to Gerri's Swim School for another session of lessons and has had a great time. He has done very well and even though he hates water in his face, he will even keep his head under for a few seconds. Progress! I sure love to watch my little fishy swim. He loves it so much. And I am so excited that he is learning the right way. Heck, maybe one day he will even be able to teach me how to go under without plugging my nose! :)

IMPRESSIVE!

2010-06-28T17:25:00.003-06:00

You may recognize these balloons from an earlier post. These "super balloons" are the ones we got for Bauer's birthday party on June 5th. That's right - June 5th. As of today, they are 23 days old. Can you believe it!?! Yes, three of them have fallen but these three are holding strong. I am so amazed. I got the "high float" in them so they would hopefully last through the party and his birthday the next day. Little did I know, they would make it for a month!

WHAT'S UP?

2010-06-21T21:09:00.000-06:00

It's been a while. I know. So what has been up with us you ask? Actually, you probably don't really care that much but since this is like my journal, I'm gonna tell you anyways. Warning!!! This is going to be a really long post. There's a lot to catch up on. But I will bold the important parts in case you just want a quick summary.

Bauer just completed his first school year. Yes, it was 3-year-old preschool but still - it's a big step for us. They had a cute little end-of-year program where the kids sang a few songs and showed us the progress they had made throughout the year. Bauer was his usual shy self and didn't really sing much. Poor kid. I feel so bad every time I see him go into his little shell. That's my fault. Sorry Bauer. I feel your pain! He was so cute though and did such a great job. I am so proud of what a good little boy he has been. Bauer has done really well in school and has really enjoyed it.

I think the highlight of Bauer's school was the fun things he made. Probably his most favorite was when they made a pet whale. It was so cute. They took a 2 liter bottle and filled it with water and then made a whale out of a balloon to put inside. He was so proud of his little pet. It lived on his dresser for weeks. Cute little fella. Then a while later they broke and egg in half and took a little fuzzy pom-pom thing to put inside and put eyes and a beak on it and made a pet chick. Mr. Chick lived next to the whale on the dresser for a long time until I finally put them away with the rest of the work he had done throughout the year. During summer school they talked about metamorphosis and made a little caterpillar out of an egg carton using three of the little upside down egg spots (I don't know what they are called). Then during another class, they turned their caterpillars into butterflies by adding wings on the sides. He carried that little butterfly around everywhere we went.

He learned a lot from school too. Most importantly I think, he learned how to socialize, meet new people, share, and be comfortable around people other than his family. Hopefully getting him involved in school and sports at a young age will help him become more comfortable with people and help him to not be so shy. I realize that it is just part of his personality and is probably something he will always struggle with but everything we can do to possibly help is worth it, right.

We finally got to take the boat out. This stupid weather! Why can't it just be warm!? But we finally got to go out and it was awesome. I'm so excited that it is boating season. I love boating. I love the heat, I love the relaxation, I love the surfing and wakeboarding - I just love it!

We took a little weekend trip and on the way down we stopped at the greatest restaurant ever - The Timberline (did you catch the sarcasm?). We had stopped in Beaver to eat and Brian asked the locals at a gas station what was good. I guess there were a couple of salesmen in there and they told him that they traveled between 7 states and by far the best place they had eaten was the Timberline. Joke was on us! Not only did it take about an hour and a half to get our food (and no, that is NOT an exaggeration) the food was horrible. Brian ordered fish and chips and isn't really sure that there was even fish inside anywhere. I ordered pasta and it was more like a soup with a few noodles in it The sauce was so runny that it didn't even stick to the pasta, you had to just drink it. Scotty went with the burger - much better choice.

After our wonderful dining experience, we finished our journey and met up with our friends, the Kennedy's. Heather's dad happened to have a house that he had been renting out and the renters had just barely moved out and he was getting ready to move back in but for the weekend, it was vacant so we were able to stay there for free. SWEET! Granted, there was no gas hooked up so we didn't have hot water and there was absolutely nothing in the house but that wasn't a problem at all. We really didn't spend much time there anyways because we were on the lake all day and then came home, changed our clothes, went to dinner, and then by the time we got home, it was time for bed. So we brought our air mattresses and sleeping bags and were comfy as could be. And it was so nice to have a fridge and plenty of room for everyone to sleep. Thanks Heather's Dad for letting us stay!

The weather was nice and warm (for the most part) for our trip which was such a nice change. The water was still cold (at least for me) but luckily Brian and I had bought wetsuits so it wasn't a problem (Scotty - I still think you need one!). We spent long days tubing, surfing, and wakeboarding and had an absolute blast! Gosh, I love boating! The only down-side was that our ballast pump died so we weren't able to pump the water out of our port-side ballast after surfing so Brian and Scotty had to empty it by hand. But hey, that's what happens when you have a boat, right!? Something is always broken.

So all in all, our trip was awesome!

After our boating trip, we headed straight into chaos mode. At least I did. June is a busy month for us. We have Bauer's birthday, my birthday, Father's Day, and our wedding anniversary. And we usually have a trip or two as well. So as soon as we got home, I started into birthday mode. I had to get everything ready and planned for Bauer's birthday and party. Every year we have had a barbecue for Bauer's birthday party. I think this might be the last year though. Bauer is starting to want to have parties with his friends so we will probably spend our time and efforts on a friends party and just do smaller parties with our families starting next year.

This year he chose a pirate theme for his party. I couldn't for the life of me figure out why he chose pirates because he hasn't played with pirate stuff or watched pirate movies or anything. But he had his heart set on it. We even went to the party store and I showed him all of the different, fun themes he could do (because it was harder to find pirate themed stuff than you would think) and he really liked a bunch of the themes but at the end of the day, what he really wanted was a pirate party. So pirates it was! I finally asked him where he got the idea for it. He told me it was because Great (that's what he calls my Grandma Bliss) has a pirate ship at her house. Just a little figurine decoration thing - about a foot long. But apparently Bauer loves it. So because of that - he wanted a pirate party. Kids! The other thing he insisted on was having pirate swords for the kids. Sorry to the girls but hey, it's his party and he'll cry if he wants to! But we did give them some treats and glow-in-the-dark bracelets and a skull and crossbones sweatband (which Paislee absolutely loved and wouldn't take off - even for church). That girl cracks me up!

The day after the party was Bauer's actual birthday. I felt bad because we had to wake him up to go to church but it was actually a really good morning. I usually do have to wake him up to get ready for church and I wait until the last possible minute so he can get as much sleep as possible but then I swear I spend the rest of the morning yelling at him to hurry so we're not late. I didn't want it to be like that for his birthday so I decided that I wasn't going to yell or rush and if we were late for church - oh well. I woke him up a little earlier than I normally would have so he would have time to wake up before he had to get in the shower. I went in and woke him up and just kind of held him in my arms while he woke up. It was so sweet and I got some good snuggles out of it. He was excited too because while he was asleep, Grandma Lorna and Suzzi brought him a bouquet of balloons and put them in his room and one of them was a huge Shrek head that sang when you pushed on it. So seeing those made him smile. Just as he was getting up, Brian got home from his meeting and got to cuddle a little bit before getting ready. We took our time getting ready and I didn't yell or push him to hurry once. It was such a nice, relaxing morning. I probably should do that more often. Anyways, we did have to rush a little bit at the end but we made it on time for church.

Bauer took a little treat for his class and they sang happy birthday to him in sharing time which was fun for him. Brian and I got to go see it because coincidentally, Bauer also did the scripture that day. We had been on our boating trip the weekend before so we weren't at church and we didn't find out about him needing to do the scripture until a day and a half before. Bad timing since we had so much going on but luckily it was a short scripture and he was able to memorize it. I went up to help him say it in case he needed a prompt and as soon as he got up to the microphone you could see him go into his little shell and he grabbed onto me. But he got up there and did his scripture and did a wonderful job.

After church he got to open his presents from Brian and me. He didn't get much this year which I kind of felt bad about but then at the same time, I think we go overboard most of the time. And, he got a swingset. Let's be honest - we were going to buy a swingset anyways. So we figured we might as well just do that for his birthday. He was pretty excited about that. They didn't have any in stock though so we have to wait a few weeks before it comes in so we just showed him our neighbor's swingset, which is identical to what we got, and told him that he would get that soon. He was excited about it. I think he will really like it. The first thing he said was "will we have to put it together?" It's so funny that that's what he thinks of. He's a little thinker.

Usually we make Bauer take a nap after church but because it was his birthday, we didn't make him. It was HIS day and he could do whatever he wanted. So instead of napping, we played with all of his presents. That night, we went over to Rae's house for a BBQ to celebrate Collin's and Tommy's birthdays. It was tons of fun and Bauer didn't have a problem at all with not getting all the attention on his birthday. After the BBQ we came home and played outside with Bauer's presents some more. It was such a nice, relaxing day and we had so much fun playing with Bauer and letting him be the boss. I even let him wear whatever he wanted. He thought it was pretty funny that he could wear flip-flops that didn't match his outfit. Then the next day I told him to go put his black flip-flops on. He came back in holding his blue flip-flops and said "Mom, did you forget that I can wear whatever I want" in his little nanner-nanner voice. I said "it's not your birthday anymore." "Aaawwww!" he said. It was pretty funny.

The next day we had another birthday party for Bauer. Brian's aunt likes to have a swim party for him and Marki, who is Brian's cousin's little girl that has a birthday 2 days after Bauer. The weather wasn't ideal but that didn't keep the kids (and adults) from having a blast in the pool. We had a BBQ as well and we brought the birthday cake. We took Bauer with us to pick it out and asked him what he would want for his cake to share. We told him that he needed to pick something that would be good for a girl too. So we gave him ideas like a swim theme or just birthday balloons or something but he insisted that half of the cake be a girl theme and half be a boy theme. Luckily Wal-Mart had a cake that was perfect. It was half beach and half water and had Minnie Mouse laying out on the beach and Mickey Mouse surfing in the water. Who'da thunk! Perfect! Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of that party. We were running late so I didn't have time to get my nice camera and my point-and-shoot didn't have a memory card in it. LAME!

As soon as the parties were over, we went back into vacation mode. We headed out that weekend for Lake Powell with Brian's family. Oh man! I love Lake Powell! We weren't able to leave until after work so we got down to Page pretty late but that didn't matter because we couldn't take the houseboat out until the next morning. So we parked in the houseboat yard and loaded all of our stuff onto the boat and slept there and then just headed out to the water early the next morning. Brian's parents bought into a time share so we get to go every-other year on this same week. Woot woot!

We had such a blast! We found a great beach to park in that was back in Navajo canyon. It was so pretty in the canyon and the beach was perfect! It was a long, smooth, perfect beach. We spent a lot of time on the beach too, for a couple of reasons: the kids loved it, and the strong winds kept us from spending too much time in the power boats.

Bauer was cracking us up! He would want to go play on the beach and in the water so he would get his swimsuit and life jacket on and go out and then would be out there for a couple of minutes and then decide that he was either bored or cold so he would come back in and ask to change. So we would put him in dry clothes and he would be inside for a few minutes and then he would decide that he wanted to go out again so he would have to put a swimming suit back on. But of course he didn't want to wear the one he had been wearing because it was cold and wet so he would get a new one out. Then he would come in and decide that he wanted to wear his pajamas so he would change again. I swear, that kid changed his clothes at least a dozen times a day. Luckily Lorna, Heidi, Suzzi, Nicole, and Marti were always willing and happy to help him with anything and everything he wanted, including a million outfit changes per day.

We had two really nice days where we were able to go out and wakeboard and surf which is my favorite, and Bauer even tried wakeboarding. Gayle and Lorna bought him a wakeboard for his birthday and he was really excited about it but then when it came down to actually trying it, he wasn't really sure he wanted to. He kept telling us that he wasn't old enough to. He would try when he got older. Then one day Marki decided that she wanted to try on Bauer's board. So Jared got in the water with her and would hold onto the rope and drag behind and help her stand up and keep her board straight so she could ride. It was so cute to see her trying and I think that everyone yelling and cheering for her made Bauer kind of want to try. We told him that he could as soon as Marki was done but then by the time she was ready to stop, he changed his mind again and we couldn't convince him to try. The next day Marki tried again and did an awesome job. We tried again to get Bauer to try and he wouldn't but we finally convinced him to just put his board on in the water and get comfortable with it. So he got in with Jared and felt what it was like and Jared showed him how to stand up. Then he told us to throw him a rope so Bauer could see what that felt like. Bauer didn't want us to but finally warmed up to it so we threw the rope in and he grabbed on. Then Jared convinced him to let Brian drive a little bit so he could see what it felt like to hold on while the boat was going. I was amazed that he let us. So Jared did the same for him that he had done for Marki and Bauer actually tried it. I think he had fun but wasn't so sure about the fall. He only tried a couple of times but we were just happy that he tried. Hopefully he will get more and more comfortable and eventually will love it.

That night we had a ranger drive up and warn us that there were strong winds coming with gusts up to 50mph and that we should make sure that we were secured properly. If you haven't stayed in Lake Powell, you might not know how scary winds can be. Even though you have a houseboat (or power boat for that matter) anchored in, a big gust of wind can pull your anchors out or break your ropes and push your boat pretty far, or, heaven forbid, sink it. It's a pretty scary thing. So we anchored in really tight and braved the storm. Luckily we were up against a large canyon wall so the wind didn't hit us quite as badly as it probably would have but we swayed pretty far a few times. Throughout the night and the whole next day, the winds didn't stop. But luckily we had a lot of people that knew what they were doing that kept us safe so we were still able to enjoy the day.

When the winds finally calmed that night we decided to take a quick surfing run before the sun went down since it was our last night and we had to have the houseboat back by 9:30 the next morning. So we headed out to the boat and unhooked the anchors and then the boat wouldn't start. It wouldn't even turn over. So we spent the rest of the night (until 2:30 the next morning) trying to figure out what was wrong. It turns out, there was a hose that had pushed on the wires going to the starter and had completely torn the wire off. Luckily we had Jared there that was able to find and fix it. Thank goodness for Jared! He did a lot to help with our boat throughout the trip from fixing the starter to tying up anchors, to repairing a hole. Thanks Jake! I hear the first two years of a boat's life are pretty tough for maintenance. I'm starting to see that. But it's still totally worth it!

Brian and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary on the 14th. I can't believe it has been 7 years already. It is crazy how quickly time goes by. This year we were in Lake Powell for our anniversary so we celebrated by doing some wakeboarding and surfing. I don't want to get all mushy but I do want Brian to know that I love him more than anything in the world and I am so lucky to have him. I love you Bri!

Then 6 days later we got to celebrate another day together: Father's Day and my birthday. It was kind of hard because I wanted to make Brian's Father's Day special but at the same time, he wanted to make my birthday special. But it was such a great day and Brian was so sweet. Thanks for sharing your day with me Bri. I sure love you.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BAUER!

2010-06-06T13:45:00.005-06:00

Today is my sweet Bauer's 4th birthday. Happy Birthday sweet boy. I LOVE YOU!!!

Bauer has been such a joy in our lives. He has such a sweet, tender heart and always wants to make sure that everyone around him is happy. He will do anything he can to make you smile and the sweet smirk on his little face can melt your heart in a second. Bauer is a smart kid and loves to learn. He is adored by his family and friends and loves to be in charge. We are so blessed to have his sweet spirit in our home.

I love you baby boy! Happy Birthday my sweetheart.

A VERY MERRY UNBIRTHDAY

2010-05-12T22:43:00.002-06:00

May 6th was Bauer's very merry unbirthday at school where he got to be the special leader for the day and got to bring in a special visitor. He was lucky enough to have his daddy come in and talk about him. We made a little poster with pictures of his favorites things and he took ice cream to share. Bauer was shy but enjoyed having his special day at school.

MOTHER'S DAY 2010

2010-05-10T12:16:00.011-06:00

Mother's Day was wonderful this year, as always. Our celebration started Saturday morning when we took Bauer's great-grandmas to breakfast. They were both very excited to go and we had a great time. We went to Red Rooster Wafle and had a yummy breakfast and wonderful company. Bauer adores his great-grandmas and they adore him. It's so cute to see them together. Bauer brought each of them a boquet of paper flowers with pictures of him and them together. And Granny Bliss gave me a beautiful bracelet.

Sunday morning I woke up and showered and when I got out, my sweet Bauer was awake and said "Mommy, come see!" He took me out to the kitchen were there was a flower, a card, and a surfboard bag. Bauer was so excited. He said "it's just your size. Look at it." I opened the surfboard bag (which I just assumed was for our old surfboard that didn't have a bag) and there was a new board in there. I love it! I can't wait to get out and use it. While I was opening that, Bauer broght my flower over for me to see and the card that he had made at school. Aunt Suzzi had taken him to pick out flowers for me, Heidi, and both of his grandmas. (Thanks Suzzi! That is so sweet of you to do.) The card he had made at school was adorable. He had signed his own name and drawn a flower, a bee, and a butterfly. It was so cute!

Once we were all dressed and ready, we headed to Grandma Lorna's to go to brunch at Little America. We had to wait quite a while to be seated but luckily there was a clown there that made balloon swords for Bauer and Bodey and Heidi had her phone to keep them busy. Once we got seated we had a great brunch. After brunch we went back to Lorna's to play for a little while and visit.

Later that afternoon, we headed out to my mom's house for dinner. The boys were so great: Sam made dinner and Brian cleaned up. It was so nice for us moms to have a break. Mom gave us yummy treats and Rae gave us each a purse. (So thoughtful of you guys. Thanks!) During dinner, Brian suggested we go over to Granny Bliss' house and play tennis (she has a court in her backyard). Nobody was really sure if he was serious or not but once we realized that he really did want to, everyone hopped up, grabbed a racket, and headed over. We played a copule of doubles games and had a blast making fun of eachother. Dad is really the only one that knows what he is doing but Rae, Ange and I took classes when we were younger and I even played on the High School team my Freshman and Sophomore years. I think everyone had fun though. After our tennis matches, we headed back over for dessert and to hang out.

When we got home from my parents' house, we decided to snuggle and watch a movie. The boys let me pick the movie since it was Mother's Day but neither of them lasted very long in it anyways. They were both sound asleep within the first couple of minutes. It had been a long day and we were all wiped out. But it was a wonderful day and I am so grateful for my sweet husband that always makes it special for me and for all of my family and friends that call, text, give gifts, and send their love.

THE DANDILION TRAGEDY

2010-05-08T20:21:00.003-06:00

Bauer cried today because Brian was spraying the dandilions. You see, Bauer, like most kids, likes to pick dandilions and bring them to me. Of course I love it when he does becuase I think it's so sweet. And so he loves it. He always says "does that make you happy Mommy?" It has become a special thing to both of us. So today Brian sprayed the dandilions and Bauer asked what he was doing. When he told him that he was killing them, Bauer got really upset. He told him not to becuase then how would he pick them to give them to me? He kept telling Brian "Mommy loves them." Brian sent him in to talk to me so I could explain that although I love to get dandilions from him, I don't like to have them in my yard. It was a tough sell. He just wasn't having it. He just wanted to have them to pick for me. What a sweet boy.

BAUER-ISMS

2010-05-01T11:21:00.013-06:00

Kids do and say the cutest things and you think they are so cute that you could never forget but then even a week later you are struggling to remember the details. So I would like to write a few Bauer-isms so that I can always remember my sweet boy the way he is right now.

My favorite words/phrases Bauer uses:

Disnleyland

Benchtables (vegitables)

A-know-ing (annoying)

Drinky (thirsty)

Climp (clip)

Upsect (except)

Smarshmallow (marshmallow)

Dee-agonal (diagonal)

I love you all the way to the moon and all the way back to the moon and all the way to outer space.

WHAT THE...

2010-04-29T16:45:00.003-06:00

It's almost May. And this is what I saw when I got to work this morning. What the heck!!! Then it continued to snow ALL DAY. We are supposed to be getting ready to start waterskiing, not snow skiing. This is horrible. Why can't it just be warm now? Dang weather.

AND WHO DOESN'T LIKE A GOOD HOSPITAL VISIT...

2010-04-26T12:05:00.004-06:00

Brian had surgery today. Don't worry...nothing like last time. He just had his wrist fixed. He was really not excited about this but it had to be done. We planned for and expected the worst because with Brian, that's usually how it goes but this time it actually went really well. They were afraid that they might have to cut his bone down to shorten it while they were in ther but they didn't. Thank goodness! So now he only has to wear a soft cast and only for a week. Then he will do physical therapy for 4 weeks or so and then he should be back to golfing and boating and doing anything else his little heart disires.

Bauer and I have just been hanging out in the waiting room. Luckily I have a computer here to help me pass the time. Bauer has a ton of stuff to keep him busy too. We packed him up a backpack full of books, treats, toys, stickers, ipods and all kinds of stuff. He has been such an angel. He hasn't complained even once. He has just played with his toys and written his letters and just been an angel.

NEW

2010-04-25T22:27:00.004-06:00

So I have a new blog [click here]. I really want to start working harder on my photography skills so I have created a blog where I will post my "practice" pictures. I would love to have you give me suggestions. That's the best way to learn, right?

I CAN'T KEEP UP

2010-04-20T12:17:00.002-06:00

Ug! I feel like it's chaos around here. I just can't keep up. I haven't felt well and you know when you are sick and you just don't feel like cleaning? Yeah, well, I need to learn how to clean anyways. Now here I am with heaping loads of laundry, a pile of clutter on the kitchen counter, filth and dust all over the house, a disgusting car, a million errands that need to be run, and a to-do list longer than my arm. Bauer has no clean underwear, we have no normal meals, and I am starting to stress. And to top it off, we have tons of things going on this week. We have plans EVERY night. And all I want to do is lay down and rest. Luckily I don't work Mondays and Tuesdays so I have had some time to get things done. So I go, go, go all day. I am checking things off my list and I will get there slowly. But man...hopefully not too slowly.

GAME 2

2010-04-15T20:17:00.005-06:00

Today's baseball game was much more enjoyable than Monday's. It was nice and warm and the boys could focus and play hard. They were so stinkin' cute! They did such a great job too. And Bauer even hit without the tee this time. Hooray! We still need to work on getting power behind his swing but hey, at least we are making progress.

BASEBALL

2010-04-13T07:51:00.006-06:00

Check out the cutest little baseball player ever! Okay, I know - I'm biased. But still, I think he's pretty dang cute. Bauer decided to try baseball this year instead of soccer and he had his first game last night. Luckily I took some pictures of him before we left because just before gametime, it started to sprinkle. The coaches got together and decided that it was just a little sprinkle and would be fine to play the game. So we got the boys all out on the field and started to play and then, of course, it started pouring rain. Our boys were really good sports about it even though they were cold and wet. They are a pretty good little team. I can't wait to see how well they do when the weather cooperates.

EASTER

2010-04-11T20:14:00.003-06:00

Our Easter fun this year started the Tuesday before Easter when Bauer was out of school for Spring Break. He had missed some school just before that and his teacher had sent home some work. One of the pages had 8 Easter eggs and he was supposed to draw lines between the matching pairs. After he matched them up, I suggested we color the eggs and then cut them out to make cards for his grandparents. I didn't take pictures of the cards but they turned out really cute.

On Friday I had the day off work for Good Friday and we got to watch Collin while Rae was at work. The boys wanted to color so I looked up some Easter coloring and activity pages for them and we made them each a coloring book. They got to design their own covers and then we just tied them together with some yarn. We also found a cute pattern to make little bunny masks so the boys colored thier masks, and then I helped them cut them out, glue on the whiskers and noses, and put them all together. They thought those were pretty cool and Collin especially liked it because he thought it was funny to put his glasses on over his mask so his Easter Bunny was wearing glasses.
On Saturday we watched conference and then Brian, Bauer, and I colored some eggs. It was actually lots of fun which is funny because I usually don't really care much about coloring eggs. We bought a tie-dying kit and Bauer loved picking different colors to use. He did about a dozen eggs on his own and then got tired.
That night we got our Easter baskets out and ready for the Easter Bunny to find. Bauer picked the baskets for each of us and set them out on the couch. Bauer loves his froggy basket.
Sunday morning we woke up to find that the Easter Bunny had come, filled or baskets, and hidden them. Bauer found all of our baskets for us. His basket was really small so the Easter Bunny had to put his things into 2 baskets. He thought that was pretty funny. This year the Easter Bunny knew that we were trying to eat healthier so he didn't bring many treats. He brought a couple of our favorite treats and then just brought a couple of toys. When Bauer grabbed his sticker book, his eyes lit up and he said "Oh, just what I wanted." Cute little stinker. We had a nice, relaxing day of hanging out in our PJs, watching conference, and taking naps.

That afternoon, we headed over to Gayle and Lorna's house for the family Easter party. The kids started by doing their "egg" hunt. I put the egg in quotations because there really aren't many eggs in the hunt it's more of a "stuff" hunt, with toys and bubbles and balls and all kids of things. Then we had a yummy hamburger and hot dog dinner and just hung out and the adults talked while the kids (and Brian, Jared, and Suzzi) played out on the golf course with their new toys. It was a great night. We had lots of fun and Bauer got tons of yummy treats and fun toys.

This year my parents were in North Carolina for Easter to see Ben and Tessa and their brand new baby Malia so we had our Easter party with them the Sunday after. We had a nice dinner and then the kids did their egg hunt. Matt and Tia came over to help my dad hide the eggs and they did a great job. The kids had a hard time finidng them all. They had a blast trying to though. Bauer was funny. Every time he would pick up an egg, he would have to dust it off before he could put it into his basket. I love my little Mr. Clean.

TENDER MOMENTS

2010-04-05T19:56:00.004-06:00

I apologize for posting stories like this but I have used this blog as my journal and this is one of the stories that as a mom, I want to remember.

Today when Bauer was supposed to take his nap, he walked in and laid down in his bed and then told me that he was hungry. He does that sometimes and I don't know if he is stalling or if he really is hungry. This time I thought he probably really was hungry so I told him that he could have some fruit. He told me that I could just bring a bowl into his bed and lay it next to him and he would eat it when he wanted to. Silly boy. You can't have food in your bed! So I made him come out to the kitchen and eat his fruit. As soon as the fruti was gone, without a word, he marched himself right to bed and laid back down. I went in to make sure that he really had gone to bed and give him a kiss. As I was leaving he said "Mommy, could you do just one thing for me?"
"Sure"
"Could you come over here and snuggle me for just a minute? Not for a long time. Just for a little bit." Well, how could you resist that? So I laid down next to him and put my arms around him. He laid there for a minute and then sat up, pulled his blanket off and spread it out over both of us. He said "here. Put your hands in like this and it will make you warm." Then he pulled the blanket over both of our heads and put his little nose next to mine and whispered "let's just hide for a minute" and gave me that sweet, angelic grin. We talked for a minute and then he turned over and got comfortable and ready to sleep. When he found his comfortable spot, he turned over to me and kissed my cheek and then turned back. He laid there for just a minute and then turned back and kissed my nose. And then he turned back over and went to sleep. It was such a sweet, wonderful moment for me. One of the moments that I want to remember forever. What a sweet, sweet boy. I sure love you my angel!

MALIA

2010-03-30T10:00:00.003-06:00

We have a new neice. Meet Malia Karen Bliss. She was born last night and we are so excited! Sorry the picture is so grainy, it was just from my brother's phone. Hopefully we will have more soon. Unfortunately, we won't get to meet Malia until July. She lives in North Carolina (Dang you Ben!) but they will be coming to Utah to visit in July. I can't wait.

DISNEYLAND

2010-03-20T09:13:00.001-06:00

I know...Disneyland again. But hey, we love it! Gayle and Lorna took the family and the Bangerter kids for a trip last week. Everyone except Brian, Macey, and I left last Thursday morning and went to Sea World and then drove to Anaheim. Brian and I flew in Friday night and met everyone at Disneyland and we spent the next 5 days there. We had tons of fun! Bauer was a little bit too short to ride most of the rides so Lorna bought him a pair of tall shoes and then brough gauze pads to stuff the heels with. We had to stuff them so high that he could hardly get his feet into them but it made him tall enough to go on most of the rides so it was worth it. He got to go on Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, Soarin' Over California, and the Tower of Terror. It was so much fun to be able to take him on all of the "big kid rides" and he absolutely LOVED them all. He was so cute.

Bauer never had to worry about having a partner to ride with because everyone wanted to be his partner. All of the kids were so cute with him. They played with him and took care of him and pushed his stroller and made sure he was always happy.

We all had such a great time and absolutely loved the trip. Thanks Gayle & Lorna!

JERK!

2010-03-19T22:10:00.003-06:00

Well I feel like a butt!!! Ever since we got back from Disneyland, I have just been exhausted. Like, to the point of almost having to pull over and take a nap any time I drove anywhere. Vacation doesn't usually wear me out that badly but I have just had a rough time recovering this time. Anyways, when I am that tired, I am very impatient. And I get really annoyed because I am so tired that I can't even stand it and then on top of that, I had to get everything cleaned up and put away and go grocery shopping and clean. My poor, sweet Bauer has just gotten the brunt of everything. So tonight I was helping him with something and got really impatient again and he said in his sweet, angelic voice, "Mommy, don't get frustrated with me anymore okay. It makes me feel really bad." I can't even describe how bad I felt. I can't believe that I can let something as stupid as being tired affect me so much and make me treat my baby so poorly. There is nothing like the innocent words of a sweet baby to make you realize what is important. So I am sorry my sweet baby boy. I love you!

GRANNY BLISS

2010-03-11T17:29:00.001-07:00

This is my Granny Bliss, or "Great" as Bauer calls her. She watches Bauer on Wednesdays and they have a blast together. They sing and dance, color, pretend, play outside, and have picnics. It's such a great opportunity for Grandma and for Bauer and they so love their time together.

GRANDMA WRIGHT

2010-03-01T07:46:00.005-07:00

This is my Grandma Wright, Bauer's great-grandma. Grandma watches Bauer on Fridays and it is the highlight of their week. They have so much fun together making cookies, reading books, learning songs, and watching movies. Having Grandma watch Bauer has been such a great opportunity for Bauer and Grandma get to spend time together. It will be such a wonderful memory for him.

GHOSTS

2010-02-17T19:44:00.001-07:00

Yesterday we were driving home from Costco and passed the miniature golf course at Mulligans. Bauer LOVES golf so of course he noticed. He told me that he thought it was a good time to go golfing at “the one with the dark house”. Mulligans has 2 courses: a Lighthouse and a Haunted House, which Bauer calls the “Dark House.” So we started talking about golf, and about the haunted house and he asked me why it was called a haunted house. I told him that it was because it was spooky. “But why?” So I explained that haunted meant that ghosts lived there and without skipping a beat, he said “but what about the Holy Ghost? He’s a nice ghost.”
“Yes he is. You’re right. What does the Holy Ghost do?”
“He helps us.” You could see his little mind working and then a couple of minutes later he said “I wish I could give him hugs every day.”

There is nothing like the sweet innocence of a child to put life into perspective.

HELPER

2010-02-16T15:43:00.002-07:00

This is our sweet little helper, hiding under the cart. Cute boy!

OUCH!

2010-02-14T21:16:00.003-07:00

Today as I walked into Sacrament meeting, I was met by Bauer's primary teacher who said "so did you hear that we beat your kid?" He told me that they were playing a game in class and Bauer ran into a chair and hurt his eye. I said "what's new!?" Bauer is not the most graceful of kids. He is constantly falling down, running into things, and getting hurt. But I guess I maybe should have been a little more concerned this time. Yup, this is what his eye looked like. Ouch! Poor little fella. He said that he was pretty tough though. He only cried for a second. And it must have been true because they didn't even come get us or anything.

TRAGEDY

2010-02-06T20:13:00.006-07:00

Tragedy struck at our house today. After Bauer came in from playing outside, I asked him to put away the toys he had been using. That's when the world ended. Life as we knew it was over. "But I want to play again." After screaming, crying, and throwing a tantrum, he got quiet for a minute, at which point I explained that he needed to shower and take a nap and when he woke up, if he still felt like playing outside, he could go back out. Well apparently that just doesn't make sense to a 3-year-old. Or maybe he is just naughty. Either way, the tantrum continued. I sent him to his room while I went out to bring the basketball hoop back into the garage and as I got back into the garage I saw him standing at the door. That's when it happened - tragedy met comedy as he pleaded... "Why are you ruining my life?"

OBSESSION

2010-02-05T17:53:00.007-07:00

So I have this new obsession and no - it's not gross old chairs. And it's not even really new. In fact, it is something I have loved for a couple of years now but have started to really study. So if you haven't already guessed, my new obsession is photography. You see, back in November I started reading Scott Kelby's "The Digital Photography Book" which I finished in less than a week. Now, to people that love reading, this might not seem like such a big deal but I could probably count the number of books I have read in my life on my hands so reading a book (even one as short as this) in such a short amount of time was quite the feat for me. So as soon as I was done with that book, of course I moved on to "The Digital Photography Book, Volume 2" and then "The Digital Photography Book, Volume 3." Now I'm obsessed and I can't stop. I keep finding more and more books and now I'm checking photography blogs and finding different photographer's sights. I can't stop. But now it's time to actually apply some of the things I've been reading. It's time to pick up the camera again and start shooting. At first my goal was going to be to take a picture every day but I think that's a little too ambitious to start. So for now, I will just try to take pictures often. One thing I have learned from these books is that you don't necessarily need to have something big and wonderful to take a picture of. Some of my favorite pictures are of stupid little ordinary things that I would normally never even consider taking a picture of. Hence, the ugly chair at the beginning of this post. I sure do have a long way to go but hopefully my new obsession with reading and my commitment to practice will help me improve my ability. Here's hoping...

HORRIBLE

2010-01-26T08:40:00.004-07:00

Years ago, while Brian and I were dating, his family took a trip to New York where they spent a lot of time in China Town. Brian was obsessed with the silk suits and kept wanting to buy one but they were just too expensive. His family talks about that all the time and how funny it was to see him in that suit. Well, for his birthday, Suzzi and Heidi gave him one and after church on Sunday, Brian put the suit on to go up to their house (and to brunch at Grand America). We kept laughing about it and saying how awesome it was. Bauer said "It's not awesome. It's horrible." He was even more funny than the suit. "Daddy, take that off. That's horrible." Hey, at least he's honest, right.

HAPPY 30TH BIRTHDAY!!!

2010-01-22T05:39:00.001-07:00

Can you believe that 30 years ago, this cute boy was born? Happy 30th Birthday Brian. We love you so much.

OPINIONS

2010-01-15T04:56:00.001-07:00

I just wanted to ask for opinions on this picture. What do you think of it?

BEST HUSBAND EVER

2010-01-13T04:54:00.002-07:00

I just wanted to take a quick minute and thank my sweet husband for the flowers he sent. This is my first time getting "just because" flowers and I love it. Thanks Bri. You truly are the best husband ever!

SANTA

2009-12-30T19:15:00.006-07:00

If there is one thing you can count on, it's that your kids will be sick during holidays. I think Bauer has been sick for every birthday and every Christmas since he was born. Granted, that's only 3 1/2 years but still... This year was no exception. He started getting sick the Sunday before Christmas and just kept getting worse and worse. The night of Christmas Eve was horrible. He was coughing so badly that he couldn't sleep and he was tired and hurting. Just after going into his bed, he called for Brian and told him that he needed to throw up. We ran him into the bathroom but all that came up was a little bit of mucus...and some blood. It was so sad. I felt so bad for the poor little guy. He finally got to sleep and actually slept very well. Since we had a party at 11:00, we had to wake Bauer up to open presents from Santa. I went in just after 8:30 and tired to wake him up but he just said "I'm tired." Then he rolled over and went back to sleep. I had to try a few times and finally just picked him up and brought him out to see his presents. He was most excited to see his stocking filled so that is where he started. By the time he got through the stocking, he was a little more awake and seemed to be feeling better. He opened his presents and did so much better this year. He was very excited about everything he got and didn't take much convincing to get him to open more. Last year we had to force him to open most of them. I loved to see the twinkle in his little eyes as he opened all of his gifts. Watching that was the highlight of my Christmas.

CHRISTMAS PARTY #7

2009-12-30T18:57:00.003-07:00

This year Granny Bliss had her Christmas party on the 26th. And even though it was after Christmas, we kept the same traditions. We had dinner, sang carols, had our "talent show", played the bells, and opened gifts. I don't get to see my cousins very often so I always love the opportunity to visit with them during the Christmas party. We have tons of fun and love to laugh. My favorite part was the white elephant gifts. One of the Pearsons usually writes a "right/left" story about the family and we pass gifts as the story is read but this year there wasn't a story so we just opened gifts. Granny always provides all of the white elephant gifts and this year she decided to clean out her holiday box so each of the gifts was a decoration. It was pretty funny seeing what everyone got. But the best part was Eric. He didn't quite get the humor of the gifts and when he opened his, he was PISSED! The look on his face was priceless. We laughed so hard.

CHRISTMAS PARTY #6

2009-12-30T18:32:00.004-07:00

Christmas morning after Santa had come we headed out to the Bliss Immediate Family Party. We started with a wonderful breakfast and then opened presents. Collin has always been obsessed with Michael Jackson. After watching 'This is It' in the theaters, he told my mom that he wanted to be Michael Jackson for Halloween next year. Angela drew his name for Christmas this year and gave him Michael Jackson shoes, jacket, and hat and a copy of the movie. He was so excited. I don't think he took the hat off for days. Cute boy. Bauer got tons of fun toys and loved playing with them all day while the adults relaxed and played Brian's new game: Buzz.

CHRISTMAS PARTY #5

2009-12-30T16:51:00.004-07:00

Our Christmas Eve party started, as always, with a delicious dinner and dessert. After dinner, we played Christmas Bingo and when someone got a Bingo, they got to pick a white elephant gift. It's always funny to see what people come up with. Bauer was one of the first to pick a gift and his was a walkman with a "Walking to the 80s" tape in it. When I got a Bingo, I chose to take Bauer's gift from him so he could pick a new gift. Well, Bauer didn't like that plan. He wanted to keep his present, dang it. You should have seen the dirty look he gave me. Silly boy. Santa came to visit after our game and even the adults sat on his lap this year. It was pretty funny to watch the adults feel like kids again. Before heading home to bed, Lorna gave the kids all a cute Temple decoration and some money.

CHRISTMAS PARTY #4

2009-12-30T16:33:00.004-07:00

This year the Williams Immediate Family party started with the new Alvin & The Chipmunks movie. I had to work so I wasn't able to go but I met up with them all after the movie for some yummy soup. After dinner, the kids made treat bags to give away. Lorna taught them about the importance of giving during the Holiday season and let them all fill up as many bags as they wanted with treats to give away. Once the kids were done with these bags, they had a special visitor - Santa. He was so cute with the kids. When Santa left, we exchanged gifts and then watched the University of Utah's Bowl Game. It was tons of fun and we were all spoiled. Thanks Everyone!

CHRISTMAS PARTY #3

2009-12-21T00:18:00.007-07:00

This year we went to breakfast at Mimi's for our party with the Bawdens. We had a yummy breakfast and then Bauer and Paislee exchanged gifts. Bauer wasn't feeling very well so he didn't act really excited but he absolutely loved his toys. He hasn't stopped playing with them since we got home. He got a shirt, a hoodie, a Mr. Potato Head, a Nerf gun, and a HUGE recycle/garbage truck. He is so spoiled. Thanks Chad, Amanda, & Paislee! You guys are the best. We love you.

CHRISTMAS PARTY #2

2009-12-20T23:29:00.006-07:00

The "kids party" is a fun tradition in Brian's family. Each year the extended family gets together for dinner but it's not a normal dinner. You see, it's called the kids party because the kids are in charge of the meal. Each kid brings their favorite food to share. It's funny to see how different the meals are each year. This year it was mostly pasta but the food gets better and better as the kids get older. It has gone from chicken nuggets and mac & cheese to fondu and Olive Garden. Each year the family also does some sort of a service or charity project to go along with it. This year we did 'The Christmas Jar'. Each family had a jar that they filled with spare change and were told to give to someone in need. It was such a great experience to both realize how lucky we are, and to help a family in need. Bauer was really good about helping gather money. He gets paid each week to help his dad with taking out the garbage and each time he got money we asked him if he would like to put it in his piggy bank or in the jar to give to someone else. Out of the 10+ times he was given the option, he only chose to keep the money once. He was such a good sport and was very excited to help someone. After dinner and the charity project, the kids reenacted the nativity. Bauer got to be a wise man and what a cute little wise man he was! Such cute kids.

SUNSHINE SQUARE PROGRAM

2009-12-20T12:25:00.000-07:00

Bauer has been learning Christmas songs at preschool and they had a little mini-program for parents that Brian and I were able to go to where they sang some of them. Poor little Bauer is so darn shy that he kind of just sat there, expressionless the whole time. He knew the songs. I know that because he walks around the house singing them. But I think he was just so overwhelmed by all of the people watching that he just kind of froze. He was so cute though and it was fun to go watch. Oh, my sweet Bauer is getting so big.

CHRISTMAS PARTY #1

2009-12-08T14:10:00.003-07:00

Our first Christmas party this year was our ward Christmas party on the 4th. We had a yummy dinner and then Santa came to see the kids. Bauer couldn't think of anything to tell Santa that he wants though. It's so weird. We have been asking and asking what he wants for Christmas and he never can think of anything. We finally started taking him to stores and walking through the toy isles to see what he liked. The problem there is that he will just walk down the isle and say "I want one of these, and one of these, and one of these..." and point out pretty much everything on the isle. Darn kids.

So in other news...I have been a slacker and haven't written forever so here is what has been going on in our world:
Jared got married on the 25th. Congratulations Jared and Marti! So now we have a new sister-in-law, niece, and nephew.
We had a wonderful Thanksgiving, as always. This year was the Williams' year so we went to Uncle Brent & Aunt Delores's house for dinner. It was wonderful and we had a great time with family. We are so lucky to have such wonderful family that love and support us so much.
The day after Thanksgiving we put our Christmas decorations up. Brian was really sick so he slept while Bauer and I decorated. Bauer got his own tree in his room this year and was really excited about it. He even decorated the whole thing by himself. I showed him where I thought a couple of the decorations should go so he wouldn't put them all in one spot but he did the whole thing and it looks great.
A few days later, Suzzi came over to help me decorate our front porch. She always does such cute decorations and I just don't come up with stuff like that so luckily she is nice enough to help me. Lorna ended up having to come help us too which we really appreciated so we wouldn't have to keep climbing up and down from the laddars. Thanks goodness for wonderful family! Thanks guys.
Ben and Tessa found out that they are having a baby girl. Congratulations guys! I'm so excited for our sweet Malia!
Oh, and here is another picture of the Ward Christmas Party. I thought it was so cute of Bauer and Pais.

SAN DIEGO FUN

2009-11-21T19:55:00.009-07:00

My first post about vacation was kind of rushed and was more of a travel log than anything else so here are all of the fun thoughts and stories I wanted to remember.

Since we were in the money-saving mode for this trip, we decided to drive instead of flying. Definitely not as easy and convenient but it actually wasn't too bad. I was especially impressed with how well Bauer did. It's hard for a kid his age to sit still for even a couple of seconds, let alone 10 hours. And yeah, he got restless and by the end of the drive was more than ready to get out of the car but he really did so well. On the way to California, Bauer was talking to Matt & Ange about what sounds animals make. Bauer would say "what animal makes this sound...moo?" And then Matt & Angela had to answer. He went through a few of the usuals and then said "what animal makes this sound...'I have a long neck'?" (giraffe). We laughed so hard. Cute little stinker. Then we got just over the hill to where you could see all the lights of Las Vegas and it was dark outside so you could see millions of lights all over. Bauer's face lit up and he said "I can see the whole world down there."

The first night we arrived in San Diego, we settled into our rooms at the condo and Bauer picked where he wanted to sleep. Any guesses where that was? Yeah, that's right...in the closet. That was his choice. And the funniest part of it was that he slept there every night. I thought that it would just be a novelty and that after the first night he would be done. Nope. Every night he stayed there.

And then there was Disneyland (or Disnleyland as Bauer calls it). That's always a fun day but at the same time, it's always exhausting. Especially when you only have one day there so you feel like you have to cram everything in. But I thought we worked it out pretty well. Sure, we rushed from place to place, but we did most of the things we wanted to and had our incredible lunch at Club 33 and Bauer was a trooper the whole day. He never complained about not being able to go on rides, he didn't throw tantrums, and he didn't ask us to buy him anything.

Torrey Pines was a fun experience. It's one of those courses that a true golfer really needs to play so I was glad that Brian got a chance to. It was really pretty along the ocean at sunset.

We love the beach. I am sure most people do. It's just so pretty and relaxing. Bauer of course hated getting sand all over him though. The poor kid is just too particular. But he had such a great time there. The first time we went, we all took our swimsuits in case we wanted to get in the ocean. Once we got there and felt how cold the air was, we decided not to but Bauer, of course, wanted to get in. So we put his suit on and he ran and played in the water and found sea shells. Every time he found one his eyes would light up and he would get so excited but after finding the first 10 or so, I started telling him that we couldn't keep all the ones he found. I told him to only keep the ones that weren't broken which turned out to be a really good idea because there really weren't many. Matt found him a couple of sand dollars too so that was cool. Oh yeah, so funny...while we were waiting for the tee time at Torrey Pines, Ange and I took Bauer to the beach to hang out for a while. We took our shoes off at the car and just left them there. We got about two steps into the sand and Bauer said "but what are we gonna do about my pants?" Oh Bauer.

And speaking of the beach, here are our family pictures there...

Okay, so the San Diego Temple is absolutely gorgeous! It is my new favorite temple. I love the spires and the detail in the windows and just the overall look of it.

SAN DIEGO

2009-11-18T18:40:00.009-07:00

Brian's parents have a timeshare and have a couple of weeks saved up that were going to be lost if they weren't used by the end of the year so they let Brian and me use one wherever we wanted. There were lots of fun places we could have gone but we decided to make it a lower budget trip and drive to San Diego with Matt & Angela. Originally, the boys were planning on golfing quite a bit but they ended up only going once but they got to play Torrey Pines, a course that Brian has wanted to play for a long time. Angela and I decided to bring Bauer and tag along on the course and just take pictures while the boys played. It was a beautiful course and was gorgeous with the beach behind it at sunset. They played the twilight so they only ended up making it through 13 holes but they had a great time. Check out this gorgeous HDR picture Matt took of the course. It's my favorite.

Now, it's no secret that I love Disneyland. And it just didn't feel right to be going to California and not go to Disneyland. The boys weren't so thrilled about going but Matt's friend was able to get us into Club 33 so they agreed to go. Club 33 is a private club within Disneyland that Walt created to entertain dignitaries. It's hidden in the corner of New Orleans Square and is marked by a "33" on the side of the door. The only way to get in is to have a reservation (which can only be made by members) and at your reservation time, you ring a bell in the door and they let you in. A Club 33 worker opens the door for you, takes your coats and bags, and lets them know at the restaurant that you are there. While we were being checked in, a lady tried to come in and see what it was all about. The worker bolted to the door and almost pushed the lady out the door while explaining that it was a private club and she could not be there. "Can I just come in and see what the restaurant looks like?" Nope! Not happening. It's a totally secretive thing and members (or guests in our case) are treated almost like royalty. The restaurant inside is a 5-star restaurant and was absolutely wonderful. They have a buffet of salads, meat and cheese, sea food, and dessert, and then you order a main dish of either chicken, steak, or a couple of different fish dishes. Brian and I got Fillet Mignon and Matt and Angela got chicken and both were awesome! Bauer got his own kids menu and ordered mac & cheese and the noodles were shaped like Mickey. So cute (and also really yummy). When you pay for a meal at Club 33, you also get a day pass to Disneyland and California Adventure so we got to go to Disneyland for the day. It made me realize just how short of time a day is at Disneyland. We got to do all of the big rides (thanks to parent passes) but there was a lot we didn't get to do. But we had so much fun and I was so glad we got to go (thanks boys!). Plus, lunch at Club 33 was amazing.

Other than golf and Disneyland, we didn't really do anything huge. We hung out at the beach, went out to eat, and did a little sight-seeing. Oh, and family pictures. I know - I'm out of control. But this was actually Brian's idea. We haven't had family pictures taken for over a year now which is a really long time for us so we were due. Plus, I like to have a family picture to create Christmas cards so I wanted to do them anyways. The first night we went to the beach and watched the sunset, Brian said "we should have brought clothes to take family pictures here." We ended up buying a shirt for the boys (they needed new white dress shirts anyways) and I already had a white one packed. I'm sure that's not how Matt & Angela planned on spending their last night in San Diego but they were good sports. After pictures, we stopped at the San Diego temple to take some pictures of it. For anyone that hasn't seen that one, you should make it a point to because it is absolutely gorgeous!
So that was our trip. Tons of fun and I'm so glad we got to go.

WE HAVE TO THROW THIS ONE AWAY

2009-11-09T21:32:00.002-07:00

"Mom, we have to throw this one away" says Bauer. Oh, my sweet, OCD boy. You see, earlier today he told Grandma Williams that he needed money for Disneyland because it costs $2 to watch the parade. So of course Grandma gave him money. So he counted and sorted it and then proceeded to tell me that we needed to throw this particular bill away because it is bent in too many places. I kept trying to tell him that you can spend money no matter how it looks but he still doesn't believe me. This one isn't any good. It is too crumbly. What am I going to do with my little perfectionist?

SCHOOL PICTURES

2009-11-03T15:35:00.010-07:00

Today was picture day at Bauer's school. Of course I couldn't resist the opportunity to take pictures myself. He was dressed up nicely and prepped to take pictures so I figured I might as well snap a few in the basement before we left. He wasn't so thrilled about it though. So here is what I came up with...

This is Bauer's picture face...

And this is his trying so hard to smile face...

And here are some okay ones...

HALLOWEEN

2009-11-02T11:08:00.002-07:00

So I didn't take any pictures on Halloween. I know - very out of character for me. Not sure what was wrong but anyways, I just wanted to post (for my sake more than anything) about it. On Friday night we had the Williams family party at Gayle and Lorna's. We had yummy fondu for dinner and then went to see 'This Is It.' I absolutely loved it. I have always loved Michael Jackson though. Bauer loved it too. He was dancing and singing and having a great time (until he fell asleep). In fact, at one point his dancing got so crazy that he head-butted Brian and I had to take him out crying. Saturday morning we woke up and went to see Hiett's last football game. It was really cold but we had fun and they won so it was great. After the game, Brian, Bauer, and I went to lunch at Kneaders and then went home to take a nap. We got up at about 3:45 and got Bauer dressed up in his costume and headed over to Trick-or-Treat at Gayle & Lorna's house. At 5:00 Brian left to go to the Utah game and Bauer and I headed out to West Valley. We stopped at Grandma Wright's house first to get some chili and see all of my aunts, uncles, and cousins. Kai and Grandpa met us there and brought Bauer his treat so we wouldn't have to stop by there house too. Then we stopped at Matt & Tia's house and then Granny Bliss' for some Trick-or-Treating. After all of our visits we headed home to hand out candy. I tried and tried to convince Bauer to Trick-or-Treat around the neighborhood but he refused. He just didn't want to. I finally convinced him to go to Pete & Leslie's house (our neighbors that Bauer loves) but that is the only house he would go to. Matt & Tia came over just after that and watched Haunted Mansion with us. So Halloween was tons of fun but very busy. It's nice to have a day to rest and relax. Thank goodness for Sundays!

TRUNK OR TREAT

2009-10-29T05:03:00.002-06:00

Our ward had their Trunk or Treat last night so we took Bauer over to do some trick-or-treating. He went to about 5 cars and then told me "okay, I'm done. I have enough candy." I am pretty sure he was done because he was so cold so we went back to our car, put his hoodie and gloves on, and he ate a doughnut while the other kids came trick-or-treating. Hopefully Halloween will be warmer.

ANDERSON HALLOWEEN PARTY

2009-10-26T15:43:00.010-06:00

Yesterday morning, in preparation for the annual Anderson Haunted Garage pumpkin carving party, Bauer and I cleaned out the pumpkins that we picked out last week. Brian cut the tops off and then Bauer and I cleaned all of the seeds and crap out. Bauer wiped the outsides off with a rag and then I started in on the guts. Bauer was very intrigued but then when he touched it, he decided that maybe he didn't want to help because it made him dirty. So he watched a Halloween movie and sat by me while I cleaned them out. Cute little stinker.

That night we went to Rick's house and had some yummy soup and carved our pumpkins. Bauer asked Jared to help him with his pumpkin so they picked out a pattern and started in on his pumpkin. Heidi had brought Bauer a pumpkin to do too and had even cleaned it out for him and brought him cute little colored pegs for him to hammer into it. Bauer and Jared used the pegs on their pumpkin and Marti started carving the pumpkin Heidi had given Bauer and then Heidi ended up finishing it. After Jared finished with Bauer, he went home and Bauer came over by me and hammered some pegs into my pumpkin. I let him poke holes in it and play around too. He loved it. It was so cute to watch him. Then, at the end of the night, Suzzi gave her decorated pumpkin to Bauer too. So he ended up with 4 pumpkins! Brian took a pumpkin that I had painted white and carved it into Jack Skellington. I was surprised that nobody knew who he was. Seriously! Does nobody watch Nightmare Before Christmas?!?

BLISS HALLOWEEN PARTY

2009-10-26T11:08:00.005-06:00

Halloween has always been my favorite holiday and I think that is because of my mom. She has always loved Halloween and every year she has a spooky dinner and Halloween party for the family. We eat worms with blood sauce and eyeballs (spaghetti with marinara and meatballs with green olives), bones (bread sticks shaped like bones), and some kind of a spooky dessert. Usually Tessa makes us worms in dirt (chocolate pudding with crushed up oreos and gummy worms on top) but with Tessa in North Carolina, my mom was on her own for dessert. She made the cutest little ghost cupcakes this year.
After our spooky dinner, we got to go talk to Ben & Tessa's family on the computer. They have a web cam so we can see each other while we talk. After our call with them, we did our Halloween crafts. The kids each made a picture frame, mask, and doorknob hanger and the girls (the adult girls) made frames. The kids actually had a really good time with it. Even the older boys.

THRILLER

2009-10-26T11:06:00.005-06:00

Every year my sisters, my mom, and I go see Thriller together. Thriller is a Halloween dance production put on my Odyssey Dance Theater that has all kinds of Halloween dances: Mummys, Frankenstein, Jason, and of course Michael Jackson's Thriller. It is one of my very favorite parts of the year. Collin started coming with us a couple of years ago and Abby came this year too. Sam painted their faces to look like zombies and they looked so cute. They kept saying how they were going to scare the zombies at Thriller but then when they actually saw the zombies, they changed their mind. Collin knew what to expect but was still a little bit scared of them but poor Abby was petrified.

DECORATING THE GOURDS

2009-10-26T10:56:00.006-06:00

On the way home from the pumpkin patch, Bauer said that he wanted to go home and decorate his "little pumpkins" (aka gourds). Well, we didn't have time that night but the next day, I got out some craft supplies to let him decorate. He was extremely fascinated with the eyes (as you can see from the pictures). Then he got a little tired...
So here is how his "little pumpkins" ended up:

PUMPKINS

2009-10-20T10:58:00.007-06:00

We try to do an activity as a family every Monday night so last night we decided to let Bauer go pick out a couple of pumpkins. There is a pumpkin patch on the way to his school that he notices every time we drive past it and last Tuesday when we were driving home from school, I asked him if he wanted to go pick out some pumpkins but I told him that we wanted to wait for his daddy to be able to go with us. So that was our Family Night this week. We weren't able to go until later in the evening because Brian was working so we kind of had to rush before it got dark. But we found a couple of good pumpkins to carve at the Anderson pumpkin carving party and Bauer got two cute gourds that he wants to draw faces on. On our way home we stopped at Wal-Mart and got Bauer some Gushers. You see, Bauer has struggled lately with eating. He, like most kids, only wants to eat treats so we have had to fight a lot about it the last couple of weeks. Last night he at his dinner quickly without fighting or complaining. It was so nice. So his reward was picking out a treat.

SLACKER

2009-10-15T19:29:00.004-06:00

I have been such a slacker with my blog lately. It seems like there has been just too much going on but really I just haven't made the time for it. So here is what we have been up to for the past few weeks.
Hee Haw Farms: Back in September, Bauer and I went on a field trip with his school to Hee Haw Farms. Bauer was so excited to go and see the animals. Honestly, it wasn't the best field trip ever but it was fun and Bauer was happy.

Soccer Pictures: The day that the soccer league did pictures, Brian and Clint (the coaches) were playing in the neighborhood golf tournament so as a team we decided not to do pictures and instead, I took pictures of the team. They turned out pretty well and we didn't have to stand in line forever to have them done so I was thrilled.Lake Powell: We finally had a chance to take the boat to Lake Powell. Because of work we only got to go for a weekend but it was worth it to be able to go. Saturday was beautiful and we had a great time. Then on Sunday it was so windy that we couldn't even get on the water for fear that we might sink the boat. So we ended up driving all that way for a day of boting but the surfing was awesome. We can't wait until it warms up again and we can go back out. Oh, and did I mention that Bauer got bit by a goose? Yeah, we had backed the boat into the water and Brian was picking me up at the dock after I dropped off the car. Bauer was leaning over the side at geese and all of the sudden he started yelling. The goose had bit him right on the lip. I couldn't believe it. It broke the skin but he was fine.

Halloween Pictures: I always take pictures of Bauer in his Halloween costume so of course I did again this year. We planned to go with Amanda and Paislee and then just before it was time to go, Bauer decided to swallow a quarter. Long story short, we had to go have an x-ray done to make sure that the quarter had made it all the way to his stomach. Amanda and Paislee came with us to the hospital to have the x-ray and then we went and did our pictures. Good thing he's such a cute little stinker.

OUR NEW-NEW

2009-09-21T12:45:00.000-06:00

I know - we are crazy! I didn't do much boating when I was growing up but when I started dating Brian, we went a few times with his family and then after we got married, we went frequently with our best friends. Well, this year we didn't get to go at all until we went to Lake Powell about a month ago. That's when we realized how much we loved and missed boating. Ever since we got married, Brian has told me that one day he would own a boat. I would just roll my eyes and say "yeah, right." I always thought it was fun but I could do without it and besides - we had friends with a boat so why in the world would we spend the money, time, and effort on our own? Well, the day finally came where I agreed - we should have a boat. So we did some research and come to find out, this was the perfect time to buy a boat. Due to the recession, there were a bunch of boat dealerships that had gone under and Centurion boats owned by those dealerships were taken back by the manufacturer. There were so many that they needed to get rid of that they marked the prices down a ton. In fact, when we found out the price of our boat, the dealer we were working with (who also happens to be a family friend) told us that he actually paid more than that for the same boats for him to sell. So we got an awesome deal. We also found out that the 2010 boat production quantities are going down and prices will be going up. Just the engine in the new boats went up 18% from the 2009 models. Crazy! So anyways, this is our fun new boat and we absolutely love it! We are so excited to spend time with family and friends on our new toy. We took our maiden voyage this weekend to try it out and it is awesome. I even learned to drive the boat and back the trailer into the water which were both really big steps for me. I can't wait to go out again. Too bad we only have a couple of days left before it is too cold.

GAME 1

2009-09-20T21:15:00.000-06:00

Bauer had his first soccer game today. He was so excited to go play and oh-my-goodness, what a cute little soccer player! I loved it! And he did so well! I was afraid that he would be too shy and that he would just crab onto my leg and say that he didn't want to play but he wasn't like that at all. He got out there when Brian told him to and he ran and kicked and even stopped a goal. Brian did a great job coaching too. He got the kids all organized and helped them remember which side they were supposed to kick to and he substituted kids when they told him they needed a rest. He was great. One of my favorite parts of the game was when the game started because the kids were all lined up across from the other team and one kid was set to kick off. He kicked and everyone just stood there. The entire team stood in their beautifully straight line and watched the ball roll while the sideline all yelled "go. Kick it. Get the ball." It wasn't until Brian called them each by name that they started to go after the ball. They don't keep score in this age group but we scored at least 7 or 8 times and I think the other team only scored twice and one of them was our team scoring for them. Anyways, it was a great game and tons of fun and Bauer had a blast so we are very excited.

BAUER'S FIRST ORGANIZED SPORTS EXPERIENCE

2009-09-12T20:22:00.006-06:00

A few weeks ago, a friend asked me if Bauer would like to play soccer with a couple of other little boys in the neighborhood. I was so excited! Brian and I have both been saying how we wanted to get Bauer into sports and I have been really looking forward to going to watch my sweet boy play. So we signed him up and Brian offered to coach. Today they had their first practice and all the kids went to Marv Jenson to meet their coaches and team. I was a little worried about Bauer. He is still pretty young for sports and is REALLY shy. The poor kid got my social anxiety. He did alright at first and he stood and listened as Brian talked to the kids but then when it was time to split up and kick the ball around, he grabbed around my leg and started to cry. "I want to hold you. I hurt." We tried and tried to get him to play but he refused. He latched onto my leg and just kept crying. I finally picked him up and took him away to have a little talk. "Bauer - you need to be a big boy and play soccer like you said you wanted to. I'm not going to leave you. I will be right here." It took a little love and lots of encouraging words but I finally got him to go back to the team. The rest of the practice he was just fine. He went on his own and followed directions and did everything he was asked. Whew! The next practice is on Tuesday and their first game is Saturday so we will see how he does at those. Hopefully he will get better and better. And I don't know, maybe this will help him to not be so shy too. We'll see.

NOT YOUR NORMAL SCOUTING TRIP

2009-09-11T16:22:00.000-06:00

We're trying a new hunting spot this year. We have been wanting to find a new spot for years now and my Dad found a guy that was willing to trade his spot for a gun. So my dad went with this guy to see the spot and then on Labor Day, my parents went to scout it so Bauer, Ange, and I went too (Matt & Brian were golfing - shocking). I'm pretty sure that's not the crew my dad had in mind when he decided to go on a scouting trip (3 women and a baby) but that's all he got and we had a great time. It was more of a 4-wheeling trip and we drove around the roads to decide where we want to go on opening morning. We had lots of fun.

USA vs EL SALVADOR

2009-09-09T19:02:00.005-06:00

Saturday we got to go to the USA vs El Salvador World Cup Qualifier game and it was so much fun! I love going to sporting events and feeling the energy and excitement but there is nothing more intense than a national soccer game. I can't even describe the atmosphere. It is something that you have to experience to believe. It was so much fun. Gayle and Lorna took the whole family and then Matt & Ange, Morgan, and Marki came. Before the game we met at Gayle and Lorna's for an awesome steak BBQ and after we were stuffed we headed off to the game. Then afterwards, we went back to their house to have yummy fruit. It was a great night and we had so much fun. Thanks Gayle and Lorna!

FOOTBALL

2009-09-03T17:03:00.004-06:00

Football season is here! I am so excited. I really like football. It's one of the only reasons I like the Fall. I am not a fan of the cold so I get kind of grumpy when the weather starts changing but there ARE a couple of things that make me happy that Fall is here and football is one. The others are: hunting, Thriller, comfy sweaters, Halloween, and Pumpkin Roll Scentsy. But back to football...we had our first Utah home game today. We got season tickets with some friends in the neighborhood again. We also bought season tickets to BYU. We bought them so we could go to the BYU/Utah game this year but Brian says I can't go because I would wear a BYU shirt. Silly boy!

SCHOOL

2009-08-17T11:32:00.015-06:00

My baby is all grown up today. He started school this morning. I can't believe he is old enough to be going to school. People always say how fast time goes but it really is amazing that my little baby boy is old enough to start school now. Granted - it's just 3-year-old preschool but still - that's a big step for us.

Finding a preschool was a mess for us. We have had him signed up at 3 different preschools and one of them he has been signed up for and then withdrawn and now he is back to. I finally got him enrolled on Friday and today he started.

I had a bit of a panic on Saturday because I didn't know school would start so soon and I wasn't ready. We hadn't even gone school shopping. I know it is really stupid but I was really upset that he didn't have a new, cute outfit for his very first day of school. So on Saturday, I loaded Bauer into the car and we went school shopping. He told me "I don't want new clothes. I already have cute clothes." But of course, I made him go. Let me tell you - finding cute clothes for a toddler boy is almost impossible. We went to a million stores looking for something cute for his first day but it seems like everywhere we went, they had a very small selection of clothes in his size and all of them were cheesy or just kind of average clothes that I would want more for just playing out in the yard. I couldn't find anything nice enough to have him wear for his first day of school. After over 4 hours of shopping, we finally found a couple of cute things for him but it is ridiculous how much I had to pay! I paid 3 times as much for a shirt for him as I do fro myself but again - I wanted him to have something cute for his first day so it was worth it to me. Bauer was an absolute angel. He didn't complain once during the whole thing. We would go and shop and he would stay close to me and do exactly what I asked him to and when we didn't find anything I would ask if we could go to another store and he would say "sure."

This morning I heard Bauer wake up and I went into his room to get him. He was laying on the bed and I went over and gave him a hug and asked if he knew what today was. "It's your first day of school today." He said "How old am I?" Me:"3" Bauer: "Why do I always have to be 3?" I guess he was having second thoughts about going. But we had some breakfast, took a bath, brushed his teeth, got him dressed, and went to take pictures. Of course I took a million. That's what I do. I can't help it. Bauer was really good though. He stood where I asked him to and looked where I said to look and smiled when I asked. What a sweet boy.

We had to go a little early since we had just signed him up over the phone. I needed to get all the paperwork to fill out for him and they wanted to show us around the school and tell us what to expect. Bauer was really shy. I knew he would be. He usually is when he doesn't know people. But he did well.

After we picked up Bauer, I asked him about how his first day of school was. He didn't really have much to say so I kept asking questions, hoping that something would spark his interest and he would want to tell me all about it. No such luck. I went through his folder and asked him about everything he brought home and what he did with each of them. He finally said "why do you keep asking me all of these things?!" So that was about the end of the discussion.