March - Part 3

It was a very busy month and it went by really slow. But that's a good thing because lately my life has been on fast forward. TJ is 7 months old!! Wow. That's hard to believe.

Spring Break - March 17th-27th

The morning before we left for Boise, TJ had a doctor's appointment. His 6 month one. We went in because he was sick around 5 months and they weighed him then. He didn't gain anything between the two visits. That was a little disconcerting. The doctor said that maybe it's nothing, but maybe him just telling us he's ready for supplemental foods. Time to start veggies. He's gone through carrots, squash, sweet potatoes, and peas. He's liking each of them more and more as we go. I was worried he wouldn't like the peas but he gobbles them down.

We saw my family first. My dad hadn't seen TJ since Christmas and he's not even the same kid so he really enjoyed playing with him and watching him play.

I wish I would've gotten pictures of TJ with Jason, Grace, Kristin and Tyler but I didn't. :( Next time I see them though, that will be a priority. My mom adores TJ and loves helping, feeding and hugging him.

He was a little squash drunk in this picture.

TJ loves mirrors. He knows exactly where they are in our house and loves seeing the baby in the mirror. He's a fun companion and they keep eachother occupied. :) He got even more obsessed with them since we got back from Texas and he had a real companion to play with.

Then after spending most of the time with my family we headed over to the Laney's. Gary and Calista were in Aruba as a Christmas gift for a week and we got over there after they came home. They also love being grandparents and love seeing TJ. TJ loves the time he gets with them too.

Abby made sure she got her fair share of TJ too! She kept giving him kisses and he was a little worried about that. :)

Both grandmas this trip sat at the piano with TJ and let him pound on the keys. Now I can't walk past our piano without him leaning and reaching for the keys. Not like that's a bad thing.

Todd helped his mom split up the ground beef we bought and put on an apron to do it. He looked like Mrs. Doubtfire to me!! Haha

Whenever we go to Grandma Caca's house, TJ gets to learn in the walker. He's not super good at it, but accidentally moves around a little. I just LOVE this face he made.

 He puts his hands above his head to be picked up, or to stretch or to do "So big!" and almost all the time he cocks his head to the side. It's cute.

 He got new binkies from Grandma and put it in his mouth all by himself, as you can probably tell.

 Overall, it was a really great trip and a nice break for Todd from school. The next time we go to Boise will be in May for the show WICKED!! I've been wanting to see Wicked since freshman year of high school. I don't know the story line; I only know what I've picked up from the soundtrack. I'm excited to see it all come together. Then we will be off to Texas!!



March - Part 2

TEXAS!!

It was so fun to go to Texas and hang out with Tiffany (my sister-in-law) and Rock (who is 3 months older than TJ, 9 months). Tiffany's husband Adam went to Afghanistan for 3 weeks and she wanted someone to keep her company, understandably. He works for a company, it's not like he's in the military. She paid for the plane ticket and TJ and I took off for a week.

This is what we left in SLC

TJ was pretty good on the plane. It was just take off and landing that were the sticklers. He was really tired because I wanted him to sleep on the plane as much as possible and his bottle was still cold from the fridge. Thankfully, the lady I was sitting next to was LDS and a grandma so she understood and helped out. TJ liked her watch.

We got to Fort Worth and it was warm and lightly sprinkling. As soon as we got into Tiffany's car we nursed. Funny that the first thing I do in Texas is nurse. It was the last thing I did too. :) We went to a little playground that is situated in her neighborhood and the boys swung on the swings. TJ had only had that one other time swinging in the pack with Todd and he was VERY uncomfortable.

Rock had fun though!

The boys were fascinated with each other as they have been each time we've gotten them together. They fought over a few toys and grabbed each other's eyes and sucked on each others heads, hands and feet but we know they will be best friends since they'll grow up together.

Cute naked boys

Gary also flew in and spent some time with the boys. He was in Chicago on a business trip and flew down to Texas on his way home. Super out of the way but he said it was worth it. He was with us March 8th-10th. We went out to eat at Babe's which is a really good restaurant. They don't give you a menu because there are only two things: fried chicken and chicken fried steak. Then they come with sides. It was like a fancy KFC.

TJ had just started eating rice cereal. We gave it to him for the first time the night before we left so Todd could be there for it. He continued to eat it and now he's on to veggies! Yum!



George and Lorna's whole family came minus Josh and Matthew. It was fun to see them again and I know we'll see a lot more of them in the future. They loved meeting TJ and we had some good pizza and enjoyed playing Fill or Bust. Tiff and I played so many games while I was there. I kept losing and kept wanting to play until I won. There was an interesting pattern to the winner; they always started and always started with a Lose a Turn card. Hmmm...

Rock was a lot of fun. He's a bundle full of energy! He's got the walker down and runs all over the house. He's getting better at crawling and now has 5 teeth! He loves finding Roxy, the kitty and laughs hysterically over any little thing. Anything is a toy to him, especially whisks and spatulas. He LOVES to kick and I guess just recently figured it out. If you are sitting by his legs, watch out!! :)

TJ really learned how to roll while we were in Texas. I don't know if it was watching Rock that made him want to do it or if it was just his time, but he was a rolling fiend by the end of the trip. :)

We took a day to check out apartment complexes for us to live in when we move (May 26-30). We drove all over the place and saw about 5 different places. We want to live in The Village. It's a huge community of a bunch of different complexes and it has so many amenities, it's like a country club. We like The Park best. It's close to downtown Dallas for Todd and a lot of stores for me. :)

We also went to the Fort Worth Stockyards. It was a cool atmosphere. Twice a day they let a herd of longhorn cattle walk down the street. I thought it was going to be more like running with the bulls and I wanted to pull the boys farther back onto the sidewalk but they just slowly walked. We went into a few stores around there as well. Then we went to Railhead for lunch. It was a really good BBQ place.

Our little Texan. He looks good in a cowboy hat.

It was a great trip and it was nice to actually say that I've been to the state we are moving to. TJ really loves Tiffany. They bonded. TJ never cuddles and relaxes with me but I went to do something and came back and I saw this:

They were just chillin' watching TV. It was the cutest thing! I think he'll ask all the time to go over to Aunt Tiffany's house, and not just for Rock too! :)

Thanks Tiffany for the great week! We had a blast!

March - Part 1

My mom came to the Salt Lake area to get together with her girlfriends from when we lived in New Jersey. Everyone has ended up in the west so they get together once a year for a nice outting with manis, pedis, massages, and lots and lots of shopping! She came a day early to visit us before all of her friends arrived. It was fun to see her, even if it was for a short time. I did another floral arrangement for her bathroom. It turned out so good. Even Todd was sad to see it go. He wanted me to make another one. :)

As soon as my mom got into town we drove down to Nephi to visit her parents. They hadn't seen TJ in a long time and really enjoyed how fun he is. We got to use the 50 year old (more or less) high chair. It was still sturdy so we were good. We just stayed for the day and headed back that night after dinner. It is always good to see them! I love my grandparents!

The Kuhns also came down that weekend. We miss having such great friends around. We need to Skype with them more often. We played Hand and Foot and a few games of 221 B. Baker Street. There was a lot of chatting and cooking and watching the kids interact.

Makayla has grown up so much! She says words and stuff and was eating everything we ate. She had a doll that she kept putting in the Exersaucer. :) They tried to give the doll to TJ to play with and Todd promptly refused. "No son of mine will play with dolls!"

They babysat TJ for us while we went out to dinner with Todd's MAcc friends. We went to Thaifoon at the Gateway. It was nice to have a real date, but I sure did miss TJ by the end of dinner. While we were waiting for everyone to get there we were approached by this kid, probably about age 12-13, his dad and little brother. He said, "Can I bother you guys for a little bit?" My first thought was that he was going to sell us something. He was an up and coming magician and wanted to practice on us and video tape it. We like magic and he was really good!! It was impressive. Todd and I held hands and each pulled out a card. The kid said, "Now if you are really in love you will have the same suit." We looked and Todd had the King of Hearts and I had the Queen of Hearts! WOW! It was so cool! Anyway, during dinner I got a text with a video. It was of TJ playing with and sucking on the doll. The caption: This is for Todd. haha

This is the last time they were down to SLC.

They grow up so fast! (Brandon too! haha)

Sorry it's rotated. It's not on my computer, but only when I upload it. Well, they loved each other!

We went to Taufer Park which is just kiddie corner our complex and played on the equipment. I wish I had taken my camera, but my phone had to do.

TJ's first swing experience

My very favorite picture of them of all time!!

Also, before the week was done, I took some pictures of Brielle Stilson, my cousin's little girl. She was turning 3 and Heidi (her mom) wanted some pictures to document it all. She picked me! It was a lot of fun! We went to Fashion Place Mall. Brielle was all decked out and so cute in her new dress and jelly shoes! Here are some favorites!



Wyoming Trip

We went to Rock Springs, WY for a visit. We stayed with Josh and Becca and their cute kids, Anna, JP and Derek. JP was so nice to give us his room to sleep in. We played games like Wits and Wagers, Cribbage and Hearts.

Josh wasn't doing so good on the games so I asked him, "What games are you good at, Josh?" (innocently), but it was obvious how it sounded! We had a good laugh about that, and still do. So we went bowling and Josh got a score of 174! Wow! He is good at something!! :)

Todd bowled a few times with TJ in the pack. He said it was hard to keep his balance!

TJ also got his first taste of water. He loved chewing on our straw from the bowling alley and we weren't watching and all of a sudden he started coughing and sputtering and water was running out of his mouth. He ended up sucking on it a little. :) But now he LOVES water, ESPECIALLY from a straw! 

Derek was clinging on to me the whole trip. It started the first 5 minutes we were there. We all think he was jealous because I was holding TJ and he just came right up to me and made himself at home on my lap. He was a little over 1 years old. During the rest of the trip, he had to sit next to me at the dinner table while we played games or next to me on the couch.

Anna was showing us her sweet gymnastics skills. She could easily do the splits both ways and cartwheels all over the place. She is a sweetheart with a sweet heart. :) I think her and TJ look like they could be siblings. They both have big eyes and similar facial features. She loved him.

JP is so smart. He read us some books and was asking how to spell things and he would write them out. He colored a lot of Disney Princess pictures for me. When he gave me one of them he said he was giving it to me because I was beautiful. And then he got all embarassed! :) He was also a goofball.

One funny thing that happened was the kids were playing in the living room and they two older ones picked up pillows and they were shielding themselves from Derek. Derek all of a sudden started running into the pillows and trying to push them down. JP and Anna would push back and Derek would fall on his bum, but he would get right back up and push back. It reminded us of the linebackers pushing against the dummies.

We got to see Debbie too just for a little bit. She was out of town on a debate match/meet/competition thing and she got a terrible cold once she got back. We went out to lunch but she didn't touch TJ, thankfully, but it's hard. He's irresistable!

Weekend at WolfCreek in Eden, UT

I forgot to blog about the fun weekend we had with the Stilson's. They invited us to spend the weekend in their WorldMark condo. It was a huge condo with enough room to easily sleep 8 adults. We ate some great food, watched some of Brielle's Tinkerbell movies, watched some more adult movies, but not like "adult" movies, and visited the Abbey of Our Lady of the Holy Trinity (a Trappist monastery).

It was really cool for me to go to an actual monastery. We were there when they did church where all the monks gather in their robes and do a certain chant. They have different chants for every 3 hours of the day, I think. When I was in choir, we learned to chant and we got it pretty close. Their chapel had this big barreled vaulted white ceiling and pews for any visitors. Some people were really there for church and they knelt and bowed when they came and left. It was interesting to see how other people worship and live their lives.

We also went to the local grocery store about 8 or 9 times during the 2 1/2 days we were there! It was crazy!

Heidi and Jeremy announced that they were pregnant! She has just recently found out that they're having a BOY! Brielle is in denial; she really wanted a sister. And she keeps saying there are two babies, but the doctor has checked and there's only one. :)

It was fun watching the two kids play. Brielle started jumping on the bed and landing on her butt and I could just tell that TJ wanted to play SO BAD! So I let him jump on the bed too. He really enjoyed it and kept laughing at Brielle. She was really entertaining for everyone.