HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY!

Well, for what started out as a pretty crummy day... I think the Bubster had a pretty awesome first birthday! It's crazy to me that a year has come and gone already. It seems like yesterday I was worrying about taking care of a brand new baby, and now I'm worrying about a crazy, mobile kid.

The day started out with some serious tummy issues for the Bubs. There was throw up, there was nasty other end grossness, and lots and lots of screaming. After fixing the problems, things got a little bit better. But then we had to go to the doctor. 5 shots, and some Tylenol later, I had a pretty cranky little man on my hands. But, we got through the rest of the afternoon, and got ready for the party! Oh, here are his stats for his 12 month check:

Height: 31 inches (90%)

Weight: 21.12 lbs (25%)

Head: 18.5 inches (75%)

So, basically, we have a very tall, very skinny boy. Luckily, his head didn't grow any more, and he's gone from 90% to 75% :)

Now for the good stuff! The party was a blast! We had several of our friends over to celebrate with us (and it was nice and crowded in our tiny little apartment) and it was a blast! We sang to Bubsy and then got him a nice, big piece of cake to jump right into. I should have figured that this kid would pull something we weren't expecting--- because that's what he usually does. To our great dissappointment, he was INCREDIBLY dainty with his cake. I mean, there wasn't a mess. He didn't get it all over his face, tummy, and hair. Instead, he daintily picked at his cake, putting it into his mouth one pinch at a time. This is so like him though... anytime we want him to be clean, he makes a HUGE mess, and the time we allow him to be a total mess, he's a complete lady :)

I think my favorite part of the evening was when everyone else was eating the cake. Bubsy was sitting in his seat (kind of isolated) and all of a sudden he would just start laughing. No one was paying any attention to him, or making faces, or anything and he would just start cracking himself up! It was hilarious!

We also opened presents and THANK YOU for all of the wonderful gifts! We are so excited that he actually has some clothes to wear in a few months, and we love the books! Thanks for all of the phone calls, texts, etc. It was a really fun day for us and we can't wait to share the video/pictures with all of you!

Here are some fun pics from the BIG day!

Hangin' with his girl, Macy :)
They are the best of friends, and I love it!

The table with all of the loot!

My little Rubber Ducky centerpiece...

The Cake! I was pretty proud of it-- it was my first cake (well, besides the practice cake I made) that I decorated! I think it turned out pretty cute!

The Bubs seeing his cake for the first time!

After eating some of the cake. Do you see any mess on him?? Yeah, he really was very dainty!

Happy Birthday, Bubs!

Cracking himself up!

He is one happy, happy boy :)

Happy Halloween!

Well, my least favorite holiday of the year has finally come and gone! I think it probably comes from my mom (the let's hide in the basement and pretend we're not home philosophy) but Halloween and I have never really gotten along before. It was DEFINITELY my least favorite holiday when I was teaching (kids and loads of candy... or even the thought of loads of candy makes them mental) and it's continued to stick. I do think it's fun to dress up, especially now that I have a cute little munchkin to get ready, but I still think it's just kind of a waste of money to spend on one night. Anyway-- enough of my soap box on Halloween. It was fun, the Bubs didn't overheat in his costume, AND he kept the hood on for WAY longer than I thought he would. So, really, it was a win-win-win night!

Brett's mom found and sent us Brett's first Halloween outfit for the Bubs to try on. As you can see, it didn't fit quite right-- Bubsy is tall and skinny. He has super narrow shoulders, so the outfit wasn't long enough in length and was too wide in the shoulders-- but it was still fun to get him into it and get this cute shot!

Sportin' the cute outfit from Brett's mom! That hat was torn off about .2 seconds after I got this picture. He just really is not digging hats right now....but it's totally my favorite part of the outfit! So Cute!

Here's our little Dragon Boy. How cute is this outfit?

I love how the stomach area is puffy-- so fun!

Brett and I resorted to our usual costumes for Halloween-- being Nerds. We find it to be the most fitting costumes for us, since we are total nerds anyway!

My nerdy self and the Dragon Boy

Ok, so enough of Halloween. Here are just a couple of random shots that I need to share. I had to get the traditional bath shot-- so here it is. I love his hair and his little face in this picture. Priceless.

Last, but not least... I got the Bubs a "big boy" tie when I went shopping a few weeks ago. So, we got him all dressed up this Sunday and here is our little missionary man. Dang- he cleans up nice, huh?

Welp, that's it until tomorrow! The BIG one. Our little man will be turning ONE! So, look forward to some amazing pictures from that event!!

Me and My Crafty Self!

So, today was one of my favorite days of the year... that's right... SUPER SATURDAY! For those of you who are unaware, or sadly, don't DO a Super Saturday-- here's what you're missing....

A glorious day filled with different crafts, where people hand you all the materials and you just have to assemble it! I made some AWESOME stuff last year, and this year might have topped it! I was actually on the Super Saturday committee this year and was in charge of a project! It went really well, and it was a great day! This year I made a Note/To Do board (this was the project I came up with and did), a Temple Block, and a Growth Chart! Get ready to be dazzled:

So, here's the project I was in charge of. It's in a frame, and you write with the dry erase marker on the glass of the frame. Pretty fancy, eh?

My awesome Temple Block. I love doing anything where I get to showcase the Manti Temple! I had to tie the bow about 5 thousand different times... where is my mom when I need her???

Ok, the QUEEN of projects this year! How stinking cute is this?? We did all of the painting and everything... it took me all day, but I'm quite pleased with the result :) I almost don't want to mark heights on it... it's so pretty the way it is!

So, hooray for another successful Super Saturday... I hope my next ward is as awesome.

Hair Cuts, Canned Peaches, and Baby Monk...

Well, October has started with a bang! We LOVED Conference and the Bubs was really good so we both got to see/hear almost all of it! Don't worry, we were savoring every moment... we have a feeling that in April, we're not going to be so lucky!

Here are some happenings of the month:

*Brett finished his Derm. Surgery rotation. We're bummed that it's over. He had great hours, liked what he was doing, and wasn't very stressed. Next up is his Surgery rotation... YIKES! He's going to be in Ortho. and is excited to feel like an idiot everday :) The plus to this rotation is that he's going to be working at the two hospitals that are closest to our house. HOORAY! No more 45 minute commute!!

*We had a MASSIVE storm on Wednesday. Literally GOLF ball sized hail and all while Brett was driving home. Lovely, huh? Luckily, the only damage was to our cars. The Saturn has a little denting on the hood and the Mazda got it pretty bad on the roof. Oh well, not like the Mazda was much of a looker anyway :)

*I'm kicking it into high gear since we're down to only 2 months until the Tri. I went to a spin class that our fearless Tri leader held today and am POOPED. It's great to have people in the ward to train with and to keep me motivated!

*The Bubs has officially learned how to wave and it's STINKING cute. He just does an open palm and waves back and forth. We're constantly working on his ASL skills, and he definitely understands a few signs. Funny enough the signs he gets are: Milk, Eat, and Stop. Teehee... he continues to make me giggle everyday. I love this crazy kid! Now for some pictures!

His famous pucker face... he pulls this constantly!

Yep, we had to cut his hair for the 9th time! Luckily, this time he let me use the clippers... HOORAY! We thought this was hilarious, he looks like he has a sweater back :)

I canned 21 jars of peaches with my best bud, Sarah, and this is Bubsy taking his first taste of them. Um... what can I say? I think the peaches are divine, but obviously the Bubs has other opinions. He finally spit it out...

We tried one more time, only to get the same reaction... shoot!

We love the show, Monk. OCD detective with a crazy awesome gift (or curse... as the case may be) The onesy that Bubsy was wearing yesterday has really weird snaps. If you didn't do all the snaps up, he was totally showing off his chest, but if we did the snaps all the way up, he totally looks like Monk. So, we deemed him Baby Monk yesterday and took some sweet shots!

My little OCD Baby Monk

He also decided to pull out of all my pans and play with them while I was cooking dinner. Whatever keeps him happy, right?

Posing with the pans... I love his obsession with raising his arm.

A happy little Bubsy! (Do you see his top two teeth???)

Mid-applause.... for himself :)

Hope this month is going well for the rest of you. We're not sure what's going down for Halloween yet... but don't you worry, there will be many pictures to see!

Projects, Poses, and Post-its

According to my mother, I've been very boring recently. Here's why. Usually, September and October are two of my favorite months of the year. It's FALL! My favorite season. However, living in the desert, we don't have fall. We have insanely hot and then happy weather. But no in between. No leaves changing colors, no crisp morning air, no hot chocolate drinking, no sweatshirt wearing! And I'm bummed about this. I miss all of those things. So I decided that I would just have to bring fall to my house myself. So, as I was searching for a new project, I saw a really cute placemat design that I thought would be perfect. I know what you're thinking, placemats?, really? But I felt like it would really bring in the colors of fall into my home. I went to JoAnn's and scoured the fabric until I found (what I felt to be) the perfect colors of fall. Then I set to work. Here's what I came up with....

Ta Da! My beautiful fall placemat. It took longer than I thought it would... and was kind of a bigger headache than I had wanted, but I got them done!

A couple of shots of my hard work. I actually made myself a set of 8 placemats... but only four will fit on our table for now!

Another one of my placemats. They're no where near perfect, but they'll do!

For those of you who know my son... you know what a ham he is. He tends to be very dramatic-- but that allows me to get some pretty classic pictures. So, here are some shots of some poses I got him in yesterday.

Here he is, singing a cantata for us. (He has a very good falsetto...)

Oh my! What a scandal!

My goofy Bubs! Look at how big he's getting!!!

This next little section is all about Post-its. I was trying to talk to my sister on Google chat and Bubs kept climbing up on my leg and crying at me. So, I was trying to find things to distract him so I could keep talking to Sara. Well, I saw some sticky notes and a brilliant thought came to me. And this is what it was....

Yep, I totally stuck one right on his forehead!! I am such a great Mom, eh? This actually turned out to be quite a fun game. It became a game of peek-a-boo... with a bright yellow post it. :)


Here he is taking the post it off his face for the Peek-a-boo part!

Umm.... can we say stinking HILARIOUS!! Kodak moments like this don't come very often. Good thing I keep my camera handy at all times! If only the post it had said "kick me" on it....


Oh man, this kid totally cracks me up!

This is his most recent favorite pose. He likes to give me little back scratches when I'm sitting down. Well, actually, he's clawing at me, trying to get me to hold him. But I prefer to think of it as little back scratches saying, "Hey Mom, you're the best! Thanks for all of the hard work you do and your patience dealing with me everyday when I scream in your face." Yep, that's exactly what he's saying when I feel those little nail digging into my back on a daily basis....

Where did August go??

(This is how the Bubs feels about August going so quickly....)

I can't believe that it's already the end of August... crazy! Sorry about no updates, we've had computer problems (yet again) and we just got it fixed this past weekend. Whew, I hope that's all we have to deal with for the next little while!!

Let's see, did anything exciting happen in August?? Oh yeah, here are a few things:

*Brett FINALLY finished his Family Med. rotation!! It was the longest 6 weeks of our lives... he was at work for about 12 hours a day, and Bubs and I never saw him. So, onto his Derm. Surgery rotation. He texted me earlier today and said it was pretty awesome, so I hope this next six weeks is a little better for us.

*I've become crazy and have decided to participate in a triathlon in December. I know, I know... seriously? One of my friends in our ward is doing it, and after some coaxing, I've decided to give it a go. I've been hitting the gym everyday and am hoping that the hard work will pay off.

*Bubsy started to crawl!! His first crawling experience was pretty hilarious. I was cooking and cutting up meat of some type. He started to have his 5 o'clock grumpies, but I couldn't pick him up because of my meat hands. So, I told him that he would have to come to me. And lo, and behold, here comes my baby. Every little scoot, he is bawling hysterically... but he did it and grabbed onto my leg. For the first little while, the only time he would crawl was when he was upset and wanted me to hold him. He crawls more now, but still won't go on our linoleum floor... which is totally fine with me for now!

*The Bubs also has learned what a good nap is! For his whole life, he's never made it past a 1/2 hour. And it always had to be in either his swing or bouncy seat. Thank goodness, he finally has started to sleep in his crib and for about 1 1/2-2 hours!! WHAT?!?! It's really like a miracle, and I'm a changed woman! I can actually take a shower AND do my hair and make up while he naps. It's amazing!

*I gave the Bubs his 8th haircut of his life. This was the first time I've done it since he's been mobile, and boy, does that make it more difficult! The child would not sit still for more than .2 seconds at a time. I thought I was going to cut his ear off about 4 times. So, I did the best that I could, and that's just how it's going to have to be :) I don't think it looks TOO terrible!

So, that's pretty much the month of August for ya.... hopefully (barring any more issues with our computer) I can be a little more consistent with this blog.... here's hopin', eh?

(He's really been into sticking things in his mouth and leaving it there...)

(Good morning, Mr. Bedhead!)

(Lookin' dapper with Dad before church)

(Me and my handsome boy!)

(Tee hee... I love putting things on his head and seeing if he notices. Apparently, he didn't notice the girly headband on him...)

(BEFORE the haircut)

(AFTER the haircut... that's about how I feel too, Bubs...)