A Flair for the Dramatic

Oh yes, our third child is a picky eater. I'm talking he likes his rice cereal plain and breastmilk. That's it. You try to give him something else, he goes through a whole range of facial expressions, contortions and gagging. I know he can't really help it, but boy, does he have a flair for the dramatic. I guess he resembles me in more than just looks! These are from the first time I gave him rice cereal. I had the gall to mix it with formula.



This happens to be the please-help-me-Mom-I-need-help-I-can't-believe-you-are-feeding-this-to-me-help face. But there are more. Such as the next one which is the I'm-not-happy-about-this-situtaion-and-if-you-don't-stop-I-will-cry-Also-I-am-disgusted face.



I could go on.

He's still cute though.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Another publication!

Ahhh, I love Scrapbook Trends. They are so good to me. Got an email for a page for the July issue. Now, if only I could finish the mini album for my article. I have the bones planned out, but I need to gather photos. . .

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

YAY!

I'm excited today because:

1. I just turned in my last take home exam from my English lit class and that class is ALL FINISHED.
2. I had Costco pizza for dinner--yum!
3. Family Home Evening is tonight
4. Legacy (a beautiful magazine) just emailed me and asked for a digital layout that I really love! HURRAY!!!!!

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Just a quick post

This is the layout I did yesterday. I actually really like this one.

'Issa


Also, wanna hear about my strange dream last night? I dreamed I was helping Stacy and Clinton on What Not To Wear (one of my favorite shows), but I ended up giving this sweet mom horrible advice and she was wearing punk stuff and all the employees at the store were laughing and then she tried to sell it on a table so she could have some of the $5000 back and we also went to a wholesale store and bought huge bags of tootsie rolls, like bigger than bags of dog food and three of them. Then I woke up to Griffin fussing and he made me get out of bed, but that was okay, because really, who wants to give bad fashion advice, espcially to a petite soccer mom?

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

FIRST WORD!?!

I was putting away the last few things in the boys' room, and Griff was lying on Maxton's bed. I'd just fed him, but he was acting a little hungry still, probably holding out for rice cereal, when he started babbling, trying to get my attention. Well, out of his little mouth comes, "Ma ma ma ma." Didn't think anything of it, but then he said it a few more times and all the time looking straight at me! I guess we'll have to see if he keeps saying it, but I think we might have a first word!! It makes me happy too, because Xander and Maxton both said "da da" first, and Xander followed closely with "ball" and "ma ma" came in third, right around "ducky." :P

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

I have the best sister in the world!

Seriously. I don't know what I would do without her. She's the only person outside of DH (and I guess my kids) who I talk to every day. This morning has not been good. The boys spent the night at Grandma's house and they came back so cranky. I'm a little cranky too. I've been so busy working on school and church stuff (and admittedly, scrapbook stuff) that I haven't clean that much this week. The amount of laundry in my bedroom (it's all clean) is staggering. It's such a big job that I don't think I can handle doing it myself. David's said he'll help me, but he's busy right now looking at properties and trying to generate an income so that we don't starve after he quits his job (so I know we won't starve, but we do need to get this going). His last day is the 30th. Incidently, we just bought our first house. Which we are not going to live in. Actually, no one is going to live in it, because we are going to tear it down and either sell it as a lot or build a nice house on it. Either way, we hope to make gobs of moola.

Back to my sister. We were talking on AIM and she generously offered to come help me clean. I turned her down, because, really, that's no fun for her. She insisted though, and she's coming over to help as soon as Maddy wakes up. I feel like I need that angel music. The clouds have parted. There is hope. And, she's bringing peanut butter cookies.

On another note, Griffin spent the night in his own room last night for the first time. I cried when we went to bed. He did well, though, and I think I actually slept much better without waking up for his every sleep grunt. However, he still didn't sleep the greatest, which means I didn't sleep the greatest. David was nice and got up with him once. After three nights of very questionable sleep quality, I'm running on empty. I feel exactly the same way I did when I would get up for early morning seminary. My head is all fuzzy and my eyes are tired.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

I am super proud of the layout I did yesterday. You can check it out here:

April 19 (Chasing Moonbeams)

In other news, Maxton has been driving me CRAZY lately. Everytime I tell him to stop doing something, he repeats under his breath, "I'm not doing anything to you." If I tell him too many times, he starts with the yelling of it. Kind of funny in his little grovely voice, but I'm done. I feel like I have a teenager. I am FED UP.

Well, yesterday I decided that if he says it, no warnings, he is sitting on the naughty chair everytime. We had 6 time outs yesterday morning. He finally seems to be getting it. He said it once while we were at Barnes and Noble, where we went to play with the trains with my sister Melissa and her two kids.

We've been doing time-outs for a while where he goes in his room to calm down. He comes out and says, "I happy now." Even in the morning when he first wakes up, that's the first thing he says to me, lol. But recently I haven't been so good with the discipline and he was getting a mouth. So, time to be consistent. My kitchen is getting really clean, because I do the dishes while he sits on the chair! It's amazing how much cleaning you can do in 2 minutes.

Speaking of yesterday, we went to Fazoli's for lunch. I got what I always get, the parmisan chicken. Anyway, while we were there, poor Hyrum got wedged in the back of a chair, between the bars at about waist level. Well, he started screaming, so Melissa and I rushed over there and started trying to get him unwedged. She had his bod and I was twisting the chair all around. Meanwhile, Hyrum is SCREAMING and Melissa and I can't stop laughing. We got it up around his neck, but his head wouldn't fit! Oh, he was so mad when we had to put his arms back through. Eventually we got him seperated from the chair. Afterwards, the manager came over to see if everything was ok (and probably to prevent a lawsuit). Anyway, we were still laughing about it on the way home. Poor Hyrum!

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

So, I've been doing this crazy do-a-layout-everyday challenge on 2peas. We started the first of March and then kept going into April. It's become a habit AND an addiction. I get very grumpy if I can't get my layout finished for the day. I've never scrapbooked so much or loved it so much! You can check out the links below for some serious scrapbooking. I've done 82 layouts so far this year.

March 1
March 2
March 3
March 4
March 5
March 6
March 7
March 8
March 9
March 10
March 11
March 12
March 13
March 14
March 15
March 16
March 17
March 18
March 19
March 20
March 21
March 22
March 23
March 24
March 25
March 26
March 27
March 28
March 29
March 30
March 31
April 1
April 4
April 5
April 6
April 10
April 11
April 11
April 12
April 13
April 15
April 16
April 17
April 18

I know I'm missing some in April. I'm hoping to catch up, but it's a little hard because finals are coming up and I'm trying to get all the stuff done that I procrastinated doing! I have to do 13 "lessons" for my photoshop class. Guess how many I did before this week. Three. Yeah, need to work on that bad habit. I've done two more, so now I have 8 left. Hopefully I can get them done, but if not, they are not a huge percentage of my grade. Anyway, that has been keeping me busy.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

A General Update

So, we've had such a busy time since I last wrote that I haven't taken the time to update my blog. Last weekend, we went to Brett's wedding (David's brother). It was so nice. I adore the girl he married. Their wedding was so nice. I said that I'd like to do it all over again. I love love love weddings. I especially loved my own. I admit that I enjoy being the center of attention, when it's justified! Anyway, they got married in the Las Vegas temple. I'd never been there and it was just stunning!! Of course, it's up on a hill, away from the strip. We walked on temple grounds and the peace of the temple just flowed over me. I'd forgotten what it was like. I haven't been in a long time--it's so hard to leave a nursing baby. Anyways, we met up with David's family and passed off our kids to Uncle Jared and some of April's cousins and students to watch while David and I went inside. We were gone for just over an hour I think. Then we hung around temple grounds for photos. We got there about 11:30 and left around 3:00. I'm so on the up and up that I have a layout done with some of the photos I took.



Then I had a busy week of school stuff. I'm so so so so so so glad that this next week is my last week. I have about a million things to do, but once I'm done, I'm done. My photoshop class is going to meet at California Pizza Kitchen for our last class. Just that fact pretty much sums up how I feel about that class.

Xander's potty training is going great. I'm amazed at his progress. He hasn't had an accident in days. Well, a peeing accident anyway. He still won't poop in the potty. Not sure what to do about that, but I've read that it's a pretty common problem, so we are just going to wait it out and not pressure him. He's even been waking up dry, which is so surprising! The next thing to work on is keeping clothes on his lower half. It's such a hassle to try to get him to get dressed each time. He's usually naked by the time David gets home. I actually don't really mind, but it drives David crazy!

And then there was Easter. We had such a nice time at my parents' on Saturday. We dyed Easter eggs, which the boys thought was so cool. I couldn't resist and dyed a few myself, complete with crayon swirlies. Then we had an egg hunt. The boys were so excited. They've been watching the Easter Dora where she finds "prizes in the eggs" and that's all I've heard about for the last week. Made the mistake of telling Xander on Tuesday that we were going to have an egg hunt at Grandma's on Saturday. Yeah, he doesn't get the idea of time so well. I showed him on my calendar how many days it was. By the time Saturday came, I think he'd given up hope that we were really going to have a hunt! I took so many photos, but I think this has to be my favorite.

That's Maxton with his little cousin Madolin stealing an egg from his basket. Typical Maxton expression. Everything about this cracks me up. Oh, and don't worry, my mom is behind the fence, holding Madolin up.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

More potty training

It seems to be going amazingly well! We even left the house today for 3 hours (more on that later) and he did great! He didn't need to go that entire time. He also doesn't seem to know about public restrooms--I told him to tell me if he needed to go potty and he told me that the potty was at home. I explained that they have potties in the stores too, and that if he needed to go he needed to tell me. I'm just worried about him getting bored with it, but we went to the Dollar Store today and stocked up on fun prizes. He really likes his potty chart, so hopefully that will keep working! Fingers crossed!

So, this is why I never go anywhere by myself. IT WAS CRAZINESS trying to get ready. It took over an hour. Went something like this: Pick out clothes. Relatively easy today. Try to convince Xander to get dressed. Tell him to get dressed. He plays with the shirt on his head. I'm trying to find socks. Get distracted, start packing diaper bag. Try to find socks some more, hear them on the changing table looking at the storm outside and playing with the junky blinds (the landlord told us when we moved in he was planning on replacing all of the blinds. Hasn't yet and they are pretty gross). I'm frantically looking for socks, knowing that is probably not a good idea, but not wanting to get distracted again. Hear a crash and crying. Max and Xander were fighting for position and Xander won (unusual--Max is the pushy one. He pushed Xander off the couch and onto the treadmill yesterday. Arg.) Comfort Max, punish Xander, go back to finding socks. Find socks and try to get Xander to get dressed again. He now wants Nemo underwear and not Spongebob. Fine. Give him new underwear. He puts them on, then puts his pants on backwards. I put shoes on Max, try to convince Xander to turn his pants around. Doesn't work. Fine, backwards pants are not a big deal in the scheme of things. Go to change Griffin's diaper. He's poopy. No wipes in sight (usually they are right there by the bed). Do up the diaper again, find the wipes. Narrowly avoid leakage. Clean him up. Had to leave him without a diaper for a while--can't remember what interrupted me. Go back. Put diaper on him, do up the snaps. Chase Xander around, put his shoes and socks on him myself. Okay, we are getting there. Realize Griffin is hungry. Feed him. Put him in car seat. Finish packing diaper bag. Ask Xander if he needs to pee. He says yes. Won't go unless his bottom half is bare. Okay, fine. Pants are backwards anyway. Pull off his shoes and pants and try to convince him to go. Griffin is fussing. Leave him and go get toy for Griffin. Max hits Xander with a toy airplane. Crying. Arg! Griffin is happy. Get Xander dressed again. Boys want coats. Get coats. They want different coats. Find umbrella since it is raining hard. Max cries about wanting umbrella. Make two trips out to the car to get everyone and all their accoutrements in. AND THIS IS JUST TO GET OUT OF THE HOUSE! WE STILL HAVE FOUR STOPS TO MAKE!

I'm tired. Can I take a nap?

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Potty Training!

Color me surprised! Today was our first day of training Xander. So far he's gone 3 times and no accidents. He's so excited--we're doing a sticker chart and he things that's the coolest thing ever. Hopefully he can keep it up. He doesn't even need my help. Maybe I should have started before? Anyway, I'm just so excited to go to two in diapers instead of three!

On a more serious note, I've been working on the next project for my graphic design class. Tyler (my youngest brother) let me do a photo shoot of him. We're supposed to do a magazine cover, well, this is what I have so far:


Still need to add the name of the mag and figure out which magazine it could work on, but I've really enjoyed creating this. This design class has been AMAZING.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.