What we did this weekend so far:
-ate frozen pizza and then watched Bedtime Stories last night.
-we all woke up at 9am and then gave Ben some breakfast.
-did yard work and housework.
-drove to help Delinda pack her 1 million books... seriously felt like it. She could open up her own library! (Did I mention I will miss her?)
-ate lunch (kind of late, sorry Ben!), Ben got his first balloon courtesy of Miss Ann at Chick-fil-a, mommy let it slip from her hands while getting in the car and it floated away while daddy was more upset that it was gone then Ben was!
-ran some errands; went to get me some shorts/capris- found a comfy pair, shopped for some other essentials.
-rested and let Ben nap
-filled up our new pool we got him, unfortunately the water was too cold to play in and by the time we got out there to play the sun was going down... until next time.-ate at Taco Mac
-saw a beautiful sunset with the BIG ORANGE SUN.
-put "The Dude" to bed, he was WORN out but still wanted to play and laugh with me even until we left his room.-watched Food Network, went to Facebook, and now writing this post.
I should go to bed. It's almost midnight... I'm pretty worn out from a kid who has been WHINING for like 4 days straight. Tomorrow we'll do the Church thing and then have the peeps over for dinner. PIZZA NIGHT! Then it's off to another week of work....my how the weekends pass us by so quickly.

Don't Worry, About a Thing...

Why is it okay that the summer is quickly vanishing away before our very eyes? It's already closing on the last week of July and it seems like time has just flown by!
I stayed home today with my Benny. He had a fever yesterday and ralphed on the way to daycare in the morning. He was fine though once we got there. Then after nap he had another fever, so we had to go pick him up. He had another one at 1am and I've been feeling a little like I'm getting a cold so he and I stayed home. He went down for a morning nap, and about 40 mins after he went down, so did I! And oh...my...gosh... I NEEDED THAT. It was a beautifully perfect nap. The bed was comfy and cool, I slept and didn't worry about needing to make sure I woke up if he did, it rained a little outside which made the snuggling even better.... ah man, it was just what the doctor ordered. We went for a little walk, Ben loves to go outside and took me by the hand to both the front AND back door trying to get me to take him outside. SO we walked up the street with the dog and it was kind of "sprinkling" if you could even call it that. But by the time we got back to the house and the driveway it started to rain again. So it was perfect timing. After his second nap he was pretty grumpy and I think in pain, so after the Ibuprofen kicked in he was happy again. AS you can see above- we did a little coloring too. He's still getting the hang of it, and got bored after a while. But that's okay, "every little bit counts said the old lady as she peed in to the sea" (as my mom says).
DJ came over to hang out tonight and that was great. She's leaving for Chicago soon, and it makes my heart very sad. I love my sister SO much and will miss her immensely. It has been great having her here in Georgia with me. I don't want to talk about it anymore, because I don't feel like crying right now when my nose is already stuffed up.
So what's new? Eh... not much really. Both of us are still working, day by day. Same thing, different day. What keeps us going and happy is our guy. He makes life interesting, exciting, crazy and wonderful. He's getting really good at saying things that sound like what he's really trying to say, like "thank you", "all done", "bee" for tree. His vocabulary is getting bigger but my favorite is still to hear his gibberish talk. Ryan's favorite is when he says "bye-bye!" and waves! He refuses to eat with utensils at daycare, but refuses to eat WITH OUT them here at home! I'm still having the "no eating vegetables" battle with him- but I need to try a different method out. I read in a Parenting magazine to wait until he's STARVED and give him those first. But he's pretty stubborn and I don't want to fight him too much. He'll at least eat the baby food kind- but he's almost a year and a half and getting too old for that. He's getting something though, so I guess that's good. I'm thinking part of his not feeling good today is from getting more teeth. I will be happy when all those little buggers come in- but I think we've got a long way to go. He whined a lot today, so Nichole- I think I know how you feel... a little! I think I'll head to bed, back to work again tomorrow.

Our Little Monkey

It's official... he knows how to climb. Oh boy...

Utah Pictures

These are all in St. George with my parents.

Zion's National Park with my parents and John & Clau's family.Visiting my sister Shauna and brother Greg and his family.

You can see in the above collage Greg's bleeding chin from when Brookie's tooth came out when she hit him coming down from being thrown in the air! She's got it in the top left corner!

(We also stopped at the temple too.)This was Ryan's birthday. We went with the Webb's and Andrea and Travis up to the mountains and saw a moose and had a pizza pic-nic and enjoyed each other's company! I really miss those guys and having them around. AND I miss just taking a drive up to the mountains so easily too.

This is when we went back to Las Vegas and met up with the Christensen's. I am so glad we got to see them and meet Nichole. I hope we are friends with them for years to come. They are great people, and Chris in particular changed our life as a family FOREVER! Score for you Chris!

How Lovely to be a Woman...

Ashley and I had a lunch date today, we went and got pedicures. I was afraid the little ladies there were going to reject me because my feet are so nasty and just messed up. BUT they didn't! I got in! They allowed me to sit in the comfy massaging chair and pedicured away on my itty-bitty nasty feet. While we were there, we enjoyed the names of the nail polish to choose from; Copper Mountain Copper, Berry Berry Broadway, To Eros is Human... what in the world? Who names those things anyway? One was a silvery purple kind, and it was called Russian Sage. Why?
Anyway, we also enjoyed the music if you could even call it that. It was nothing less than amusing!!! It seriously sounded like what Ashley said, a "Nokia ring tone circa 1999"! It was so annoying! But funny. We giggled a lot, and it was lots of fun. At one point, before the lady painted my toes she put the paper towels in to seperate them and it made it look like I only had 4 toes. It made us laugh too! I had to capture the moment.

The point is, I am pretty much a big fan of Ashley and having fun moments like that with her and just being silly girls, because WE CAN. :) She makes me laugh and I am so grateful for her! I would be a very sad girl with out her... a girl's gotta have friends too.

Count Your Blessings, name them one by one...

Ryan and I have SO many things to be grateful for. We have a wonderful house, good vehicles, food, clothes, beds, running water, air conditioning, etc. I think of lots of people in the world who have MUCH less than we do- and realize just how luck we are to be young and have the things we do. We are blessed beyond belief. It's good for me to have reminders of this occasionally, and last night I had a few of them. First, we had wonderful home teachers come by with a watermelon and to share a quick scripture with us. We had our usual "Sunday Dinner" with our friends which is always a wonderful thing for us. I'm grateful to have wonderful in-laws that we get to see often, but I miss my family SO much. And although no one can replace my family- it's good to have friends around me who understand me and my humor, etc. They have also become my family here in GA (especially since Delinda is leaving me for Chicago soon...) and I love each one of them for their differences and individuality. I feel very lucky to have such good friends that take such good care of us. And not only us, but our Benny. They are good "aunts & uncles" to him. (To Ally too, they're nicer to her than I am!) I just really enjoy knowing that we have a little family of friends to have Sunday dinner with every week at someones house... with good food.

Another reminder I had was watching a movie about bad things that happen in other countries (that I didn't finish watching because it was too much for me) and realized how lucky we are to live where we do and to feel a lot safer than a lot of people around the world do even just walking down the street. I am grateful for A LOT of things today. My sister in-law Clau has a quote on the end of her email, "Life is Good!" and it couldn't be more true.

We had a good weekend. We did something Friday night, but I don't remember what. HA! Saturday we spent cleaning the bathrooms and running errands, then we hung out with the Terry's and Clint and his friend Will. We went to this restaurant called Chicago Pizza and well... it left much to be desired. It also put Ryan in the bathroom at 4:30am puking.We also had a not-so-fun encounter with the Wii Fit. Okay, it was fun- but it told us we were fat and we had just met. I'm still getting over it. But decided, it's time for a change. I'm just having a hard time letting go of the sweets... I WILL CONQUER THIS. :) What a good definition of what we need to do: to gain mastery over or win by overcoming obstacles or opposition.
Delinda (my sister) was able to go to Chicago this weekend and find her a place to live. I am grateful Jen went with her so she didn't have to do that all alone! She found a place thank goodness, seeing as though she's moving at the end of the month! And, again... HOLY CRAP it's the middle of JULY! Sheesh! Where is the Summer going? Anyway, I am so happy for her and am excited to go visit someday!
We along with our friends the Terry's and the Elton's have so far had 2 FHE nights and hope to do this together once a month. It's been good for us- because lets be honest, we're not good at doing it on our own! I am grateful for the Spirit it brings to our friendships too, we can talk about spiritual things and it uplifts us. I like making and keeping traditions that we can hopefully carry on for a long time to come!Ben's getting two more teeth in, but they sure are taking their time. It's like one day on and one day off. I think they're just about through though, so hopefully some relief for us all is soon coming our way. He's also taking a liking to using a spoon for when he eats. And if he sees us with one- it's over, he HAS to have it and wont let us feed him with it. He MUST do it himself. Even though he usually ends up picking the food up with his left hand while holding the spoon in his right! I've also pretty much stopped going to visit him at daycare which is becoming harder and harder on me. I MISS HIM! A lot... but they're on a tighter schedule now in his new class and they have nap time about the same time I go to lunch. So even if he's asleep, if I have time I'll pop my head in. It was nice to walk in the other day when I was picking him up to see he and the other kids in his class sitting around their table "reading". I thought it was SO cute. I'm pretty sure he's starting to sing "A, B, C, D" in his own little way. We're working on where our teeth are and he got a new pair of shoes he loves, OH and sunglasses too! I'll take some pictures soon.
I promise I'll get around to getting the UT pictures up. Life has been busy.
I am grateful for all that I have. I am a lucky and blessed woman.

Please Excuse Our Dust...

Last week Ryan and I got to go to the temple before it closed on July 1st. They are doing renovations and it will be closed for 15-18 months. It's kind of a good reality check, because we take advantage of how close we are to it and now will have to drive 2-3 hours either to the Birmingham, AL temple or Columbia, SC. Ben and I literally drive past our temple everyday. It's also a little sobering because they are downsizing the space of the temple too. It will operate as a "mini" temple. No more clothing rental, we'll most likely have to make appointments... etc. We're all very curious to see what they do inside, and probably secretly wish they'd do something outside. It'll be cool to (hopefully) go to our first temple dedication too when they finish.
Anyway, I am glad we got to go last week though, it was a neat experience for us and I also enjoy being in the temple with my man. The temple worker we were with said that when he came in at 4pm that day there were 450 endowments done, which is probably a record for that temple in a day. It truly is a special place, and brings a smile to our faces while we are there. I realize that it's so important to be there because it brings us closer to each other and reminds us of our covenants.

Nice Long Weekend

We have had a very fun and relaxing weekend, although we've kept ourselves pretty busy. We had Friday off, which was nice. Since we were in UT for Ryan's birthday and didn't get the chance to celebrate it with our friends here, we decided it would be fun and go to Chucky Cheese's Thursday night! Thanks to everyone who came, Ryan had lots of fun. And so did Ben! He was so mesmerized by everything that was going on. And he LOVED the merry-go-round. (He wanted to go like 3 times!)

Friday we woke up and did some yard work and then in the afternoon went swimming with a bunch of our friends. It was a nice day, the pool wasn't too busy and we had a lot of fun! Ben LOVES the pool! That night we hung out at our house and ate nachos and watched Better Off Dead. Good stuff! Yesterday, the 4th, we headed over to the Terry's early afternoon and started cooking while some played golfing on the Wii. We had a AWESOME plethora of food and gobbled it up! After hanging out and letting all the food we cooked/ate settle, we headed near Marietta Square fireworks and got a good spot and watched the works. Ben was intrigued and I think almost fell asleep! We had an encounter with a mangy stray dog jumping in the car and me and Ben scouted out fireflies. And, oh yeah- remember that one time Clint made homemade ice cream and it had raw egg in it? Yeah, me too! It was pretty tasty though I have to say...Now it's Sunday... we hung out with Delinda today and had fun. I personally am bummed the nice long weekend is basically over. This week is going to be pretty crazy with work and I'm not excited about that. AND, no more long weekends until like September! BOOOOO! Well everyone else is napping... why not me?

Blue Eyes

A lady, Rene, I work with has a son and when she heard I had one, she suggested (and reminds me on a daily basis) that I should take pictures of him all in white. SO... I thought I'd do it. She said I'd regret it if I didn't and even threatened to take him herself somewhere and buy him an outfit. I thought I'd save her the trouble, and while we were outside this morning playing I changed his clothes and took some. I am glad she suggested it! (Oh and my big boy is 16 months already! Where does the time go!?)