Enjoying the Outdoors... FINALLY!

We had a pretty darn good weekend. I spent most of Friday night and Saturday morning finishing up the editing of Ashley and Jacob's wedding pictures. Then we headed down to Piedmont Park (in downtown Atlanta for those not around here) to meet up with Cecilia and Aaron, which we never got to find unfortunately, and to take pictures of Ashley G. and Brandon for their Engagement announcements. Parking was a nightmare and there were SO many people there, like SO many- but it ended up being really nice. The pictures seemed to have turned out pretty nice and it was a beautiful warm day and Ben had lots of fun with his daddy. You could tell that it did him a lot of good to be outside and get some nice fresh air. Plus he's so content even just people watching from his stroller. He's a very curious kid. He was as happy as could be while we were there and pretty worn out (as well as mommy) when we left! Afterwards, we went to a pizza place for dinner after the Park and then went home and to bed!

It's kind of a nice change once in a while to head into the heart of the City. We are definitely in "The burbs"... so we miss out on a lot of the eccentric and unusual (and sometimes SCARY) people and sites that the city has to offer. These guys were just jamming out... making a little cash, enjoying the warm weather... playing their music. Made for a picturesque moment.

Sunday we went to church and on the way home stopped at little park in the middle of the neighborhood with a swing set and slides, picnic tables and bbq's. We got Ben on the swings for the first time, and he LOVED it! He already automatically started pumping the swing to keep it moving! He's a natural! Ryan is now motivated to get him one for our backyard!

I'm thinking (and hoping) he's going to be an outside kind of kid. He seems to perk right up when he's out there getting that fresh air. I'm glad for that. He gets that from me! Sunday night we got to go to Newnan to visit some friends of mine, the Grush's. It was so good to see them! Here are some pictures!On another note, the poor kid is getting his top two teeth in- mostly the one on his left side. This time has been more uncomfortable for him I think then the bottom teeth were. I always feel bad for the little babies that have to go through this- so that makes just about every baby I guess. I've reassured him a few times though that he won't remember this and this too shall pass. :) I don't know about you mommies out there with children with teeth, but my kid seems to get this AWFUL cough/cold thing every time and he just doesn't sleep well because of it. Anyone else have that problem? Because of all of this, he's been pretty sensitive the last almost two weeks now. I'll be glad when he gets those chompers in. Also, I've decided I need to stop worrying about him choking on things and really get him going on real food and not jar food. I also need to convince him of it too. He seems ready to chew things, I mean- he "pretends" to be chewing when we feed him, even applesauce! So I'm thinking he's ready. We bought some things for him to try out... now we just need to do it! We're also pretty excited to start buying real milk and not formula and not spending money on jar food anymore!!! We're counting down the days! He's also picked up saying "ball". We've been trying to catch it on video... but haven't been very successful, but it's freakin' cute!!! He says it like "bawl". I love watching his little mouth while he says it! Makes us both smile! We love it! Well, that's about it for now!

A Shower of Bullets

I'm sorry I've been such a horrible blogger as of late. Life has been one crazy thing lately. I decided to do my typical bullets type post today. I just have a lot of thoughts and this is easier to get it out.

• I, and several other people I know, are scared of Peanut Butter at the moment. Especially living in GA where the peanut farmers and plants that produce it are under scrutiny right now. I have a bag of Valentine's Reeses Peanut Butter Cups sitting in our snack drawer here at work that no one wants to eat.
• I just got back from the creepiest and weirdest doctor's appointment I've ever been to. This is me never going back there again.
• I hate that I don't get to spend more time with my kid during the day. He's turning into a little boy. Only 1 month away from his first birthday! I can't believe it!
• I am happy my sister's phone interview went well today. Now it's waiting for March to come to find out if there's a second one.
• I have the ginormous bamboo at my desk that has just grown to be a really cool plant. Well there are 3 bamboo stalks and each one of them have a really large shoot coming out. SO, I decided to cut one of the shoots off and stick it in the water with the others to see what would happen... so far we're okay. It's lookin' a little sad and yellow- but I checked to see if it had rooted today and it has! So that's good news right? I hope so... that took a long time to grow!
• I'm finding that I have to wear my glasses more and more each day and I hate it.
• IT'S COLD today. Like REALLY, REALLY cold. It's 30 degrees, but with that blasted wind out there if feels like 19. BURRRRR!
• I'm craving Indian Food right now.
• I need a vacation... in the Caribbean.... St. Johns maybe.... for like a week long... with my family and good friends....
• WE'RE GOING TO SEE DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE in May!!!! YAY! I am pretty darn excited about that.
• We're going to Knoxville, TN to visit my cousin Lulu in a couple of weeks. It's been since we got married since I've seen her and I miss her! I'm pretty excited.
• I think my bone that's near my hip (but isn't my hip) is broken or has arthritis or something that doesn't feel so good.
• I hate bills.
• I wish it was Spring.
• Our work decided to "Go Green" (which by the way I am SO sick of that term...) and now stock the break room with utensils made of... CORN. Corn people, utensils made from corn. And don't you think for a second that they don't add a funky taste to the food your eating because they do! I'm sorry but when I'm sipping my hot chocolate from my corn spoon, I don't want to taste it.
• I want to go home and go to bed. BUT... I can't until things are done. SO I'm just going to go home. And now.

my parents wanted to see another video, said the other wasn't long enough, so this is a whole 9 seconds longer!

Chasing Teddy Bears

It's official... I have the cutest kid ever. That's all. This is mostly for my parents, this is a game they always play with babies and they love it, obviously. And he thinks it's so silly and always laughs as I'm doing the "one step, two step..." because he knows that "tickle you under there!" is coming! I love our guy very much. It's so incredibly amazing and fun to watch him grow and learn and develop into his own little personality. I love how when he's sleeping he has to have a blanky or something soft to cover his face with, he's always done that I don't think he'll grow out of that for a while or maybe ever. He does this little thing were he'll cough twice and then he sneezes. He HATES his diaper being changed. When I say "you want to go night-night?" now he'll make this little whimper noise like "YES PLEASE!". He's growing up so fast and learning and changing into a little boy. Only one month (and a day) until he's a YEAR OLD! Holy moly!
It's also official that Ben isn't scared of much EXCEPT for dogs with pointy faces. She's not afraid of Ally probably because she's just always been around. And we thought it was just Delinda's dog- but we went to some friend's house last night for dinner and they have a mini-dachshund and he scared the poop out of Ben too. It's kind of funny... I know I shouldn't laugh... but it's just funny to see his reaction. The way he acts, it's like NOTHING will make him safe. I would say he was more afraid of Delinda's dog then theirs though.
Life is crazy of course, but all is well. We are blessed with many things and people in our lives. We just found out I wont be getting the much hoped for raise we thought I'd get this year, but at least I have a job. No one in the company (supposedly) will get one due to the way the economy is right now. We have had a pretty good weekend so far. Yesterday was filled with baby showers, shopping, Photoshop, errands, and dinner at some friends. Tonight we're going over to the Terry's to hang for some Super Bowl. I wont be watching it, but I enjoy the company! Much love to you all.

For those who have asked how I do the mosaics or the groups of pictures all together, I use this site. http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/mosaic.php. I'm not sure if there is an easier way, I've heard about and have unsuccessfully tried the Picasa photo thing... so give it a whirl! I think that only works on PC's for those Mac users out there.

Phew.

So we're all good now, for the most part. I still have some sniffles and coughing but overall we're good. Nothing too exciting to report. We just always seem to be busy although I probably couldn't pin point with what.

Tonight we're going over to our home teachers house for family home evening which should be fun and interesting. They just had their 5th baby, and they are super cool.

Here are some random videos from my phone today with Ben at daycare- mostly for my parents and family not close to my guy. He's definitely perked up and back to his happy playful self! SO glad! I'll have to get some video of him walking with his Walk n' Ride Lion. He does really well with it! I wouldn't be surprised if he started walking with in the next couple of months! Yikes! Ryan's ready, but I'm not!

My kid the bully.

ER Visit

Here is a picture of Ben and Ryan at the ER. That little mini hospital gown was the highlight of our evening, especially when Ben asked the nurse (using my voice of course) if we could take it home and she said yes we could sneak it in our bag. Hopefully our bill wont reflect that! We had a pretty cool thing happen that day though that I wanted to remember, we received a letter in the mail from a long time friend of my parents from California that day. In it she said she was going through some old mail and found a letter addressed and stamped from 2007 that she hadn't sent to us, when we got married. In it was a check for $100 that she rewrote up and sent to us!!! Score! When we got ready to leave the hospital that very night, the lady told us our copay was going to be $100 exactly. The Lord works in mysterious ways. How random is that!?

This was obviously after he had taken his no more tummy ache meds and drank all his Pedialite. He was MUCH perkier and had his color back.

WOW. We've had a tad bit of a stressful time since Friday. Ben had a fever at daycare of 101.2 so I had to take him home and decided to take him to the doctor. When we got there his fever had gone down and the doc told me it was just a cold. So we went home and fed him, got him in the bath and right when we got him out, he started throwing up. He threw up EVERYTHING we had fed him and then some and finally stopped. I tell you what, that is the most horrible thing to have to see- your baby pale and shivering because of throwing up and him not knowing what the heck is going on. He fell asleep in my arms and I was able to get him to take some liquid. He slept for about 2 hours and then woke up restless and shortly thereafter started throwing up again. This time he threw up the Pedialite and then starting vomiting mucus. He was lethargic and tired and crying and so we called the nurse on duty at our doc's office. By this time it was around 10pm. She asked me a series of quesitons and then had the doc call me, and incidently it was the one that had seen him earlier that day. He suggested we go to the ER at Scottish Rite. So we loaded the kid up and made our "fun" trip there at 10:30 at night. Luckily we didn't have to stay too long, he has an ear infection they hadn't caught and was a tad bit dehydrated. They gave him an anti-naseau pill and some Pedialite and he perked right up. We stayed for a little bit, then they let us go and by about 2am we were home and in bed. However, he has had a bit of a struggle wanting to take anything to drink. He finally started feeling better yesterday afternoon.
Ryan and I both came down with whatever it was he had on Monday. Luckily I already had the day off, but Ryan came home early to help me out with Ben because I was not doing so hot and about a half hour after he got there he got "it". We were pretty much out of commission the whole rest of the night. We have some of the bestest friends we could ask for, Jacob and Ashley came and hung out with Ben while we wallowed in our nastiness and took our turns in the bathroom. We are so grateful for them. We both stayed home Tuesday to recover. Ben still wasn't feel terrific and not drinking a lot, so for precautious measures we took him to the doc to make sure he was okay and he was.
Turns out just about the whole of Ben's daycare was sick with this thing... I personally am still recovering- it's taken all of us about 3 or 4 days to feel better. On top of that things at work are both stressful for the two of us and this was just not good timing. Oh well, such is life eh?

Going to the Temple and we're gonna get married...

Well Ashley and Jacob did it. They got married this weekend and it was WONDERFUL! I am so happy for them. And I had the honor of taking their pictures and my wonderful husband assisted me. They got sealed Friday and then had the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner that night. The next day they had a ring ceremony and their reception. It was so sweet and special and I'm so glad we got to be apart of all of it and that we got to mark it down in history for them with the pictures! They are off to their honeymoon now, and I am off to fixing up and uploading the hundreds of pictures I took! Love you guys!

Happy New Year!

Wow, what a crazy beginning to the year for us already. I wanted to post pictures (or a mosaic) of our fun time we had New Year's with our friends before I forgot. Luckily, Ben slept most of the time. He wouldn't fall asleep in the crib we brought, but he DID fall asleep in his carseat! So we just put him and the car seat in the crib once he was a sleep. He was out like a light! Silly kid.

So I guess it's time to update on our Christmas events. We had a really wonderful Christmas. Not only were we blessed with the gift of something on our doorstep every night from a very generous Secret Santa, but the night before Christmas Eve someone from the ward called and asked if they could bring something by from the bishopric. I just assumed it was a treat that everyone would be getting... So while Ryan was out at Jacob's bachelor party; Ashley, my sister and I hung out. The brother from the ward dropped off the "something" from the bishopric and it was a GIANT bag of toys and books and things for Ben! I just kept thinking, "what did we do to deserve this???!" I felt and still feel very humbled and blessed for the generosity we were apart of. I will never forget that. I hope to pay it forward next year... or someday anyway.
Christmas Eve Ryan got home from work and we got some last minute things from the store and headed about an hour South of our house to his Aunt Vicky and Uncle Lanny's house. It's been a Christmas tradition for his family for a while. I love their home, it's so southern looking with the wrap around porch and a little creek nearby. Housed in the garage is Ryan's secret desire... his grandfather's 1996 convertible Mustang. He's hoping to someday get it. He has a lot of great memories of his grandfather who has now passed and that car.
We played Dirty Santa with the gifts we each brought... read the rules... it's different then you're picturing if your MIND IS IN THE GUTTER! :) Ryan walked away with the coveted gift of the night- a Atlanta Falcon's football jersey worn in a game by Jason Webster. Now neither one of us are really big fans of football or care that much about it- but Ryan's cousin Deana is a cheerleader for the Falcons and she said that the jersey could be sold on Ebay for a good amount of money. That of course caught Ryan's attention. So after it being stolen by his Aunt from his mom, then from his aunt by his Dad, Ryan got it! It was a fun game, the first time we all had done it. I think we'll keep doing that every year.
Christmas morning we opened our presents after Ben ate of course...it was fun to see my little guy have much more fun with the card board boxes, wrapping paper and gift bags then the actual toys. Although, he was a big fan of the book Andrea got him. We had a wonderful morning together as a little family, and then we were joined by my sister Delinda. We exchanged gifts and then ate breakfast together. She had to scram so we decided to veg out before heading over to Nana and Poppy's (Ryan's parents) house. We had yummy spaghetti over there and had a wonderful time opening presents. Boy did we get spoiled. When we got home, we got both my brothers and their families and my parents all on an iChat so we could "be together" on Christmas. Gotta love the Macs! It was good to see and talk to everyone, I was REALLY homesick that day. I love and feel we are so blessed to have modern technology...(but not as much you see...)!
Here is a montage of our fun holiday season! Sorry if some of the photos are repeats... deal with it! Next up, New Years!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Southwest Crab Dip! YUM!

So I made this for a bridal shower, and will make it tomorrow for the New Year's Eve party I'm going to. I almost had a heart attack thinking I'd lost it because let me tell you what... IT IS AMAZING. SO, to prevent from losing it- I'm going to type it out.
I got this from a Paula Dean magazine, the recipe is by Kelsey Brown. This is so NOT low fat...

SOUTHWEST CRAB DIP

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 red bell pepper
1/2 small Vidalia onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 c dry white wine
2 c heavy whipping cream
1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, cubed
1 (8 oz) package Velveeta cheese, cubed
1 pound lump crab meat, picked free of shells
1 4 oz can chopped green chilies
1/4 c fresh lime juice
1/2 minced green onion
1/4 c fresh cilantro
1 tablespoon taco seasoning
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp crushed red pepper
Garnish: fresh cilantro
Tortilla Chips

In a 4-quart saucepan, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add red bell pepper, onion, and garlic. Cook for 3 minutes. Stir in wine, and cook until liquid is reduced by half, stirring frequently. Add cream, cream cheese, Velveeta, stirring until thickened. Stir in crab meat, chilies, lime juice, green onion, cilantro, taco seasoning, and chili powder; simmer for 15 minutes. Add salt and crushed red pepper. Garnish with fresh cilantro if desired. Serve HOT with tortilla chips.

*so, I didn't use the green onion or crushed red pepper and it still turned out awesome. I also used the bottled Lime Juice too. Also, since crab meat is expensive- I buy 1 package of the real stuff and then another of the imitation crab meat to save pennies.

I just had to write about the momentous occasion. I am 2 months away from being 30 years old and am actually wearing high heels for the first time in my life... to work. Outside of home.

Is anyone alive? Anyone checking blogs and making comments anymore? Or is it just me?

Jingle Bells, Batman Smells...

So I just had to share, I mentioned before we have Secret Santa's doing the 12 days of Christmas. Last night we got one of our FAVORITE of the treats/gifts they've been bringing. How cute is this? I am totally going to try it sometime! They're little Rudolph brownies!
I have mentioned before how much I love my boys. And I love how much Benny loves his daddy. Ben usually does the snuggling with me because Ryan is the "play guy", but last night Ryan got a special treat and they got to do the snuggling, I mean "hanging out" together!
Well, I am on vacation now and trying to release the left over stress from my hectic day at work yesterday. Ben's asleep, and now I need to either rest myself or wrap presents, clean the kitchen, make cookies, and do laundry. Hmm... that's a hard decision!

I am counting down the hours. The hours until I don't have to work anymore for the rest of the week! I wish I could say the rest of the year... 4 week days off is better than nuthin'! It is super COLD here today. Yesterday it was getting cold, and today it just hits you like a ton of... ICE! HA! We went from like 70-something degrees to this. I'm okay with it though, it makes it feel more Christmas-sy. Now I wish it would just snow, Christmas morning and that would make me happy.
Not much else going on. We went to go see some pretty lights at Stone Mountain, but we were GREATLY disappointed when after we paid $8 just to enter the park itself (parking, different parts of the park, hiking, etc.) we were going to have to pay $20 A PERSON on top of that. We said forget it, and went to dinner and watched "Scrooged" instead. We stuck it to the man.

Christmas is coming, the Heather's getting fat...

Well... one week away from Christmas time. Can you believe it? Do you have your shopping done? I have MOST of mine done... but Ryan informed me today he's only "looked". Better get on it babe!
We have been spoiled this year by a Secret Santa (I'm assuming from the ward). They are doing the 12 days of Christmas and have been so sweet to think of us, make us feel special and help bring the Spirit of Christmas to our home. I am sad we can't be with my family this year, it was supposed to be my turn for Christmas... but no money and no time off cause problems with that. If Ryan doesn't work, Ryan doesn't get paid! BOOOO. The weather hasn't helped us much in the way of getting ready either, it'll be 72 degrees tomorrow. A WEEK BEFORE CHRISTMAS PEOPLE! I've got MOST of my Christmas cards out and am still waiting on some addresses.
Not much else is happening. Benny makes us laugh everyday, he's such a character. He loves to see what's going on and play and learn. He just explores, and with that exploration he's learning so much about things. How to pick up things, stand up, walk around tables, get on his hands and knees, he loves to get around so much. And because of that... he can fall asleep just about anywhere because he wears himself out so easily! He fell asleep sitting and watching everyone through the glass at the end of his crib yesterday. I am grateful for considerate teachers at his daycare who snap some of those moments I hate missing! I asked to be released from Primary. I tried. I really did. There is just TOO much going on in our life right now. And that one kid, as good of a heart as he has- just makes me a little bonkers! The Bishop kindly agreed and will be granting my wish, hopefully soon! Sunday, I was in sharing time with my class and BOY was already causing problems. My patience was growing thin and we hadn't even made it to our class yet. I decided to go ahead and let one of the presidency ladies know what was happening and that I possibly would need a parent's attendance. I prayed and prayed for patience and asked Heavenly Father how to handle it. Just then, right at the end of Sharing Time... a sister in the presidency got up and announced a toilet in the woman's restroom had flooded and they had to turn all the water off, and because of this we all had to leave. All I could think of was "THANK YOU HEAVENLY FATHER!" As silly as it seems, I really felt he answered my prayers!
Anyway, I just wanted to let everyone know I am grateful for this time of year. Christmas is my favorite holiday for many reasons. But I am most grateful for the Savior. I do not wish to go into all the personal reasons why, but I have a great testimony that He lives and that the atonement is real and that He loves us. I am grateful for this time of year to remember Him, and hope that the commercial side all of this (although fun) will not ever blind me or my family of this truth.
I leave you with my happy Benny and his cute chiclet teeth! Doing two of his favorite things, clapping and taking a bath!

This is for Grandma and Grandpa Collier... look at his cute teeth! Not the best quality- it's from my phone.

I am loving having the decorations up!

Finger Lickin' Good!

As Ryan said tonight "You've officially become a Southerner". I made my first fried chicken tonight. Not bad if I do say so myself. He photographed this momentous occasion! HA!

(Yes, that is a Penguin humidifier in the background...)