Baby Shower

Yesterday I hosted a good friend's baby shower at our home. Whitney is due in the middle of March with a little girl. It was fun to decorate in pink, white and gray! I'm use to blue and green around here! I had a lot of help from many people that made things very quick and easy, thank you! It was a pretty laid back shower, no games, just food, chit-chat and seeing all of those cute little girl things!

 

The honorary male guest.

Whitney is such a cute prego! We're very excited to meet Baby Girl!

A Few Other Things

We made graham cracker houses with the whole gang a week before Christmas. I love this tradition. I actually didn't end up making a house, but I had a lot of fun watching the other "kids" make theirs and sampling all of the candy!

Yoda's secret Winter lair. (some minor sledding and Christmas lights casualties for the cinnamon bears)

The aftermath.

We took Luke out to "The Farm", where my mom grew up and my grandma Munns still lives there. We found lots of fun things to keep Luke entertained. Let's start with the goats.

Hmm...anything in here???

Disappointed crowd, the bucket is empty.

Bryan adapting to farm life and helping "save" the goat.

Playing with "Moose". I'm telling ya, this boy loves dogs.

We headed over to Logan for an afternoon, mainly to hit up our favorite ice cream place, Charlie's--- YUMMY!

We also found some ducks for Luke to feed. All was going well for about 2 minutes and then Luke decided he wanted to swim with the ducks, problemo. Bryan reassured Luke (amongst a crowd of duck-feeding children and women) that he would take Luke out to "the farm" where my cousins and brother go duck hunting and kill a duck for Luke to pet. UHHH...it's okay folks, my husband is just teasing! (If you read the previous post about the coyote and rabbit, you know that was a horrible cover-up). Aye-yai-yai!!

Ducks, I suggest you stay on this side of the mountain.

 

I think we found almost every swing for Luke to swing on within a 10 mile radius.

 We went to the Brigham City Museum. I was very impressed with my small hometown. It was very kid friendly and had quite a bit of cool stuff for the older crowd.

Going for a wagon ride. Sadly, this was possibly the last wagon ride this contraption gave. I must have exceeded the weight limit, because we could not get it to start again. Whoopsie!

Checkin' out the gun show.

Luke exploring, managing to find the only room with dirt and loving every second of it.

 

Bryan and I were able to catch up with quite a few friends and escape for some date nights, including some great tickets to a Jazz game-thanks Dave! Much to the thanks of my mom for watching the little guy. Luke loved playing with grandma. He was definitely spoiled, as every grandchild should be by their grandparents.

Loading up on ice cream.

Okay, we've reached max capacity.

It's blurry, but this picture sums it up. So many things to play and do with grandma, yet such little time.

 Luke's pediatrician told me that with his own children he planned on 4 days of "retraining" for a day with grandparents. According to those calculations, we have about 10 weeks of "retraining" left! :)

Christmas 2011

We had a great time spending Christmas in Utah with family. I think Christmas time will continue to be more fun as Luke becomes older and grasps the idea of Santa Claus and the true meaning of Christmas. So fun to have a little one this time of year.

Christmas Eve dinner consisted of my parents and our little family. The meal was from Maddox, one of our favorite restaurants, with the addition of a pomegranate/sprite cocktail that was delicious.

Christmas morning was fun with Luke. He couldn't believe that I was letting him rip the paper. At first he was a little hesitant, but once he saw that it was fair game, he was quite the machine.

He received a glow-worm/seahorse that lights up and sings to him when he takes his naps and falls asleep at night. At first glance, I though it looked highly disturbing, but Luke LOVES this thing. He will play with it for 30-45 minutes after he wakes up (and sometimes before falling asleep)! It's a miracle worker, no matter how disturbing it might first appear!

Bryan opening his present from me---a guided fishing trip to Flaming Gorge with Captain Kyle. Spoke to Captain Kyle myself, he sounds like one "classy" individual. I have no doubt that he and Bryan will get along just great.

Christmas afternoon Luke's cousins, minus seven cousins that live in Kentucky and Virginia, came over for dinner. These kids are so much fun to be around. Luke loves being around his cousins...and trying to keep up!



Luke found a gift that he thought should belong to him. Madi was kind enough to let Luke walk her dog around. I can't believe that Luke is so into dogs already. He'll be wanting that one for a L-O-N-G time.

Maybe Santa Claus will hear the pleas of a little boy and deliver a puppy in a few years...we'll see!

Shake-a-lator

This is my favorite clip of Luke from our visit to Utah. Lukes loves his Uncle Tom, especially when he "shakes it up".





More pics of Christmas time to follow...

A Big Step in My World

I decided to fly out early to Utah with Luke to spend more time with my family over the holidays. That meant that I would be flying solo with my very active and adventurous 15-month-old. I realize that there are many of you reading this blog that have flown much greater distances with your children and many times did it alone. My hat goes off to you, I am truly impressed. It took me 15 months to work up the courage to do this, and I was a nervous ninny.

Afraid to fly alone with this innocent face? (you don't know his other side) :)

In attempts to plan something for Luke to do every minute of that flight I stumbled across a great idea on Pinterest and decided to make one for Luke.

Any ideas??? A gag mask? A magical sleep inducer?

It is an airplane tray cover. A fantastic idea for that cramped space. You slide it over the tray that you normally put your beverage and peanuts on.

This was the front side of the cover. I included a zipper, button doors he could open to find a doggy, 2 balls(attached with ribbon) and a few pouches with hidden treasures.

This was the back side of the cover. I liked this idea because then he could still play with something when the tray was folded up on the seat infront of you. I made flaps he could pull down to show pics of our family. He really liked looking at the pictures and playing with the velcro.

I cannot remember how long this took me to make, but I don't think it was more than an hour. Whatever amount of time I did invest was worth every second. Luke was occupied for quite awhile with it (you know, at least 5 minutes!). The flight went great, and the time spent with family and friends was even better. I think Luke had an idea where this plane was taking him, but more importantly, he knew who was on the other side waiting for his arrival.

Happy Birthday!

Yesterday was Bryan's big day and he spent it doing what he loves. (Warning: Pictures below are graphic and not suited for the coyote and jack-rabbit lovers out there.)

His friend, Jeff, drove out from Utah to hunt in Eastern Colorado with Bryan. Bryan was as giddy as a school girl to be going on the hunt. Guns? Bows? Freezing cold weather? Greasy food? It was a dream come true for Bryan. To kick things off, Jeff drove out in his wife's Prius. It's a beautiful ride and very economical, just not the typical vehicle when going out for the kill...or a blizzard that dumps 14 inches. Wah, wah...wahhhh.

After they dug the Prius out, they made it to their secure location, on top of the grain silos. Serious? Yep.



That is where Bryan spotted this guy. He shot him at 275 yards, on the run. This is Bryan's birthday post and details like that are very important in a man's world.

The hunting had just begun...much to this "Wascally Wabbit's" dismay, Bryan tracked him down as well.

Not a world that I understand, but I'm thrilled that it makes my husband happy. The hunt wraps up tomorrow. He is hoping to get a deer so he can make jerky from the meat. Fantastic and it sounds DEEE-licious. I can't imagine anything better for Christmas (Blah!)...good thing it is Bryan's birthday!
Happy, Happy Birthday!


P.S. Bryan is planning to submit this photo to "Bowhunting Weekly" for their vehicle of the year.

Hello!

Well, after a month of absence, we are back on the blogging grid. Here is the recap on our past month.

We were able to stay in Colorado and celebrate Thanksgiving with Bryan's brother's family and in-laws. It was nice to only do a day-trip and avoid the airports this time of year. It was an enjoyable day in which Bryan was able to shoot guns with thy guys, Luke tried to keep up and run around with all of the other kids, and I kept myself on "quality control" of all of the delicious food. It was a nice, relaxing Thanksgiving.

The following week or week after (it is a blur) Luke came down with a nasty case of croup. I heard him cough that awful, barky cough a couple times in the day, but thought I would just watch him---he didn't seem too bad. Well, suffice it to say, I was tricked! I woke up to hear him struggling to breathe at 12:30 that night. I flipped the lights on only to see my little man working so hard to breathe. I had flashbacks to my intensive care days and thought, "we intubate kids that look like this." NOT the reassuring thought I needed at the moment. I hollered at Bryan to put some sweats on so he could take Luke outside, Bryan was on "red alert" and I've never seen that man move so fast. After the cool air, we tried the steam from the shower, but Luke was still working too hard to breathe. ER, here we come. (I really thought our first trip to the ER was going to be related to that box we pull Luke around in, wrong...again!) After steroids, a few whopper breathing treatments, and 5 hours of observation we were able to go home.

Luke's bed in the ER. He was so sick/tired.

Monitoring his oxygen levels.

My bed...it was so comfortable.

After two more visits to the Dr.'s office and one more visit to the ER (per the pediatrician's request) we are recovered from croup...and on to the next battle of a current ear infection. I love winter. :)