the teeny tiner family

First Sleepover (Week 3/52)

2012-02-05T21:05:00.001-07:00

Last night was the first night I spent apart from Colin. Not just a night, but a whole 24 hours! And let me tell you, I missed him like crazy!

Grandma Ann had been begging me for months to let Colin stay over at her house. Since Matt and I have a 3-day trip planned for my birthday and we're leaving Colin behind, we figured now is as good a time as ever to test out the "Grandma sleepover." Saturday afternoon I packed his bag, and he was so excited he that he carried it around the house until she came to pick him up.

It was the weirdest feeling being able to stay out late, stay up even later, but most of all, be able to sleep in the next morning. Unfortunately, neither Matt nor I were able to sleep in past 8:30. Pathetic! We may have been childless for one night, but it takes a bit longer than that to break habits.

Teef (Week 2/52)

2012-01-28T14:40:00.001-07:00

Currently on Colin's "favorite things to do list" is brushing his teeth. This kid does it almost 5 times a day. Not a bad habit, huh? All of our dentist friends would be proud :)

Anytime we are near the drawer where we keep his tooth brush, he runs to it, pulls it open, and rummages around until he finds BOTH the tooth brush and tooth paste. Last night while Matt was brushing his teeth before bed, Colin attempted to say teeth for the first time. Although it came out more as "teef," he made a valiant effort.

Yay Colin for having good oral hygiene!

What's Up With Colin (Week 1/52)

2012-01-20T18:44:00.000-07:00

Another one of my goals is to blog about the new things Colin is up to every week for a year. I'm a whole year into my 1001 days, so I figured I better get started!

Although not this week, very recently Colin learned how to blow bubbles in the bath. Thanks go to Matt who stuck his own face into Colin's bath to teach him how :)

Missed us?

2012-01-17T14:27:00.000-07:00

Would you believe that I haven't uploaded any pictures from my camera since the middle of October? That, my friends, is the reason for the delay. This means that I have Thanksgiving AND Christmas to catch up on. I'm ashamed to say I'm not very good at remembering to take pictures, so here are some of the ones I did manage to take...

Colin up to no good (as usual!) in November

Hanging out with Landon Kundis at Thanksgiving. I wasn't fast enough to take the picture when Colin was climbing on top of him...

One proud grandma! This is Colin with his first cousin on the Tiner side. Landon is about 2 weeks old in this picture.

Colin's cousin Bridget had her 4th birthday right after Thanksgiving, so we celebrated by going bowling. Here, Megan, Colin, and Bridget check out the bowling alley in action.

The birthday girl checking out the bowling balls.

Felicity also enjoying the bowling

Uncle Nate helping the kids bowl

We also met some friends, Chris and Karen, for dinner at TGI Friday's over Thanksgiving.

Now onto Christmas! We spent several days in Portland with some of my family and had a blast!

Excuse the blurry picture...Nate and I, in matching brown shirts, posed with our kids, in matching pj's, for an awesome family picture.

Attempting to take a picture of 3 small child has proven to be a possible task!

But it wasn't without its fair share of outtakes...

Here we have the disco apparel! Uncle Mark, seen here sporting a disco zip-up jacket and shorts, was kind enough to get Colin a pair of baby disco pants! Even now, he loves to put them on and run around the house in them. They are a few inches too long on him right now, but you better believe that once they fit him, he will be wearing them out of the house!

I didn't take a single picture from Christmas day. Epic fail. In my defense, we spent Christmas weekend battling the stomach flu. Colin managed to pick up the bug in Oklahoma, threw up on BOTH flights we took to get to Portland, and then passed it on to the other 9 people staying at my brother's house. It certainly was a memorable Christmas :) Aside from the stomach flu, I managed to win our annual family rice pudding game, Megan and I forced everyone to have a Twilight movie marathon, and Megan and I managed to hold the 6th annual bakefest (nevermind no one ended up eating the treats since we were all sick).

All in all, 2011 was a good year for us, and we look forward to all that 2012 may bring us. We started off the year as new business owners, so how much better can it get??

I promise more new posts will be coming soon, so don't stay away too long!

Toothy Grin

2011-11-13T13:40:00.001-07:00

Colin's mouth is full of teeth these days. He currently has 14 teeth that are fully through the surface, and 2-4 that will soon be on their way. Luckily, teething has never really been a problem for him, so these 14 have made their appearance without being accompanied by any drama (just lots of drool).

We were able to capture a few pictures of all those pearly whites today while playing outside, so I thought I would share. This boy is just too adorable not to share pictures!

Colin was hanging out in the back of Matt's truck and throwing a golf ball onto the ground, which resulted in a lot of giggles. Don't worry, we took a video for your viewing pleasure!

Halloween Fun

2011-11-03T21:27:00.000-06:00

This past weekend we attended 2 Halloween parties to celebrate the holiday. We dressed Colin up as a pirate for both, but Matt and I declined to wear costumes.

Colin is 13-months-old now, so I hope that's enough explanation for why we weren't able to get any decent pictures of him in his Halloween costume. It's also the reason he has a crooked mustache and why he doesn't have a pirate hat. There is NO way he was going to keep it on.

This boy does not sit still for a second. He's always racing from one thing to the next, not to mention trying to play with anything he's not supposed to. Colin knows how to keep me busy.

Other exciting news from our Halloween festivities...

Our ward's Halloween party included a chili cook-off and a pie contest. I entered two pies in the pie contest, and would you believe I won both first AND second place?!

We got 145 trick-or-treaters. We had no idea how many to expect, so we ran out of candy. Good thing we had our giant box of fruit snacks from Sam's Club so we still had something to hand out :)

And speaking of trick-or-treaters, what's the deal with teenagers going trick-or-treating? I'm pretty sure that the sport of trick-or-treating is more about seeing cute kids in their cute little costumes. That's why my philosophy is going to be that once my kids are old enough to go out on their own, they shouldn't be going at all. So take that!

We had a great Halloween full of fun and treats, and now we've moved on to November. Hooray for November!

Deep Dark Chocolate Cookies

2011-10-22T11:28:00.004-06:00

Recipe and image source here

Thanks to pinterest, I've discovered a few new recipes that I want to try out. And these cookies happened to be first on my list.

BEST. DECISION. EVER.

And there's no butter or flour in them, so they can't be all that bad for you, right? ;)

Deep Dark Chocolate Cookies
originally taken from epicurious
recipe as adapted by divine-baking.com

Nonstick vegetable oil spray
1 1/2 cups bittersweet chocolate chips (about 9 ounces), divided
3 large egg whites, room temperature
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar, divided (I used 2 cups)
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray 2 large baking sheets with nonstick spray. Melt 1 cup chocolate chips in glass bowl in microwave, stirring twice, about 2 minutes. Cool slightly.

Using electric mixer, beat whites in large bowl to soft peaks. Gradually beat in 1 cup sugar. Continue beating until mixture resembles soft marshmallow creme.

Whisk 1 cup sugar, cocoa, cornstarch, and salt in medium bowl to blend. On low speed, beat dry ingredients into meringue.

Pour lukewarm chocolate and 1/2 cup chocolate chips into mixture. If dough does not become stiff, stick in freezer for a few minutes.

Place 1/2 cup sugar in bowl. Roll 1 rounded tablespoon dough into ball; roll in sugar, coating thickly. Place on prepared sheet. Repeat with remaining dough, spacing 2 inches apart.

Bake until puffed and tops crack, about 10 minutes. Cool on sheets on rack 10 minutes. Transfer to rack; cool.

Yield: Makes about 18

I couldn't find bittersweet chocolate chips anywhere, so I just bought the chocolate bar and chopped it up. Some comments on the original blog also mentioned using semi-sweet instead and just cutting down the sugar a little.

Make these cookies...you will not be sorry. I preferred them still warm, but Matt liked them better after they had cooled. Either way they are gooey on the inside. Mmmmmm...

Let me know what you think!

Sure as Shootin'

2011-10-14T22:27:00.000-06:00

This week I embarked on an adventure that will now officially classify me as an Oklahoman. So much so that I am now allowed to use phrases like, "I'm fixin'," as in, "I'm fixin' to take the trash out." Or adding 'a' to the beginning of words like, "I'm agonna have red beans for dinner!"

I can now shamelessly use these syntactic and pragmatic nightmares of phrases

because this week I became a real Oklahoman when I went shootin'.

Can you believe it only took me 10 months to accomplish that? Life in Oklahoma is always an adventure :)

Showcasing all but one of the guns we got to shoot with.
If you ask me what they are, I could throw out some numbers and pretend like I know...

Tate and Eleece recently got their conceal and carry permits,
so they were excited to go shooting with us.

Me shooting...some kind of rifle.
But it was so intense that it made both Matt and I make stupid faces :)

We had some targets we were using to practice, and this is Matt showing off his bullseye!
What a stud.

Mostly I wanted to take pictures of our adventure because it reminded me of this season's opening episode of Modern Family where they go to the ranch in Wyoming and Cameron takes a picture of Mitchell holding a gun...

But also, I had to document that I can now cross this off of my 101 in 1001 list. Holla!

12 Months and 1 Week!

2011-10-09T22:25:00.000-06:00

That's right, as of last weekend, we have a one-year-old on our hands. And a cute one at that! But because we celebrate birthdays in style around here, Colin got to enjoy a whole birthday week.

Get ready for picture overload...

The birthday boy on the morning of his big day

Megan came for a quick visit over Colin's birthday.
We have Delta to thank for a great last-minute weekend sale!

One of his birthday presents from Grandma and Grandpa Tiner...
a super cool motorcycle that even has sound effects!

Enjoying a cupcake on his birthday

All of his Elmo-themed gifts. It's true, Colin loves Elmo.

Before Megan left we went to the Tulsa State Fair.
Here we are enjoying the petting zoo.

Megan and Colin at the fair!

The weekend after his birthday we had some real fun. We had a few friends over to enjoy some monkey business :) Here is Colin enjoying his individual monkey cake. Definitely the fanciest birthday cake I've ever made...

Arial view of the cake-eating

This is Zoey, one of Colin's friends. They have a lot of fun together :)

And how about a picture of me in a party hat? Since I'm so cute and everything ;)

It was one fun, busy week. And I'm still getting used to the fact that when people ask me how old Colin is I have to say, "he just turned one." What happened to my baby that used to look like this?

Oh that's right. He grew up :) And has recently taken to pulling all the red yard out of the top of this monkey's hat. Hmmm...

Happy 1st birthday, Colin! We love you!!

Montana Visitors

2011-09-25T14:01:00.000-06:00

The last week on August we had some awesome visitors that traveled all the way from Montana to see us!

Grandpa Dean and Grandma Chris were here for a week, and we did all sorts of things to make their first time in Oklahoma lots of fun.

But can you believe I didn't take a single picture on my camera while they were here? I guess I was too busy being an excellent hostess...Luckily Chris took plenty, so I borrowed some from her to show you.

We spent one evening at the playground of the elementary school by our house. Colin loved it.

And we had to take them to one of our favorite spots--Pop's outside of Oklahoma City. We bought 15 bottles of pop to sample :)

We ate a ton, we saw a lot, but mostly we just enjoyed spending time together. It was so nice to have them visit, and the best part was that when it was time to go, Colin and I got on the plane with them. They had a layover in Phoenix, where Colin and I got off, but it was fun to fly part of the way back with them.

Thanks for coming to visit! We had so much fun, and we can't wait for you to come back!

Update Time!

2011-09-14T22:34:00.000-06:00

Where does the time go? It's already the middle of September, and I have yet to post about the visitors we had the last week of August or our trip to Phoenix the first week of September.

But this post is about my little boy, who, in less than three weeks will be turning 1! He took his first step the beginning of August, but for 6 weeks wouldn't walk more than 3 or 4 steps at a time. Finally on Friday last week something must have clicked for him and he has started walking all over the house. In the few days since then he has become quite the pro and today attempted to run a few times...

I'll admit I'm a little scared for my future ;)

Colin also waves. A lot. He waves anytime at anyone. He's a very friendly little guy. This video is from the end of July, but it's cute and he's waving :)

He can say hi, dada, mama, bye bye, and night night.

He loves to pretend he's talking on the phone by holding anything up to his ear.

He loves dancing. If he hears music, he waves his arms around and bounces up and down. Cutest thing ever.

He loves Elmo! Sesame Street is about the only show that holds his attention, and when Elmo comes on he usually laughs and waves his arms around (his version of clapping).

And I'm pretty sure that the word "no" has a different meaning to Colin. If he ever hears that word, he takes that to mean, "let's make a game out of that!" He thinks he is hilarious when he is doing something he shouldn't be. Like pushing all the buttons on the side of the TV, climbing up on anything he can, or the trick he learned today, throwing (with force) all of the food on his highchair tray onto the floor...If anyone has advice for me on this one, I'd appreciate it :) I've tried "no" and I've tried ignoring the bad behavior. Neither one seems to make a difference...he just smiles and laughs no matter what.

I'm thinking I should make this the Naughty Spot ;) Maybe the threat of a ride in the washing machine will scare him into good behavior...

And there you have it--the 11-month-old Colin update! As you can tell, we stay busy around here. Colin loves to laugh and smile, and even though he's been known to be naughty, his little smile makes my day!

Decorating (Part 3)

2011-08-25T07:13:00.000-06:00

We've lived in our house for 6 months now, and I am still slowly, but surely, working to have it all decorated and "homey" feeling.

One of my most recent projects was curtains in our dining area. There were blinds in the window when we moved in, but they didn't work. In an attempt to be able to let more natural light in, we took down the blinds, and I sewed some cafe curtains out of white muslin to put up. The problem there is that white muslin is really boring! So after seeing an idea for this, I bought some painter's tape and went to work.

One curtain finished, one in progress

Finished. Much better than plain white :)

This other one involved no work from me other than ordering vinyl lettering...but I think the look completes the entryway.

Until my next decorating adventure!

Surprise!

2011-08-17T15:39:00.000-06:00

It's been awhile since my last post, and I have lots of things I need to catch you up on, but this story is too good to postpone!

Yesterday morning I put Colin down for a nap in a t-shirt and his diaper. He talked to himself for awhile, but it was obvious he wasn't going to fall asleep because eventually he began to whine and cry. I finally went in to get him, but it wasn't until I picked him up that I realized he had taken his diaper off. And THEN I noticed there was poop on his mattress...(and if you're wondering why it took me so long to notice, it's a brown sheet :) I started cleaning him up, but it was obvious he had been playing in it because he had poop all over his legs, hands, and shirt, so Matt put him in the bath while I threw his sheet in the washer.

Colin may not be walking quite yet, but I think it's safe to say we're moving into the toddler phase around here...although I hope there's no more poop involved!

A peek at our days...

2011-07-21T10:18:00.000-06:00

I think these pictures describe our days pretty well. There's always a new mess around the house! Sometimes (usually) it's in the kitchen with the tupperware, sometimes he finds the food in the pantry, or sometimes he gets into the pots and pans. Other times he opens drawers in his room and likes to pull out all of his clothes. We are also continually baby-proofing the house as Colin discovers new ways to get into trouble. It's so fun to see him learning new things!

This boy loves to smile and laugh! He is quite the speed-crawler, and he's quickly becoming more steady on his feet. He is also a champ at eating finger foods (and eating in general...he loves to eat!) and will finally hold bottles and sippy cups on his own!

And for those curious, his stats from his 9 mo. doctor's appointment a few weeks ago were as follows:

height: 28" (40%)
weight: 17 lb 6 oz (6%)
head circ.: 17.5" (25%)

He may be small, but what he lacks in size,
he makes up for in spirit.
Colin is one energetic, curious kid!

The 4th (14 Days Later)

2011-07-18T21:17:00.000-06:00

Here's another post in my attempt to get caught up!

The 4th of July was a pretty low-key day for us, but we sure partied it up in the evening. We had Matt's parents over for dinner and fireworks. Lots of people in our neighborhood were also doing fireworks, and I thought for sure Colin would wake up at some point, but he didn't. Amazing!

Not much to report other than that, so I'll just skip right to the pictures. It's what you're really here for anyway :)

We hope you all had a great holiday too! And sorry for the belated holiday well wishes...

Road Trip!

2011-07-17T20:36:00.000-06:00

When we still lived in Utah we would go on road trips all the time. We drove to Phoenix many times, we drove to Montana, and we even drove up to Seattle and Vancouver, BC once. Most of these trips included my sister Megan too, so it only seemed right that she should make the trip out to Oklahoma so we could take another road trip up to Nauvoo, IL.

There are many historic LDS church sites throughout Missouri and Illinois, and we wanted to hit most of them, so we left our house on Thursday night and drove to Kansas City. We spent a day there checking out the city and the church sites around that area.

In Independence, MO we went to the LDS visitor center and the Community of Christ temple across the street.

View of the Community of Christ temple

Inside the temple, view of the spire from inside

Other sites we saw around Kansas City were the KC LDS temple that is almost complete and the Liberty jail visitor center. Liberty jail is where Joseph Smith and 4 others spent 4 winter months.

KC temple construction

Picture of Colin after his bath that night...

After our day in KC, we woke up early the next morning and drove the rest of the way to Nauvoo, and stopped to see a few more sites along the way.

Jess and Megan standing outside Carthage jail and visitor center

Far West, MO site where the Saints planned to build a temple,
but they were driven out before anything more than the cornerstones could be laid

Enjoying a beautiful morning at Adam-ondi-ahman

A view of the outside of Carthage jail. The top window is where Joseph fell
from after he was shot and killed by the mob

People are always telling me Colin looks just like Matt, and I think this picture shows that very well

Megan and Colin!

Our adorable family picture outside the Nauvoo temple

view of the Nauvoo temple

This was my first time seeing the Mississippi River, and I couldn't believe how huge it is! Here's the sunset by the Mississippi :)

Colin, the pioneer baby!

sisters :)

We had an awesome time! Colin did really well in the car (miracle!) and we had a blast, even if we traveled over 1,000 miles in a little over 3 days. Megan stayed at our house for about a week after our big trip, so I have another post to write. Stay tuned!

Always Growing

2011-06-24T13:52:00.001-06:00

Colin will be 9 months next week! I got an email yesterday that talked about Baby Development: Month 9.

Your baby's brain is making quantum leaps right now. Of course, your baby will now use these advanced motor and cognitive skills to try and put himself in the driver's seat. He may demand to be held. Insist on sharing your food. Crawl toward you when he wants you. Or rebel against a diaper change. Revel in his independence, for better or for worse.

Reading that made me laugh because Colin is definitely doing all of those things. It seems like he's always right at my feet wanting me to pick him up. If I'm eating or drinking anything, he wants in on the actions. And trying to change his diaper can sometimes be...next to impossible. Good to know he's right on track :)

In other news, this boy is a pro at eating finger foods, and he has 6 teeth and loves to have them brushed! He loves to play peek-a-boo, he loves being outside (which probably explains his fascination with door knobs), and he loves to laugh and jabber.

He is quite the dare devil...he tries to dive off of, climb over/through, and pull himself up on anything. He will take a few steps around the couch and will walk while holding onto someone's hands, and although the army crawl still makes its appearances, Colin has been crawling on his hands and knees for a few weeks. In this picture he managed to climb through the coffee table at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

I got this little outdoor swing at a consignment store by our house, and it has been a big hit!

Graham crackers and milk make for a pretty good snack. So good that Colin decided to kick his feet up and enjoy them to the fullest.

He knows the things he's not supposed to play with, so he always makes sure to look at you and smile before he starts playing with them. One of those things he loves to play with are the covers that go over the screws that bolt toilets to the floor. Fortunately, there's an easy solution to this one: leave the bathroom doors closed!

Colin keeps me busy! He loves to make messes and get into everything, but we have a lot of fun. I just love this little guy.

Joplin, MO

2011-06-23T10:04:00.000-06:00

Joplin is a little under 2 hours northeast from where we are, and to help cleaning up the city, our church has been sending men from the surrounding stakes to do heavy manual labor on the weekends. Father's Day weekend was our stake's turn. Matt wasn't able to go because he had to work, but his dad made the trip up there to help out. All of the pictures he took of his phone got uploaded onto our computer, so I thought I would post some. (Thanks, Mike!)

The pictures are pretty small, so you may not be able to see much, but from what I can tell the damage is devastating.

Mike said on one side of the street there could be a house that was completely demolished and on the other side a house that only lost a shingle or two. It's crazy how tornados work.

After my first tornado season, I can officially say I haven't seen any tornados, and I hope it stays that way. Meanwhile, my heart goes out to all those who have been affected by tornados this year.

oh, and if this post makes you scared to ever visit Tornado Alley, just remember tornados have been known to occur in lots of other places too :)

Honey Butter Biscuits

2011-06-14T19:39:00.000-06:00

I wish I blogged about recipes.

So here I am blogging about a recipe. Ta-DAH!

Since moving here, we have discovered the goodness of Church's Chicken. It's a lot like Kentucky Fried Chicken, but we really only like it for the biscuits. We love Church's Honey Butter Biscuits.

As a quick side-story, for one of Matt's Christmas presents, I made him a little punch card stating I would make one treat of his choice each month.

Matt requested I try my hand at replicating the heavenly biscuits, so like any resourceful cook wanting to try something new, I found my way to Google, which led me to this recipe (thanks food.com!):

2 cups flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons sugar

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/2 cup vegetable shortening

2/3 cup whole milk

1/4 cup butter, melted

1/3 cup honey

1 Preheat oven to 450°F.

2 Mix flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, and cream of tartar in a medium bowl.

3 Work shortening into flour mixture by crumbling with your hands until the mixture feels like cornmeal.

4 Pour milk into flour mixture and mix well.

5 On a slightly floured surface, knead the dough about 12-15 times.

6 Make dough into balls (about 2 inches) and place on baking sheet.

7 Brush Dough balls with some of the melted butter.

8 Bake 10-12 minutes or until golden.

9 Meanwhile bring remainder of butter and all honey to a boil in a sauce pan, then set honey butter aside.

10 When biscuits are done remove from the oven and immediately brush each biscuit with honey butter.

I cut down the baking powder from 4 tsp to 3 (which I changed above) just because that seemed like a lot, and the biscuits still turned out amazing--better than the real thing. And the best part is that they're drop biscuits, so you don't have to take the time to roll and cut them out. I think the biscuits took about 30 minutes to make. It doesn't get much better than that!

So if you're in the mood for delicious honey butter on a good biscuit, give this recipe a try. You won't be sorry.

The Garden

2011-06-09T14:28:00.000-06:00

Matt read up about square-foot gardening, so we decided to give it a try this summer. He built the box, we planted our seeds weeks ago, and I'm proud to say we already have some fresh vegetables on our hands!

One advantage to the box is the lack of weeds. We spend maybe 5 to 10 minutes a week weeding the garden. And thank goodness, because that is my least favorite part.

We are growing tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, yellow squash, pumpkin, carrots, peas, and lettuce. We don't really know what we're doing, but so far we've had success. Hopefully that continues!

Summer

2011-06-04T13:53:00.000-06:00

No one in our immediate family is in school anymore, and we've had summer-like weather here since the end of March, so the notion of "summer vacation" is lost on us. However, we used Memorial weekend to go out to Utah and visit family and friends.

Colin and I went out for a whole week, and Matt joined us Saturday night through Tuesday. My sister Jill and her family drove up from Phoenix too, so it was a big party.

Kimberly and Bridget enjoying dessert

Colin loves babies! Bridget was kind enough to lend him her doll

Colin checking out his newest cousin, Felicity

Colin and Korbin, who I mentioned back in this post.
They looked alike in November, but look nothing alike now :)

Chillin' at the Waldron's

Charlotte loves babies too, and she loved holding Felicity

Practicing walking at BYU

Colin and Grandma Chris. She drove all the way down from Montana just to see us!

For anyone who has spent at least 5 minutes with Colin, you know how active he is. He will not sit still for a minute, and even when I'm holding him, he's usually trying to climb up me to get to whatever is behind me. This made for interesting travels. We stopped in Denver both going out there and back, but we were lucky enough to have layovers that were only long enough to deplane and board our next flight. Colin actually did really well on all the flights, and we were lucky enough to sit by lots of nice people. Colin was very interactive with all of the strangers, but his favorite was a little girl that sat behind us on one flight that played peek-a-boo with him for half an hour.

Besides peek-a-boo, here are a few shots of what Colin did to keep himself occupied.

Trying to dive off the seat to play with everything on the floor

Sucking on his pacifier

Looking out the window and patting the glass

Other activities not pictured included eating cheerios and playing with the laminated plane menu and tray. Sleeping? Not so much, but despite that, he was still a good little travel buddy :)

The Big Gift

2011-05-23T20:49:00.000-06:00

Matt surprised me with something awesome for Mother's Day. I'm late in posting about it because it wasn't quite ready for pictures until a few days ago.

He bought a piano on craigslist and completely refinished it. Look how beautiful it is!

Ever wondered what the inside of a piano looks like?
Unfortunately, this is the only before shot we have.

And the finished product. It looks even better in person!

I haven't played the piano much in the last 5 years, but I love being able to sit down and play whenever I want now. Now I just need to get some more sheet music.

Colin especially loves this new addition. Almost every time we walk past the piano (which probably happens 20 times a day) he looks at it and lets me know he wants to play. He loves to hit/pat everything, so he really loves the piano because his hitting/patting makes noise!

Matt took this cute video of Colin playing the piano. The piece of the piano is missing because Matt hadn't finished staining it yet. This view was even better for Colin because he could see movement every time he hit a key. I think we might have a pianist on our hands!

Bumps and Bruises

2011-05-19T14:10:00.000-06:00

Not to mention being dirty.

That's the phase Colin has just entered.
And when exactly will this phase end?
I'm guessing years.

Last weekend he decided to throw caution to the wind and see what life was like standing on his own two feet. Since then, we haven't been able to get him to stop pulling himself up on anything and everything. In fact, I now find him standing up in his crib every time I go get him up.

He's gotten a few bumps on the head and a scratch on his cheek (the scratch we have our brick fireplace to thank for), but Colin is determined, and he gets extremely happy when he succeeds.

With his new sense of adventure, he has taken to opening the bottom drawers throughout the house. This one in the kitchen is a favorite of his because of all the fun things inside.

And he is quite the helper...look at him helping me fold the laundry :)

In other news, his third tooth just popped through the other day, and according to our home scale, he weighs about 17 lbs. He's growing up so fast!

Trip to the Zoo

2011-05-18T12:20:00.000-06:00

Colin and I go to a play group on Wednesday mornings with some women from church. We do lots of fun things like going to different parks, the Children's Museum, and a few weeks ago we went to the zoo. Colin doesn't care too much about any of it, but it gives us something to do, and it has helped me make some friends around here.

My friend Melanie took a few pictures while we were there, so I thought I would share.

Watching the tortoises. Previous to this, Colin pulled off one of his socks and dropped it over the side of the stroller...

We stopped for a snack along the way.

The empty strollers during the snack break. Can you imagine this parade of strollers walking through the zoo?

The kids enjoying the penguins.

I've never been a big fan of zoos because I don't particularly like animals, and this zoo trip was not much better. Most of the animals were sleeping or otherwise boring. The penguins were by far my favorite because there were a bunch of them, and they were swimming and waddling all over the place. Despite my feelings, I can see how the zoo is fun for little kids, and I'm sure in a few years Colin and I will be spending a lot more time there!

More Visitors!

2011-05-13T14:37:00.000-06:00

This post is almost a week late, but better that than never!

Last week weekend Matt's sister and her husband, Kristy and Kyle, came back to Oklahoma for a visit. We managed to cram quite a bit into those few days, and here are a few pictures I took.

One of the things on my 101 list was to go to an Oklahoma tourist site I hadn't been to yet, and this weekend helped me cross that off! We visited Pawnee Bill's Ranch in Pawnee, Oklahoma. Never heard of Pawnee Bill? I hadn't either, but check out the link, and you'll learn a few things. We have him to thank for Wild West shows. The Ranch has a museum and several old buildings including his mansion. The mansion was completed in 1910 and cost $100,000 to build. It was built with electricity and running water while the rest of the town of Pawnee still had dirt roads and horses and buggies. A little Oklahoma history for you :)

Colin on a little saddle. Adorable!

Here's another bit of Oklahoma history for you. Tabouli, a Lebanese dish, is very popular around here. Weird, right? That is because of a restaurant started by Fred Joseph. His ancestors brought a recipe for it with them to the United States, and when he opened his restaurant, he started serving it. Although his restaurant burned down, one of his nephews opened a new restaurant on the same site and called it Joseph's. They still serve the same tabouli, and over the years, many other restaurants have started serving it too.

We went to Joseph's on Saturday night as a pre-Mother's Day event. Here's a shot of Colin with his Grandpa!

And for the record, I think tabouli is disgusting.

Friday they went to the aquarium. I opted out, but they took Colin and gave me a few baby-free hours! I guess Colin really liked it, but he was mad because the plexi-glass was keeping him out!

There's not much of a story behind this one, but I had to include it because he's so cute! We had a fun visit, and we can't wait for Kristy to have her baby in November so Colin has a cousin on the Tiner side!

A Little Laugh

2011-05-10T10:11:00.000-06:00

Most teenagers these days have cell phones, and with those cell phones they do a lot of texting. In an attempt for parents to communicate better with their children, many adults have also started texting. If you are one of them, here's a bit of advice...make sure you have your child's phone number programmed into your phone correctly.

I got some text messages from a number I didn't recognize a few weeks ago, and I thought this was too funny not to share. Here's the first one that I got on a Thursday morning.

This one I got on Saturday night/Sunday morning. I don't know why this mother didn't change the programmed number after the first time I told her she had the wrong number...but I haven't gotten anymore since then, so hopefully she figured it out.

I wonder how much trouble this kid got into...

Motherhood

2011-05-09T13:09:00.000-06:00

I love being a mom more than I ever thought I would. It is even better now that we have a bit of a routine and I can usually understand what Colin needs. With motherhood came the anticipated changes and hardships, but I have encountered many things over the last several months that I never even imagined.

For instance, hello hormones! Those first 3 or 4 months were full of crying and mood swings, and all I can say is I'm so glad I'm past that stage now.

I never considered the worry I would feel about, well, everything, but mostly concerning my child. Will he get hurt? Will he get sick? Is he sleeping okay? It never ends.

Breastfeeding is really painful at the beginning. Fair warning, skip to the next section if you have no desire to learn more about this :) Before Colin was born, I had little desire to breastfeed, but I had decided to give it at least a try because it was a cheaper option, and he would benefit from it. My plan was to do it for about a month, and during that time, pump as much as I could in order to continue giving him breast milk for a little longer than that. Well, he's 7 months old, and I'm still going strong and loving it! This didn't come without hardship the first month though. It hurt a LOT the first several weeks, once so much that I cried (and I consider myself to have high tolerance for pain). I even suffered from mastitis for several days, and my nipples cracked and bled a lot despite my frequent use of lanolin. In the end, the pain was well worth it, but it was quite a surprise for me when I started. I've read that breastfeeding isn't supposed to hurt, and if it does, you're not doing it right. I do NOT believe that.

Leaving the house takes a lot of work. I know--this is a given. But I had to come to terms with this many months ago, and in so doing, I always tell myself that I plan to leave 15 minutes earlier than I need to. This usually means that I will leave the house on time.

We are always wanting him to learn the next thing, but I need to slow down and enjoy what he's doing right now. He gets older every day, and I don't want to miss a minute of it. Not to mention, the more mobile he gets, the more trouble he can get into...

He can't walk or talk, but boy, does he have personality. Colin is extremely opinionated, and he lets me know when he's not happy. I love that at even such a young age, I can tell what sort of characteristics he will have even when he gets older.

I really wanted a cuddly baby, and for the first few months Colin was happy to oblige. Now, however, he refuses. In fact, it is almost impossible to get him to fall asleep if he is being held. Except when he was sick last week--I loved that I got to cuddle with him during his nap.

When my floors are littered with toys, I have no motivation to pick them up because they will just be pulled right back out.

If you made it to the end of this very long list, congratulations! I'm sure these things aren't all that interesting to most people, but I wanted to document a few of my feelings--especially because I got to celebrate my first Mother's Day as a mom yesterday.

I hope you all enjoyed the day as well!

A Visit From the Bagwells

2011-05-01T16:41:00.000-06:00

The Bagwells used to be our next door neighbors in Provo when we first got married, and we became good friends with them during the 2 years be both lived in those apartments. This past week they packed up all of their stuff and are currently driving to the east coast, where Buck will start his new job in Connecticut.

Lucky for us, they decided to stop at our house along the way and stay for a few days! It was so great to see them, and although Millie is quite a bit older than Colin, I think he really enjoyed having her around to play with.

We did several things while they were here, but I only managed to take a few pictures. Enjoy!

Thank you Aquarium App on the iPad for occupying them for a few minutes

This is serious talent: wrangling two small children while talking on the phone.

Millie really liked the walk-through of Western Auto.

Buck and Colin before our tour of the Blue Bell Ice Cream factory.
We got to eat ice cream fresh off the line. Amazing.

Millie enjoyed the tour, but apparently not the Blue Bell Ice Cream hat.

Extra Protein

2011-04-19T20:55:00.000-06:00

I've heard people say that if you eat a little dirt, it's okay--it's just a little extra protein. Well, does the same principle apply to paper? I sure hope so because the other day I found this:

It looks like we have a bit of a mouse problem in our house.
Good thing our mouse is so cute!
Sometimes we just call him Trouble.

Favorite Things (According to Colin)

2011-04-17T20:01:00.000-06:00

Colin is discovering new things every day. Some of his discoveries are good...some bad...but through all of that he has decided on a few favorites.

Things he has learned to love include the outdoors. He loves playing outside. He loves swings, sun, and grass. He loves it all. Hopefully this means one day he will go camping with his dad so I don't ever have to!

This picture showcases three more of my favorite things: these two cute boys and a swing. Random fact: I have loved swinging since I first learned how in preschool, and I go to parks with swings any chance I get.

Colin loves making everything into a toy. This includes any and all electronics, glasses, outlets, cords, vent covers, door stoppers, etc.

Ever since we started letting him drink from a cup, if he sees either of us with one he's sure he needs it too. He opens his mouth and says, "uh uh uh."

Colin's favorite spot in the house is right between the couch and recliner in our living room where we keep his toy basket. Several times a day he will wiggle his way in there just to hang out.

One of Colin's favorite activities is exploring. Today he ventured off the carpet in the living room onto the tile in the entryway. This may very well be his new favorite room. He played with the vent cover for several minutes before crawling over to the glass door and staring outside for awhile.

One thing that will be at the top of my "to do" list for the next several months: keep all of my floors very clean.

I know what you're thinking right now--"he's so cute!"

And I definitely agree with you :)

Favorite Things

2011-04-13T16:08:00.000-06:00

I like that one picture, and not only that, but one item can represent so many of my favorite things.

flip flops
warm weather
sparkly things
the color pink

I love spring!

Call for help

2011-04-11T11:41:00.001-06:00

When Matt worked at the credit union he had to wear a tie to work every day, and so he has quite the tie collection hanging in our closet. Now, Matt wears a uniform to work, which means less laundry for me (yay!), but that also means a growing collection of something else.

Metal hangers.

Yes, I gathered up all of these hangers and threw them on the ground just so I could take a picture.

And sure, I could have spent naptime a little more productively by, say, emptying the dishwasher.

But hey, it's all for the love of the blog.

Now here's where I need your help, trusty readers.

Being the crafty, environmentally conscious person that I am...okay, so I'm not that environmentally conscious, but hey, I'm working on it. Let me try that again.

Being...the person that I am...I need to figure out something to do with these hangers before they take over my house. I don't want to just throw them away, and although I've entertained the idea of just buying more clothes to fill them up, I'm trying to be more realistic :)

So please give me any ideas you have.

I need your help!

Happy Half Birthday!

2011-04-02T18:51:00.000-06:00

This post (like many others) is dedicated to my favorite little man, who turns 6 months old today!

Colin is always working on new tricks, the latest of which include sitting up by himself, escaping his bumbo seat, and the army crawl.

When he wants to get out of his bumbo seat he starts with this sideways stretch, then he reaches down and plops right out. Fortunately, this has only happened once while he was unattended...

One of his first attempts at the army crawl. He only gets better every day.

He loves to squawk, squeal, blow raspberries, and make noise any other way he can. He also loves chewing on anything he can get ahold of, although he prefers electronics and spoons.

Standing is always better than sitting in Colin's opinion.

It took a few weeks, but Colin now loves eating food. He has tried rice cereal, oatmeal, peas, pears, carrots, bananas, and apples. He likes them all, but it took him a few days before he discovered his love for pears. Strange kid.

Look at those two cute teeth!

This boy loves his dad! Matt can get him to laugh harder than I've ever heard, and just one look from dad will usually get a giggle out of him. That being said, he is entering the phase of always wanting me. Especially at night. When it's about his bedtime he'll start crying and won't stop until I pick him up. Then he looks over at Matt and gets a big smile on his face, like he's trying to say, "See? I got exactly what I wanted."

This is a video of a little game they like to play called "Colin on the cob."

I'm pretty sure he gets cuter every single day. I still look at him and say, "Ah! He's the cutest baby ever!" I don't think I'll ever stop doing that, in fact :) He even looks cute in this snowsuit...

We love Colin to pieces, and I'm so glad that 6 months ago today he joined our family!

Decorating (Part 2)

2011-03-30T09:29:00.000-06:00

I've been planning this next decorating idea since before we moved in to our house. Now that it's finished I'm even more excited about it!

We built the shelves ourselves using 1x4s and 1x2s and then painted them white. A majority of the frames we already had, but I also made a trip to Salvation Army where I picked up 6 frames for 50 cents a piece. A coat of white spray paint for the frames, and taDAH! We have the most awesome gallery wall that cost under $50. Now I just need to finish filling the frames...

My Big Birthday Surprise

2011-03-29T18:07:00.001-06:00

I turned 23 this year...23 on the 23rd to be exact. I've been waiting to celebrate my Golden Birthday for quite some time, so this year I decided to extend the celebration to a whole week.

To preface this story, I had been begging my sister Megan to come visit me for weeks. Towards the end of February she finally committed and forwarded me her flight itinerary. According to the email she was going to be here from April 6th to the 12th and I was so excited.

The best part of my birthday came late Tuesday night. Matt and I were watching a movie on our laptop in our bedroom about 10:30 when his phone rang. His dad was calling because a pipe had burst at their rental property, and he needed Matt's help to fix it. So Matt left a few minutes later, and I kept watching the movie. About an hour later, I heard the garage door and couldn't believe Matt was home that fast. He walked through the bedroom door, and I saw someone behind him, but I couldn't tell who it was because the light was off. Matt turned the light on and there was Megan. I was speechless, to say the least--speechless and confused--mostly because of that fake itinerary she sent me. It was pure genius!

She was here for 5 days, and we had a blast. I'd been planning things to do when she came in April, we just had to do them a little sooner.

We started off the day by having breakfast in a little diner we wanted to try in Tulsa. I went for a giant cinnamon roll (and a cup of fruit in my attempt to be healthy).

After breakfast we drove around and showed Megan some of what Tulsa has to offer (no pictures). And then that night we went to a Mexican restaurant, my pick, for dinner. We also had an ice cream cake, but no pictures of that either, sorry!

On Friday we went to Oklahoma City. Our first stop was Pop's on Historic Route 66. They have over 500 flavors of pop. Bad news when you are indecisive...so we chose 12 to sample.

We also visited the Oklahoma City National Memorial, the site of the terrorist bombing in 1995, and we hung out on the temple grounds for a while.

Other activities included pedicures, spending forever at Joann Fabrics, and eating at the Cheesecake Factory. When I type it all up like that, it sounds like we didn't do much, but in the end, we slept in, relaxed, and had a good time hanging out. Isn't that the best kind of vacation? Thanks for coming, Megan! We had a blast, and we can't wait for you to come back. Oh, and thanks for the best birthday surprise ever!

Decorating (Part 1)

2011-03-18T20:13:00.001-06:00

I have a lot of plans for how I want to decorate our house. So far, I have completed two of them.

This rocking chair used to belong to Matt's grandma. It's a really nice glider, but I hated the upholstery. It wasn't my style and it wasn't very nice fabric.

I found some green home decor fabric that I thought would match Colin's nursery, and I went to work. The hardest part of the project was creating a pattern. I used some scrap fabric to trace a pattern onto after I did a little measuring, and in the end it turned out pretty well.

The second hardest part was the tufting (sewing the buttons on). There are three buttons on both the front and back, and because I was just using the thread and needle I had on hand, it was a little tricky.

And here is the finished product. I think it looks a million times better. Now we're contemplating staining the wood to match his crib and changing table (the dark wood to the right of the chair is the end of his crib).

I have at least three more things I plan on doing/putting up in the nursery before it's finished, then I'll show you the whole room. I hope you're excited, because it's going to be awesome!

The other project I've completed is the living room mantle. I bought the mirror at Bed Bath & Beyond, but I was able to make the wreath with things I had around the house (including the wreath). In case you can't tell due to the poor picture quality, those are fabric flowers that I glued onto the grapevine wreath.

I also have my Willow Tree Angel collection displayed on the mantle, but most of it is cut off in this picture. I'll have to take a better picture next time...like use my camera instead of my phone :)

I hope you like it so far--I still have a long way to go before I have everything the way I want it.

Getting Bigger Every Day!

2011-03-17T20:29:00.000-06:00

Not only have I not posted in awhile, it's been even longer since I've posted pictures of Colin. He seems to be cuter and get more personality every day.

This little drool monster has 2 teeth coming in! We noticed the first bottom one about two weeks ago, and the other bottom tooth yesterday. Luckily, he doesn't seem too bothered by this teething business.

We had a ward activity with a luau theme. This lei is made out of napkins and all he wanted to do is eat it, so had to hurry and take this picture.

Mastering the handling of the spoon is something we're still working on. In fact, we're still mastering eating off of the spoon too :)

His newest toy. He seems to love it so far, and it's pretty handy to stick him in while I do various things around the house so he can't roll around and get into trouble.

We bought this shirt before Colin was born, and I've been dying to put in on him since then. He wore it today in honor of March Madness. Go Cougs!

He is only 2 weeks away from turning 6 months old. Where has my newborn baby gone?!

Yard Work

2011-03-02T20:58:00.000-07:00

Our move went very well last week, and we are officially moved into the house! We're even mostly unpacked except for boxes full of decorations and Christmas stuff which are sitting in our guest room.

I am happy to report that after moving all of our things 1,200 miles, and two more times since then, we only ended up with a shattered glass lid and a glass pan.

One thing I didn't mention previously about our house was the koi pond in the backyard. Awesome, right? Not so much. I didn't look that great, and it required taking care of the four koi living in it.

We decided to post it on Craigslist as free if someone was willing to come pull it out. Matt posted it around 9 AM, and within a few minutes, he promised it to someone. Within a half hour, he received 4 more text messages and a phone call. Who knew koi ponds were in such high demand?

It took about an hour for the couple that wanted it to pull it out, and then we were left with a giant hole that we filled with dirt.

The joys of homeownership!

Busy Boy

2011-02-25T14:22:00.000-07:00

Colin is one busy baby. He rarely sits still for more than a minute, he prefers standing over sitting, he grabs at EVERYTHING, he swats at anything in reach, he kicks his feet in the bath and gets me soaking wet, and now he rolls from his back to his stomach.

The rolling from tummy to back is a relatively new development. In fact, he more often will do it when no one is watching.

Case and point: I put him on a blanket the other morning while I went to the kitchen to get some cereal for breakfast. I walked back into the living room to find this...

That yellow bag was just too tempting, I suppose.

Colin also loves kicking his feet and eating his feet. I found him like this post-nap one morning last week. Not even footie pajamas can contain him!

I just can't get over how cute he is :)

The House

2011-02-17T20:05:00.000-07:00

By this time next week we will be homeowners! The house I've been eluding to for weeks will be officially ours as of next Thursday.

It has 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, and a sunroom on the back of the house that I've already claimed as my craft room!

Entryway

hallway to the bedrooms

Colin's soon-to-be room

guest bathroom

master bedroom

master bedroom with view of bathroom

master bath

soon-to-be guest room!

living room with door to sunroom

living room

kitchen

sunroom

We're practically counting down the hours, we are that excited.

Who's ready to come visit?!

One Year Older

2011-02-16T20:38:00.000-07:00

I've never cared much for Valentine's Day. Now I love that day, but only because it's Matt's birthday!

For Matt's 26th birthday I let him open one present in the morning--cocoa roasted almonds from Sam's Club. If you know Matt, you know he loves to eat. Half of his birthday present requests involved food from Sam's Club.

He spent the day at work, and then he brought home pizza for dinner! Valentine's Day is not the best night to go out for a birthday dinner...

The one thing Matt really needed for his birthday were work boots, which we bought that night, but the other random present I gave him was a package of these:

Kind of dorky, but he loves his iPhone, and we can use them in our new house.

For a birthday cake, he had requested a red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting, so that afternoon I whipped one up. I've made this recipe twice now. Good stuff.

There were maybe 10 candles on the cake, and it still took him 3 breaths to blow them all out. I guess being 26 means he's old or something :) Happy birthday, Matty!!

Travel Buddies

2011-02-15T12:31:00.000-07:00

Colin and I are officially travel buddies. In the last 2 months, he and I have flown from Salt Lake to Tulsa (with a layover in Denver), Tulsa to Salt Lake and back, Salt Lake to Portland and back, and now Tulsa to Dallas and back.

We also made a road trip as a family up to Montana in November. My point? At 4-months-old, Colin is an expert traveler.

Our trip to Dallas was this last weekend. It was a quick trip to meet Jill there, who was flying in from Phoenix. Our weekend consisted of pedicures, lunch at Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers, and shopping at the outlet mall, which doesn't sound like much, but we had fun!

It was Jill's first time meeting Colin, and although this picture was taken in Nine West, it's the only picture I managed to take all weekend, so at least I took one of the two of them.

This was also the trip for misplacing things. By the time I got into the Tulsa airport, I had already misplaced Colin's pacifier. Thankfully, I usually have a spare in the diaper bag, so crisis averted. Then while eating lunch at Raising Cane's, Colin pushed his jacket from the table onto the ground where it stayed until we went back for it later. And the last item was officially gone and not to be recovered. Colin apparently threw his burp cloth out of his car seat while we were walking around the outlet mall. Good thing we have a bajillion on those around.

Thanks for the fun weekend, Jill. And thanks Rob, or watching the kids so she could meet me there :)

Now that I'm a self-proclaimed pro at flying with a baby, I can't wait for our next trip! Where should I go in March...

More To Report

2011-02-08T19:36:00.000-07:00

There's so much going on in this little boy's life right now, his current status cannot be contained in one post.

We made it to the pediatrician yesterday for his 4-month check-up. I really loved his doctor in Utah, and was not looking forward to finding a new one. I searched for pediatricians on google, and after reading a few reviews, I selected one from a clinic that's near our soon-to-be house.

His new doctor is amazing! She spent a lot of time with us, checked Colin over thoroughly, and answered every question we had before we could even ask them.

The sad news...after checking him over thoroughly, we now know that he may be getting an ear infection, he has some kind of yeast diaper rash, and he has extremely sensitive skin.

We noticed several days ago that he had little bumps all over his arms, legs, and stomach, as well as a few patches of eczema. She gave us a list of lotions, laundry detergent, and other products to try. After a day of use, I haven't noticed a difference, but hopefully the bumps clear up soon.

We also decided, after getting the go-ahead, to start him on rice cereal. Here's the video of that :)

That's about the same face he makes when we make him drink formula. What a kid!

And in case you've made it this far in the post, and you're wondering, Colin's stats are as follows:

weight: 13 lb 14 oz (24%)
height: 25.5" (67%)
head circum.: 17" (71%)

Now that we're starting him on solids, hopefully he'll beef up.

He's apparently a little bitty guy.

Just right for our teeny tiner family!

The Little Guy (at 4 months)

2011-02-06T16:07:00.001-07:00

At 4 months, Colin can sometimes been seen

sporting a baby mohawk

His current hobbies include:

working on sitting by himself...

sucking on fingers, toes, and his wrists...

grabbing at anything and everything,

which makes dinnertime a little tricky...

helping Dad with his many projects

(all babies were heavily supervised when handling the screw driver)

and rolling over
(But only when he wants to. This kid is stubborn!)

When asked to describe his ideal date, Colin admits he loves

good quality tummy time with the ladies.

And at 4 months, Colin has decided when he grows up,

he would like to model snowsuits.

This is his Blue Steel. Just like Zoolander, right?

We love our little boy! It seems like he learns something new every day, and I'm so grateful I get to stay home to witness it all. He goes in for his check-up tomorrow, so I'll update you on his stats then!

Move 2 of 3

2011-01-31T13:06:00.001-07:00

Like I said before, we're in a state of transition. Matt's parents just bought a new house in town, and we moved with them.

I look forward to the day (February 24th!)

that we no longer have to live out of boxes.

A Nursery At Last

2011-01-28T16:38:00.000-07:00

We've been in a state of transition for a while now.

So here we are, almost in February, and Colin is still sharing a room with us. Fortunately, an end is in sight. We are set to close on a house on February 24th (more about that to come in a later post).

It wasn't until a few weeks ago that I even began to look at crib bedding. Not much of a point when there was no nursery.

My first two realizations:

crib bedding is expensive. You're technically not supposed to use crib bumpers or the crib quilt, so why would you spend $200+ on a 4-piece set, half of which shouldn't be used?
most of it is ~~ugly~~ not my style

I thought, "Well, I guess I'm willing to pay around $150," so I started researching and reading reviews when I realized something else.

The cheaper the price, the cheaper the product (duh!) But I don't like sleeping on 200-thread count sheets, so why should I make my baby? Especially when I've already made him sleep in a pack 'n play for almost 4 months?

Here was my solution:

I found this 5-piece set on ebay for $60! The design is by Jenny McCarthy, whom I'm not a fan of since she has tried convincing the world childhood immunizations are bad, but I was willing to look past that for this cute bedding!

As for the quality issue, I'll be buying a velour brown fitted crib sheet for $15.99 to switch out for the one that comes with the set. Thank you amazon! (and I do plan on using the bumpers even though it's not recommended...)

$75 for cute and comfortable? I'll take it! Wait, now I'm sounding like the commercial for Pajama Jeans...

I can't wait to start decorating his nursery! Or the rest of a house for that matter. I'll keep you posted when the time comes.

New 'Do

2011-01-26T21:50:00.000-07:00

I've had the same haircut for probably the last 5 years. I grew my hair out and loved it because I had never really had long hair before, but after that many years with the same hair I knew it was time for a change.

My postpartum hair loss also played a big part because I was tired of having to clean out my brush every day. A grabby 3-month-old helped finalize my decision.

I included on my 101 in 1001 list getting "an adventurous haircut." So this was also helping me reach a goal! I considered this one adventurous because I had about 4 or 5 inches cut off, and I've never had an a-line cut before :)

I got it done on the very last day of my vacation (pretty pathetic it's taken me 2 weeks to blog about it, I know) and it was a surprise for Matt. I didn't tell him I did it, so he was a little shocked when he picked me up from the airport.

Have I built up the suspense enough?

Wishing I'd just get to the point?

Ready to see a picture?

Sorry...the picture is nothing special. It was taken using Matt's phone late one night specifically for the purpose of posting on this blog. Maybe some day soon I can get a better one taken, but at least now you've seen my new hair.

And in case you were wondering, I love it!

Oklahoma Snowstorm

2011-01-21T18:16:00.000-07:00

Where I'm from snow isn't a big deal. In fact, it's not uncommon for it to stick around at least 7 months of the year. So when the weather forecast says "snow," it's not a big deal. In Oklahoma, none of this is the case.

On Wednesday, word got out that it was expected to snow that night and people went into panic mode. The grocery store was packed, people were stocking up on propane to run their heaters, and there was already the possibility of a snow day for the schools.

Thursday morning I woke up to this:

Maybe two inches of snow. I was slightly disappointed, but the locals were not. It was just what they were expecting. The administrators even canceled schools for two days. Snow plows are few and far between around here, so I guess I can understand the dilemma, but two snow days? Two? I never got to experience even one as a kid!

And on a side note, while we were watching our Thursday night shows on NBC last night, they were listing all of the schools to be closed on the bottom of the screen when I saw Oolagah-Talala Schools. I literally laughed out loud at that one.

We've been here almost 7 weeks, but I've only begun to learn what it means to be an Oklahoman...

Baby Colin Fun Facts

2011-01-14T11:30:00.001-07:00

Our little boy is nearing the 4-month mark. It seems like every day he is discovering something new, and it is so fun to watch.

Right now, Colin...

weighs about 13 pounds
is still figuring out his hands
will reach out and touch things in front of him
grabs for his feet when he is laying on his back
does not like tummy time
breaks into a huge smile when he sees himself in a mirror
will go from laying to a standing position when I pull on his hands
loves when anyone makes noises at him
can blow spit bubbles like nobody's business
loves chewing on his thumbs and sucking on his wrists
has started making a few noises of his own
loves baths
watches me when I eat
refuses his pacifier if he is really upset
has his first cold :(

Colin and I took a trip to Salt Lake and Portland this last weekend, and we were gone for about 6 days. We went on 4 flights in 6 days (maybe I should add "domestic traveler" to the list), and he did amazingly well on all but the last flight.

Here is my favorite Colin moment of the whole trip:

I love that baby! And that brother of mine too :)

A Star is Born (the Christmas Post)

2011-01-01T12:23:00.001-07:00

Now that it's officially January, I figure I better post about Christmas before it gets any later.

Our Christmas festivities began after Thanksgiving when Colin was cast to play baby Jesus for our stake's live nativity. He cried a little, he smiled, he squirmed, he stared up towards the heavens with a peaceful look on his face. This kid is a natural--I think we have a real actor on our hands.

He also played baby Jesus for a little program at the elementary school where my MIL works. Afterward, a woman walked up to me and said how great it was he was able to do something like this that is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Yeah right! He got to do it twice :)

The whole cast of 3rd graders

Baby Jesus in the manger
(complete with "baby's 1st Christmas" outfit)

Colin also got to sit on Santa's lap twice (we don't do anything halfway). First at a Christmas party at the Weights' house, and again at our church Christmas party.

Matt told Santa we wanted a house with no mortgage for Christmas.
I can't figure out why he didn't deliver on that one...

And of course, Christmas Day. Colin generally doesn't get up for the day until 9 or 10, so we weren't planning on waking up very early to open presents. But when he woke up at 7:30, Matt claims Colin was too excited to go back to sleep, so we all got up then.

I can't believe this is the only picture we took (well, at least the only pose. We took a lot of pictures but he was moving in all of them...). This kid definitely had the most presents under the tree. Thanks for everyone who sent him one. He loved all of them!

Although a week late, we hope you all had a great Christmas. And now, more appropriately, a happy New Year!

The New Addition

2010-12-30T08:44:00.002-07:00

If you read my goals list in the last post very carefully, you might have noticed baby #2 on there.

Well, apparently I'm better at this goals stuff than I realized because my 1001 days haven't even started, and I can already cross that one off my list.

Here she is:

Her name is Brother CS6000i, and I love her! I have Santa, Matt, and Matt's parents to thank for bringing her to me for Christmas.

I've always liked sewing, although I'll be the first to admit that I'm not very good. I took a sewing class in high school and somehow all of my projects turned out...badly :)

I used Megan's sewing machine for a few months while we were still Utah to make some awesome baby crafts, but moving 1,200 miles away from her made me realize it was time for me to get my own.

Now that I have this great machine, I intend to expand my sewing skills and make some awesome stuff. Wish me luck!

(And speaking of Christmas, I'll post all about ours next time)

101 in 1001

2010-12-28T15:33:00.002-07:00

I've never been very good at setting goals, so this is me turning over a new leaf in a new year!

Objective: Complete 101 goals within 1001 days

Start date: January 1, 2011
End date: September 27, 2013

BOLD means completed
italics means in progress

Food

001. Try 20 new recipes (1/20)

002. Host 1 dinner party

003. Bring dinner to a friend

004. Make Christmas cookies for all my neighbors

005. Cook Sunday breakfast 4 times (0/4)

006. Make dessert for dinner
007. Have a picnic
008. Give a huge tip to a good waiter
009. Try 15 new restaurants (4/15)
010. Make pasta from scratch

011. Decorate a cake

012. Make an entire Thanksgiving or Christmas meal

013. Plant and maintain a garden for 1 summer

014. Eat foreign food at 3 different restaurants

015. Try 5 new recipes for homemade ice cream

016. Keep a food diary for 2 weeks

017. Bake homemade bread

018. Make my own salsa

019. Take a treat to a family 6 times (0/6)

020. Make chocolate pudding from scratch

021. Make Matt’s favorite almond-dipped sandwich cookies

022. Create my own recipe

023. Try a Julia Child recipe

Family

024. Live somewhere new 2/24/11

025. Buy a house 2/24/11

026. Baby #2.

027. Take the 40-day Love Dare
028. Go on 10 dates with Matt
029. Have professional family pictures taken
030. Surprise Matt, big or small, 5 times (0/5)
031. Select someone from an Angel tree each Christmas (0/2)

032. Have FHE at least once a month for a year (0/12)

Mommyhood

033. Write a letter to Colin on his birthday
034. Take Colin to story time at the library
035. Take Colin to the zoo
036. Get Colin completely potty-trained
037. Let Colin pudding paint

038. Make a photo book for each year of Colin’s life

039. Blog about Colin’s progress once a week for a year (0/52)

040. Get a picture of Colin sitting on Santa’s lap every Christmas (0/2)

Physical

041. Run in 3 races (0/3)
042. Work out 4 days a week for 1 month (0/16)

043. Do swimming lessons with Colin

044. Use my jogging stroller to go jogging once a week for 1 month (0/4)

045. Reach my goal weight

Travel

046. Have a girls weekend trip

047. Take a spontaneous weekend trip

048. Attend a temple in a foreign country

049. Go on another cruise

050. Visit Nauvoo

051. Go to Dallas 2/11/11

052. Go to Chicago

053. Go to Disneyland or Disney World

054. Go camping

055. Go to the beach

056. Go to 4 new states

057. Visit Liberal, Kansas

058. Visit Buck and Niki

059. Take a trip to a tourist site in Oklahoma

Crafts

060. Make a Christmas stocking for Colin

061. Try 10 new craft projects (0/10)

062. Sew something from a pattern

063. Make and sell car seat covers

064. Make 2 other crafts to be sold at Western Auto

065. Start and finish a quilt

066. Learn to crochet

067. Make Colin a Halloween costume

Personal

068. Do a DIY

069. Pay for the person behind me in the drive thru.

070. Collect 5 more Willowtree Angels (0/5)

071. Read 20 books. (2/20)

072. Send 15 pieces of snail mail. (0/15)

073. Send someone a postcard

074. Not make any clothing purchases for 6 weeks

075. Buy and not kill a plant for 1 year (0/12 months)

076. Give blood 10 times (0/10)

077. Rent and watch 2 foreign movies with subtitles. (0/2)

078. Do my hair 7 days in a row (0/7)

079. Have 4 girls night outs (0/4)

080. Play in the rain

081. Not go on Facebook for an entire weekend
082. Go to the range and shoot a gun

083. Have a garage sale
084. See a sports game

085. Plan a surprise party
086. Eat dinner by candlelight

087. Send 5 "happies" (unexpected gifts) (0/5)

088. Watch 26 movies I've never seen starting with each letter of the alphabet

Bounty Hunter

Inception

089. Send a book I’ve written to a publishing company

090. Get an adventurous haircut 1/11/11

091. Go fruit picking

092. Go on 3 double dates (0/3)

093. Start a business to edit college papers

094. Host a baby or bridal shower

095. Read the Book of Mormon from cover to cover

096. Learn a new song on the piano

097. Buy a set of fine china

098. Have my hair professionally dyed or highlighted

099. Go without TV for 1 week

100. Paint stripes on a wall

101. Inspire someone to start a 101 in 1001 list

The Oklahoma Update

2010-12-13T13:58:00.000-07:00

Although I have visited Oklahoma many times since Matt and I have been married, the knowledge that I am now living here has given me a new perspective.

The following observations are things I have learned in the one week I have been living here:

Most people here have a relatively strong accent (which I had noticed before), but I realized that I probably sound funny to them. I had someone tell me on Saturday they could tell I wasn't from around here...
When I ask "where is that?" instead of measuring the distance in how many minutes it takes to get there, it is measured in miles.
Everything is measured in miles because you do a lot of driving whenever you want to go somewhere, and you almost always drive on a highway or freeway to get to your destination.
I learned on my first visit that there are some strange city names, but I continue to hear more and more of them. Okmulgee, Pawhuska, Tahlequah and Okemah just to name a few.
There is a Sonic Drive-In on practically every corner. But who doesn't love Sonic? Especially during Happy Hour. (Sonic's headquarters are in Oklahoma City)
People here are wimps when it comes to the cold. It was in the high 40s last week when I was talking to a girl in town about how cold it was that day. She told me she was freezing, so I told her it was probably because of the short-sleeved shirt she was wearing. I don't think she appreciated that comment so much...

Things are going well, but we're still working on organizing all of our boxes and unpacking the things that we'll need in the next several weeks. Here's a glimpse at what we're dealing with...

This is the spare bedroom where we're keeping everything
we won't need in the very near future

Today is Matt's first day at his new job, and when I talked to him earlier he said he is loving it. Everything is going well, and it will continue to get better as we become more established. This is the start to a great adventure!

One Busy Weekend

2010-12-12T19:09:00.000-07:00

Remember in the last post when I said Colin hadn't been feeling well? Well, I didn't know how right I was until he was admitted into the hospital later that same night.

Not long after I blogged about his 2-month appointment and his immunization, I noticed he was really hot. I had him wrapped up in a blanket, so I blamed it on that. When Matt got home from work he noticed it too. We took Colin's temperature...102.3. I immediately called the on-call pediatrician who told me to give Colin some medicine and call him back in an hour. Fevers in children younger than 3 months, who show no other symptoms, can be a sign of a serious infection, so the doctor didn't want to take any chances. The hour went by, but at that point his temperature was still 101 so to the urgent care we went.

The time we spent in the urgent care was awful. If you ever think watching your child get immunizations is bad, never watch your baby get a catheter for a urine sample or have blood drawn out of a vein. Colin screamed and screamed while two nurses, a doctor, and Matt held him down as they tried to get blood. They tried both arms and an ankle without success, so they ended up just doing a heel prick.

By about 11 we were taken up to the pediatric unit of the hospital where there was only one other kid, so we got lots of attention. At this point they checked his vitals and did a respiratory panel to check for 8 common viruses.

Colin did relatively well through the night, and his fever went away, but when they took another blood sample on Saturday morning they found out his white blood cell count was even higher, so the doctor wanted to perform a lumbar puncture to remove a small amount of spinal fluid to test for serious bacterial infections like meningitis.

I consider myself a pretty optimistic person, so even though this whole ordeal was heart-breaking and stressful, there was one thing that could make me smile.

Did you have any idea they made hospital gowns this small? :)

After the lumbar puncture, they had to start an IV in order to give him a dose of antibiotics. They wrapped the IV and strapped a board on his arm in order to keep the IV in place. It looked like he had a little cast...

Throughout his hospital stay, Colin had tons of wires all over him. Here he is showcasing the leeds monitoring his heart rate. I also have to give a shout out to Megan who spent all day Saturday at the hospital with us AND brought us breakfast and dinner that day. Megan ROCKS!

All of the cultures they took had to be monitored for 24 hours to see if any bacteria grew. So even though Colin was feeling a lot better by Saturday night, we were forced to stay in the hospital until Sunday around 3 PM. The whole experience was no fun, but we made it through and got out of the hospital just in time for Colin's baby blessing!

We had it scheduled to do during church that day, but since we missed church, we rearranged to do it at the house of my cousin and his awesome wife. (Thanks Tim and Becky!)

A bunch of my extended family and several friends came to help us celebrate. I really wish I had gotten more pictures, but as you might have guessed, I was a little exhausted and stressed. I did manage to at least get a family picture though.

And because I hadn't managed to get a picture of Kim holding Colin yet, I got one of those too. Here you go, Kim!

And if a hospital stay and a baby blessing weren't enough, we moved the next day. I was a little anxious about taking Colin on a plane, but he seemed to be feeling a lot better, so after we finished packing and loading all of our stuff in our two cars and trailers, Colin, my mother-in-law, and I boarded a plane headed for our new home.

He did well on both flights and slept most of the time.

Sorry this post was so long, but like the title says...it was one busy weekend.

2 Months Old!

2010-12-03T12:49:00.000-07:00

It's true...our baby is 2 months old! (and 1 day now)

We went to the pediatrician this morning for routine immunizations and found out his current statistics.

weight: 11 lbs 12 oz (49th percentile)

length: 24 inches (83rd percentile)

head circumference: 16 inches (54th percentile)

That means he has gained about 3.5 lbs and grown 4 inches in the last two months. He is very average in everything but length. Looking at these statistics, it all makes sense as to why it's hard to find clothes that fit him...most of his 0-3 month clothes are pretty baggy on him and almost too short.

He did pretty well with the immunizations. He only cried for a few minutes, which I expected not only because he was getting shots...but because has been a lot fussier this week than usual. He was around a lot of sick people last week during Thanksgiving, and since his ears looked normal, Colin's doctor just said he probably has his first cold. I think it probably started on Sunday evening, so I'm hoping he recovers soon. Instead of waking up once a night like he had been, he has been waking up an average of 3-4 times a night for the last several days.

We have the majority of our stuff packed up and ready to go for Monday, and we'll be spending our weekend finishing all of that up.

I'll be sure to give an update next week after the big move!

My Baby, the TV Addict

2010-12-01T11:45:00.000-07:00

I think these pictures say it all...

If he is cranky, as he usually is in the evenings, when he catches sight of the TV, he forgets about what was upsetting him. The second picture is my favorite...he was really enjoying the Christmas celebration at Rockefeller.

If You're Around...

2010-11-29T15:50:00.000-07:00

If you're in the Draper area sometime between November 29 and December 2 from 6-10 PM, our stake does a live nativity that is really amazing and authentic looking.

Not only that, but Colin gets to play Baby Jesus for an hour! Matt and I will be Mary and Joseph, and Colin will be Baby Jesus from 8:30 to 9:45 tomorrow night (Tuesday), so come check it out at 12300 S and 700 W.

Colin is breaking into show biz. Don't you want to be able to say you were there at his first performance?

Thanksgiving Fun

2010-11-28T22:29:00.000-07:00

Here it is, three days after Thanksgiving and I'm already blogging about it. This has to be some kind of record for me...

We stayed in Utah this year for the holiday to spend the weekend with a few of my siblings and their families. Mark and Mark flew in from Portland, and Emily, Enoch, and Asher drove up from Arizona. We had dinner at Kimberly's house, and enjoyed spending time together.

We got together for a dinner with a bunch of our extended family on Wednesday night, a Thanksgiving feast on Thursday, and then we got together with some family friends that used to live in Montana for dinner on Friday. So basically, it's like we celebrated Thanksgiving 3 times! At least we had different food for each celebration :)

I bet you're dying for a few pictures, right? Well, it's your lucky day!

Colin meets Other Uncle Mark

Megan and Cousin Lisa--would you believe this shot is candid?

Megan and Colin lounging on Thanksgiving Day

I'm pretty sure Colin is Uncle Mark's favorite...

Asher showing off

Matt takes pie very seriously.
He sampled all five flavors available.

Aunt Emily was holding just Colin, but Asher got a little jealous.
We had to get a picture because they were so cute!

This is Colin with Korbin, who is 5 days younger than him.
Korbin is the grandson of the Weights, the friends we got together with on Friday.
I couldn't believe how much these two looked alike!

Goodbye, Montana!

2010-11-23T09:30:00.001-07:00

The countdown to our move is well underway, and we're trying to fit in all of our last minute "want to's." One of the things on that list was a trip to Montana to say goodbye to the Kundis'. They are like my second family, and although I'm sad we'll be so far from Utah, we'll be that much further from them in Montana!

Since Matt already had Veteran's Day off, we headed up that weekend, also hoping to make the trip before the weather got too bad. It's lucky we made the trip when we did...the drive home that Sunday was pretty snowy, and the weather has just gotten worse since then, including temperatures below zero in Montana (I certainly don't miss that about that place).

We didn't do much while we were there, just spent time together. And they sure loved spending time with Colin :)

We also got to see my good friend, Sarah, who has a little boy 2 months older than Colin. It was fun to meet Evan and see the two babies next to each other. The whole night if one would start crying, it would set off the other one!

They're going to hate us when they are older... :)

We had a great time, and although I'm not sure when we'll make it to Montana again, I hope to see them all again soon!

Another Comparison

2010-11-16T11:27:00.001-07:00

Most people say Colin looks just like Matt, but after a few people told me he looks more like me, I finally took a look at one of my own baby pictures. Now I'm not so sure who he looks like. I guess I'll just say he's a good mix of both of us! Matt's baby picture is 2 post below in case you want to have another look.

Opinions?

Colin

The Big Move

2010-11-03T09:38:00.001-06:00

We've been anticipating this move for awhile, but we officially have plans for our move to Oklahoma. As of December 6, we will no longer be residents of Utah! We weren't expecting it to be quite so soon, but everything has just fallen into place, which I think is a sign that this is what we are supposed to be doing.

Matt's parents are making the trip out here to help us pack up our stuff, and then his mom, Colin, and I are flying out Monday afternoon. Matt and his dad will be driving our CRV, truck, and a trailer to our new home.

Matt and his dad plan to take over the business where his dad has worked for the last twenty-something years, but the take-over won't happen for another year. It's an auto shop with a retail side, and in the meantime Matt will be working there running the retail side and managing the books.

We plan on living with Matt's parents for a few months until we find the house of our dreams. We've already started compiling a list of fun things to do around the area, so we'll be prepared when people come to visit (so you better come visit!). But forget about me or Matt, who wouldn't want to see this face?

Just Like Dad

2010-11-01T10:02:00.000-06:00

We've had several people comment that Colin looks just like Matt. I'm pretty sure all newborn babies look very similar, but I do have to agree that Colin looks a lot like Matt. Especially when you take a look at one of his baby pictures...

And compare it to a picture of Colin...

Day 3

2010-10-14T12:33:00.000-06:00

Right now my day looks a little something like this:

Today is the third day of my SAHM-hood. Matt's parents were here all last week, and Matt had Monday off because of Columbus Day, so I've only been on my own during the day since Tuesday. Things are going well! This picture showcases his favorite position to sleep in...head turned to the right, with his hands up by his head.

Matt and I are adjusting to parenthood well. It helps that we have the best, cutest baby ever. Colin does really well during the night...waking up every 2-3 hours to eat, but he goes back to sleep without any problem. He does well during the day too because he just sleeps all the time!

We've taken him on a few short outings, but I haven't taken him anywhere by myself other than the walk we went on yesterday. Maybe next week :)

Birth Day Pool Winner

2010-10-09T20:22:00.000-06:00

I can't believe I forgot to mention the winner!

Following the rules of The Price is Right (being closest without going over), the winner is...

my sister AMY, who said October 1.

Thanks to all who participated. And Amy, you'll receive your prize in the mail in the next couple of weeks :)

Baby Colin

2010-10-07T14:45:00.001-06:00

I'm sure you've all heard by now, but Colin was born last Saturday. Things have been a little crazy around here, what with being new parents and having family in town, I'm a little slow to blog about the big news.

Here is our little guy weighing in at 8 lbs, 3 oz, 19.5 in. long

And I bet you're dying to know all the details, right? I started having contractions around 9 pm on Friday night. They were about 10-15 minutes apart, but it didn't take long before they were consistently 4-5 minutes apart, which is where they stayed all night. By 4:30 am I couldn't take it anymore, so I woke Matt up and told him it was time we head to the hospital. We calmly packed up our stuff (although the majority of stuff had been sitting in a bag since the beginning of September), and we headed on our way. It wasn't at all what you always see on TV shows and movies where everyone is running around in a panic trying to get to the hospital :)

Once we got to the hospital, they checked me over and hooked me up to some machines to track my contractions and Colin's heart rate. They weren't going to admit me because I still wasn't very dilated, but they noticed that his heart rate was going down during each contraction, so they decided it was time to get him out. It only took 41 weeks, after all!

I was admitted into labor and delivery by 8 that morning, where they started me on some pitocin, and it was maybe about half an hour after that I requested my epidural...and boy am I glad I did!

It was around 10 that an on-call doctor came in to break my water, and things continued to progress from there. By 2:30 I was dilated to 10 cm, and it was time to start pushing. By this time I was exhausted. I hadn't slept at all the night before, and it had been a pretty eventful day, so I managed to fall asleep between every contraction that I had to push through. I guess you could say that helped the time pass faster ;) 2 hours later our baby boy was born!

Here we are just before leaving the delivery room to move over to the mom & baby unit

Matt is pretty much the cutest daddy...not that I'm biased or anything.

Our first family pictures. Matt and I both look a little rough,

but I think that's allowed, considering the circumstances.

And this one just because it's so cute!

Thanks to everyone who came to visit at the hospital. We are so excited about the new addition to our teeny Tiner family!

Megan Gets Crafty

2010-09-19T09:09:00.000-06:00

Besides waiting for my baby, Megan also has a few friends who are having babies right now. When she told me she had two baby showers to go to, I told her she should make some of the many sewing projects I have lined up. It wasn't until after we bought all the fabric and started the projects that I discovered something new about Megan. She doesn't really love to sew :)

Despite this minor set-back, Megan did a great job! She

made a blanket and some burp cloths for one shower, and a car seat cover for the other.

Here she is hard at work.

And the finished product. Megan absolutely loves this dinosaur fabric,

which is mostly why she wanted me to take this picture :)

And this is the quilt she made me. She loves to make quilts, just not the sewing part of it I guess. She pieced the whole thing, and then I hand quilted it while she was out of town. She did amazing work, and I just know Baby Teeny will love it.

Good work, Megan! I'm so proud of your crafting abilities.

Welcome Letter

2010-09-10T15:19:00.000-06:00

Dear Canon PowerShot SD1300IS 12.1 MP Digital Camera with 4x Wide Angle Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 2.7-Inch LCD (Blue),

We've been without a digital camera for awhile now, and we couldn't be more excited to have you around. Although my iphone camera is convenient and has served its purpose well, it just can't take pictures like you can.

Welcome to the family! We hope you'll stick around for awhile.

Love, Jessica

Lately

2010-08-30T19:41:00.000-06:00

It's been awhile. But I promise it's not because I'm lazy. I've actually been busy! And in case you don't believe me, I took pictures.

In the last few weeks I've been busy...

Washing all of this

Organizing this

Quilting this

Gluing together this, which I like so much that I...

Made a second one

Buying this (woohoo!)

Sewing this for the above car seat

And because of all of the wonderful people

who have given us presents, writing all of these

And don't forget, growing this!

Like I said, I've been busy, but I promise to post more soon!

Birth-Day Pool

2010-08-06T09:39:00.000-06:00

Now that it's August, I can officially say that my baby is due next month. And with my weeks left of pregnancy down to the single digits, what better way to celebrate than starting the Birth-Day Pool!

Place your bets by commenting on this post. The winner just may get a prize, so start guessing!

Facts to consider:
My official due date is Sept. 25

When I went in for my 20-week ultrasound, the baby was measuring 4 days bigger, with an approximate due date of Sept. 21

At my 25-week doctor's appointment, my uterus was measuring at 26 weeks.

32 Weeks and Counting

2010-08-04T14:04:00.000-06:00

Here I am 8 months in! I haven't felt like the time has gone by fast, but looking back at the last 8 months, it really has.

During pregnancy, anything you read will compare the size of the baby to a fruit. At 32 weeks my baby is approximately the size of a honeydew.
My favorite baby, but not my favorite fruit.

Now that I'm in my third trimester, I go to the doctor every 2 weeks instead of every 4. I passed my glucose test with flying colors, and the rhogam shot didn't hurt at all. I guess Jill is just wimpy :)

There's not much more to report. I've been doing really well other than the normal discomforts that come with being very pregnant. Not to mention it doesn't take much to set me off crying...

And we're collecting all sorts of baby stuff, which I'll post about soon, so stay tuned!

Pioneer Day

2010-07-25T19:41:00.000-06:00

Having grown up outside of Utah, I've never truly "celebrated" July 24th, Pioneer Day, before. But, as it is a state holiday, these Utahns sure know how to party it up. Since this was our last Pioneer Day to enjoy while living in Utah, we decided to celebrate like the natives do!

The Days of '47 parade in downtown Salt Lake is a huge deal. People start camping out on the street the night before just to get good seats. And now we know why.

The parade started at 9, and Megan, Matt, and I got there around 8:30, but by that time every inch of shade was taken, forcing us to stand in the hot sun. If it hadn't been so early in the morning, we would have gotten some nice sunburns.

Because it was so hot, we only ended up staying for about half of the parade, but we had fun anyway. These photos are courtesy of Megan...she apparently really liked the Pioneer Day royalty because she got a lot of pictures of them. I only included 2 :)

Murray City royalty

Some other royalty...

Dieter F. Uchtdorf, First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Utah Pipe Band (who doesn't love kilts and bagpipes?)

Some police officers on motorcycles doing tricks for the crowd

us enjoying our wait before the parade started

After the parade we walked over to the Downtown Farmers Market and at breakfast at Bruges Waffles & Frites. If you are ever in downtown Salt Lake, I highly recommend you pay them a visit. Best. Waffles. Ever.

Another fun Saturday down. What will we do this weekend? Stay tuned to find out!

Our Latest Vacation

2010-07-20T10:18:00.000-06:00

We traveled to West Yellowstone last weekend to spend some time at my family cabin. We got there late Saturday night and left Sunday afternoon, so we weren't there very long, but it was fun to be able to go. I even got to enjoy the things we always did when I was a kid, like a pancake breakfast (courtesy of Uncle Ron), and rice and raisins for breakfast before church on Sunday!

My extended family has been using these cabins since my grandparents decided to lease them with 3 other families from the forest service probably sometime in the 1950s (any relative please correct me if I'm wrong), and the attic of one has not been cleaned out in probably that long.

No, the attic is not full of old furniture, or junk of any kind. Up until a few weeks ago, it was full of BATS. There had been some electrical problems, but before an electrician dared enter the attic, he demanded it be cleaned out first, and rightfully so considering there were 300-400 bats that were living up there. So in came "the bat man" to clean up all the nastiness and install a one-way door so the bats couldn't get back in.

Sounds like my kind of profession. Not.

Well, apparently this one-way door was successful in 2 things: keeping the bats from getting back in and infuriating them. I'm not sure how smart bats are (remind me to research that later), but they were smart enough to figure out that if they can't get into the attic the way they used to, they should try getting into the cabin instead.

Pretty much everyone had gone to bed shortly after we got there on Friday night, but Megan, Matt, my cousin Lisa, and I were still up when we noticed a bat start flying around the living room. We all ran out of the room, and then Matt came to the rescue!

I didn't get any actual action shots, so I made him pose for this one. He had opened the wood door and was using the broom to swat the bat outside. You might also notice one of his flip flops is missing. That's because he used it to prop the screen door open.

Later that night after we had all gone to bed, my cousin Catherine was sitting in the living room trying to get her month old baby back to sleep when another bat came in. This time her husband saved the day! Or night...

And just because I'm sure you're really enjoying this bat story, I'll update you further. According to Facebook my aunts, uncle, and cousins that are still up there encountered about 30 more bats last night. The "bat man" came back to fill in some more holes...causing more bats to find refuge inside. Boy, am I glad we came back on Sunday.

This is the part of the cabin that I love...

It is beautiful up there. The bats, moose, bears, mosquitoes, and various other wilderness-y things--not so much.

4th of July

2010-07-14T22:24:00.000-06:00

I figured I better post this before it gets any later in July. For our independence celebration we went down to Phoenix (because who doesn't love Phoenix in the middle of the summer...).

We enjoyed spending time with some of our cute nieces and nephew

Megan and I forced people to pose for pictures

(This shot, however, was not posed...but isn't it hilarious?)

And we went to Mesa to track down the Dairy Queen Blizzard Mobile. Free ice cream? Yes PLEASE! As you can see, Charlotte loves ice cream too.

Oh, and of course we went swimming! This was Matt using the wading pool as a boat. He stayed afloat for a few minutes before he started to sink...

And although I don't have any pictures of this, we went to the Queen Creek Olive Mill and took a tour to learn how the make Extra Virgin Olive Oil. They make a million different flavors of olive oil, including vanilla and chocolate. Crazy!

It was a fun weekend with fun people. Thanks, sisters, for letting us come visit!

7 Months

2010-07-09T15:30:00.000-06:00

I have now been pregnant for approximately 202 days. Does that sound like a long time? Well, it feels like a long time too! On the other hand, I keep wondering where the first half of 2010 went--it's practically the middle of July!

Last Saturday was my official 28-week mark, and here I am a few days prior.

I go in for my next doctor's appointment on Monday, and this one is full of lots of fun things...like my glucose test and a rhogam shot (which Jill told me hurts--good thing I'm tough!).

Oh, and I'm officially back at my pre-pregnancy weight! It only took me 5.5 months to gain it back...but I'm sure I'll be gaining plenty more in the weeks to come.

7 months down, only a few more to go!

Are You Prepared?

2010-06-24T20:29:00.001-06:00

The Tiner family is all about emergency preparedness. So much so, that every time Matt's parents come to visit, his dad makes sure to visit Emergency Essentials to stock up on random supplies. Matt definitely learned this from his father.

Meet Matt's creation, the Altoid tin survival kit:

The picture doesn't do it justice, but there are 44 individual pieces in this kit--all in the space of an Altoid tin! This kit contains:

5 waterproof/windproof matches
3 safety pins
2 small fishing hooks
2 larger fishing hooks
20lb fishing line
3 small sinkers
2 sandwich bags for water storage/purification
1 antibiotic ointment
1 bandaid
2 sewing needles
1 white thread
1 xacto knife blade
20 gauge steel wire
1 twist tie for water bag
1 square foot of tin foil
1 survival card
1 can opener
1 whistle with lanyard
1 led light
1 rubber band
1 alcohol wipe
1 paper clip
6 water purification tablets (add 2 per 1 qt water, let sit for 30 min)
lint for fires
65 cents

How cool is that? We have one in our car, and although I hope we don't ever have to use it in a real emergency, some of that stuff might come in handy.

Isn't Matt the greatest? I just love him!

Catch-up (Belly Picture)

2010-06-20T21:42:00.000-06:00

This post is two weeks late, but I had to post my baby bump at 24 weeks (6 months!). That was two weeks ago, so obviously it's even bigger now, but I'll wait and post another one at 7 months.

That thing just popped up over night! This picture was taken one

week after the belly picture I included in the last post...

This was the same weekend that Kevin and Annie got married, so we spent all day Saturday up in Bountiful. We had a few hours to kill between the luncheon and the reception, so obviously we used that time to take a few ridiculous pictures.

This is Brittany. Although she doesn't have a human baby in her stomach, she claims to have a "food baby." This is her showing off it off. I'm pretty sure she doesn't check my blog very often, otherwise I might in trouble for posting this :)

There really is no explanation for this one, other than we're just showing off how cool we are.

I can't believe these are the only pictures I took of that whole day. I really need to get a camera besides the one on my iphone.

The wedding was a lot of fun, and I can't believe I'm 6 months pregnant! So close, yet so far...

Catch-up (Memorial Day)

2010-06-15T14:31:00.000-06:00

I realize this was weeks ago, but I've been a bit lazy about blogging. Memorial Day weekend my family had a family reunion in Las Vegas! We rented an 8,800 square foot house which was originally a 4 bedroom, 3.5 bathroom house, but the renters added 4 additional bedrooms in some interesting places (like the over-sized pantry, the huge master room closet, and the one-car garage) to create an 8 bedroom house that can accommodate more people. The inside, despite its oddities, was pretty nice, but the backyard was the best part of the whole vacation.

The view of the patio (complete with ping pong and foosball tables).
There were 5 sets of french doors that went from the house to the backyard.

A view of the pool, gazebo, and rock landscaping.
That's Jill and me danglingour feet into the hot tub (which was only lukewarm on a good day)

The front of the house

We spent a lot of time lounging around the house, and just enjoying being together. There were several optional activities, with the only mandatory activities being old family photo distribution, and the professional family pictures we had taken on Tuesday morning.

Hanging out at the dining room table going through all the family photos from the MT house

A few snapshots from picture day. There was a variety of colors we told everyone they could wear,
and we were the three wearing red. So cute!

This was also the day Matt had the stomach flu. He's such a trooper!

A preview from our photographer. I just think this picture is adorable!

A preview of the big group shot

The other pictures I'm posting are just a random sampling of the vacation. Thank you Megan, Mark, and Amy for letting me steal your pictures off of Facebook. I really need to get a camera!

Sunday morning waffle breakfast, compliments of Amy. I can say, however, that I single-handedly
worked 3 waffle irons at once in order to cook waffles for 20 people. Now that's talent.

Four brothers-in-law going head-to-head in a foosball championship

Matt and Rob trying to recreate an act we saw in Cirque du Soleil Mystere.

Modeling my baby bump

Two thumbs up and one high-five for family reunions in Las Vegas!

Crafting Mayhem

2010-05-17T14:33:00.000-06:00

I picked up this little beauty at a thrift store for $1.

Matt's response: "You're going to do something to that, right?" I'm not sure why he wouldn't want to hang it up in our apartment as is. It matches our decor so well.

As it so happens, I was buying that lovely piece of art for the frame, and not the angel inside. I got the idea for a no-sew fabric wreath courtesy of Vanessa @ V and Co.

I am pretty pleased with the way mine turned out. I picked 5 fabrics that coordinate with our bedroom and went to town! I would have liked to use a bigger frame, but this was the only square frame I could even find. I'll have to keep a lookout for more frames in the future.

And here is my finished product. I still have one blank wall in our bedroom that's screaming for decorations, so hopefully I'll post again soon about my next crafty adventure!

20-Week Stats

2010-05-11T14:12:00.000-06:00

That's right, we've made it half way and everything is looking good! We had our official "anatomy scan" last week where we got to see our little man in action once again. According to the measurements they took, he was weighing in at about 11 oz. and measuring 4 days bigger than his due date of Sept. 25. We'll see on Monday when I meet with my doctor if that means we get to officially move my due date or not.
As for me, I tend not to wear a lot of form-fitting clothes these days, but if I do, you'll see that I look like this:
A baby bump! I can't really button any of my pants anymore, so I've been forced to rely on rubber bands while I wait for the weather to warm up so I can wear skirts on a more regular basis. I am happy to report, however, that I have not gained any weight!

I started feeling him move 3 or 4 weeks ago. Whenever Matt and I are home together in the evenings I make Matt put his hand on my stomach if I feel him start moving, so Matt has even gotten to feel him once or twice. It's all beginning to feel more real now!

My Surprise

2010-05-04T10:56:00.000-06:00

I went on my first ever "Girls Weekend" this past week, and I came home to find that Matt had been working on a special project while I was gone.
We live in a one-bedroom apartment, and will for a few months after the baby (lovingly nicknamed as Teeny) is born. We already solved the problem of where he will sleep with a half-size pack and play. But in addition to needing a bed, babies need a lot of other stuff. We figured we would just get a small chest of drawers or a bookcase. Now we have Matt's "baby closet" creation!
The picture is bad quality because I took it at night, and we have bad lighting in our dining room. Yes, that's right, the baby closet is in our dining room, but in such a discreet place, I didn't even notice it was there until Matt showed me.

So far, the closet is pretty empty. He hung up the few clothes that we have, and bought a bunch of baby hangers. (Have you ever noticed how cute those things are?!) Everything in it was given to us by our doctor or family members. However, there is one thing I've bought.Megan and I found this treasure back in February at Kohl's on clearance for $2. It was the only gender neutral outfit we could find. Isn't it precious? I can't wait to have a baby to put in it!

Seattle/Vancouver Trip

2010-04-21T14:59:00.000-06:00

If you go with us to a new place, you will soon discover, as Megan did this trip, that we're all about the food.

Sight-seeing? Oh, sure. We do some of that. But the food, the local cuisine, is what we're all about. For that very reason, it would seem that most of the pictures I took are of the things we ate.

After 12ish hours in the car, we arrived in Seattle on Friday afternoon. We dropped our stuff off at the hotel and headed downtown to see the sights. We ate dinner at a local pizza place called Belltown Pizza. Surprisingly, I forgot to take a picture of our food there, but it was good.

After dinner we walked along the piers before we took a ferry over to Bainbridge Island...just because we thought it would be fun to ride a ferry. (That is part of Bainbridge Island behind us.)

Here we have Matt showing off the view of the Seattle skyline from inside the ferry. It was a little rainy, so it wasn't very fun to be out on the deck.

Saturday morning we headed up to Vancouver. Our first stop was the LDS temple open house in Langley. We took a few pictures before we left, but they're all on Megan's camera, so I guess you'll have to wait a little longer to see those. By the afternoon we headed to Stanley Park and Robson street, which, according to our research, are some of the must-see places of Vancouver.
Robson street had just what we were looking for: restaurants and shopping. We didn't do any shopping since everything is ridiculously expensive in Canada, but we did do some eating. We had lunch earlier in the day at an A&W/Chubby Chicken (not very Canadian), where Matt sampled poutine.

I took the picture after he had eaten about half of it, but it didn't look that great to begin with. It consists of french fries, gravy, and cheese curds. It is so popular, and so common, that we also saw it on the menu at Costco.

This was our "dinner" on Robson street at the Crepe Cafe. Megan got hers with applesauce, cinnamon, and whipped cream; Matt got Nutella, bananas, and walnuts; and I got mine with dark chocolate and strawberries. Amazing.

We drove back to Seattle that night, then got up Sunday morning to spend a good part of the day in Seattle before starting our drive back that afternoon. We first went on a tour of the Boeing factory in Everett, WA. That was definitely one of the coolest parts of the trip, but no pictures because electronic devices were not allowed on the tour.

After Boeing, we stopped by Ivar's Seafood so Matt could have some Seattle fish & chips. Megan and I opted not to try any.

And then the rest of our time in Seattle was spent at the Space Needle and Pike Place Market.

This the only picture of Pike Place Market I took. This is only a fraction of the gazillion tulips they had there. If they wouldn't have had to sit in a car for the next day and a half we totally would have bought some!

We finally started our trip back late that afternoon, and once we were a little ways outside the city we stopped to get gas and dinner. The Fat Burger we ate at was right next to a Kool Kreme. I'd never considered the concept, but donuts and ice cream are an amazing combination! This shop had extraordinary krispy kremes including chocolate and maple bars, doughnut sundaes, and this creme filled chocolate doughnut.

We are now fans of Seattle, Vancouver, and Kool Kreme. All in all, not a bad trip!

More Baby News

2010-04-14T09:22:00.000-06:00

I fully believe that "it's not what you know, it's who you know," because although I'm only 16 weeks pregnant and should have had to wait another month for an ultrasound to find out if we're having a boy or girl, I know this awesome person named Hillary.

Hillary works at a medical clinic and happens to be really good friends with an amazing ultrasound tech, so she invited me to come in for a sneak-peek. The only other ultrasound we've had was at 9 weeks (the picture I included in the last post), and there was a world of difference in the baby we saw. This time it was moving all over the place and looked like a baby rather than a peanut!

It was through that movement that we were able to get several shots of good evidence that it's a boy. It was at that point that Matt leaned over to me and, in a very serious voice, said, "That's awesome." He's already planning the first tool set he's going to buy him :)

We're both extremely excited. In fact, I've noticed that neither of us have really stopped smiling since we found out yesterday. I'll have to put aside all of my ideas for little girl dresses and bows for now--instead I'll just have to be on the lookout for more "masculine" baby craft projects!

Guessing Game

2010-03-25T10:07:00.000-06:00

You know me. . .I don't do things half way. That's why I wanted to initiate this guessing game.

Can you guess what this picture is?

Irrelevant fact: it was constructed out of Skittles

Hints:

it resembles the original pictures (or at least I'm hoping it does)

the B&W effect is supposed to emphasize the subject of the picture

You probably just want me to get to the point, don't you? Okay, then I'll give you one more hint:

You're still not sure? Well, then I guess I'll just tell you. . .

The Tiner family is about to become a little less teeny because we are expecting a baby on September 25th!

I am 13 weeks pregnant, and although you might not guess it by looking at me, I have a bit of a baby bump. I can't wait until it's big enough that it doesn't just look like I'm chubby!

Sorry my guessing game wasn't a very good one, but at least now you know the big news!

(And I just noticed the excessive number of exclamation marks used in the last four sentences. That right there should tell you just how excited we are.)

It's My Birthday!

2010-03-24T09:41:00.000-06:00

Or rather, yesterday was, and let me tell you, it was a good one!

We recently asked our Primary kids what their favorite part of their birthday was, and every one of them said cake. I, on the other hand, enjoy the ice cream (but with the last name Tiner, I'm sure that doesn't come as much of a surprise to most of you), so we ended my birthday festivities at Coldstone.

Another great part of my birthday was meeting Millie. Most of you probably remember my post from October announcing our friends Buck and Niki found out they were having a girl in March. Unfortunately, their little girl decided to come early, and she's been in the NICU since November. Because of the strict visitor policy, we've been patiently waiting to meet her.

(You can see Millie's full story on their blog here)

And what do you know? Niki and the hospital decided to give me a great birthday present when the visitor policy changed the day before my birthday!

She got all dressed up in her new hot pink dress to meet me, and she managed to stay awake the whole time I was there. She's got adorably chubby cheeks, and she is so cute! Thanks again, Niki :)

Thank you to everyone who wished me a happy birthday. I had a great day!

Neighbor

2010-03-22T12:13:00.000-06:00

We moved into our new apartment almost 4 months ago, but unfortunately, it was around the time I decided to take my blogging sabbatical. It was last week after I decided to visit the blogging world again that I realized I haven't introduced you to our new neighbor yet.

The view from our apartment includes a large dirt field, lots of power lines, and one giant Ikea store! The first time anyone comes to visit they always ask, "so how many times have you been to Ikea?" I'll have you know we do frequent that store, but you can only look at furniture so much.

We are loving our new apartment, and for those of you who haven't been to see it yet, come visit soon! I mean, how can you pass up a view like this?