My first blanket baby.

And yes I know he's too old for a bottle.  We're working on it.

During the past year Wyland has decided that he likes to have a blanket.

Not any blanket but this really old University of Utah (at least he got that part right!) stadium blanket.

Along with his blanket he has to have his pillow pet.

For Christmas I bought him a turtle pillow pet and then Jackson had the puppy.

Well they fought over the puppy so I had to buy another puppy.

Well I bought the pillow pets when you could only get them online (and paid way more than everyone else).

After Christmas when I had to buy a second one I got it at Target.

Well apparently one of the two has a long tag (of course they had to be slightly different).

So Wyland knows which one is HIS pillow pet. So there is no switching them if you can't find the right one.

So every night Wyland lays on the floor with his blanket and his pillow pet.

The most unusual pair.

But cute none the less.

Another project complete.

So I had this thought once we finished painting our basement the pretty blue that we did that it would be really nice to hang an assortment of beach pictures.  So one of my birthday wishes was to get some plain black frames.  So along with a lovely gift my Mike and Amber I also scored on a big assortment of frames at Walmart for only $7 on Black Friday.  This was another thing I did this weekend.  I went through tons of old pictures in albums to find some cute ones of Baylee as a baby (I had to scan those) and then chose some of the rest of us and I now have my beach wall.  I LOVE IT!!!!  It turned out even better than I imagined.  My enlargements all came out great and after I put them all in frames I then arranged them into a neat rectangle on my dining room table before attempting to hang them on the walls.  So as soon as Jeramie came back home from dropping his kids off last night I had him hanging my pictures. 

The beach always holds such a special place in my heart and now I have this awesome little "happy spot" on the wall in the basement.  It holds pictures of all of us as well as a few "scenic" pictures that I have taken myself at various beaches (Redondo Beach, CA .. Bognor Beach, England .. and our across the Caribbean).  I'm not even sure that this picture of my pictures really does it justice.

Multi-Tasking

What do I do while I watch TV?

What do I do while sitting at my parents for Sunday dinner?

What do I do sat at a traffic light in my car? (sometimes)

Or how about while waiting at the Doctors office?

I crochet.

Is it an old lady hobby?  Maybe.

I have successfully made a nice evenly shaped blanket for Oliver in the prettiest of blues.

I have made a nice white blanket for another someone special. (shhh .. it's a surprise)

It wasn't always easy for me to keep them shaped right.  I often ended up with crooked blankets.

Now I'm making another one for Oliver (above) cream and brown stripes.  It's already looking crooked though!  Shoot!  I find it very enjoyable to crochet.  I always feel the need to have something to do while sitting still somewhere.  I enjoy the sitting part, but still want to feel I'm doing more than "just sitting".

I'm more or less self taught from one of those "Learn How to Crochet" books.  Baylee wants me to finish her pink blanket that I started like a year ago.  I will say baby blankets are so much more fun because they're small and can be completed relatively quickly.  Big blankets get boring (and hot on my lap) after awhile.

Then Jeramie has put in his request for a blanket too.

I love to crochet.

Trip in Review

Just to mention I have posted 3 posts in a row for the last two days of our trip.  So you may have to go to the next page to view them all.  Sorry it's hard to catch up when there's so much to show you all. 

As if I haven’t already said so much about our trip. All in all we had such a good time. We squeezed a ton of stuff in a very short amount of time. As sad as we were to come home, I can only speak for myself but I was also ready to come home. We were gone for eight amazing days. We are already talking about going back again in two years when Wyland will be 4 years old. Hopefully he’ll be as tall as Jackson and get to go on all the big kid rides at that time as well. We had planned on this vacation 2 years prior so it’s not surprising we’re already planning again. Amber and I talked about the fact that this was the best Christmas present for the kids (thanks again Mum and Dad!!). They still get toys from us but the gift of these types of memories will last so much longer than any toy will. We would love to plan some sort of trip like this at least every other year. Even if it’s just getting a beach house somewhere and spending a week on the beach.

When we do this again in two years here are some things I would do differently:

1.  Request a 1st floor hotel room.  Don't want to be hauling luggage upstairs again.

2.  Plan at least 1 if not 2 more days of “down time” to go to the beach.  This would make it last longer and also give us a break from the "go go go" all the time.

3.  Bring less food. While we saved a ton of money and we would still brown bag lunches. We didn’t quite need as much as I brought.

4.  Hopefully Evan and Rachel can come too. Maybe not their cup of tea until they have kiddies of their own though.

5.  Hopefully Mum and Dad can join us for longer.

Highlights of the trip and favorite quotes:

1.  Jackson (says on the beach): “Mom, the beach is SOOOO much fun!!”

2.  It was awesome for Baylee to get to see her Godmother.

3.  Jeramie (says in bed): “I really have to poop, but I’m just too tired to get up.” (this may only be funny for those of you that intimately know my husband)

4.  Jackson (says at the hotel): “Mom are we going to ride the alligator?” Me (confused): “Umm .. no we went to the zoo yesterday.” Jackson: “No, are we going to ride the ALLIGATOR?” Me (still confused): “No Jackson, we aren’t riding any alligators, they might bite us!” Jackson (frustrated): “NO MOM THE ALLIGATOR!!!” Me (light bulb turns on): “Oh you mean the ELAVATOR?! Yes we will ride in the elevator.” HAHA!!!!!!

5.  Watching the kids play on the beach and loving it.

6.  Going on big boy rides with Jackson.

7.  Baylee got talked into riding the Tower of Terror with the big kids. I think the only reason that she agreed was because she couldn’t actually see what she was agreeing to. So she’s sat next to my mum on the ride and as soon as the first drop comes she literally grabs and clings to my mum’s arm for dear like and yells, “GRANDMA .. SAVE ME .. I’M SCARED .. SAVE ME GRANDMA!!!!!” When it was over she was fine.

All in all an amazing vacation. It was fun to share all these things with my brother Mike and his family. I don’t think any of us at any point wanted to kill eachother or eachothers kids (contrary to predictions). We had no big traumas during our visit. The kids all had a blast. I’m glad my parents were able to share some of it with us as well.

Thanks everyone for the memories!!

Day Two - Carlsbad Beach

We were a little nervous about how the weather planned to cooperate for our beach day. Not to mention our beach day was planned for while we were staying down in San Diego. Well Mike and I grew up further north than that so we didn’t even really know what beach to head to. Saturday morning had been slightly overcast and not always especially warm. So in anticipation of a similar day we planned to swim at the hotel pool in the morning to allow for that morning haze to burn off before heading to the beach. As it turned out it was a beautiful morning. We still went to the pool to play for an hour and then we ventured back to our rooms to pack up and prepare for an afternoon on the beach. The worst thing about traveling is that you’re always hauling so much stuff around and you never know if you have the “right” stuff. We ended up heading over to Carlsbad Beach because Mike and his family had been to a wedding over there the night before and said it was a nice area. They were right. Plus the weather did indeed cooperate. It was PERFECT.

Baylee – Spent the afternoon lying on her towel. Unfortunately I have not turned her into the beach lover that I am. It’s a shame. She doesn’t enjoy walking on the uneven ground, doesn’t like the cold water, is afraid the waves will knock her over. Even as a baby she hated the sand. So she stuck to her towel and just watched everyone.

Jackson – He was the best. My favorite quote of the day was when he turned to me and said, “Mom the beach is SOOOO much fun!!!” He spent the entire time playing at the waters edge with Owen. While Jackson has been to beaches before I know he doesn’t remember. Eventually he made it up to where we were camped out and he played in the sand with Wyland for a little while.

Not a fan of having sand poured on him by Wyland

Wyland – He enjoyed playing in the sand the most. He didn’t like the cold water and the wet sand isn’t much fun to play with at that age. So he and Jeramie sat and dug up sand and made little sand castles. He thoroughly enjoyed himself as well.

I think that these are probably some of my favorite pictures from our entire trip. The beach holds a very special place in my heart. I love sharing that with my children.

Mike building sand castles with Owen.

I warned you about the number of pictures .. remember?

My First Crochet Beanie

When I used to work at Discover Card I had many employee's who would crochet while taking calls. It was one of the few things that was allowed. Not entirely sure why since technically you need two hands to crochet. Anyway when I was a little girl on one of our many visits back to England my Nanny taught me how to crochet. This was a really long time ago, but I think that it's the kind of thing that once you learn how it comes back to you pretty quickly when you attempt to pick it up again. While at Discover Card I had many people try and re-teach me. I especially wanted to learn how to make beanies. They're just so cute. I just didn't seem to be able to pick it up though. None of these people followed patterns, they all "just knew" what to do. I just don't think that my brain functions like that. So a couple years ago I picked up one of those "Teach Yourself to Crochet" books. I retaught myself and I'm pretty proud of it! I can follow patterns and I actually feel a huge sense of relief to have a road map to follow. I have made several baby blankets, they're easier because they're smaller and take less time. So this week I found a beanie pattern online and attempted to make it. Needless to say it just didn't turn out well, it looked like a Russian hat. You know, like kind of square? Not good. However, from this pattern it did steer me in the right direction and I was able to freelance on a beanie for my kids. It turned out really cute if I do say so myself!! Actually perhaps too cute, and maybe a little girly. I will try different yarn next time. I made this in like an hours time though! So I'm here to say that if you've ever wanted to try it get one of those teach yourself books and get started. It's a really relaxing hobby. I can sit in front of the TV and feel like I'm being productive at the same time. In the background of one of these pictures you can see a pink blanket folded up in the corner. I've been working on this blanket for Baylee for practically a year now. I go at it for awhile and then set it aside for months because it's so never ending. I still think I'm not even halfway yet but I have at least picked it back up to work on again. Check out my amazing domesticity (does this count as being domestic?) By the way both boys are wearing the same beanie because I only made the one. I think it actually looks better on Jackson because his head is bigger.

My Birthday!

So I didn't post a myriad of pictures of myself for my birthday (it was back on Nov. 27th). BUT I did want to share what an amazing birthday I had!! I had begged and pleaded my parents for the perfect gift and they did NOT disappoint!!

My newest addition to my ever growing electronics / gadgets collection:

The Amazon Kindle 2

Some people may wonder why I even wanted such a thing (my Mum in particular). As I have mentioned in a previous post I carry a book with me pretty much everywhere all the time. I LOVE my books. When I go on vacation I take at least one extra book with me. I have been caught on my return flight from places having finished my latest book and having to buy one at the airport *** GASP ***!!!! I know right?

Well I wanted a Kindle last year when they first came out with them. But $400+ was out of my budget range. So I sat back and admired them. This year I asked and my parents delivered!! I have had it now for over a week and I am in a full fledged love affair with my Kindle 2! Aside from being able to download books ANYwhere directly to my Kindle they are so much cheaper than buying the hard back copies. I bought "Twilight" and "New Moon" because I'm going to read them again, $4.25 EACH! So if there is anyone out there considering an electronic reading device I highly recommend it.

Yay! Happy Birthday to me!! Thanks Mum and Dad!