January 31, 2009

Aw....Papa Murphy's. Saturday nights just wouldn't be the same without you! :)

January 30, 2009

Today I went to substitute teach at the Jr. High school for my Friend Melody. I had never taught anything higher then 3rd grade! I was a little intimidated, but I actually had an O.K. day. It was weird to have a "new" class every 45 minutes and only a couple lesson plans to teach. I was in a Special Ed Class, so that was also new. I had one class with only 3 people in it, and the biggest class I had was 15. Definitely different then what I was used to!

Chris took the day off to work in the basement, so he was able to watch Bubby and that was a big stress reliever for me! I don't worry about him being at home with his Daddy.

I also got to see a few of my old students in the hallways, which was fun, but wow, am I glad I am not back in Jr. High!! What a difficult and awkward age! Poor kids!

January 29, 2009

Bubby and I needed to get out of the house and get some fresh air, so we went on a little walk. It was still snowy outside, and he had to be bundled up, but he loved it, and it felt good to get some much needed fresh air!

January 28, 2009

I realize that this is a little bit of an odd picture to choose for today. I could have taken pictures of lots of different things today. I could have taken a picture of the 4 hour power outage we had. I could have taken a picture of Bubby and I visiting my friends at Middle Canyon, or even a picture of our failed attempt to take Bubby to the library for story time, but this was the one I chose instead.

I chose this picture, because I felt like I had to document the fact that Bubby finally rolled over! Yes, he is 8 months old, and yes, he still has not rolled over! Mind you, he only did it once, and refused to do it again, but I felt like just in case it never happens again, I have proof that he at least did it once, and I know he is capable of doing it, even if he chooses not to.

This picture of course was AFTER the fact, and when I was trying to get him to do it again, but as you can see, he wasn't having it. Maybe he'll do it again one day? I can only hope. He's kind of a lazy boy. He does more observing, and not much doing. :)

January 27, 2009

Tonight we got invited out to dinner with Mama Anne. She had just gotten home from California yesterday, so we hadn't seen her in a few days.

We all met at Apollo Burger and had a great time. It was fun to see Mama Anne, Matt, Denise, Jack, Anna, and Jon.

Thanks Mamma Anne!

January 26, 2009

We love it when Daddy calls from work to check in on us, and to let us know when he is coming home. :)

Daddy asks to talk to Bubby, so I put it on Speaker and hand Bubby the phone. Bubby gets really excited to hear his Daddy's voice, but he doesn't really know what to do with the phone in his hand. Sometimes he "talks", sometimes, he "kisses" the phone, and other times he just pushes buttons or throws it, but we hope Daddy gets the idea.

January 25, 2009

This is the second time today I have gone into Keric's room and found him in this position! The first time was early this morning when he first woke up. He woke up mad this morning and when I went in to get him I found him pinned up to the side of the crib with his arm and leg hanging out of one of the crib bars screaming his head off!

This time, was when he should have been taking a nap. We have 1:00 p.m. church which means his 3:00 p.m. nap time gets interuppted every Sunday, ie no nap for bubby on Sunday's. He was so grouchy and tired when we got home, I thought maybe he would take a nap when we got home.

As you can see, I was very wrong! I took off his clothes so he would be comfy and patted his back and his bum until he fell asleep, but once I put him in his crib, he woke up and wasn't having it. I tried to let him cry it out, but eventually enough was enough.

I had a feeling I would find him in a similar position as this morning, so I took the camera up with me just in case. Sure enough, there he was! I know my boy! By the time I turned the light on he had quit screaming, but he still had one of his arms through the bars and a red face from screaming so loud.

Of course he is happy as all get out now! Stubborn boy! I wonder where in the world would he get that trait from???

January 24, 2009

Chris has been working tirelessly down in the basement. He worked all last weekend, and then came home and worked all night last night, and all day again today. In fact he is still down there!! I wish I could help more, but I just don't know what to do! I get frustrated seeing him down there all alone, and knowing there isn't anything I can do.

Today was all wiring stuff. He ended up having to basically re-wire the entire basement! He had to move all these wires around so he could finish the framing.

Our house is most certainly not a Bennion Construction house! When Chris bought the house he was given the option of finishing the basement, or not. I think when the guys who built it were told the basement would not be finished, they started cutting a bunch of corners and doing as little as possible to get it to pass inspection. It's so frustrating! More so for Chris obviously.

Anyway...slowly but surely we (Chris) moves along with the bathroom. I'll post more progress pictures as they happen.

January 23, 2009

Today we got to go to the Fireman's Museum out at Desert Peak with some of Mommy's friends and their kids. We had a great time! Someday when Bubby is older, we'll go back again.

January 22, 2009

One of my favorite things is to go out to the mailbox and find a surprise package from my Mommy-o!

I think it started with my mission. I always looked forward to her long letters and occasional packages. Even now, once in awhile, she will surprise me and send me something. It usually always has a little note on it, and it always seems to come on a day when I needed a little pick me up.

Today I was so excited to come home from a long Activity Day activity and find a package on the table for me! I was so happy to find she had sent me REAL cinnamon hearts for Valentines day!

It's a nice feeling to be reminded that you are thought about and loved. I need to be more like my mom, and send more thank you notes, and thinking of you packages to people I love.

Thanks Mommy-o! I love you!

January 21, 2009

After Bubby's Dr.'s appointment, we got to go visit Daddy at his office for a little while.

January 20, 2009

You can't really document today, and not document something about the inauguration of President Obama. Whether you voted for him, or not, whether you like him, or hate him, this day will be one that is talked about for many years to come. Our children and grandchildren will read about this day in history books in school!

If I were still a full time teacher, I would have made sure that my class was able to watch the inauguration on T.V. I am still a teacher at heart even though I don't have a classroom of 30, so I decided to make sure my classroom of 1 watch this day in history. :)

I brought bubby downstairs, turned on the T.V., sat him on my lap and we watched the big inauguration together.

Bubby obviously could have cared less, he was more interested in the buttons on the remote control, but he did sit quietly through a good part of it so I could at least watch most of it.

Maybe one day when he is old enough to care and understand, he will appreciate that his Mommy made him be a small part of this historic day too!

January 19, 2009

I feel stupid that yet again my Monday photo has to do with Laundry, but I guess when that's pretty much all you do on Monday, there aren't many more pictures to take.

Keric likes to lie on the bed and play while I fold laundry. Sometimes he watches T.V., sometimes he plays with toys, and other times he sleeps. Today he played hide and go seek.

I got a batch of laundry out of the dryer, and put it on the bed to fold. The laundry room is right next to my bedroom, so after I laid the laundry down on the bed, I carried another load from my bedroom, and put it into the washer and then transferred the previous load to the dryer.

When I came back I could hear Bubby squealing and laughing, but I couldn't see him right off. In the 30 seconds it took me to put a new load in the washer and a new load in the dryer, he had grabbed a bunch of clothes and pulled them up over his head. He seemed to be very happy and thrilled with his new achievement.

He was having a great time in the big pile of warm clothes. He's such a silly kid!

January 18, 2009

Poor Keric has a HORRIBLE cold, and has been sick for going on 4 days now. He is normally such a happy baby, even when he isn't feeling well. I know he must really not feel well because he cries a lot, sleeps most of the day, and has no appetite! I've never seen my baby turn away food or not finish a bottle! Now it's rare when he DOES eat and even more rare when he finishes an entire bottle!

He is however finally able to go an entire day without a fever, but he is so congested and snotty that it's just pathetic! Poor little boy can hardly breathe and when he does, he sounds like a piggy. :(

He and Chris stayed home from church today. Chris caught some kind of stomach bug, so they were home today resting. It was kind of lonely at church with just me and Cameron and Reagan.

Hopefully they will both be feeling better soon!!

January 17, 2009 (Happy 8 months Bubby!)

How in the WORLD is my baby 8 months old today?!?! Time goes by WAY too fast!

Today was the start of Jr. Jazz basketball. Cameron played last year and seemed to have fun, so he signed up again this year.

Of course this means lots of early Saturday mornings, driving to Grantsville for games, but I guess we'll survive. ha ha

He is still a little reluctant to really get into the game, and he's not real aggressive on the court, but I think the more he plays, the more he'll get into it.

Go Jr. Jazz!

January 16, 2009

Tonight we got started on the next room in our basement,the bathroom! YEA!

I am trying to be lots more help in this room, and hopefully it wont take Chris so long with my "help". I hope I don't make it worse for him! :)

January 15, 2009

About a month ago my sister in law gave Keric a bouncer that her daughter had. I put Keric in it, but he was not impressed. I bounced him up and down, and he liked it, but when I would leave him in there by himself, he would cry.

So today we decided to try it again. SUCCESS! He loved it! He was actually jumping up and down by himself and probably sat in it for a good half hour! Of course we took lots of video and pictures, and made sure to send Daddy a video of what Bubby learned in "school" today.

Good Job Bubby! I am just as proud of you as you look of yourself! ha ha

January 14, 2009

Today bubby and I went grocery shopping, another one of my favorite mom chores to do! Is is just me, or does food get more expensive by the week?? Good grief! It was so much more fun going with my Mom when I was a little kid, and didn't have to worry about how much everything cost!

Of course they have had their Valentines Day things out for almost a month now, but this is the first time I actually paid much attention to them. I have a real problem with how the stores jump from one holiday to the next so quickly! It's not real fun to walk into a store on December 27 and see Valentines day chocolates, cards, etc. all over the store! I mean come on! Do people REALLY shop that far in advance?

Anyway, I was just going up one aisle and down the other, (just like my Mom shops ha ha), and I found myself in the Valentine aisle. I, like everyone else, am on a New Year's Resolution diet, so I had no intention of buying anything, even though it ALL looked SO GOOD! I was just walking up one aisle and down the other. However one thing did catch my eye. Cinnamon Heart Candies!!

My mom used to buy them all the time around Valentines day and I LOVED them! Plus they always remind me of her. I couldn't help myself, I had to buy one little carton. I figured at least it wasn't chocolate! So I bought my little Cinnamon hearts and got home and opened them. I was so excited to have my first Cinnamon heart of the season!

I pulled one out and took a little bite, and GROSS! What happened to the ones my Mom used to buy??? Obviously they weren't this brand or else the brand has gone way down hill! They weren't hot at all, just kind of gummy and sugary, and they were just a real huge disappointment!

So lesson learned. Don't go down the stupid Valentine Candy aisle, you will get sucked in every time, and when you're on a diet, STICK to the diet, or else you end up wasting $2.50 on gross candy!

I guess at least I wont be tempted to eat them. Maybe they'll be dinner for the garbage can tonight!

January 13, 2009

This is a perfect example of Chris not knowing how to do something, sitting down and figuring it out, and then having it turn out perfect.

We have taken on the challenge of finishing our basement. It is a very SLOW process to say the least, but I can see the potential, and it will get done eventually. I would rather have it done RIGHT, then just done.

When Keric was born, we turned Chris' office upstairs into Keric's bedroom, which meant Chris wouldn't have a place to work. So the first room we finished in the basement was his office. It turned out really really nice. I love it!

The last thing to be done was the french doors needed to be hung. Last Saturday Chris spent all day varnishing them. I decided I would rather have them with the natural wood, then painted. I didn't realize that meant lots and lots of work!! Sorry Honey!

Today Chris got the handles put on them, and hung them up and they look so pretty!! I love them! It makes me super excited to start work on the next room!

January 12, 2009

Of all the house wife "chores" I have, I just can't enjoy laundry! It's like it's never ending, and there really isn't a "reward" at the end. I mean at least when you clean a bathroom, or vacuum, it's nice and clean for awhile! You can see what you have done. With laundry, I wash clothes all day long, and only have empty baskets for about an hour. Then I am filling them with clothes that have been spit up on, or clothes that have been leaked out on, or whatever. It just NEVER ENDS!

Monday's are not really my favorite day since it is supposed to be my laundry day. So when my Mother in law called me and asked me if I was doing anything important, I had no problem saying "NO!"

She said she needed to get out of the house and asked if Bubby and I wanted to go into SLC with her and just bum around. I thought, heck yeah, anything is better then doing laundry! ha ha

So off we went. We did some shopping at CostCo, and also went to Michaels to look at Scrap booking stuff. I'm not into scrap booking, just simply because it overwhelms me too much, and it gets so expensive, but she has been putting together a scrapbook of Criag's life so it has been fun to go with her and find cute things for that.

After we were done shopping we met Chris at Fazoli's and she bought us dinner. It was a fun afternoon, but I was quickly brought back to reality when we got home at 7:30 p.m. and I had to get back to my favorite chore!

Oh well...it was nice to leave it behind for a few hours even if I might be up a little late finishing it.

Just as a side note...this is one of the next rooms I want to paint!! Maybe I'll like laundry a little better if I wasn't surrounded by so much WHITE! ha ha

January 11, 2009

Today I got another church calling. I am still the Primary Pianist, but I was called to also be one of the activities day leaders. It's a little intimidating, but also a little exciting.

When I was 11, it wasn't called Activity Days, it was called Merri Miss. I still remember some of the activities that we did, and I remember it being so much fun. I hope that I can bring that same kind of enthusiasm to these girls.

I've always kind of thought of myself as good with "little" kids, and not so much with the big kids. I don't know why, I guess the little ones are easier for me to "relate" to. Don't know what that says about me exactly but... ha ha

I am however excited about who I get to work with. I get to work with my friend Lissel who is very creative and extremely talented. I'm sure I will learn a lot from her. I also get to work with another friend of mine, Melody. We have worked together before, and she's lots of fun

I hope I can bring one or two things to the table with me, other then a 7 month old who is a little bit attached to my hip.

January 10, 2009

Keric squeals with delight whenever one of the dogs jumps up on the couch. He thinks they are jumping up to play with him! He grabs at their tails, sweaters, ears, whatever he can get his little hands on at the moment, and PULLS. THis activity can go on for several minutes at a time!

Eventually the dogs just give up trying to get away from him, and lie down and take his "affection". After watching a few of these episodes today, I realized that I am really grateful for three things today!

One, that Keric loves the dogs, and doesn't seem to be at all bothered by them.

Two, that the dogs are patient with him, and let him pretty much do whatever he wants to to them. I don't think they have the same "love" for him yet.


Third, I'm glad that he has pets to play with and love while he is growing up. Hopefully one day they will love him back

January 9, 2009

I have been trying to be better about introducing new food's into Keric's "diet". So far he has loved everything I have given him! Bananas, Apples, Pears, Carrots, Oatmeal, he loves it all! He smacks his lips and gets overly anxious when I'm not shoveling it in his mouth fast enough.

Today however, was a little different. The new food today was peas. As you can tell, he was NOT impressed. I couldn't get him to eat hardly any of it. He was making the funniest faces, and was really not enjoying the experience. Truth be known, the peas were pretty disgusting looking and smelling!

I didn't make him finish them. Who can look at that face and NOT throw the rest of the peas away?? I did get a pretty good laugh out of the whole thing.

We had carrots for lunch instead. Maybe we'll try peas another day.

January 8, 2009

I've said before, that I am continually surprised at Chris and how sweet he is to me! He is always coming up with something creative and fun, and it always happens to be exactly what I needed that day!

Today as I was giving Keric his bath the phone rang. Sometimes I bring the phone into the bathroom when I give him a bath, but today I didn't. I kind of had a feeling it was Chris, but I am paranoid about leaving bubby by himself anywhere, let alone by himself in the bathtub, so I didn't answer the phone.

After I finished getting Keric ready, I checked the caller ID, and sure enough, it was Chris. I called him back, but I wasn't able to reach him. I left a message and figured he would call again when he had a chance.

Later I went downstairs to clean up the breakfast dishes and I noticed I had a new message.

I checked the message, and it was from my sweet "Fer". He had left me a message telling me that he had just called to tell me that he loved me! I have listened to that message several times today! It was so cute, so appreciated, and so very needed!

I love you too Chris! Thank you for being such a good husband, father, and friend!!

January 7, 2009

Today was kind of a "sad" day. I cleaned out Keric's closet and drawers of all the clothes that no longer fit him. It hasn't been done for a really long time, so I found a couple of little preemie outfits, and newborn jammies.

I can't believe how BIG he has gotten! I remember how loose those preemie outfits were on him,how his XXS blessing outfit still looked like a dress on him it was so big, and now they wouldn't even fit over his head!

Packing them away was sad. My "too tiny man" is all grown up and he is just growing up WAY too fast!

January 6, 2009

An unfortunate thing happened to Tiara and Chompie. Long story short, they had to get shaved because they had big mats in their fur that were unable to be taken out. So...being the responsible pet owners that we are, we now have two shaved, frozen little doggies.

So today I bought them each a sweater. I'm normally not a fan of dogs wearing people clothes, but desperate times called for desperate measures.

Most of their weight is in their fun, so they look so tiny with no fur, but I think they look so cute in their little sweaters. They don't even seem to mind them too much either.

January 5, 2009

I have been babysitting my niece and nephew off and on since about August. They usually get here around 7:30 a.m. Poor Anna has a hard time getting up so early and she usually falls asleep somewhere in the house within the first hour or so of being here. Today it was curled up almost upside down on the couch.

Chompie is not the best dog around, he doesn't mind very well, he is always running under the fence to bark at some poor unsuspecting child walking home from school, and it seems like he is always getting yelled at and sent up to his crate for a "time out" at least once a day, but all of that aside, he is a very sweet dog.

Anna for whatever reason was scared of Chompie today. She usually loves him, and spends the whole day chasing him around and playing with him, but today she screamed and cried every time she saw him.

Obviously he didn't take it personally, because when Anna fell asleep on the couch, Chompie jumped right up there with her, and curled up right beside her. He stayed by her side the entire time she slept. What a good little guard dog!

January 4, 2009

Today in Primary each of the teachers, councelors, and Music People were asked to put together a little "All about Me" bag for the kids. We were supposed to put things in our bag that showed a little bit about who we are, and then the kids got to guess which bag belonged to which person.

Cameron and Reagan watched me put together my bag, so they weren't allowed to guess until the very end, but it was kind of fun. I think my bag must have been pretty easy, because after only two items being taken out, the kids were saying "It's Sister Wexels!" I didn't know I was that easy to figure out.

The last item they pulled out of the bag was my Nati licence plate. Melody asked Reagan, "Who is Nati"? So Reagan got to do the big reveal. It was cute.

Do ya think this describes me fairly well?

January 3, 2009

I just love my Mother in Law! She is just the best Mother in law ever! She is so fun, and has such a great sense of humor.

This was a picture that Reagan actually took of Mama Anne when she came over to our house to watch the University of Utah game.

Yes, we DID beat Alabama in the Sugar Bowl! Go Utes!

January 2, 2009

Mama Anne took all of her Kids, their spouses, and all 9 of her Grandchildren to "Hollywood Connection". It's a big place that has all sorts of arcade games, little carnival rides, miniature golf, roller skating, and movies. We had a GREAT time, and Keric even got to ride his first ride, the Merry Go Round. He wasn't too sure about it, but I think he had fun. He rode it 4 times!

January 1, 2009

Can you believe that 3 years ago, this crazy girl CRIED at the sight of a camera and refused to have her picture taken? Now she loves getting her picture taken! Can you tell?

We had a great time over at Matt and Denise's new house, ringing in the New Year!

The Challenge

I have had so much fun doing our Family Blog this last year, that I decided to jump on the "latest fad" band wagon, and accept the 365 day challenge for this year. If you want to read up on it, the website is:

http://photojojo.com/content/tutorials/project-365-take-a-photo-a-day/

Basically, the challenge is to take a picture everyday for the entire year and write a little journal entry about the picture. At the end of the year, you will have a photo journal of what you have done every day of the year.

It sounded fun, so...I'm gonna try it. I got a new cute red camera for Christmas, so I figure this is a great way to put it to good use.

So here is the Wexels Family year 2009 in pictures.