September 27, 2009

Bubby has decided that his piano is a new mode of transportation. He holds onto the little handles at the front, straddles the seat, and pushes it all over the house occasionally stopping to play a tune or two. I guess if anything it's creative right? haha

September 26, 2009

Last year one of our trees caught some kind of bug/virus. Some of the branches started dying, and by the middle of this Summer, the entire tree was dead! Since we live in community that has CC&R's the fact that the tree died became somewhat of a problem.

So we decided to replace it while tree's were "cheap". It started out as a "lets just replace the tree day", and it ended up just being a huge yard work day! I am so sore, and so tired, but the tree looks nice and the yard looks good. :)

I am ready for BED!

September 25, 2009

Bubby LOVES airplanes. When he hears them outside, and he points up to the sky looking for them or course jabbering the entire time. We tell him that the airplanes have come to see him, and are flying by to say hello, because I'm sure if the pilots MET Bubby and saw how cute he was, they would TOTALLY fly over our house just to say hello to him!

He also really likes it when we do the "airplane" while he's eating. Sometimes he'll even make the airplane noise for us while we move the spoon around. He loves his cute airplane spoons that Mama Lynn gave to him!

September 24, 2009

Today was Bubby's "piano lesson" day. He was having such a good time playing his little piano this morning that I brought it downstairs for him to play with. I wish I could say he sat down and started playing beautiful music and is probably a musical prodigy of some sort, but he just banged and pounded. It was still cute even though it was noisy!

September 23, 2009

Today was the first day of piano lessons. I have 5 students plus Reagan who are taking lessons from me. Since there aren't that many, and we all live close by, I decided to do them all on Wednesday's. That way I'm not having to try and remember a lesson here and there all week long.

I was actually a little nervous teaching. I've never really done it before, but I have some really sweet little girls, and one boy who actually ALL want to learn how to play. It's nice when you are teaching kids who want to learn how to play, and aren't there because their mom thinks it's a good idea! I think I was the second type of student for a LONG time. I'm glad I stuck it out, but I certainly wasn't like these guys today.

Reagie has already played her song about 10 times today and is already asking to learn a new one. I hope she continues to love the piano that much after a few months.

September 22, 2009

Daddy took all the kids to Maverick to spend their allowance money on a treat. Don't they look happy with their purchases!

September 21, 2009

Today while I was doing laundry Bubby was doing what he does best...dumping out drawers.

One of the things he found was a birthday card that Mama Anne had given to Chris. It was a musical card, and when Bubby opened it, he found his favorite toy of the day! He kept opening it up, and then he would dance to the song "Carwash" over and over again.

He was a little disappointed when the other cards he found didn't sing to him too.

September 20, 2009

Sadly...for me...Mickey brought Minnie along with him on his vacation to our house. Minnie stayed much longer than Mickey but thankfully her vacation was cut short late tonight. Had it not been...I was gonna be going on a vacation myself!

I hope that is the last of our "company"!!!

September 19, 2009

Watch out Ladies...he's a walking boy now!

September 18, 2009

Bubby loves to dump out the drawers in the bathroom while I get ready in the morning. It's a fun game for all! One of the things he finds once in awhile are Mae Mae's head bands. He somehow understands that they go on your head.

He puts them on like a crown, and then crawls around very proud. This will be one of those pictures that he will hate me for...but it's so cute! I promise I wont show it to your girlfriend one day Bubby!

September 17, 2009

For Bubby's 16 month birthday his Daddy captured the mouse! This was actually more of a present for ME as now I can sleep without waking up half a dozen times in the middle of the night thinking the thing is on my face!

Chris went home teaching tonight, and when I came into the kitchen around 8:30 p.m. after putting Bubby to bed, I found "Mickey" as Chris fondly referred to him, in a trap.

Looking at the poor little thing with his nose slammed in a trap, I realize that it is hard to understand why they freak me out so much, but they really do. I had to have Chris take the pictures, and of course dispose of Mickey because no way could I do it without some serious mental issues to follow, and we all know I don't need anymore of those.

So the score is Chris - 1 Mouse - 0. If my Dad is right about you never have a mouse, you always have MICE...I guess I better not get too comfortable. Here's hoping he's wrong!

September 16, 2009

To the rest of you, this looks like just an ordinary heating vent, but to me...it is the source of my nightmares for the next who knows HOW long!

Today I saw a mouse poke his head out of that very vent. I know it's silly, and no one but maybe my Mom and sisters understand this feeling, but I truly can NOT deal with mice. I honestly start to have a panic attack and almost hyperventilate at the sight of them! I quickly swooped up Keric from off the floor and started looking for Chris.

Of course there isn't a lot we can do about it right now. Chris has been working down in the basement and he keeps telling me that he can hear it running through the vent system, just what I want to hear!

I went out and bought traps, so I'm hoping he will be gone soon! Think happy trapping thoughts! Otherwise I may have to find someplace else to live until it's gone!

September 15, 2009

Bubby has gotten into a very BAD habit of screaming! Chris calls him a "Dainty Boy" because he sounds like a little girl when he screams.

He has figured out that if he screams loud enough, he'll eventually get what he wants. Well, I decided I had had enough of the screaming, so I decided to try something new with him.

There are parenting books out there that encourage, parents to teach their children sign language before they learn to talk so that they can communicate with you before they actually start talking to you. Well...this can sometimes back fire obviously, because then there really is no reason to learn to talk if you don't have to, and then your stuck with a 4 year old who only signs, but I figured I would give it a try and see what happened! Anything is better than the Dainty Boy Scream!

I took a sign language class in college and I still remember different signs for lots of things. I decided to try to teach Bubby how to sign "more", since that is usually what he is screaming for! More food!

The first day I was totally frustrated, because he wasn't getting it at all, he was mostly just getting really mad at me, but today he surprised me! While I was feeding him his breakfast I would sign to him "more" in between bites, and then give him another bite, and before I knew it, he was signing to me! Sometimes he gets lazy and doesn't do the sign exactly how it should be done, although he CAN do it correctly, but the point is he is getting it! (The picture is of a "lazy" sign)

We still had some screaming, but not as much as we normally do. He signed all during lunch, snack, and dinner too! He is even smart enough that when you say "Bubby show me "more", he'll sign for you." Such a smarty pants!

I think the next sign I'll teach him is "juice", we'll see how that goes. It may be awhile before I do.

September 14, 2009

Tonight Bubby was throwing a HUGE tantrum. I have no idea what about, but I decided to take him out of the house for a little while. He loves "getting out".

It had been raining all day, so I couldn't take him for a walk, so instead I told him we would go looking for rainbows. We drove around and he pointed to everything he saw, but we never did find the rainbow.

We did find this cool cloud though! It looked totally out of place just sitting at the bottom of the mountain like that.

September 13, 2009

My little guy is taking steps! He has taken one here and there, but he's actually "walking" a little bit now! It's so cute! I'm a little nervous about what this new development will mean now, but I'm ready for him to walk too.

Way to go Bubby! I'm so proud of you!

September 12, 2009

Last night Cameron and Reagan went camping with Mama Anne, Jon, Matt, Denise, Jack, Anna, Dave and Maren. Chris and I opted to stay home for a couple reasons, but then we drove up early this morning to meet them.

We rode 4 wheelers, went fishing, hung out, and of course did lots of camp eating.

Bubby got to ride the 4 wheeler for the very first time. He was fine, until Chris started the 4 wheeler, and then he got upset. He calmed down once they got riding, but then when they come around the loop and he would see me, he would start to cry again.

Guess I don't have to worry about him being a dare devil when he gets older.

September 11, 2009

When you have a "busy boy", cleaning the house can be a challenge. You can only get so many things done while he is asleep, so you have one of two options:

1. Continue to try to keep; his hands out of the mopping water, the sponge out of his mouth, his fingers out of the toilet, and of course keep HIM away from all the cleaning supplies!

OR

2. You can throw him in the bathtub, and let him play!

I chose option #2. The bathrooms got cleaned MUCH quicker that way!

September 10, 2009

Apparently I was taking way too long in getting Bubby his dinner. I put him in his chair, went to get his dinner put on the plate and his drink, and by the time I got back, this was what I found!

Poor little guy was wiped out! He went to bed at 7:30 p.m.! He has NEVER done that!

September 9, 2009

Today I subbed for a High School Special Education Class. Not my favorite Sub job, but hey....it's a few extra dollars in my pocket.

I had to leave the house by 7:00 a.m. so when I got back at 2:30 p.m. I expected Bubby would be THRILLED to see me. Well, he sort of was...he was thrilled about one part of me, my cools! That's all he was interested in...putting on my cools.

*sigh*, and I think I am so in-dispensable in his little life!

September 8, 2009

These are Keric's new favorite snacks, Cinnamon Graham Crackers. Who knew a Cinnamon Graham Cracker could be SO messy!

September 7, 2009

Bubby hit another milestone today. Today he got to ride in the jogging stroller while Daddy went running. Now Daddy can say he has taken all the kids on runs with him in the jogging stroller.

September 6, 2009

I know, I know, this is totally a picture only a mom with her first child would take, but hey...what's a girl to do?

As you all know by now, Church is not Bubby's favorite thing, in fact he is making it somewhat a non-favorite for his Mommy too. He semi survived Sacrament Meeting and Sunday school, but he wasn't having the last hour of church. I finally gave up, and let him just crawl himself silly in the halls. I figured if he crawled around enough, he would wear himself out and then take a really good nap when we got home.

We "crawled" the halls for quite awhile. While we were in the halls I ran into our neighbor who is the Nursery Coordinator for our ward. She invited Keric to snack time and singing time in the Nursery. I know he is still a little young, but I figured what the heck, he's only about 3 months off. So we went to Nursery for about a half hour. He LOVED it!

He sat so nicely up at the table in his big boy chair and waited very nicely for his snack. He of course ate all of his snack and then some! He did have a little trouble with the cup of water they gave him to drink, he dumped it all down the front of himself, but hey...what do you expect when all you've really had is a sippy cup or a bottle to drink from. Guess we'll have to work on drinking from the "real" cups before November rolls around.

He also played with the kids, which he has always loved doing. He is not at all shy around other kids! Adults, sometimes, kids, never! I was actually a little surprised at how well he was keeping up with all of them, despite the fact that he was the only one still crawling! After they picked up toys then they got to color a picture while they waited for their mom's and dad's to come. We had a little trouble keeping the crayons out of his mouth, but he colored his picture all by himself, and dare I say, I'm fairly confident he's a lefty! Score one for mommy!

Here he is after church with his picture, and yes, I proudly hung it on the fridge too.

September 5, 2009

So remember our garden that we planted like WAY late in the summer? We pretty much thought it was a bust, because the snails and grasshoppers did a pretty good number on it, but actually we have seen a few little surviving things here and there that are actually growing.

I wanted to plant cucumbers, because I had this vision in my mind of canning pickles like my grandma makes. Well...we only had about one cucumber plant survive, and a few days ago there were a couple little tiny cucumbers on the vine. Being the experienced gardeners that we are, we hadn't checked on them in quite awhile, that is until tonight.

Chris came bringing in two HUGE cucumbers, yes, that IS a cucumber! Obviously they will not be made into pickles, because I don't know where I would find a jar that big! I guess it's a good thing Chris and Mae like to eat them.

September 4, 2009

Today for about the 57th time, I went over to get Keric out of the CD and DVD cupboard and I had to kind of laugh to myself.

He was holding a CD that I truly have no idea where it came from. I don't know if it was one I had a long time ago, or one Chris had, but it's just a CD without a case that apparently has been floating around in the cupboard and Keric has found it.

If you look closely the title of the CD is "Drive me Crazy". All I can say is truer words have never been spoken!

September 3, 2009

Keric LOVES the trampoline! I don't like him to get on it when the kids are jumping for obvious reasons, but he would love it if I would. He stands at the back door and looks out the window and knocks on the window while they are jumping. It's so sad, but I just get too scared that something will happen to him while they are all three on there.

Tonight Chris took Keric out on the Trampoline by himself. Of course Chompie had to be there too to be Bubby's body guard. Keric had a GREAT time "jumping". We let him be on the tramp all by himself and he was trying SO HARD to stand up and "jump". It was so cute. It won't be long and he'll be out there jumping with the rest of them.

My baby boy is just WAY too big!

September 2, 2009

We have now moved from the kitchen chair, to the little walker we've had for him for what seems like forever! It's a little more kid friendly than the kitchen chair. He can see OVER the walker and it also helps that the walker is MUCH better for my walls than the kitchen chair was. :)

The little walker has wheels on it, and it gets going pretty fast on the laminate floor, which didn't make Bubby too happy at first, but he is getting the hang of it and has gotten a lot better at walking faster!

I was laughing at him, because he doesn't quite know how to steer the little walker yet, and so he kept running into things. Every time he would run into something he would say "uh-oh", and then he would get mad because he couldn't back it out and keep walking so I would have to go and fix it.

He's at such a funny age right now, I feel like my stomach muscles get a work out every day just from laughing so hard at all the crazy things he does!

September 1, 2009

Well...it really won't be long now! I'm guessing by the end of the month, Keric will be walking! As my mother would say..."Parish the thought!"

After dinner Cam said "Nati, look at what Bubby is doing with the chairs." I looked, and he was pushing the big huge kitchen chair and walking behind it! I still don't know how he got it out from the table and turned around!

He walked up and down the path from the kitchen to the living room back and forth, a hundred times! We tried once using a laundry basket to help him "walk" but he wanted nothing to do with it. Guess because it wasn't a chair!? How was I supposed to know he preferred a chair!