Check it out

My friend Amy just launched her blog shop. Her first line of products is really cute. You should check it out.

http://snickerdoodlz.blogspot.com/

"Ages three and up! It's on my box! Ages three and up!" -Mr Potato Head Toy Story

Br used to say that I really just wanted to have kids so that I'd have someone to play with. While that is not entirely true, I do have more toys than E and I have really enjoyed the fact that he is getting really fun to play with. This week has been really crazy because I have had a lot to try to get done for work (so please excuse the fact that the pictures show a very very dirty playroom office). Because I've been glued to the computer E has of course wanted my attention. I'm a horrible mother. I did take a break yesterday to play Mr. Potato Head with him since he'd been walking around for a day and a half pretending to eat Mr. Potato Head fake Mickey shaped ice cream bar.

Tonight we all played a little football. Yes I'm letting him throw it in the house. I know I know, it's a bad idea. I'm sure I'll learn my lesson soon when he throws something a little less kind or takes out a prized possession. (Sorry the video is so dark. We really need a new camera)

He even took a little coaching from Br and fine tuned his throw just a little by the end of the night.

Now while I'm already boring you with lots of video probably only I love, here is one more that I happened across when I was uploading stuff from the camera. It was taken about 4 months or 5 months ago when E was still getting the hang of feeding himself but decided my lunch looked better than his. The camera is jiggling so much because I couldn't stop laughing. Once again probably only funny to me.

If You're Happy and You Know It

Sometimes I just don't get him

This rambling was inspired by this picture I captured yesterday. He at some point during the day found this lap pad somewhere (I have no idea where... if you asked me to find one right now I doubt I could). He played with it a while. Yes he played with the lap pad even through he's got more toys than any other kid I know. Then he made a bed to lay on to watch tv. Why he chose to lay on it when he has any number of normal soft things to sit on in the living room... I don't know.

The second thing that has got me thinking is E's apparent search for new parents. I guess I was wrong in assuming that you have at least til the preteen age before your kids give up on you. I'm not sure what we've done. In any event he's been testing random adults out to see how he likes them. It started with friends. I think the front runner for new mom is Heidi, the other counselor in the primary, and new dad is his buddy Liam's dad Ian. Allegedly he's not set on those two since he's expanded his search to random strangers. It started at a birthday party last weekend when he just went from person to person asking to be held. The it progressed. Earlier this week we went to the splash park for play group. At some point he went over to a little group of ladies to work the crowd. This is not unusual. But then he picked one in particular and invited himself to sit on her lap. I felt bad and embarrassed. He was wet and she was dry-- emphasis on the WAS. This morning a guy came to make a template of the counters. E was so excited to see him. He acted like his long lost friend had returned. E ran up to him and asked to be picked up. The guy was so nice and held him while he explained how to remove the existing counter tops. A little later E sat and smiled at him as he ate his yogurt. I'm not positive that Ian has some competition though since I think there is a minor potential that E thought that Handy Manny had dropped in for a visit (the guy was wearing a tool belt, jeans and a t-shirt and sounded a lot like him).

In any event I'm not all that concerned about E's search. I'm pretty secure that he still loves us. I think he's just coming up with a contingency plan in case things just don't work out down the road.

Everyone's having a baby

So it seems like a great majority of females I know in child bearing age just had a baby or are pregnant (no I'm not one of them). I guess that is just the stage in life I'm in. All these babies have inspired a new creative outlet for me-- Making things by hand and doing a lot of experimenting along the way. Like I mentioned in a previous post I had a baby shower at my house this weekend for a girl that I visit teach moved into the ward about the same time as I did and that I'd like to get to know better.

I made lots of food I hadn't ever attempted (not a good idea when you are having lots of people over and are in a little bit of a time crunch). I had a berry plate with fruit dip, sort of threw together what ended up being raspberry lemonade, chicken salad open faced sandwiches, veggies, and bruschetta. I have to give props to my dad because he gave me a great idea for the herb blend I used on it when he couldn't find the recipe we used for my wedding. It turned out super yummy.

I tried a few techniques I'd never used before on my cake. I made tiers of cupcakes with a small cake on top then decorated the cake and made toppers with chocolate. Some things turned out better than others.

As party favors I decorated some onesie cookies and then made a diaper cake to use as my gift and a decoration. Brooke (Greer) Wittwer inspired me in her blog with some baby shoes that she made so I thought I'd attempt some to use as the diaper cake topper. They turned out okay but would have been a lot faster and neater if I would have had a sewing machine to use.

Sitting and sewing was a little therapeutic for me so I decided that I'd see what else I could make. Yesterday I found a sock that was calling out to be a teddy bear. I decided to give it to E-- I rarely make him anything. The best part was he gave it a kiss right as I handed it to him. I now have a long list of other projects I want to do. I may just ask for a sewing machine for my birthday.

Do as I say not as I do

So I'm a horrible mommy and broke my son this weekend. E has become a climber which means there is never chairs around our breakfast nook table because if there is an opportunity to get on the table then he'll take it. Luckily our dinning room table is high so we have tall stools around that E can't climb... or should I say he didn't know he could climb until I set a horrible example. This weekend was busy because I decided to host a game night Friday night and then a baby shower saturday. About two hours before the shower I got in panic mode, stopped thinking rationally and made a horrible mistake. I stood on a stool in front of E so I could hang decorations and it was just seconds before I turned around to find this...

Over the river and through the woods to grandpa's house we went

For the 4th of July weekend we braved the heat and headed out to Grandpa H's house for a visit. E has always been a pretty good traveler although this time was a little more of a challenge than most. Luckily he was kept occupied with eating the ice from the beverage service.

Before leaving Las Vegas to drive to St. George we swung by Strip Burger so I could have my favorite shake in the whole world. It is sooo good. I better move on before I feel like I need to have another. Br spent a lot of the time helping Grandpa get all his programs loaded onto his computer while I chased E around.

E did a lot of redecorating while he was there, specifically with plastic fruit. In his defense he did help clean up.

He also enjoyed walking around the yard and riding Grandpa's scooter (check out the "Fun in the sun" slide show for more pics of G'Pa's yard). I even let him drive it for a while (please excuse how horrible I look in the video).

We ate really well while we were there. Grandpa taught me how to make his special cake and easy chicken. And anyone who has visited Grandpa knows that you can't leave without him taking you to the Golden Corral.

A little behind with the times

After much debate and going back and forth as to whether we were going to redo our kitchen counters ourselves or pay someone, we gave in and headed to Home Depot to take advantage of the last day of their 10%. We knew exactly what we wanted, had a picture sketched out of our counters with accurate dimensions, and had already priced it out using their online counter top estimator. It was around 7:30 when we arrived. After ringing the little "I need assistance" button in the kitchen department we were greeted by David who was actually supposed to be off for the rest of the night but was asked to help us anyway. Needless to say I think this may have been David's first week on the job. All he really needed to do was:

• Draw a picture of my kitchen with dimensions, which I already did


• Calculate the square footage, which I already did


• Give us an estimate for the counter top


• and then let us pay.

Sounds simple, yet it wasn't. He tried to draw the picture in pen which didn't go well. Before drawing each line he would move the pen back and forth over the place the line went but without actually touching the paper (kind of like a practice swing) and then finally commit-- usually incorrectly. Mind you I did hand him my drawing. After almost completing it he gave up and started over. I thought he was playing a cruel joke on me. Nope. Attempt two looked worse than one. He made some joke like "I hope your husband (who was chasing E around the store to try to keep him entertained) isn't an engineer". I said "Oh, he's not... but I am". He looked at me first as if I was joking and then looked a little horrified when he realized I wasn't. At that point I think he got performance anxiety and decided to ditch the drawings all together and just attempt to calculate the square footage without it. You can imagine how quickly that went, or should I say didn't go, and in the end he derived a number very similar to the one I told him maybe and hour and a half earlier. Fast forward through lots more simple math and pecking into a dos program on the computer with a screaming kid in the background because he had poopy pants and a diaper rash and the night finally ended at 10:15. WOW. I didn't know what I was getting myself into. The most amusing thing about all this is that Home Depot trained this poor old man to do everything by hand when they have this handy dandy program online that draws the figure to scale, calculated the square footage, records all the specifications and outputs the price all in about 10 minutes. In the end though I think it will all be worth it.