Here are some new things my 14 month old can do...


Now that my little "baby cakes" is really no longer a baby I should add some of the new things that he can do.

-He started walking at about 13 months, and now alternates between that and running.
-He can crawl backwards down the stairs.
-He can take off his own pants (only sweatpants or others that are loose like that).
-He can take lids off of containers and put them back on.
-He knows what the mouse is for the computer and will put an old one that we store in a cupboard up by the good one whenever he finds it.
-He loves to rearrange my kitchen drawers. I often find the tv remotes and toys in there, while my Tupperware and utensils are constantly being found in his toy basket.
-He is finally starting to cuddle more.
-Still loves all people and isn't afraid of anyone.
-He loves to play outside with the kids.
-Goes down the slide--his favorite is to go down backwards.
-He closes his eyes tight when you tell him to close them.
-He gets to ride in his big boy car seat and will fake cough to get attention, and then the minute we turn back around he coughs again!!
-He can reach anything on the table or counter that isn't at least 6 inches in, and has therefore broken a plate already :)
-He loves to talk on the phone and will turn ours on and off a thousand times a day pretending to talk to people.
-He babbles constantly, but unfortunately is not the best talker. At least we can understand him with the signs that he knows.


Signs he knows (I'm numbering them because I want to know how many he knows, and it's just easier for me this way):
1. food
2. more
3. milk
4. please
5. all done
6. banana
7. apple
8. bye-bye
9. blows kisses (this one took forever for him to get down)
10. claps for yeah
11. water
12. bath
13. love you
14. frog
15. monkey
16. phone
17. fish
18. yes
19. no--shakes head
20. book
21. wash hands
22. song
23. prayer
24. all gone
25. brush teeth
Words he knows (most of these are just sounds that he makes to refer to the word):
1. "de"--dog
2. "kiee"--kitty
3. "chee"--cheese
4. "hee"--horse, what it says
5. "jes"--Jesus
6. "sh"--shoe
7. "s"--sock

Hopefully he'll get some real words in there soon--most importantly MOM!! :)

So I've been trying to post some family pictures that we had taken a month or so ago, but I can't get my internet to upload any of my pictures. I tried twice yesterday and twice today, but nothing is working. So, I'm not going to post any pictures for the time being--this is why I never post, because I can never get it to work and something that should take 20 min. or so, ends up taking over an hour. Do you seriously think I have an hour of free time with my wild little monkey??? NO!
I am going to make this quick and catch you up on what's been going on (until I can get pictures and show you).
My little boy turned one, and is now such a big boy!!
He started walking here and there around then, but just recently has really taken off.
With a little bit of work, he is finally drinking milk better, and by 13 months, I was finally done nursing him. I miss so many parts of it, but am grateful for the freedom in so many other ways. I just feel lucky that he did so well breastfeeding for as long as he did, and that I got the opportunity to do so.
I get to work for the District Office a couple hours a week. So between the baby, tutoring, and that I am keeping pretty busy.
My tile still has not been cleaned (I sweep it regularly, but don't hand wash it regularly enough)--I won't tell you how long it's been.
I canned peaches, apricots, peach and apricot jam, salsa, and tomatoes...which is part of the reason that I never mopped my floor--it just kept on getting dirty :)
I am going to be an aunt (on my own side of the family). My sister is having a little girl in Feb.!!! Now I get to be the one that keeps her baby from taking her naps on time so I can spend time with her--just you wait Hayley!
We went to Texas and visited Creighton's brother and my dear, dear friend Megan and her family!!

That's about all of the major stuff. Hopefully I will get this dumb picture problem figured out and I will post some family pix and some pix of the baby's b-day.

Quick question...

How do you/did you wean your baby? Any suggestions or pointers? He doesn't take a bottle, but does drink from a sippy cup, and so we are trying to give him whole milk from that, but he doesn't seem to like the milk too much. I have dropped 1 of the 4 feedings he was having, but I'm not sure how to go about dropping the other 3, especially if he is drinking less than an 1/8 cup of milk a day...help please!

Quick Post-I finally did it...

Yes, it is true, I have finally joined the throngs of others who are apart of the Facebook community. I have held out for quite some time now, even with my sister threatening to start one for me herself, but after a few of my friends connecting up with my husband to be able to connect with me, I figured it was time to get my own account. I've been trying to send invites to people I know, but it's a little overwhelming, plus I forget who I have searched, or already sent an invite too. So, if you would like to be my Facebook friend, and I haven't contacted you yet about it, send me an invite and we can be pals! (It all is a little cheesy for me, which is part of the reason I didn't sign up at first, it just seemed like everyone was doing it because everyone else was...and now so am I)!! But I would love to be your friend--I've got to beat my sister friend count which is in the high 700's (just kidding, I could never keep track of that many people).
More pictures will be coming, hopefully by the weekend, as we celebrate little guy's first birthday! They should be entertaining, as always!

It's been over two months...AAHHH!!!!!

(I am pretty sure that most people no longer check my blog because I have been a slacker blogger lately, so I guess this post is for my dedicated readers--mom, Hayley, Mandy and anyone else out there who is interested. I am going to try and be better at blogging, but our computer has literally been the beast from H..L and I am soo sick and tired of it, but not quite willing to fork out the money for the Mac I want (especially since we just got new brakes on my car, and my husband's job is a job-which we are grateful for-but a little on the low end of the "income" pole). Plus I was basically out of town for all of July, so that makes it hard to post too. But enough of the excuses, I will try harder.
And now for your viewing pleasure...



My baby is (almost) no longer a baby! It's sad but true. He is the sweetest thing ever, but growing and developing so quickly. Here are some things he can do (although some of them he does more consistently than others):

(new items updated in red)
sign-more
sign-fish
sign-mom (although he's only done this for one day)
sign-eat
sign-milk
wave
he has invented his own sign for food and yes
get into everything (literally, he even climbs the stove--while I'm cooking)
has 7 teeth
gives kisses
can say "ch" for a train, "k" for kitty, "s" for snake
clap his hands
raise his hands for "up in the oven," from pat-a-cake
feed himself (finger foods)
drink from a cup regularly
hold a spoon, and tries to feed himself but usually ends up gagging
open the top drawers in the kitchen
walk around furniture while holding on
speed crawl everywhere
climb onto the couches and ottoman by himself
make tons of silly faces
climb his chair to look out the window
dance
he loves to be chased around the house
play peek-a-boo
he loves to read books, alone and with others
behave in the car while driving from CA to UT (even while having the flu and throwing up on me at Carl's Jr.) and while driving from UT to TX and back...

He is truly the most enjoyable baby there is. He is a good sport about everything and is generally happy and content as long as he is fed and gets his regular sleep. He continually makes us laugh and enjoys laughing with us. This past year has been a whirlwind, but we are loving every moment of it. If only I could make the time go by more slowly so he could always be my baby.

Two great weeks of deals...

Since the beginning of the year I have become more and more aware of our grocery budget and have been trying to find different ways to cut our monthly bill down. One of the best things I have found since I started this was http://theobsessiveshopper.net/. I follow her system and use the grocery smart page to find out what the best deals are at the different stores and what coupons to use to go along with them. Albertsons is WAY over priced for me on a regular basis, but their sales are AMAZING!! So here is last weeks' finds (pictured first) and this weeks' finds. The best thing I have found is their weekly double coupons they have been printing, they are such a blessing :) Oh and last week I really needed some good deals because I accidently left the refrigerator cracked open on Sat. night and woke up to a fridge full of bad food--including $25.00 in chicken I had purchased on sale and was going to split up and put in the freezer the next morning. It was about $50.00 in food I had to throw away, so I definitely needed to replace some items and Albertsons sale helped some!

Kraft Special--I bought:
1 Miracle Whip
1 Mayo
9 Jello's
3 bags of Kraft Cheese
2 pkg. of Oscar Mayer Lunch Meat
4 CPK pizzas
4 DiGiorno Flatbread Pizzas
1 McCormick Grinder

The orginal prices on these items would have cost me $80.35, but I paid........ $6.67!! (Which is about 92% savings!!!!--one of my best shopping trips yet!)

This week it was a GM deal:
2 boxes of Golden Grahams @ $.70 each
6 boxes of BC pasta mix @ $.45 each
4 jars of Ragu @ $.45 each
2 jars peanut butter @ $.40 each
3 Wishbone dressings FREE
1 Wishbond dressing @ $1.00
1 KEN's salad dressing FREE
1 KEN's sald dressing $ 1.00
1 BC Cake mix @ $.75
1 BC Frosting @ $.40
2 Skintimate shave gels @ $.75 each
3 Old Spice deodorants @ $1.50 each
1 Secret deodorant @ $2.79
2 Bertolli pasta sauces @ $.45 each
2 Breyers ice creams FREE
4 bottles of ALL detergent @ $1.70 each

For a grand total of....$28.39, which would have originally cost me $136.57 (Which is about 80% savings)

Pretty crazy huh?! Now I just have to find room for it all in my pantry or under my stairs (my new food storage room :) )

Swimming lessons have begun...

On Monday we started swim lessons, and to say that he enjoys them is quite the understatement. He is the youngest in the class, but doesn't even flinch in the water. He has always loved being in the bath and shower, but a huge pool is something totally different. I was so relieved to see how much he enjoyed it. He really isn't learning too much, like some of the older kids are. But I'm learning how to help him, and he's getting comfortable with the water which is what I wanted most of all. I am so glad that I have the opportunity to do this with him. It's so much fun for both of us, and definitely worth it. Here's to many more days of fun in the sun!

A quick check on the sleeping babe...

Monday night I went in to check on the baby while he was sleeping and this is what I found--

How on earth do you sleep like that with your legs all caught up in the crib bars??? After the 3rd picture he just pulled his legs out and turned over in his sleep. It was pretty cute :) (Oh, and can you see the lovely teeth marks all over the rail? They are horrible, it makes me so sad to think that we spent so much money on something and he is just destroying it--even though I knew that would happen, I still hate it).