Happy Valentine's Day

photo by me

an impromptu birthday cake

sometimes things get a little silly around here. like when des decides he wants a birthday cake with candles (his uncle Todd is having a birthday cake tomorrow) today and I say OK. So we make a cake. and put on candles. and sing happy birthday. and the two year old is the happiest little guy ever.

Tell you what, it sure does take the pressure off baking a cake for a birthday when its only a pretend birthday. uneven layers? meh. cake not entirely cooled before frosting? we like it gloopy anyway.  :D

and those specks are strawberry chunks, not cake bits. not that the cake was professional by any means but you know. I have my limits. also note the fingerprints in the heart design on top. At one point he even put his mouth on the cake when it was cooling. shhh don't tell. I mostly just giggled (then kindly reminded him to NOT put his mouth on the cake. others were going to eat this too. to which he ran away crying. *sigh* it was nap time.)

Happy groundhog's day.

Preschool week 3

C is for Cold (and cubes of the ice variety if you must.)

Today we talked about hot and cold and I quizzed him on both (what things are hot and what things are cold.) After, we made jello (one of his favorites) with hot and cold water. Then he sat there and ate the ice cubes that were left over (not in the lesson plan but fun, nonetheless.)

Preschool week 2 recap

so my camera was out of batteries last week. which means no actual pictures during preschool but it ended up being sort of ok since Des wasn't really having it.

but B is for bubbles.

We talked about what things we use to keep ourselves clean (toothbrush, toothpaste, comb, washcloth, ear swabbies) and i had all those things on display for him to talk about. (this part lasted about two seconds before he got upset about his toothbrush being downstairs instead of in the drawer.) We ended the activity with blowing bubbles in the living room.

Later in the week I filled a plastic bin with soapy water and made lots of bubbles with a whisk. I didn't tell him right away so he sort of discovered it on his own which was fun. I set out some things for him to play with (funnels, cups, bowls, spoons and the whisk) and a towel. He seemed to enjoy this since he refuses to have bubbles in his tub now (has issues with not being able to see his toys under the bubbles.) This kid has several issues it seems. ha.

b is for bubbles and not bowling balls.

Preschool Day 1

In an effort to curb the crazies from over-taking the two year old, I've decided to try doing "preschool" two days a week. "Preschool" is in quotes because its pretty basic...mostly an activity in the morning and one planned for the afternoon if needed. We'll see how long it lasts...

Here's day one: A is for Apple

we talked briefly about healthy foods and I showed him a bunch of healthy snacks and had him tell me what they were. Then we discussed how eating such foods will help him be healthy and not sick. And of course grow big as daddy.

Then I cut the apple in half and showed him how to make prints. he wasn't very excited about getting paint all over the apple since he wanted to eat it instead. So I cut another and he dictated where he wanted me to print the apples while he munched. Whatever works kid.




 

gray meets santa

and snoozes through the whole thing. I don't blame him though. do you see this santa's "beard"? uhhhhh, lets try for an upgrade next year.

merry christmas to gray

and a preview of a new business adventure for next year...

Happy Thanksgiving

I'm pretty stoked for tomorrow! Got the pies made (a last minute decision. I will now make pumpkin cheesecake next week so as to not feel obligated to eat the whole thing with the hubs. because the parents will be here. and they like cheesecake too.)

and the picture is sorta dark but whatever. didn't have much light left.  pecan and sweet potato pie. I've been on a southern kick lately. I do declare.

Also made the cranberry sauce. Destry actually climbed up on the counter (with his bare bottom, no less--visual anyone?) to help himself to more tastes with his spoon. Sometimes this kid rocks my world. today was that day as I watched him shove spoonfuls of cranberry sauce in his fat little mouth. Makes momma proud.  :D

One last thing, if you know me on facebook you'll be happy to hear Des and I are on better terms even before he loved my cranberry sauce. I put all the movies away and he's played outside for two days straight. magical. I haven't had to threaten his life in at least 48 hours. I call that success.

Happy Easter

we're loving it.

Des at two

Des hit the big 2 yesterday. It was the busiest conference sunday I've had since, well, last year. I baked two cakes. Not just two layers of cake but two different recipes since the first was TERRIBLE. Awful. No good. Very bad. I am, however, now very converted to cake mixes. (sorry carrie.) So between all the cake baking, frosting, cooking of dinner, building of bed, and listening I only had a few minutes to hit the shower before the babe was up and we were headed into full party mode.

The party really got started the day before in Fillmore where we celebrated with Kolt's family. The highlight for Destry:



It was like he died and gone to heaven. His eyes lit up, his jaw dropped, and he practically leaped inside when aunt jessi brought it out. Favorite. toy. Ever.

Here's some other snap shots of the two days:


blowing out the candles on cake #1 (made by aunt Kelsie)


"fixing the car"


a big boy bed! (notice how we're all peaking from the hallway?)


Got a cool new light


Le cake de Train






running to open presents


blowing out the candles round three (he couldn't wait for the singing to be over so we had a "do-over" for pictures.)

When merry and Christmas come together

A good time was had by all in our Christmas celebrations!

and in other news, Des totally went POTTY today in his potty! Woo-woo! We're not really potty training right now but I figure we could get well acquainted with mr. potty while the newness is still a good thing. We have community potty time...'nuf said.  And today it worked.

It was our birthday the other day

Thanks to everyone who sent happy birthday messages. I successfully did not respond to a single one of them (unless you called me on the phone). Sorry. But I did appreciate them all.

First thing I did was bake our cake (its Kolt's bday on the very same day if you didn't know! It made for some good conversation the first date we figured it out. I thought he was lying...)

And by bake I mean slave over a somewhat ridiculous Martha Stewart recipe, have the cakes totally not work out at all (think boil-over all in the oven then sink like horrible volcanoes of despair), have the frosting turn out reaaaaaally goopy, and then some how find the courage to carry on (thanks, mom!) and cut off large portions of uneven cake, slather on way too much goopy frosting, and some how pull out a pretty nice looking cake. There were times when I wanted to cry. But didn't. *whew.*

A pink candle for me, a blue one for kolt.

Des and me. Because we're never in the same pic. Ever.

Des blew out our candles for us.

I bought me a birthday dress! And I loooooove it!

 

Des liked the cake a bunch. He buzzed around the house for a good 15 minutes after, though. It may have contained a bit too much sugar for a pre-bedtime snack!

And then today we played in the snow for the first time! Of course he found his bike and tried to drive around.  It didn't go so well....

And as for my tie totals from the other day, it went something like this:

• 1,188 hits on my webpage (which is usually around 20)
• Sold something like 15 bowties (which is pretty much awesome for a day and a half!)

Thanks to Nie Nie I have a little more spending money for crafts. or ties. but probably crafts! Woo-woo!!

Happy Halloween!

Des went out Trick-or-Treating this year for the first time. We decided he'd make a pretty cute lumberjack so I made him a shirt and a hat and bought him a little toy ax. (the hat looks waaay cuter with the ear flaps down but he wasn't having it so we had to stick them up. I'll try and see if I can have a happier/sunnier photo shoot this week.)

This is how the night started:

grumpy, grumpy, grumpy...

But once we hit a few houses and he figured out that they were ALL GIVING HIM CANDY, well, this was going to be aaaaalll-riiight.

Des and daddy (it was raining so Kolt had his hoodie on.)

"Heee's a lumberjack and he's OK! He sleeps aaaall night 'cus he works aaall day!" (name that sketch)

Des yelling at some kids who were in front of us, "NO!"  Not sure why he was having issues with them...maybe  he thought they'd steal all the candy?

for some reason he always grabbed the snickers bars--but that's just more for us! Wahoo!

oh man, POPCORN!! (not like he's ever had popcorn before, but he wouldn't give it up for anything.

 By the end of the night he was saying, "Trick-Treat" at the doors and telling them thank you, running to the next house and knocking before his cousins could catch up, and thoroughly enjoying all the dogs in the neighborhood. I'd say Halloween was a smashing success. And yes, he even had a sugar-high when we got home and seriously was running and falling and laughing and screaming until past his bedtime. Too much sugar for this little guy.

We're ready for Halloween!

Any guess what Des is gonna be?

Thanksgiving

Des had a fun first Thanksgiving. He figured out how to army crawl like a champ just the day before. Now, there's no stopping him! He loved playing with his grandma Renee, grandpa Rob, and his aunts and uncle too:

He got to preview a Christmas present from grandma since his hands were so cold...

...all because he got to go on his FIRST FOUR-WHEELER RIDE! and he loved it! LOVED it. He had this same serious look on his face the whole time but as soon as we took him off he started yelling, or when auntie Jessi turned off the ignition. He didn't like that either. It was pretty funny.

So Thanksgiving was fun. Kolt's aunt Cindi and her family came over and it was super fun to see all them. They like to play crazy card games with Renee so they were all laughing pretty hard for most of the time. The food was good, company was great, and Des got his first taste of motorized action.

Happy Halloween!

Des' first Halloween was...like every other day. But we still carved a pumpkin! And by we I meant me. I carved a pumpkin. It was inspired by Des.

And we went all out on the costume. He was an m'n'm. We didn't have to go outside so we didn't worry about pants. Its pretty much the same story for any other day...

And Des discovered candy. He got as far as the wrappers and was sold! He never even tasted chocolate. Although G'ma Hatt sent him some cotton candy...not so sure we're going to try that either.

and we also did some work in our backyard. We had to try out Des' new coat!

All in all, it was a fun day! We only had to answer our door twice for trick-or-treaters so we even have some candy left over.

Happy Halloween everybody!

Days of Melon

Melon Days. A success in my book. We went to good ol' Green river, Utah this weekend to participate in the annual awesomeness of melony goodness. And it was. First, we set up the booth:

And then destry played a lot. He re-met Charlie, his redheaded counterpart. Both the only grandsons on this side of the family, both redheads.

Then we had a near-death cousin pile. Awwwww, how cute!! Then Destry lunges to his death but luckily aunt shuanee was there to make the catch. And my heart skipped a beat. but no harm, no foul. You can see him in the picture looking at the ground, thinking he needs a closer look....
Then Destry watched the parade and to my suprise he didn't even care when the sirens drove past. Usually he gets scared of screaming kids and sirens. Sometimes in that order. Sometimes not. He does well with everything else in this world: vacuums, mixers, mom yelling at the dog. You know, the usual.

Destry loves his cousin Jaci. Maybe a bit too much since he tried to eat her. She's sweet and all, but I'm not so sure she's on the list of what a 5 1/2 month old can eat.

Now, this was in order since it was melon days and all. I've tried to feed him watermelon (that was for you, carrie) but he didn't really like it. Although, his memory was short and still wanted mom's piece of melon to squish and to hold for about .2 seconds before we said "Sike!"

Kolt decided Destry needed a new hat and sunglasses. Who am I to disagree with that logic? What logic, you ask? Exactly.

(he may look not pleased to be wearing them but I assure you, he was only extremely tired. We'll convince him eventually)

And Grandma Ree was oh-so-nice in agreeing to be Destry's personal fan. We had to strip the poor kid down so he could cool off a bit. It was pretty hot and we blamed a lot of it on the "kettle corn" booth that was our neighbor during the day. Next year, we'll request someplace that doesn't generate additional heat.

Aaaand last but not least we had to get a red-neck photo with Destry's dad's cousin Weston. It was just too funny to have my son walking (ok, carrying) around without a shirt on. I wasn't doing the carrying, though. I was hard at work. But thanks, auntie jessi, for getting this photo. Makes me giggle.