Tyler's Bday

Tyler's an old man!  He turned 29 on March 4th.  

One more year, buddy, and you'll be... 25 again!

I sure love Tyler and he's such a good guy and great husband to me!  This birthday post wasn't on his bday, like his post to me was... just one reason why he's the better half of this relationship :)

Tyler is so selfless and always wanting to serve others.  He knows how to have fun and always makes me laugh.  He is good at figuring out solutions to any problem and usually in an ingenious way.  Tyler says what he's thinking, but is super laid back too.  He is spiritual and is always helping to strengthen and lift my testimony.  He brings a wonderful presence into our home and our children notice it too.   Danica loves her daddy and is definitely a Daddy's Girl!

Thanks for choosing me and making me so happy!

 Here's the cake I made for Tyler...

Christmas and Valentines

The kids are napping so I thought I'd quickly share Christmas and Valentines Day

Below is our first REAL Christmas tree. 

We were so excited!

Also, every year we build a fireplace.  Tyler took over this year and did a great job!

 

 

One day, shortly before Christmas, I made a special sandwich for Dani's lunch.  

I gave it to her and she just said, "Wow...."

 

Below are the kids on Valentine's Day

and the bouquet of flowers Tyler got me.

 

We had plans to make our traditional homemade heart pizzas, but we never got to it.

We were a little lame this year and didn't put up a single decoration.  We just ran out of time.

Hands - Picture A Day

Pinkies up!

 

Talmage has found his hands and loves to suck on them.
He's learning how to self soothe and that makes me happy :)

Words - Picture A Day

I laugh inside every time we drive by this Senior Community... 

probably because I'm an insensitive person.

The sign on the house says "FINAL PHASE" in reference to the developing homes, of course. 

 But it always makes me think they're talking about the people who live there instead.

my view today

This is a view from our front door.  While I spend a lot of time in our front room, I actually got out and went to Walmart today.  I already totally forgot about this photo challenge.  If I had remembered earlier, I would have taken a picture there... you can see a great view of the mountains and the lake.
Anyway, this is what you see when you look out our front window... what I'm doing right now.

Photo a day - March

I will be 1 trillion seconds old on May 8th, 2017, at 2:16 pm. 
I'll be 31 years, 8 months, 9 days, 1 hour, 46 minutes, and 40 seconds old
Haha, that's only like 5 years from now.  Maybe we'll celebrate.  You can give me $1,000,000,000. 
Sounds like a plan!

Some blogs I follow have been doing the February Photo A Day Challenge.  I thought that was really cool and realized (even though I stay inside my house a whole lot) it would be fun for me to do it too. I then thought why not do it in March?  They actually have a March Challenge, but I like the February challenges better.
There are 31 days in March and only 29 challenges here, so, if you want, you can help me think of a couple more challenges for me to do... or I'll just think of some myself.  Can't guarantee they'll be as cool, though.


If you want to join in on the fun starting tomorrow, you can do the list below, like me... or HERE's the March Challenge.  Oh and Happy Leap Day!

True Love

True love is when your husband comes home from an early Sunday meeting, sees your damp hair, face unmade, and a satisfied baby asleep in your arms, and genuinely says, "You look nice."
That, or his meeting was way too early. :)  Doesn't matter... I'm taking it.
I love my Tyler.  He's the best ever.

Boys and their toys

Well, let's clarify... that would be my boy and my new toy... and by toy I mean phone.

First let's talk about my boy... cause I love him so much.

on Valentines Day

Talmage, being 10 weeks and 4 days old, just had his two month appointment today. 
His stats were
Length: 24.5" - 92 percentile (he's grown 3" since birth)
Weight: 11 lbs 13 oz - 27 percentile (up almost 4lbs since birth)

Talmage is such a good and happy baby!  Dani was super awesome too, so we figured there had to be some sort of balance between them and that Talmage would have to be really challenging for us.  Not so (not yet at least).  That first week we were worried because he was crying a lot, but we figured out he was just gassy.  Now, with gas drops before each feeding, he's super content.  Thank you gas drops!
He is sleeping really well.  He takes a morning nap (until Dani wakes him up) and then an afternoon nap and sleeps most of the afternoon.  I wake him up, if he hasn't woken up on his own, at 5 so he'll sleep well at night.  He takes another little nap before bedtime and then sleeps for 7-9 hours at night.
In the time that he's a wake he's smiley and super cuddly.  Though I sure love his cuddles, sometimes it's a little hard because he just wants to be held... I need to remember to use our baby bjorn around the house more often. 
Talmage is feeding well... I think he eats better than Dani did.  His weight, percentage-wise, has dropped since his last visit to the doctors (I think my milk is already starting to dry up... it went early with Dani too, so we're working on that), but he's still growing well.  Apparently, he's tall and skinny like Dani was.
We have many nicknames for him already, including (but not limited to) T-man, Mr. T, Mr.Tally man, TJ, Cuddle bug, Cutie pie, Buddy, and Talmage boy.

Speaking of names, we've seen our Pediatrician several times now and every time he asks how we pronounce Talmage... he think it's Tall-mage.  I want to say, "...like Jame E. Talmage," but this, being the 3rd time we've visited, I figure by now he probably would realize and remember that on his own if he knew who James E. Talmage was, so I haven't said anything.  Doesn't really matter anyway... he usually remembers the rest of the visit, and I don't care that much...and at least he asks the pronunciation in the first place.  He probably thinks we're silly parents naming our kid something crazy... like Apple or Pilot Inspektor or Talmage.

Anywho...

Tyler and I just stepped up in the world and finally bought nice phones (that actually require a data plan).  Oooh la la is what I think just about everyday.  I keep finding cool new things to do with my phone. Phrases like "Did you know they have an app for that?!" and "Check out what I can do on my phone" are now heard quite often at our house. Right now I'm charging my phone through a USB cord plugged into my computer and I'm freakin amazed.  Yep, I'm easily amazed.
If you're interested these are our phones:
Samsung Galaxy S™ ll, Epic™ 4G Touch       mine   
HTC EVO™ 3D        Tyler's


And because I love my Dani girl too...

                                              On Valentine's Day                         Exhausted, driving home from playing with her cousins

How to fake clean, cook, and iron

I know this post is probably not one you were really expecting, since I promised some updates, but I did upload Christmas 2011 pictures onto my computer this morning so I'll be posting about that soon.

In the meantime, I want to share a funny post I came across... just don't let your husbands read it :)


Anna, from My Life and Kids shared this:

...Women have been fake cleaning, fake cooking and even fake ironing for years! I just had to share some of my favorite tips that you shared in the comments:

Fake Cooking

If you happen to have a husband who likes dinner ready, or nearly ready, when he gets home and you haven’t even started – fry up some bacon and onions. Makes the house smell like you’ve been cooking for hours while you quickly throw something together. I realize my age is against me here…..you probably don’t have a husband who expects dinner on time…..but back in MY day… (imklvr)

Fake Cleaning

I regularly sprinkle Carpet Fresh around and pretend I’ve just spent hours cleaning. Occasionally I DO actually break out the vacuum and sweep it up. Sometimes some of the powder hits the dogs and that takes care of their monthly bath. (Shelly)
I put Pine-sol in hot water in the sink! My girlfriend hides bounce sheets in inconspicuous spots so it smell fresh! We all have our tricks! (Danielle – Piperloo)
Erma Bombeck said if she got word people were stopping by, she would drag out the vacuum and when her company arrived, she would apologize because they had caught her in the middle of cleaning. She said the vacuum had been sitting out so long she was starting to use it for a coffee table. (Robbie)
Sometimes I  wet a little towel with cleaner and put it in the garbage can. The smell lasts longer and my hubs really thinks I did something all day. (Rachel – Holy-Craft)

Fake Ironing?

THANK GOODNESS! I thought I was the ONLY one who used some of those lil’ tricks! I’ve used MOST of those (remember – I’m 61 – been around awhile!) and here’s another one I used when ironing was done on a regular basis back in the dark ages of MY young mommy days:
Set the ironing board up, hang a number of things (straight from the closet) on a rack in clear view, and lay a half-ironed ANYTHING on the board. Just before your hubby gets home, heat the iron & let a few strands of your hair be TOTALLY out of place as though you’ve been slaving.
When he walks in, look up from ‘ironing’ & say, “Oh, no! I can’t BELIEVE it’s so late! I need to get dinner started!” He will be so sorry for you because you’ve done so much he MAY take you OUT to dinner or at LEAST order a pizza!
Either that or you’ll have to put all that crap back in the closet after you dragged it all out. (Kai – Celebrating Christmas Year Round)

Spill it -  let’s hear your fake cleaning, cooking and ironing secrets!

Haha.  Do you guys do anything like this?  Honestly, I had only thought to clean up the rooms quickly right before Tyler gets home.

Hey... remember us??

It's been a while since we last posted.  Yep we're still alive! 
I got a virus on my laptop and haven't been able to do much online  (I just used Tyler's work laptop every now and then).  There's a lot I want to document on here, though, to catch up on things.  I'll get down to business sooner or later.

I've been reminiscing lately because it was around this time of year (7 years ago) that Tyler and I met.  Here are some pictures of us through the (early) years...

Now how did she ↓  ...                                                        

                                                        ... score him ↑?