January Projects

Like many of you, I love starting new projects. There are so many new things I want to try. I'm sure I'm also not alone when I say that I have a hard time getting my projects finished. So, this year I have decided that I am going to give myself a schedule to get my projects done. I have a project, or a few small projects, that I am going to work on and complete each month. On the last day of each month, I'll blog about my completed projects (because, knowing me, I'll be working until the last minute). Hopefully this will keep me motivated. You don't have to care about my projects, but feel free to give me some positive feedback if you want!

Okay, so here are January's projects:

I made the fanciest shopping bag holder EVER! My plastic shopping bags were taking over my home! I have reusable bags, but I'm lucky if I remember to bring my driver's license, so . . . I have bigger things to worry about! I'm all about using leftover fabric, so yes, my shopping bag holder DOES match the dresses my bridesmaids wore.

My other project this month was organizing my recipes. I was going to print them all out and put them in a binder, but when I realized that it was going to be close to 200 pages, I decided to organize them on the computer (still a big project).

Stay tuned for February's projects! I'm really excited!

For Papa

Another Nathan Video

Here's another Nathan video because I have nothing else to post about right now. We tried to capture him doing his army crawl but, of course, the camera's memory filled up right before he started moving. The beginning of the video is pretty bad quality, sorry. Also, I wanted to point out Nathan's favorite game that he invented. He loves putting things up on the bottom shelf of his bouncing toy (you'll see him do it). I'm always finding things there, the TV remote, pairs of socks, binkies. Strange child. Anyway, enjoy this little video of our silly baby.

http://www.vimeo.com/9070366

Me Time

This afternoon I went on the most wonderful date . . . by myself! I can't remember the last time I went out by myself, for myself. I'm sure it has been years. I went to Ross to spend some Christmas money and bought some clothes for myself, just because I wanted to. I ate lunch, all by myself. And I didn't have to keep little hands from grabbing any of my food. Although there was a sketchy looking guy sitting around the corner. I browsed. Just because. AND I got my hair cut! With bangs! Thanks for all your hair advice. It's a big change but I think I like it. I think I look weird in these pictures, but here's my new hair.

The best part is, when I got home, the baby was happy and Ryan had done all the dishes and cleaned the kitchen!! Isn't he the best?

9 month update

We took Nathan to the doctor yesterday for his 9 month appointment and I thought I'd share his statistics with you.

Height: 29 3/4 inches (85%)

Weight: 22 lbs 4 oz (70%)

Head circumference: 18 1/4 (74%)

I can't go anywhere without people telling me how big he is! But believe it or not, the numbers tell us he is finally starting to slow down (or the other kids are starting to catch up). Most importantly, he is healthy and right on track!

Even cute babies have a bad hair day now and then.

For the Grandparents (and anybody else who cares)

Nathan from Ryan Bartron on Vimeo.

Hair We Go Again

Okay, if you read my previous post "Bad Hair Year", then you know I am having some issues with my hair. I think the solution may be to get bangs. However, I am a totally indecisive person who is afraid to take risks so I need your help convincing me one way or the other. The two reasons I have not gone out and done it yet are:

1. I had bangs for a long time growing up and I'm afraid getting them again will make me look even more like a dorky teenager.

2. Growing out my bangs is the most annoying thing in the world. I hate hair in my face. So, if I don't like them, I might go crazy.

Here are a few styles that I kind of like (not the hair, just the bangs). Please let me know what you think!!

Christmas Break Ends

Okay, this is it, my last Christmas post.

On New Year's Day, my mom's friend, Debbie, came over and took some family pictures for us. As I said before, we hadn't all been together since Nathan was born. Who knows when we will all be together again!

We headed home on the 2nd. We decided to stop south of Portland at some outlet stores. You can tell we spend our money carefully since we made a special trip to shop and came home with: a pair of khakis that Ryan needs for work, undershirts for Nathan, and for me? I got spatulas. That's right. Spatulas. And they are beautiful.

We are glad to be home. We had so much fun spending time with family. Nathan loved getting to know everyone, and especially getting to know the doggy. Ryan and I had a nice break and enjoyed playing a lot of Wii. We miss it. Oh yeah, and we miss all the family too.

More Christmas Break

After Christmas was over we still had over a week before we came home so we spent some time relaxing and enjoying time with family. On Sunday, we all got to go to church together and sit as a family (minus my dad, who is in the bishopric). I dressed Nathan up in his exceptionally cute Christmas suit and we had a little photo shoot Sunday morning.

On the 28th, my parents went away for their anniversary (it's tomorrow, but this time they got to use us as free babysitters). We "kids" had a fun evening eating pizza and watching movies. My brothers all did their own thing that night but I got to spend some time with Leslie. She got a cute cupcake decorating book from Santa so we made a cupcake for each member of the family. See if you can guess who is who!

Leslie also made a few of her own creations with the left-over cupcakes. I was loopy by the time we were finished, from consuming so much frosting and candy. Ah, to be eleven again.

Tuesday was a good day for us because we found out that Ryan received funding again for the next semester. Hooray!

On Wednesday, the 30th Ryan and I had plans to go to the temple and out to lunch. It was going to be such a fun day because we haven't been to the temple in ages and we were sealed in Seattle. We wanted to take advantage of a temple only 45 minutes away, too. Unfortunately, our attempts to attend the temple were thwarted, once again. Someone (me) forgot their temple recommend and unfortunately the temple would be closed until we went home. We made the most of the day and went out to lunch anyway. It's amazing the hurt that a buffet can cure.

We all had a pretty low-key New Year's Eve. Well, except my dad, who had to chaperone the youth dance, and my brother Ryan, who went to a wedding and came home with a free bottle of champagne (he threw it away). The rest of us gorged ourselves on chocolate fondue, watched movies, and waited for a new decade to begin. Even Nathan joined in the festivities when the neighbors fireworks woke him up at midnight. I think this year is going to be a great one!

Okay, not a lot of pictures this time, but I have a ton for my next post!

Christmas Break Begins

I have a lot to catch up on since I decided not to blog at all during Christmas break. So, I'm sorry if Christmas is old news to you, but I'd like to document everything that we did.

Ryan finished finals (and passed) and we settled down to a week at home before we traveled for Christmas. We spent a lot of time working on "the list". I figured I better get all the help from Ryan while I could. But mostly, we just sat around and watched movies. We started a free trial of Netflix and watched the entire series of 30 Rock, amongst other things. I had no idea it was such a funny show! We also baked A LOT! We spent two entire days baking and EATING cookies.

On the 21st we drove up to Washington to spend Christmas with my entire family. The last time we were all together was Nathan's birth. We made the 4 hour drive to Puyallup without stopping once. I knew Nathan could handle it but I was a little surprised my bladder lasted that long!

On the 23rd my family had our annual Savior Supper. We all dressed up and ate fish, and dates, and olives, etc. by candle light. Even Nathan got in on it. Check out my mom's blog at http://rickandjanewardfamily.blogspot.com/ for a picture of all of us in our Bethlehemian garb (including Ryan in his turban).

Ryan turned 27 on the 24th so we took advantage of a house full of free and very willing babysitters and we went out to lunch to celebrate ( I can't remember the last time we did that). We also had a yummy dinner and cheesecake.

On Christmas Eve evening we all opened one gift (Ryan opened birthday gifts in the morning). Nathan got a stocking made just for him by his Auntie Leslie (my 11 year old sister).

Christmas day was low-key for us. Nathan only lasted through opening his stocking and a present or two, then he got hungry and cranky so he watched over everyone from his highchair. Ryan and I got so many wonderful gifts. We are so blessed! We also got to Skype with Ryan's family in Idaho on Christmas day and they got to watch Nathan open his gift from them. I love technology!

Tune in for more later . . .

P.S. I'm not sure where this fits but Nathan has been working hard on learning to crawl and he has succeeded . . . in going backwards. Sometimes he gets himself into trouble.

9 months old

As you may have noticed (or maybe not), I have been on a slight blogging hiatus. We spent the last two weeks up at my parents house in Washington. We had a blast and I have a ton to blog about. But not today. We just got home and I am exhausted. I do, however, want to write a quick post about my baby boy. He is 9 months old today! Wow. This past month he has learned so many new things.

• He loves to dance. He does this cute little one shoulder shake that will have all the girls talking. He also does the usual bobbing up and down dance.
• He is so close to crawling. He gets up on his hands and knees and stays up but can't go anywhere. He does army crawl quite well. He is also very good at scooting backwards.
• He sits up by himself very well now, though he won't sit in one place for long.
• He learned to wave! Cutest thing ever. But watch out because he waves big and people have gotten smacked.
• He is GREAT at feeding himself Cheerios. He usually packs about 6 in his mouth before they start to pop back out. He really likes his "puffy" cereal and has figured out how to pick all the puffies out and leave the Cheerios on his high chair tray.

I didn't get any great pictures of Nathan today because we were in the car all day but I have a ton of pictures from our vacation, so stay tuned!