Special Boy, Special Day

The day Emmett Joe entered our lives, our hearts just grew.  He's such a special little guy--he has a calming effect on all of us, and he's just sweet.  He's shy & had a hard time at first with all the attention, but by the end of his birthday it was apparent that he enjoyed the birthday attention because he started expecting me to follow his every whim.  I realized that while I give him tons of attention, on his birthday he got a different kind of attention than he's used to, and he LIKED it. : )  We threw a spontaneous little party at the park, and it turned out great!  All of your family in town came to support you, and we had a fun time! 

Grandpa B was caught letting Emmett lick the frosting pre-maturely.  BUSTED!

 This is the adorable cake that I bought so that I wouldn't have to slave away.

 Forgot the candle so we used a large match instead. : )

 Indulgence is sweet!  I actually captured a really cute video that I'm having trouble posting.  He began by licking the frosting one finger lick at a time, and as we all stood around him in a circle and cheered, he gained confidence and before we knew it performed a classic 1st birthday feast. : )

 Emmett's friend Katie turns 1 next week!  So big already!

 I'm trying to decide what he's thinking in this picture, hehe!

Emmett's friend Hudson came, too, with his mom, Jenny.  And his "Auntie Lindsay" never forgets him. : )

 His first reaction to presents--the slides seemed more appealing.

Kind of blinking but still adorable.

Emmett Joe, we love you so!  What a fantastic year it's been with you!  You're so cute "toddling" around everywhere!  Happy 1st Birthday! 

On the Table Top

*SIGH*  We've got a CLIMBER in the family!  He's "real-good", too.

My photos are a little blurry because Mr. Turbo moves so fast, but you'll get the point.

I'm sure if he could comment he'd say:

"The world looks the BEST when you're On the Table Top!"

We love you, Buster!

My Fingers Hurt from Playing my New...

Baby Blue Acoustic Guitar!

Isn't she lovely?

I'm falling in love with the color of blue Mitch picked for me,

and I'm going to learn how to play a love song just for him!!!

So here's the story:  When I got married, I basically gave up playing the guitar.  I had to return the one I was borrowing to its owner...which is another story in itself.  So my brother in law, Brad, let me borrow a cheap one he had picked up on his mission, but unfortunately it would fall dramatically out of tune half way through a song & my musically trained ears just couldn't take it.  So here we are.  Somehow it's turned into 6 years later, and I've definitely been missing the guitar.  For many months, now, I have been saving up a few dollars here, a few dollars there for a blue guitar.  My sister, Erin, even let me garage-sale some of her stuff after she moved away & told me to keep the proceeds for my guitar fund.  We've been keeping a tight budget lately, and I figured that I wasn't going to see a guitar in my hands until sometime next year in the Spring.  However...

Mitchell Jay is so sweet!

For our anniversary, he's been supplementing my guitar fund here & there without me knowing.  It makes me cry just to think about his thoughtfulness.  He spent the last month or two plotting behind my back to find a smoking-hot deal through his friend, Seth.  Thanks to them, I now own a beautiful, brand new, acoustic with electric hook up, BLUE, Fender guitar.  He picked it up just yesterday and surprised me with it...actually last night. : )  He's so cute, because he couldn't wait.  I love him so much.

It's been 6 years since I've played a guitar, so I've got some practicing to do and some callouses to build back up, but I'm really excited!  Music is so crazy though, because even playing some basic 3 chord songs last night from my books took me straight back to my college days at BYU when my roommates would laugh at my struggling skills during my beginning guitar class.  I also remembered that they were surprised at the end of the session, by the songs I had learned...I know it'll come back; it'll come!   And it's going to be fun!

Thank you so much, Mitch!  I love you! 

"Our love is like a storybook story...." 

Nick's DELUX Drive-In Proposal

Mitch & I are getting a new sister-in-law!  Besides the fact that she's super cool, the best part of this was that we got to see the proposal!  I've never seen anyone (besides my husband) "pop the question".  In case you wanted the replay, here it is:  I was on the phone with Tina, viewing the romantic dinner from a distance.

Tina: Make sure to text or call us when you think it happens.

Me: Okay, they're still eating dinner...*GASP* He's getting up...I think this is it...oh, wait, he's not kneeling down, maybe he's just getting her more food, but...oh my gosh...he's on his knees now, and they're hugging...okay, I call you back.

(5 minutes later)  I texted Tina:  They're still hugging next to their candlelight dinner!!!!  We're pretty sure he popped the question!!!!!!

Tina: So do you still think he did it?

Me: Yeah...for sure...pretty darn.

Tina: Don't you feel like you're spying on them?

Me:  It's technically not spying, since Nick knows we're here.

Here's the beautiful set up.  By the way, these are the first roses Nick has ever given to Ashely, and it took him 3 trips to the store to get them.  He had to make a trip SPECIFICALLY for the flowers in order to remember them!  It cracks me up!  The tall candles and celebratory Sparkling Grape Juice were his own personal touch. I spent all day fretting over making sure I'd have the dinner made, still warm, and all the things loaded with ample time to get it ready & to hide from Nick and Ashley.  The set up almost gave me a heart attack, though, because it took a while longer to load the "living room" set up for them as well as all of the extra touches (lucky for us, Scott helped), and THEN WE TOOK A WRONG TURN to the theatres!!! I was DYING ( we were acutally praying, too) !  Luckily, Nick was able to stall long enough for us to set it up & get to the other side of the lot before they showed up.

I left a camera on the table so he could take a picture.  After proposing & calling her mom, Nick tells Ashley, "Well, we could take a picture, or we could have D-Jo do it."

She was totally surprised we were there.

Apparently we did a good job not making it obvious that we were at the drive-ins "spying". (We HAD to stay, though, because we couldn't leave the trailer & dinner for them to clean up on their special day).  We're super lucky she didn't see us there, because there was a whopping total of ONLY 4 cars watching the Nanny McPhee/Despicable Me feature. That means: besides our truck, and Nick's truck, there were ONLY 2 vans between us! HAHA!  We parked on the other side of the lot hoping she wouldn't hear our kids crying or anything, but feeding them a dinner of cupcakes and soda as they watched the movie did the trick.  They were REALLY happy as we hid by our truck. : )

The Happy Couple!  Aren't they CUTE?!  Totally beaming!

Proof that Mitch & I were the first ones to know.

They didn't mind showing off the engagement ring as they kissed in this photo.

Here are my children enthralled in the movie...actually they're just in a comatose state after the soda & cupcakes to keep them quiet during the proposal, haha!

The aftermath of a candlelight dinner--the wax dripped like crazy, but Ashley said it was "perfect", so it made us all really happy!  Probably nobody more than Nick. : )
 
Congratulations, Nick & Ashley!  Thanks for letting us help!  We love you guys!

Potty Trained...The BEST Part...

There's a distinct and yet very fine line between the phrases "We're Potty Training", and "He's Potty Train-ED!!!"  Let me just say that it's such a fantastic place to be speaking the latter!  Our first go-around with potty training a kid was harder than I expected it to be.  I never imagined I'd be making phone calls to share the joy that Tyson had finally pooped in the toilet, but it was a great thing to celebrate (that moment happened at the Homestead in July, actually, and we celebrated with a Potty Party--cake and everything).  Now when he does his business, he tells me firmly but still respectfully: "Mom, GO AWAY."  Back at the beginning of the year, when Tyson started showing interest in the lavoratory, we found this amazing book called Pirate Potty.  I have never been a fan of "potty humor", but I must say that I found this book has a great way to make potty training fun...and hilarious at the same time.  My favorite lines are "X marks the spot", and "Anchors Away."  From the time Tyson showed interest and began going #1 in the toilet every day to the time he learned how to go #2 on his own without me reminding him totaled a whopping 7 months.  That was hard. 

Because there were too many bad experiences to account for within that time frame, I will choose to share my favorite story of them all:

              In June, I decided that maybe Pull-Ups were no longer a good idea, because no matter what, Tyson was still having his 1 accident each day.  I thought that the only way he would be able to conquer going #2 in the toilet would be to get rid of the Pull-Ups...well, turns out that it just made for a messier accident each day.  By this time in our daily life, Emmett was very mobile and NEVER wanted to be alone, so he'd crawl at turbo speed to wherever we were.  I happened to be babysitting Hudson on this particular bright sunny morning, also, so I was a little spread thin trying to potty train with 2 other babies in the house.  At any rate, Tyson liked to disappear to his bedroom and close the door to do his business.  He hid instead of going to the bathroom, and then informed me of the mess.  I jumped up from the couch, ran to the bathroom, and tried to get Tyson to finish going in the toilet. Then I sat him in the bathtub as I took the soiled underwear to swish around in the water because my mother woulnd't approve of throwing away underwear when we can wash things like that (even if it is disgusting).  As I swished the soiled underwear around in the toilet water, I saw from my peripheral vision, a tiny little hand reaching from the middle of nowhere--baby turbo-crawling-speed was reaching into the germ-infested-abyss of the toilet.  My brain was having an adrenaline surge in order to protect the child from impending disease and doom--without realizing it, my brain told my hand to flush the toilet because I was done with the swishing.  As I flew to the sink to wash Emmett's hands because his thumb was already going to his mouth, I heard from Tyson in the bath-tub in his most astouded tone, seeping with disdain, "MOM!  We DO NOT flush underwear or diapers down the toilet!  That is GROSS!"

                 My entire world stopped.  I thought, "You've got to be kidding me.  I did not just do that."  I even walked over to the toilet, still sporting the baby on my hip (germ-free, I might add, since that's obviously what was most important to me at the time) and looked inside and around the toilet twice to double check that the underwear was nowhere in sight.  Sure enough, I had flushed the underwear down the toilet.  I...not the toddler...had FLUSHED the underwear down the drain.  No one hears stories of the ADULT of the family doing something of such a nature--it's always the CHILDREN! 

               The idea was embarrassing to me...don't get me wrong, I laughed a little...especially as I told Tyson he's right, that we should NEVER flush anything down the toilet that shouldn't be in there.  Mostly, though, I had my family laughing at me--I petitioned my parents and siblings to take over.  I announced to them through text that, "clearly, I am incompetent" in the matter of potty-training, and to PLEASE come do it for me. 

              Luckily enough...just a month later, we actually reached the coveted landmark of having our toddler potty-trained.  He's a big boy now, who doesn't want me to see his underwear anymore, and who can do his business without receiving consequences or rewards.  I'm so proud of him, and glad it's over.  Way to go, my little Pirate Potty boy.  I love you!