Picture Day

Today we went to Salt Lake with Grandma Anne and got the kids' pictures taken at Sears. I wish the photographer would have been a little more interactive with the kids. She only took like 11 pictures literally, and it was hard to find one where they were all smiling. We did choose one pose that I think will be cute. I mean I realize it was towards the end of the day for her, and we were there on a promotion thing, but seriously! At least PRETEND like you're excited to have us there!

Afterwards Grandma Anne took us all out to eat at Red Robin and then we went to the Halloween store and looked at all the scary and fun Halloween decorations and costumes.

Thanks Grandma Anne! It was a fun day!

MOMMY'S Boy

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Trace family tree - Free family history

The verdict is in! Keric looks more like his mommy! :) I found this funny little "look a like meter" when I was blog surfing, and I thought it would be fun to see who they thought Keric looked like more. It has software that analyzes each of your faces and then tells you which of you your baby looks like more. I was actually a little surprised at the results. I figured it would say he looked 75% more like Chris! I know he only looks like my by 3%, but it still made me feel pretty good! ha ha

So for all of you who said "He looks just like his Daddy"...he ACTUALLY looks a little MORE like his Mommy!

Mommy and Bubby Time

From the very first time I took Keric outside, he was hooked! He LOVES to be outside! When he is cranky, and I can't get him to settle down, I take him outside and he calms right down!

I have been trying to take him on more walks lately, especially since it has cooled down considerably outside, and it's actually become quite fun. We went on a walk tonight and he looked so cute in his little stroller, and so happy to be going on his walk, that I had to take a picture of him.

Doesn't he look so grown up and big!? The picture was taken with my cell phone, so it isn't the greatest, but you get the idea. He is such a funny little boy!

The way to Chris' heart

Right before I got married my friend Amy threw me the funnest bridal shower I have ever been to! Maybe it was because it was mine, but I loved it! One of the things she had all the guests do was write down some advice for me. Because my bridal shower was only a couple days before I actually got married, my Mom and sisters and Grandma were able to be there. The advice my Grandma gave me was something to the effect of learn to perfect Chris' favorite meal, and during those times when one or both of you is upset, make it, and all will soon be forgiven.

Well...not that Chris and I have many fights where I feel like I need to make him his favorite meal so that all will soon be forgiven, but I have kind of tried to ask him what, if anything that I make, is his "favorite". He never really seemed to have one, he just always said something like, "You make good things" but he never really has been all that excited about one certain thing, until now.

About a week ago, we were asked if we could feed the missionaries on Saturday. They ended up canceling on us anyway, but not before I had made a huge Lasagna to serve them. I hadn't cooked it thankfully, so I just put it in the fridge for another day. I had planned on making it for Sunday dinner, but we got invited to his parents house for dinner, so when I asked Chris what he wanted for dinner on Monday he said "Lasagna". I had never made Lasagna for Chris, in fact I think I've only made it once in my life and I don't know what possessed me to make it for the missionaries, but I did. So I was a little nervous about serving it, for fear it might be gross, or not be something he would like.

So that's what I made. I knew we would have plenty of left-overs, but I figured they would be good lunches or something. Today is Friday, and Chris has had Lasagna for dinner on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Tonight! I made him eat with us on Wednesday, but he would have gladly had Lasagna that day too! He wants nothing else, and it's not because I haven't made anything else! The kids don't like it, so he has had PLENTY all to himself. I even made Chicken Enchiladas this week, but he ate left-over Lasagna instead!

So I guess I have finally, by total accident, found Chris' FAVORITE meal! Now I just need to "perfect" it. :) Who knew!?!? Silly Silly Fer!

"Bratz Hair"

Usually on the days we have the kids, Chris takes Cameron to school in the morning on his way to work, and then drops of Reagan at her Mom's house. She has Afternoon Kindergarten so rather then make two trips into Grantsville, Shannon just gets her ready in the morning, and then takes her to school in the afternoon.

Today Shannon had a Dr.'s appointment, so she asked if Reagan could just stay here with me, and then she would pick her up on her way back and take her to school. I said that would be fine. Of course this meant that I had to get her ready for school.

I am TERRIBLE with hair! I don't even know how to French Braid! Shannon does hair for a living, so Reagan always has really cute little hair styles, and when she comes to our house it's usually just thrown into a pony tail, and a sad one at that, if I'm the one doing it! So I was a little, ok a lot, nervous about having to do her hair. I didn't want her teacher to say something like "Oh, is your Mommy out of town Reagan"? So I gave myself PLENTY of time to do something cute, or as cute as I was able to do, with her hair.

I asked her if she wanted anything special, which was probably a dumb thing to do, and she told me she wanted "Bratz hair". Great! How am I gonna pull that off?! I didn't know Bratz really had a hair style other then big, long, and poofy?

I remembered a few hair styles that I had seen at school that I thought were cute, so I decided to try what I thought would be the easiest one. I straightened her hair and then put it in two little clips. The hair that was in the clips I curled with a three barrel curling iron. It took me forever, and probably should have only taken a couple minutes, but I think it turned out sort of cute.

I asked her if that was what Bratz hair looked like, and she told me "no", but she seemed to be OK with it anyway. I still have no idea what exactly she wanted done with her hair, but hopefully no one will ask her if her Mommy is out of town today.
I thought she looked cute when she went off to school! I was pretty pleased with my version of "Bratz hair".

"Uh...Daddy...?"

Soccer season is in full swing again, and that means lots of hectic nights and weekends for us! I thought last year was hectic, but adding Keric to the mix has made it even a little more so.

Chris is coaching Reagan's team this year, I opted out since I now have a rather valid excuse! I think this may be Chris' last year. He's done it for 4 years in a row and is a little burned out.

Tonight was Reagan's soccer practice. Chris gets home around 6 and I try to have dinner ready and on the table by the time he gets home so he and Reagan can eat, be done and then out the door by 6:30 to go to practice.

Of course today was like any other day, Reagan didn't particularly like what I had made for dinner tonight, Lasagna, and so she was picking away at it, hardly making a dent in it at all! I don't know why she OR Cameron didn't like it, it was the REAL thing, not even the famous "lazy day" Lasagna my mom would sometimes make in a hurry.

Anyway...it finally got to the point where they were going to be late and she was no where near being done. So Chris told her she would just have to finish when she got back because they had to go. He grabbed her soccer shoes and started frantically putting them on her feet. He had them all tied and they were ready to go when we heard Mae Mae say in this very confused and concerned voice, "Uh, Daddy....?"

She stood right by the couch with this confused look on her face and then we both looked down at her feet and started laughing. Chris had put her shoes on the wrong feet! OOPS! I made them stay so I could take a picture too, so they were late anyway! Oh well... guess practice won't start without them! :)


MUCH better!

Watch out Betty Crocker here we come!

So about a week ago my friend Trisha did a post on her blog about a cookbook she and her friends had been putting together. They go to lunch twice a month and each of them brings a new recipe to add to their books. I, along with some other people, thought this was a fabulous idea and we immediately started putting pressure on her to make a Recipe Blog for us and we promised that we would all contribute too.

Well I decided that wasn't really fair. I mean she HAD her cookbook, and was already doing something twice a month, so instead I figured I would start one in the hopes that Trisha and all you other "Domestic Diva's" will help me out and contribute to it. A blog with just all my recipe's would not be exciting in the least, trust me!

I will do the "work" and post them all. I just would like to ask all of you if you have good easy, fun, yummy, all of the above recipes that you would like to share with the rest of us, e-mail me the recipes and I will post them on the blog. E-mail as many as you want as many times as you want. My goal is to have a new recipe on the blog every day so that we will have an idea for dinner that night! We'll see how it goes. I'm excited about it. I think it will be fun! My e-mail address is: nwexels@yahoo.com.
The blog address is: http://lifebeyondmacaroniandcheese.blogspot.com/

I hope to hear from you all soon!

A little stubborn are we?!?!?

So I'm almost getting Keric down to a semi livable routine! I have gotten him to the point where he goes right to bed at about 8:30 or 9:00 depending upon how cranky he is. He doesn't even cry when I put his jammies on and put him in his bed. He goes right to sleep. He only wakes up one time at night now usually 3:30 or 4:00 a.m. depending on when he went to bed, and then he sleeps until about 7:30 sometimes 8:00 in the morning. It's gotten to be quite nice, and I'm feeling much less sleep deprived!

The only thing I have not gotten him to submit to, are naps in his crib! I don't know WHY he is so opposed to taking a nap in his crib. He will sleep in his swing, in his bouncer, in his car seat, pretty much anywhere except his crib! He sleeps just fine in it at night, but nap time is a different story.

I put him down for his nap around 10:30 a.m. This is generally my most hated time of the day because he lies in his crib and SCREAMS bloody murder for an hour if I'm mean enough to let him. I'm usually not though. I can only handle as much as 15 mins before I'm up there. The first few times he did this screaming episode, he scared me half to death! I thought he was hurt or something. I had these images of his legs and/or arms being caught in the crib bars and he was screaming from pain! Of course when I ran in there to check on him, he was right where I had laid him, his face so red it was almost purple from screaming, tears running down his face, and his body was stiff as a board he was so mad. As soon as I picked him up he was fine, he just simply did not want to be in his bed. I don't understand this for the life of me! I can lay him down anywhere after these episodes and he falls right to sleep, but if I DARE take him back to his bed...well it's just a repeat of the above scenario. Mind you he isn't even 4 months old yet! SILLY BOY!

So the other day we were having our daily nap fight, and I was upstairs doing laundry which meant not only could I hear the screaming through the monitor, I could hear it down the hall. Stereo screaming is not my idea of a fun time! Out of total frustration I went and got him, brought him into my room and laid him in my bed next to the laundry I was folding. My bed was still unmade because I was washing bedding that day, so I laid him on Chris' side of the bed, so he was close to me, and put him up on the pillow so he could see me, and covered him up. I think it took a whole 30 seconds for him to fall asleep. I just left him there since I had tons of things to do upstairs. He probably slept for close to 2 hours like that. He didn't even try to kick off his covers.

Well....this has proven to be a very costly mistake on my part, because now he thinks this is the only place he can nap! You think I'm kidding, but I've taken video of it. He screams in his swing, he screams in his bed, but the minute I put him in my bed, and it has to be on Chris' side mind you, he is out! All I can do is shake my head and at least be grateful for the fact that he takes a nap. The funny thing is he even sleeps like Chris. If I ever come to bed late, or Chris takes a nap without me, he sleeps with his arms behind his head, and so does Keric! It's so funny! He is so stinkin little in that bed. If you didn't know he was there, you wouldn't even see him! But that's where he insists on being!

I really have no one to blame but myself. I am rather positive he gets his temper from me, and he gets his (as my mom calls him) "high maintenance" side also from me. However I think he got a double dose of stubborn because Chris and I are both pretty stubborn. We want what we want, and it's hard to talk either of us out of it. I guess what did I expect from our children?

So my prediction was right. One of us would win this schedule fight, and it WAS him! I don't think I ever had a chance!



Just like his Daddy!


Seriously...would you even know he was there if I hadn't told you before hand??

All that worrying for NOTHING!

My "Little Man" and I made it through my big Tuesday Substitue Teaching drama! Keric woke up so happy that morning, that I was semi encouraged that maybe we would make it through OK and we DID!

I got us both ready and made sure Keric had been fed and changed before I dropped him off. I packed his diaper bag to the TOP with anything and everything I could think of, put him in his car seat and then we were off to Denise's.

By the time we got to Denise's house, Keric was asleep. I was hopeful he would sleep for a little while longer for her. I dropped all of his things off with her and got back in the car. I started down the road to the school with tears rolling down my cheeks. I already missed him, and of course was really feeling the guilt now!

I got myself put back together and went into the school. I filled out my time card and went down the hall to Miss Manzione's classroom. She is teaching 4th grade this year, so it was kind of fun to see the kids I had taught last year, and I was in the classroom right next to my old classroom.

I have decided that I make a much better substitute teacher then a full time teacher. It is such a different feeling. I didn't feel so "stressed" out about keeping a schedule, or how they were going to do on their test next week, I was just able to relax and have fun with them for a couple of hours. It was nice.

I rushed out after school to go pick up Keric. I got to Denise's and when I walked inside, there was Keric, in the same exact place I had set him when I dropped him off. He had slept THE WHOLE TIME! Never woke up once! He truly DIDN'T know I was gone! Go figure!?

I put him in the car and went home. I was so relieved, that he was not horrible and yet felt a little silly for worrying so much at the same time.

Who knows, maybe there will be a few more subbing jobs in the future. :)

I really should be sleeping, not over analyzing!

Right now Keric is sound asleep in his bed, and has been for about two hours now. I should be sleeping too, but I'm having a hard time making my way up to bed. I've been sitting downstairs "watching" TV and thinking.

I am a little guilt ridden right now as I type, well maybe more then a "little". I am hoping that if I air out my guilt that I will either a) Feel stupid and realize I have wasted precious sleep time feeling guilty about nothing, or b) Validate my guilt by re-reading how I'm feeling right now. I'm really hoping that it's choice (a)and not (b).

A couple of weeks ago I got a phone call from my school asking me if I had thought about substitute teaching. I told them I had a little bit, but really hadn't done much more then thought about it. I talked to Chris about it, and he seemed to think it was an OK idea if I could find someone to watch Keric. I have been watching my sister in law Denise's two kids a little bit while she goes to work so I decided I would ask her how she felt about watching Keric once in awhile if I ever wanted to go and sub. She said that would be fine, and she would be willing to do that.

I didn't give it much thought after that until today when I got a phone call from Miss Manzione. She is a good friend of mine that I taught with and she needed a substitute for tomorrow afternoon. It's not even all day, just 1-3:30 or so. I agonized over this decision to the point she finally text messaged me that she needed to know for sure by 1:00 today.

So long story short, I called the school and told them I would come and sub tomorrow. I think it only took about 15 mins after the phone call for the guilt to set in. What in the world was I doing dropping my 3 month old baby off so I could go and work!?

Am I a horrible mother, or am I just ridiculous? I keep telling myself, I'll do this two hours tomorrow and see how that goes, and if it's just too horrible then no more until he is older.

What if he is just horrible for Denise!? What if he screams the entire time and drives her crazy? I mean he will probably be just fine. And I know it's not like I'm dropping him off at some strangers house for two days or something! He wont even notice I'm gone, right? Ugh, I'm a freak, I know! Talk about an overprotective, paranoid first mom huh?! WOW!

Little Mommy and her "Doll Babies"

When we were little kids, my Mom used to call us "Doll Babies". I'm not sure where the saying actually came from, but I've always remembered it. Today Keric actually got to BE a real life "Doll baby".

Reagie was playing with her dolls today and was pushing them around the house in her toy stroller and carrying them in her toy baby carrier. I'm not sure who came up with the idea first, Reagan or Chris, but before I knew it, Keric was sitting in the toy stroller being pushed around. When Reagan pushed him into the kitchen to show me, his eyes were as big as sand dollars! He had this look of panic on his face, like "Mom are you sure this is ok for me to be in here?!" He really did look cute, and Reagie made a very cute little Mommy with all of her doll babies!

I am afraid for the day when I look at the baby stroller and think to myself, "I can't believe Keric once fit in that!" I'm even more afraid that day will come sooner then I want it to!

What happened to my "baby"!?!?

I was looking through some "old" (three months) pictures of Keric and I said out loud, where is THIS baby!?! I can't believe how much he has grown and how much he has changed! Crazy what three months can do. As a side note...I did get my butt out of bed and started on my 5K training schedule. I didn't want to, but I thought about how stupid I would look after my post yesterday if I didn't. Thank you for all your encouragement! It came in really handy this morning. ha ha


Three Months Ago


Today...He still loves that Zebra!

It's now or never!

I've been having a little bit of the "Mommy blues" this week. I have realized that in just a few short months, I have traded in my cute jeans, form fitting shirts and fun shoes, for lots of very Mommy looking clothes! IE, sweat pants, baggy shirts covered in spit up, and either slip on shoes, or no shoes at all. This hasn't really made for a great self-esteem lately.

I had decided after going home last month and seeing everyone else looking so good, that I was going on a serious diet. I did really well for a couple of weeks and even lost about 5lbs or so, which believe me is only a very SMALL drop in the bucket. Then we seemed to get lazy, and before I knew it, the diet had kind of gone by the wayside yet again.

So now with the new month starting, and it getting closer and closer to going back home again I have decided that this time I am going to have a very clear goal, and I'm going to reach that goal. I figure if I write it down for all the world to see, I'm going to HAVE to do it. This way I am somewhat accountable.

I have decided that I am going to get in shape and run a 5K. It's something I have always kind of wanted to do. I have always said I can't run, and really have never even given it much of an effort. So I'm out to prove to myself that there is something I actually CAN do that I have always thought I couldn't.

I found a website that has a workout routine that is supposed to get you in shape and ready to run a 5K in 8 weeks, so I'm going to try it.

That means that hopefully....no not even hopefully, that means that for sure by October 27 I will be able to run a 5K. I know it's not much of a run for most people, but it will be a huge thing for me.

So my goal is two fold...do something I never thought I would ever be able to do, and hopefully lose some much needed weight in the process. Even if I don't get rid of my "Mommy clothes" anytime soon, at least maybe I'll look a little better in them! hahaha

Wish me luck, I'll keep you posted!!!!