Happy New Years Eve!

I hope everyone is having a great New Years Eve! I didn't even realize today was New Years Eve until the lady at the feed store told me so. Wesley and I then decided we needed to go to the grocery store to pick up yummy treats to ring in the new year. What is new years eve without tasty fattening food. After saying this I have to add that I'm trying out a low carb diet, I plan to shed 5 pounds. I'm doing this along with Pilates every afternoon during Wesley's nap to tone up and feel good about my body again. So I will be watching Sean and Wesley munch away on the said tasty treats while I munch away on salads and nuts. It's all good!

Wesley has been adding to his vocabulary over the past week. He's got about 30 words now that he uses regularly. Yesterday he started stringing words together. He walked up to me with my sneaker and said "Mommy's Shoes" and gave one to me. He'll also say "Hi Daddy" when Sean gets home from work (we worked on that one for a couple of weeks). He also says "Bye Daddy" or Mommy when one of us leaves. It's great.

The other day we were flipping through a photo album and we got to a picture of my father and he pointed to it and said "Papa". So I guess my Dad is going to be known as Papa instead of grandpa for the time being. I called them up to tell them this and my Mom said in her saddest voice "When will I get a name?" Soon grandma.

The kids newest feat is that he discovered how to climb into his highchair all by himself. I will get a video soon as it is quite something to see. He's quickly gaining his monkey skills. That's all for now. I hope everyone has a safe and happy New Years!

Vroom vroom vroom

It seems Wesley turned into a little boy overnight. He's starting to do the typical "boy" things now. He'll pick up one of his Hot Wheels and vroom it around the floor, complete with vrooming noises. I had no idea this would start so early! I mean, who knew the little boy genes kicked in at 18 months? I thought I would have at least until he's 3 or 4 before the car infatuation began. I suppose he never had a chance with his genetic background. Here he is "vrooming".

The fun fund

Several months ago I was surfing eBay and ran across someone selling their formula checks. You know, the coupons that the infant formula companies send out on a monthly basis? I still get these Similac coupon/checks every few weeks.....and until recently I would throw them out since I don't need to purchase formula anymore (hallelujah). They aren't much, usually each check is good for $5 off a can of formula and I would get one or two checks at a time. So over the past few months I've been collecting the checks and once I had three or four I would put them up on eBay. The strange thing about all this is that people on eBay bid them up to 50% of their value. Not just occasionally, but always. So every few weeks I post $20 worth of checks and I make $10. It's never much money but I save it up and then yesterday I bought these cute pair of black leather pumps with stuff I normally would just toss in the trash. It's my fun fund. Yea me!

Christmas Rewind

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! I was hoping to get a blog about Christmas up sooner but we came home to a dead desktop computer. Poor old Mac wouldn't even power up. So I am now an official laptop user. Rest in peace my old Mac. We spent Christmas with my sister, her husband and my folks in Kansas City. Wesley had a great second Christmas! After about the fourth present he learned how to delicately unwrap the paper, no crazy ripper here. He liked the bows the best, putting them on his head was super cool!



We all made out like bandits. Santa was very generous this year. Wesley decided each new present was more awesome than the last. He got a tricycle, a bulldozer toy, oodles of new Geo Trax (it's going to take over the whole house now), Fridge ABC toy, Turbo Turtle and countless other cool toys. He is very excited to watch his new Elmo DVD, Elmo in Grouchland, although I'm going to prescreen it since I hear it can be a little scary. He made a good haul this year, thank you to all the family and friends for being so generous.

My sister got my father Guitar Hero for Playstation 2 and we all sat around playing it. What a fun game! Sean was a natural at it and kicked all of our butts. Here is my father playing it, what a hoot that was to see.



Here is the whole family.



Here is Wesley cuddling with ol' Mom.



My favorite picture of Sean, looks like he's meditating and making the balloon float....what a silly picture.



So excited to see all the presents!



Thank you Betsy and Blake for hosting a great Christmas. It was very nice of you to let us all crash at your house and eat all of your food. We all had a great time and Wesley already misses your cool coasters (one of which made it home with us...somehow.) Thanks again!

Tornado Wesley

This is what my living room looks like at the end of every. single. day. Usually, though, my kid is not standing on a box.

Just around the corner

Boy am I excited about Christmas! I am really looking forward to it this year because Wesley is becoming more and more aware of everything and I can't wait to tell him about Santa. Looking at this time of the year through a childs eyes is so much fun. With every passing year I can only imagine it getting better. Plus, I'm psyched about getting new toys for the kid! He SO needs something new to do around here on these long winter days...poor bored kid.



On the down side, the weather is already horrid and winter has only just started. Doing my outside chores twice a day has become a lot of work. I resemble the abominable snowman when I go outside....sweater, jeans, jacket, coveralls, hat, mittens, scarf & boots (I REALLY want a ski mask but we don't live in ski mask country so I'll have to order one). Thankfully we put in the stock tank heater for the horses several months ago. It does a great job of keeping the water from being a block of ice but it doesn't keep water in the tank. The hose that goes from the house to the stock tank is frozen stiff so I have to haul 5 gallon buckets of water out there once day. It's a lot of work, but I signed up for this when I got those animals I suppose. I do feel bad about them out there in sub zero degree weather. They have a nice cozy shelter with all they can eat hay and thick fuzzy coats, so I don't worry too much, but still....brrrr.

We are leaving Wednesday to go spend Christmas at my sisters house in KC with my family. It will be nice and I'm looking forward to it.

Tractor Love

Last Christmas my parents bought Wesley a tractor. It's a little John Deere ride on toy. Yes, we live in the Midwest...tractor toys are popular here. He was all of five months old last Christmas so it didn't get much use up until lately. Well ever since he started walking he's decided this little green tractor is the bomb. He's so in love with it and will ride it around for a portion of every day. He's also discovered he can wheel it over to the baby gates and stand on the seat in an attempt to get over the baby gates. Sneaky little boy. Here he is riding his tractor with his "hat" on.

More ramblings....

There seems to be a total lack of interesting stuff to blog about lately. I feel at ease after shipping out my last Christmas sculpture this morning, along with the last of the Christmas presents to family. I'm so happy to have that all out of the way! One less thing on my shoulders. Hubby took today off and I ran into town to finish up the last of my Christmas shopping without my little 17 month old tag along. With the weather bitterly cold and the unknown forecast of freezing drizzle it was nice not having to lug him around.

On the subject of dicey weather, I finally got to try out the four wheel drive on my Jeep yesterday. I've never had a 4 wheel drive vehicle (never really needed or wanted one) but I thought "since I've got it, I'm going to use it!". On a day like yesterday, when I would have normally stayed home because of the thick blanket of snow and ice, I plowed right through it. It was nice, I actually felt very safe driving around with Wesley in the back seat. Not over-confident, but safe. I guess I'll have to hang onto the Jeep for awhile, even though it's proven itself to be somewhat of a lemon.

Wesley is getting over his second cold of the year. Looks like it has almost ran it's course. He starting to do more new things every week. He's starting to be clingy. He'll walk up to me and throw his arms up toward me, once I pick him up he'll just lay his head on my shoulder and hug me for several minutes. It's very sweet, I adore it. Then Sean will walk by and he'll throw his arms out to him and I'll pass him off and he'll give hubby the bear hug. We are hoping this isn't developing into a "won't let Mommy out of my sight" phase with the impending Arizona trip next month. Hubby and I are flying to Phoenix for Sean's brothers wedding in January and leaving Wesley with my parents for two nights. They offered and we couldn't resist the chance to escape for a long weekend by ourselves. It will be nice to travel light, for a change.

That's about all that's new here, hope everyone is having a great Holiday season. Can you believe Christmas is in 8 days?? Yikes, where does the time go?

Elmo's back

I have reinstated Elmo's World back into the house. It was banned from the house after the endless watching that happened on our trip home from New Mexico. Wesley did good during the banning period, only asking for Elmo several times a day.
Here he is this morning with Cookie watching it, you can almost see the drool rolling down his chin. Elmo will only be allowed once a week. His weekly treat. Just call me the "Elmo Nazi".

Victory

We have a snow storm predicted for our area this week. So while I was at the store I decided to get Wesley a hat. He's not a hat lover and yanks them off immediately after they are placed on his head. SO I found one of those hats that velcros under their chins. Wonderful inventions. Here he is trying his hardest to remove the hat:

And here he is giving up. Victory!

The little black escape artist

I am a self proclaimed animal lover. Sometimes I don't necessarily like my animals all the time, for instance when my little mini horse Rocky decides to try and kick the crap out of me but that's another story. Anyways, I do love the animals around me....especially our little terrier Chance. Chance is a 12 pound wiry little fellow we adopted from the pound five years ago when he was just a little 7 pound kind-of-puppy. It was love at first sight. My mother and I went in there and he just stared up at me with the saddest eyes I've ever seen. I put my hand through the bars and he laid his head in my cupped hand. It was precious and he went home with me that day. He got along splendidly with our golden retriever, spending countless hours rough housing and chasing each other.

I'm building all of this up to explain how much I care for that little dog. So when last week he decided to squeeze through the wrought iron bars on the fence and take off I was freaked out (to say the least). I ran outside barefoot with Wesley (thank goodness it was not a freezing cold day) and immediately took off running and screaming his name. Luckily he hadn't gotten far and I scooped him up and ran back inside. Then last night he decided he needed to escape again. My new routine was to let them out and then go to the window and watch him do his business and let him back in. By the time I got to the window he had already shimmied his way through the fence and was gone. Did I mention this was at midnight? Hubby and I took off outside and walked the property with flash lights calling his name. We found him finally. Crappy little dog, doesn't he know how good he has it? Nice warm house, good food, great kid to play with. I feel like I should leave him outside sometime during a snow storm and see how much he likes living here. It might make him not want to escape.

So now he can only go outside with a leash on. Yeah!

Building immunity one kitty turd at a time

The kid is sick...again. This makes number two for this winter so far (and it's officially not even winter yet). He's not real sick just big wads of green snot running down his face and sometimes into his mouth. Yum. He's sleeping just fine which I'm grateful for. He's got his humidifier going all night and it seems to keep the snot nice and thin so it doesn't wake him up.

I try to figure out how he gets sick since it's just him and me all day here in the house. He rarely goes to the store with me anymore (I prefer to do my shopping without him on Saturdays) and it's not like he goes to a play group or daycare. Must be all the ickies floating around our house or maybe that hubby brings home from work? The kid is always doing something that makes me say the phrase "Oh he's just building immunity one _____ at a time". You can put anything into that blank. The other day he walks up to me with a dried up kitty turd in his hands. Kind of like "hey look what wonderful prize the kitty left me!". Nasty kitty. He does this with anything and everything. During late summer I would catch him sucking on my flip flop. Or every so often I'll walk into a room to see him lying on his stomach sucking on the wood floor. My favorite is he'll get a hold of the dog's food dish and will lick it out right after they ate. It doesn't even phase me anymore. You can't say he's not building up that little immune system every time he does something like this.

I shall leave you with video of Chance the dog chasing Wesley around trying to steal his beloved cracker. Wesley loves being chased by the dog....I think I might try hanging a chunk of meat around his waist, endless fun!

Confessions

Ok, I am about to admit something to all you internets. I am addicted to the Twilight series. I had a ton of Christmas orders and on any other given year would still be doing them, but I promised myself that once I finished them this year I could re-read the books. So of course I finished them last weekend. I've been reading ever since. Now I'm not totally over the top here as this is only the second time I'll be reading them, but the addiction doesn't end at the books. Oh no, I've seen the movie twice now and am trying to find a way to sneak in a third viewing. I say "sneak in" because my husband thinks I've lost my marbles. He might be right. It's not helping that the second book is soon to be in production for the big screen and might be out next Christmas. Yeah! Ok, that's all.....first step is admitting the problem.

First snow

We are in the midst of our first snow storm here. I love snow. It really sucks for Sean to drive in but when my family is all home I love being all cozy inside surrounded by animals and hot cider on the stove. Yum.
It's just a few inches and it will probably be gone by tomorrow....nothing like what my brother and sister-in-law live with every day in South Dakota! I don't know how you guys do it! Here is a picture of our mini snow storm.


Wesley and I are just chillin inside today. Here he is showing off his favorite expression. He'll just walk around the house with his mouth hanging open. Strange child.


And here he is dog stomping. Sophie really is a good dog putting up with his toddler antics.

Twinkling lights and football....what a combo.

Christmas has arrived at our house. I set up the tree, wreaths, garland and such today. I'd like to say that it was a family affair but no, I do this myself every year. Sean is not much into decorating (it must offend his manly side) and Wesley would be more interested in smashing the glass ornaments than helping me decorate. But it's ok, I'm not complaining too much...I get to put things exactly where I like them and it really does put me in the Christmas spirit.

Sean and Wesley watched the college football championship games today. When I say that Wesley watches football I used to mean that Sean watched football while Wesley played with his toys. Not anymore, Wesley actually will sit on Sean's lap and watch football with him. It's kind of sad just how early the fascination with the game starts in this house. In fact last week Wesley started saying "football". Sean taught it to him and now he'll randomly ask Wes what he wants to watch on TV and the kid will automatically say football. It's just so wrong, yet cute at the same time. I, on the other hand, am desperately trying to teach the kid "chick flick" but it's not working.

More cute new stuff with the kid: When he's ready to take a nap or go to sleep at night he'll lay his head down and say "nigh nigh??". It's pretty darn cute. It's great that he'll now let us know when he wants to go to bed, rather than the other way around.

With only 19 days until Christmas I am about half way through my shopping. I just ordered some stuff off of Amazon and hope with the free shipping it will be here before Christmas. Now I just have to get everything shipped off to out of state family before long.

This last picture is Hubby and Wesley by the tree. Sean has decided in an attempt to keep his face warm he will try and grow a beard. I think this is more of an excuse for being too lazy to shave, but hey....whatever, we'll see how it looks after a few weeks. Maybe I'll like the mountain man look?

Christmas spirit?

We have gotten back into the swing of things around here since getting back from the trip. Wesley seems to be moping around without all the constant attention he got down in New Mexico. I think the poor kid is bored being home. We can't go hang out with his buddy Alex because poor Alex and Abby are recovering from croup. We can't go outside because it is friggin cold. I think it's going to be a long winter.

One idea for keeping this kid happy and entertained is to release him into the house. We have about half the main floor baby gated off for dogs and Wesley. This keeps everyone safe and happy, Wesley can't get into too much trouble and the dogs are contained to an area that they can't destroy too much. But there is quite a bit of the house that the kid has never been in or only briefly. The basement for one. This weekend I plan on cleaning up the basement and setting up the GeoTrax train set down there so that we can go down there every so often and play. Maybe just getting him into a new situation will make him happier. It's worth a try.

Tomorrow we are going (back) to Sears to get some more pictures taken. When we got home from the trip we had a message on the answering machine saying we won some raffle and received a free photo shoot and some wall portraits. So Wesley is getting all gussied up and getting some Christmas pictures taken tomorrow.

I am planing on getting the Christmas decorations put up this weekend in between getting all my Christmas sculpture orders finished. I'm looking forward to getting them up, I'm hoping seeing the house all decorated gets me in the Christmas spirit!

I wish I had pictures to post but I'm kind of pictured out after taking oodles over the trip last week. That's all that's new here.

The refrigerator coffin

This post drops into the "strange" category. Yesterday morning I go into the kitchen and smell something hot. You know when an electronic somehow overheats it gives off a hot smell. Well there was definitely something overheating in the kitchen. Sean pinpointed it to the bottom of the refrigerator, where the coils are on the back. So we pull the fridge away from the wall and the outer cover looks like there is some dog hair on it (imagine that). Thinking that it's just a layer of dog hair that making it overheat, Sean gets the shop vac out and goes to town vacuuming it all up. He takes the cover off and continues to vacuum the inside of the compartment. He notices the fan that cools the coils is stopped and finds out why. There is a dead mouse stuck in the fan. Yep, this poor little mouse was just walking around near the fan when it decided it needed to come on. So the mouse got stuck in the fan which in turn made the coils overheat and give off that lovely overheated smell. I'm glad we were home to catch it as we aren't sure if it would have started a fire. Luckily, the fan started right back up once it was free of dead mouse (and brains...Mmmm).

And there wasn't just one dead mouse in there, another one was curled up a few inches from the other. Weird stuff I tell you.