Busy Bag Exchange

Back in November I participated in a busy bag exchange. I made head and tail puzzles. I could have just used a printable found here, but that would have been too easy. I made my own in Photoshop and I love how they turned out.

I did a sea animal set.

And a farm animal set.

{If I were more tech savy, I'd put up a pdf for you to print off if you would like. I don't know how to do that, but I totally don't mind sharing. So if you would like to print these off for your kiddos, just leave a comment with your email and I will send you the jpg files. Don't be shy, I am a blog stocker myself, so I promise I won't think anything of it if we aren't bffs and you read my blog.}

They were due right after Thanksgiving (November 30th) and of course I procrastinated, so I did a lot of frantic cutting. I needed 15 sets. 15 sets x 12 animals = 180 animals to cut out! That's a lot. And then I had to cut them out again after I got them laminated. My only regret is I probably should have done the hard lamination instead of the soft lamination.

15 sets ready to mailed off. It doesn't look like a lot, but it sure did take a lot of time!

I wish I could say I love what I got back, but honestly I was a little disappointed with some of them. Most are pretty nice, but others are kind of pieces of crap. I mean, yeah these are for our kids to play with and possibly destroy, but still I thought people would take more pride in their work. Oh well... I guess you win some, you lose some. Sometimes it's hard being a perfectionist!

18 Months

After spending the first half of the month frantically trying to get everything ready for Christmas, I spent the second half of the month just enjoying time with family and friends. Consequently I have a lot of catching up to do on this here blog. So be patient with me as I blog about things that may seem like ancient history.

Our little Corby turned 18 months on December 17th. His stats:

Weight: 24 pounds, 3 ounces (25th percentile)

Height: 33 inches (75th percentile)

He is a tall and skinny little dude!

The Corb at 18 months:

*Says wow, no, and uh oh. He learned no just in time for Thanksgiving and spent the whole trip telling his cousin Jaxon "no" every time he tried to take a toy from him.

*Likes to get on his belly in the bathtub. He also enjoys popping bubbles in the bathtub and peeing on the carpet after we get him out.

*Has 11 teeth. He got 3 new ones on the bottom this month, so now he has 6 on the top and 5 on the bottom.

*Sometimes surprises me with how smart he is. For a few days the lock on our door was broken, so we couldn't go out our front door. Whenever he wanted to go outside I would show him that we couldn't open the door. So he would try to get whatever tools he could find to fix the door.

*As of 18 months, he still loved his bottle. He would drink some of his milk from his sippy cup and then go point to the cupboard where the bottles were kept. (We broke him of this over Christmas break by not taking the bottles with us when we were staying with family.)

*Knows what things go together. For example, he will get out the hand mixer and the beaters (from two different places in the kitchen) and put them together.

*Is really into plugs. We have plug covers on most of our plugs, but for a long time we wondered why we even bothered because he never paid any attention to them. Now we are thinking we really need to get covers for the rest of our plugs ASAP!

*Loves to play peek-a-boo and hide and seek. And he isn't afraid of the dark or being in small spaces. He loves to shut himself in the closet and have us open the door to find him in there.

*Likes to feed us his food.

*Plays a fun game where he tries to smash his balls. And whoever is home is required to play - he'll come drag us away from whatever we are doing to play this game with him.

*Blows on his food to cool it down if it is too hot.

*Loves to climb and holds onto things really well. This was on the shopping cart at Walmart.

*Likes to push himself away from the table with his feet and then lean back in his chair.

*Is probably a little too obsessed with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. For a few weeks that was all he wanted to do. (This has gotten a lot better now that he has new toys from Christmas.)

*Has started to really throw tantrums when he doesn't get what he wants especially if he is tired, hungry, or isn't feeling well. Let the terrible 2's begin!

*Loves to play with our laptops. He has pretty much destroyed Rog's laptop (that he got before we were even engaged) by ripping off a good majority of the keys. Luckily he hasn't figured out how to get the keys off my mac or he would be in serious trouble! (Jared, this picture is for you!)

*Pats our backs when we are holding him.

Oh how we love our little guy!

Christmas Celebrations

When we haven't been shopping, wrapping, and homemade gift making, we have found some fun ways to celebrate the Christmas season.

*Relief Society Christmas dinner/program. I made 2 different desserts - Candy Cane Kiss Cookies and Peppermint Rice Krispie Treats. Of course I was only planning on making one, but the first was a complete disaster. So I scrapped those and made the second which turned out perfectly and couldn't have been more delicious.

*Celebrated Mariah's birthday at the Cheesecake Factory - not Christmas related except that I got their Peppermint Bark Cheesecake.

*Spanish Fork Festival of Lights. We went with Bill and Mariah for FHE and it was so fun! We had Corby sit in my lap while we drove through. It was right before his bedtime and he was mesmerized by the lights, so he let me cuddle him.

*Ward Christmas party with pictures with Santa. No screaming for this kid. He just calmly sat on Santa's lap and told him what he wanted for Christmas.

*Cookie exchange with my dinner group. I made the Brownie Cheesecake Peppermint Bar in the middle. (Notice a theme here? I've been a little obsessed with peppermint this holiday season.) If you make them, don't start out with 2 packages of cream cheese. I learned the hard way that it really only needed 1.

*Got our Christmas cards mailed out. My plan was to make them in Photoshop, but I ran out of time. So I went with the easy way out - Macey's Photo Lab.

*Made and delivered neighbor gifts. I originally made Creamy Chocolate Fudge, but as it was my first time making fudge, I wasn't too surprised that I messed it up. It was too soft to give out. So I made something I knew I couldn't mess up - dipped oreos covered in sprinkles. Corby was my little helper.

It took all afternoon, but soon we had 2 dozen bags to give out to our neighbors.

I make the tags myself in Photoshop. They're nothing fancy, but I was happy with how they turned out. Our printer was having issues, so I convinced Rog to let me use one of my gifts early - a wireless printer. Within minutes of opening it, Corby had broken the paper tray. (We were able to superglue it back together.)

*And what holiday season would be complete without a cold to share? Rog gave it to Corby who then gave it to me. Unfortunately we had to miss Roger's Christmas party for work because Corby had a fever. We had a neighbor lined up to watch him, but we didn't want to get her kids sick. We're just hoping we'll all be better by Christmas!

*We've also been watching all the good Christmas movies - It's a Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street, Elf, and tonight A Christmas Story (1st time for me) with Bill and Mariah for FHE.

It's a...

healthy little GIRL!!! We couldn't be more excited! Bring on the pink, tutus, and bows...I'm getting my little dancer!

I know I said her name was going to be Caitlyn Joan, but I'm having second thoughts. Caitlyn was the name I liked growing up and I always said my first daughter's name would be Caitlyn. But now that the time has come to name her that, I haven't really been feeling it. Right now we are thinking Peyton Joan, but we'll see. Here she is!

And her cute little foot.

Everything looked great. She is measuring a few days behind my due date which actually makes sense to me because it took a few days after I thought I might have a positive pregnancy test, to get the positive result. But it wasn't enough behind to change my due date.

Also, I get to go back in at 28 weeks to make sure I don't have placenta previa. She couldn't get a good look at that because I was having a braxton hicks contraction at the time. But she said 99% of the time there isn't a problem, so I'm really not worried. And I'm not complaining because it means I get to see my little girl again! With Corbyn we didn't see him again until he was born.

This is the first girl on both sides of our family, so she will definitely be outnumbered and probably spoiled rotten with lots of cute girl clothes! We can't wait to meet her - only 20 (hopefully less) weeks to go!

Oh Christmas Tree

Two Saturdays ago we went to pick out our Christmas tree.

Corby loved playing with everything as we set it up.

I put all the ornaments that are breakable up high and all the ones I didn't think he could break down low. He surprised me and broke one of the ones I didn't think he could break (I was able to fix it with super glue), but other than that, my plan has worked pretty well.

All day long he takes down the low ones and then I put them back up.

So our tree never looks exactly the same, but most of the time it looks more or less like this.

We have it on a timer, so it is on in the morning and at night. But usually when it goes off in the morning, Corby goes over and points to the outlet until I turn it back on. I turn it off during his nap, but other than that, it bring us holiday cheer all day long!

Hypochondriac

Looks like Corby has inherited his mom's hypochondriac tendencies. Rog has had a cold for the past week or so. Last night he was coughing at dinner and Corby started imitating him. We were lucky enough to catch it on video.

He cracks us up!

One more week!

I keep meaning to do a post about my pregnancy, but the weeks keep flying by and I never get around to it.

This picture was taken a week ago when I was 18 weeks. I'm a little bigger now, but I just got back from the gym and I'm kind of sweaty and gross (but not too sweaty because how sweaty can you get when you have to keep your heart rate down). So you'll have to forgive me for not taking an updated picture.

I've officially reached the point where I can't really button my jeans, but I'm not big enough for maternity jeans yet. So the only pants that are comfortable are pajama pants or sweats which I wear all the time - other than when I leave our house and I squeeze into my regular jeans.

Of course it's all worth it when I feel the little person inside me move around. It took a long time for me to feel Corbyn move. Or at least it took a long time for me to realize I was feeling him move. I don't remember feeling it before my 20-week ultrasound. So this time I was very pleasantly surprised to start feeling movement around 16 weeks. It's pretty strong and consistent now. Even Rog has felt it.

This pregnancy has been flying by. The last 3 weeks have been a little slow because I keep thinking about the ultrasound coming up, but I really can't believe I'm already almost half way!

Our ultrasound is next Thursday afternoon. I am so excited and nervous to find out if it is a boy or a girl. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't hoping for a girl. I just don't know if I'd be able to handle 2 crazy little boys running around. (Edda, I don't know how you do it!) But of course we will be happy with either. I'll update as soon as we find out!

November Decorations

My Christmas decorations have been out since the 1st, so I guess it's about time I got around to blogging about my November decorations!

I'm a firm believer that you don't decorate for Christmas before Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is a great holiday with lots of fun opportunities for decorations - I don't know why it so often gets skipped over!

New this year - Keep Calm and Gobble On (free printable found here) and the block turkey.

And of course my shadow box.

Last year I broke one of my owl plates when I was putting them away and this year I broke one when I was getting them out. That only left 2, so they got to hang out in the kitchen.

With my owl dish towel.

And I found these plates at the Wood Connection on clearance for only $3.95 each!

Love, love, love!

Rough Start

We had a rough start to our week as we went back to reality. On Sunday night we put Corbyn to bed at his normal time - 8:00. Then right as we were about to fall asleep around 11:00, we heard a few coughs and then the unmistakable sound of throw up coming through the monitor. Both of us jumped out of bed and ran into his room.

He wanted his daddy, so the pregnant lady was stuck cleaning up the nasty mess which was all over his pajamas, stuffed animals, the crib, floor, and bed sheet. We got him back to sleep only to be awaken another 3 times for more of the same thing. By that time I was feeling a bit queasy myself due to the smell. He didn't throw up again, but did wake up a few more times just crying. Rog was a champ and got up with him, so I could get some sleep. He worked from home for the day to help out.

He was tired and didn't eat much throughout the day. He threw up one more time right before bed, but that was the end of it. It must have been a 24 hour thing that he caught in a play place or something because I don't know of any other family members that had a stomach bug. No fun, but at least Rog and I didn't get sick as well.