Ten for Tuesday

1. Poor little Hunter...he woke up yesterday with a fever of 102.7 and hasn't felt great since then. I've kept him taking baby Tylenol and baby Ibproufen, and it helps - but he's still just uncomfortable. I think it might be teeth, but I've said that before and been wrong....any teething advice? It looks like up to as many as 6 teeth could be trying to pop through, but who knows... (edited to add - he seems pretty happy after his nap and not quite as warm. Hope that's a good sign!)
   
2. When Cory bought all that stuff from his friend (see this post) one of the things was an Intelligel Bed. I was hesitant at first, but it's very comfortable and kind of bouncy. If you like SOFT beds, this is awesome. If you're more used to a hard bed it would take some getting used to. So far, so good. Cory loves it because it's the California King and now his feet don't fall off the end.
   
3. Hmmm.....yummy smells....ahhhh......I LOVE a good smelling house! Whether it's a candle, smelling good from cooking brownies, or the smell of a clean floor or bathroom - smell is what it's all about. That's why I'm super excited that I spent some of my birthday money on some new Scentsy goodies. I know about 100 people who are consultants, so I haven't ordered since my initial order for fear of hurting someone's feelings. But I bit the bullet and ordered from my SIL Ashley (because she's family right?).
   
4. Gabe is still at Grandma's house...I'm glad he's having fun, and I've been grateful for the "potty training" vacation I've gotten - but I miss the little bugger. Can't wait to see him soon and smother him in kisses!
   
5. Hunter has been saying his own version of Dad and Gabe. SO cute! And he's tried saying duck - and quack. I think he likes not having someone to talk for him all the time.... :)
   
6. Last week when I took Gabe up to spend time with his cousins I got to go to lunch with one of my favorite people - Jessica. We had lunch at my new favorite restaurant - Rumbi Island Grill. WOW! They have the most amazing salads and I can't wait to go back soon to try more (although mine was so great that I'm not sure I want to mess with perfection....)
   
7. We just got the information about our trip to Hawaii that we earned from one of our suppliers. I can hardly wait! The last 2 times we went to Hawaii included newborn babies, so we're psyched to be leaving them on the 'mainland' and having a bit of a honeymoon together. Check out the hotel we get to stay at!
   
8. Speaking of our trip to Hawaii. Check out the one main thing we are excited to go do - a powered parachute ride!. We saw it on the travel channel a few years ago and can't wait to try it ourselves!
   

   

9. Just picked these up for my kitchen from http://www.pamperedchef.com/ - on clearance. My kitchen is Americana and I thought these were perfect when I saw them at our friends over the 4th of July.
   
   
10. I found this blog today - "Seriously, so blessed" and it cracked me up! So often we blog just about all the great stuff in life. Read this blog - it's bound to give you a few chuckles. (it's a joke - so read it as such)
    

Grandma's Book

For Mother's Day I put together this book for my Grandma Marilyn. Everyone in the family contributed the journaling, thoughts and pictures. It was special for me to put it together and think about all of the people who love my Grandma, and what a special person she is. I hope that while she's at the Care Center she's in that she will be able to look at this book and feel of all of our love for her.

(I used this kit as well as this quick album for this project. I created some of the pages myself, and then used some of the quick album pages also.)

11 months old (and 10 months too....oops....)

I have tried to post pictures of Hunter every month on his month 'birthday', but I haven't been totally successful. I realized today that I never posted his 10 month pictures, or what was going on with him at that point. Oops - and my memory is pretty crummy - so hopefully I'll remember what was going on that month....

But on Wednesday Hunter turned 11 months old. WOW! This month he has changed quite a bit and has started being SO active! This kid moves and moves and moves. He crawls (army-style) EVERYWHERE, and as of recently pulls himself up to things. The wall, the furniture, over our bodies if we're sitting or lying down - climbs, climbs, climbs. Specifically he climbs in his crib - pulling himself up. However, he is not quite sure how to get DOWN, and so once he pulls himself up - he screams and screams until we come get him. We're not huge fans of it - but realize that someday he'll figure how to fall down on his own. (and actually yesterday he did it a couple of times and would cheer for himself when he'd do it. So cute!)

Hunter loves clapping, has started waving and kind of saying hi and bye (rough versions of it, occasionally). He also loves to clap when you say "YAY!" and raise his hands up high when you ask, "How big is Hunter? SOOOOO BIG!" He has 2 teeth, and more that are trying their darndest to pop through. He loves showing off those bottom teeth though with a big toothy grin. He also loves biting down on anything and everything he can (including my chin, cheeks, arms, etc).

Just recently Hunter has started to enjoy looking at books, and being less rough with them (to this point he would just EAT them, rip them, etc). He loves to flip through books with flaps, and small board books that are just his size.

As far as eating goes - Hunter will eat any and everything. His favorite flavor is banana. He loves mushed bananas, banana yogurt mushed bananas with cereal, mixed banana juice (at least he'll drink a little - that's more to say than he does with anything else liquid...), bananas mixed with berries, apples, pears, etc, etc. And he will eat any other baby-food too. He loves feeding himself little things - like cereal puffs (specially made for babies), and freeze dried fruits (specifically bananas and strawberries). Most nights he will eat and eat and eat - and we are the ones who have to stop because we think he's eaten too much. You'd never know it by looking at him though - he's still pretty small (around 18 lbs).

Hunter is still nursing. In fact, at the rate he's going - he might be nursing forever. I'm planning to have him weaned in this next month or so....but he's got other plans. He still needs to nurse to fall asleep - so I'm praying that he will find other ways to soothe himself to sleep. I had really hoped to get Gabe's potty-training under control before I started to work on the weaning (because it involves patience, and I don't have a lot of it right now) - so I am hoping that our progress can continue with Gabe's potty training. Wish us luck with this.

But this is our baby at 11 months. Next official update will be at ONE YEAR. YIKES!

(And here are pictures of Hunter last month - when he turned 10 months.)

4th of July

Well since we aren't close to any family (location wise) I always get a little sad on holidays like the 4th of July. I wish I was with everyone in my family having a BBQ, or something fun like that. But this year we were invited to spend part of the day with our friends the Haltermans and their whole family (most of their family lives in the area). We started out the day riding in the parade. The Halterman family own the Polaris dealership in town and so we all rode our rangers in the parade. Then we came home in the afternoon, relaxed, had our favorite bacon cheeseburgers (courtesy of our favorite hamburger joint Brad's Food Hut - YUMMO!) It might have seemed a little weird to BUY our lunch, not BBQ it ourselves, but we enjoyed it. I even took a nap - which happens like maybe 2 times a year.

Then in the evening we went to back to spend time with the Halterman family. They live clear out in the country - it's really quiet and nice out there. In some ways it reminds me of Mama and Papa's area - but more secluded. In their family there are 3 siblings, their spouses, lots of kids, a few cousins, and then Vicky and Randy - the parents (at least that live here, there are a few others out of state). So it was a crowd, but lots of fun. We had a tasty BBQ with kabobs, salads, corn on the cob, desserts etc. Afterwards we did some fireworks, the kids broke a pinata, and we came home. On the way home we got to see the city's fireworks start and drove over to where they were doing them. We were RIGHT there, and enjoyed the show. Hunter slept through the whole thing - we were amazed - it was LOUD and a few of them gave us goosebumps from being so loud!

Gabe spent the 4th of July in Logan with his Grandma Tammy and cousins. It was sad to not have a part of our family with us - we missed him, but know he's having fun with everyone else. I want him to have a great time, but in a selfish way I wanted him here with us. I know he would have loved being in the parade, waving at people and riding the ranger. He would have also loved playing with all the kids at the Halterman's. I guess it's good for me to have moments like this where I miss him - it helps remind me how important family is, and that I want our family to be together for important events. I also want him to have experiences with his cousins and grandparents too...so it was a toss up.

Anyway, here are some pictures from the day. They aren't the best pictures...in fact they ended up pretty lousy. (anyone suggest a fantastic point-and-shoot camera?) Oh well, we'll still remember what fun we had - right?