My Angel

So, I had to work Wed., Thurs, and Fri nights which means that I had to sleep on the couch Thurs, Fri, and Sat this week. I was dreading what would happen to my house in those few days with the way things were going. But I have good news to report. Landan was an angel Fri. and Sat. I think part of it was because I locked my bedroom door and stayed in the living room for nap time but he didn't touch the movies once or mess anything up. I was so happy!! I"m sure this isn't a permanant thing yet, but it was nice for a couple of days.

As only a parent of a toddler will understand, we had a HUGE breakthrough on Sat. Landan started occasionally voluntarily going potty. And one time he actually went poop in the potty all by himself. I was so excited! And very happy that my child can be normal sometimes. He's awfully cute when he's being good.

Like at the moment. He asked to watch the movie" Christmas Eve on Sesame Street" which is an old holiday favorite of mine. If you've never seen it, at the beginning of the movie they are at a skating party and Big Bird gets help learning how to skate from this adorable little girl. The music that plays during this part is "Feliz Navidad". Well, when the music started, Landan runs to me and says, "it's Maurice Mabeelop!" I was a little confused for a minute until I realized what he was saying. Now he's running around "dancing" to the music. It's really cute. He loves that song on the radio now. I was glad to pass on the tradition.

Terrible Threes

Whoever coined the phrase, "terrible twos" is an idiot and should be shot. In my experience, the twos are nothing compared to the threes. Landan has suddenly become a master at getting into trouble. We'll start with last night.

Picture this: You're laying in bed with your spouse watching a chick flick. Now since we're talking about me, I was crying because that's what I do when I watch chick flicks so of course Kevin is willingly cuddling with me (which is why he watches chick flicks). The movie is just about over and we're getting cozy when Kevin hears a noise that sounds like the piano. So we go out in the living room to find this: videos strewn all over, half of them opened and missing with goo all over them. The goo turns out to be two pudding cups which were smeared all over our carpet. Our knick knacks which we thought were safely out of harms way are sitting on the couch along with a very nice breakable ornament. Landan's potty treats are all over the couch as well. There is pudding smeared all over the tv as well since Landan had climbed on one of his toys to turn on the DVD player. And Landan is in the middle of it all, happily playing the piano. Needless to say, we were not happy. We spent the rest of the evening not in bed, but cleaning up our son's mess, and trying to figure out how to keep our food and videos and valuables safe without locking our son in his room day and night.

Rewind to 4 days ago: We had just bought some presents for some people at work (I had a secret santa thing) and some family members. We wrapped them and put them under the tree. Big mistake. When we woke up in the morning, we found Landan sitting on the couch with all the presents unwrapped and the truffles I had gotten for my secret santa were all gone, in Landan's tummy. Every single one of them.

Rewind to 5 days ago: I was sleeping on the couch after I had worked the night before. I woke up to find that Landan had taken all the movies off the shelf and opened them. We found out last night that he had stuck the majority of them inbetween the door and the doorframe of our entertainment center. I didn't notice this at the time because they were hiding behind our games. He likes to play with movies. Have you noticed that? He had also managed to break two ornaments from the tree.

Rewind to 7 days ago: I was taking a nap in my room (once again after I had worked the night before) and Landan was supposed to be in his room for "quiet time". I woke up and he wasn't in his room, he wasn't in the living room or the toy room. I found him in my bathroom, sitting on the sink, with makeup smeared all over his face. This was also the day he had been playing with the computer and the camera.

Please, someone speak comfort to me and tell me this is normal behavior and that it will STOP! I now understand the phrase that I heard so many times growing up, "We just can't have nice things." I love my son to death, but sometimes I wish I could just ship him off to grandma's (either one) until he's at least six and in school.

Night scare

I can't get my pictures to work at the moment. I woke up this morning to find Landan had been playing with the camera, among other things, so until I can fix it, I have a different story to share. We went grocery shopping after dinner tonight. When we came home we put Landan to bed and then we were putting groceries away and I suddenly noticed that the back door was open. The last time I came home and the back door was open was when I was 14. That time was the end of a Thanksgiving trip and it ended up we were being robbed. The guy was still in the house.

Needless to say, I suddenly got really scared. I calmly told Kevin the back door was open and then proceeded to freeze where I was until he searched the entire house and backyard. He even checked the large garbage can in our garage because it was big enough for someone to hide in. Even though he pronounced the house clear of bad guys, I am still nervous and I wouldn't go in a room without him with me. Call me paranoid but if you had walked into your house as it was being robbed, you'd be paranoid too.

Christmas Confession

First let me just say, I love Christmas! The entire season starting at Halloween and ending at Christmas is my favorite time. I love decorating and all the lights and buying gifts (even though they're not for me, it's an excuse to spend money, yay!). I love the whole feeling of the season (cheezy I know, but I can't help it.) I've been listening to Christmas music since before Thanksgiving when I found a radio channel that was playing it.

As I was listening I realized they never play Amy Grant. My mom bought this CD when I was in middle school or high school and I love it. There's a song on this CD called "Breath of Heaven" and I think it's beautiful. When I was in high school my dad helped start this tradition in Clinton, IA where I'm from . There was a big park there that overlooked the Mississippi called Eagle Point Park. They started a light show called "Symphony of Lights". They had a lodge that had different activities during the season. For a couple of years my family was the entertainment for one of the nights. You see, my family has a built in orchestral quintet (2 violins, viola, cello, base), we mostly all sing, and my parents both play the piano. So we'd sing and play and entertain.

Here's my confession: Most of us complained about it or didn't want to practice for it. We all joke about how my dad used to drag us around caroling and even brought our instruments a couple of years. But in reality, I loved it. Secret's out. I thought dragging instruments around caroling in the middle of winter was a little much (sorry dad) but all the other times we got to play for people, I loved it. I was so proud that my family had the talent and we were close enough to be able to work together to perform. It was fun.

One of my favorite memories is when we were playing at Symphony of Lights, my mom had a book of the songs from Amy Grant "Home for Christmas" and they did an arrangement they came up with from "Breath of Heaven". My Dad would play the piano, my brother would accompany on the cello, and my mom would sing. It was beautiful. It always made me want to cry.

I can now understand why my dad bragged about us so much. If I have talented children like he did, I'd be wanting to show them off too. So, thanks Dad. I really did enjoy showing off our talents and playing together.

Visit to Santa!

This is Landan's first visit to Santa Clause. We went to Moody Gardens this year over Thanksgiving with the fam. in Houston. (More on Moody Gardens later) Santa was there so we decided to let the kids visit (it was a short line and they let you take your own pictures.) Landan, being the friendliest kid I've ever seen, walked right up to him and climbed up. It was so cute. They had a nice long conversation during which I'm sure he divulged his entire life to Santa.


Every time I asked Landan what he wanted for Christmas, he said he wanted presents. So I had to tell him what he was going to tell Santa. I told him he should ask Santa for a bike. He can't read this blog yet so he won't know that that's what Santa is bringing this year.

Here's some pictures of my cute nephews Kenny and Nathan with Santa. (Nathan wasn't too sure about the whole Santa thing but he didn't cry.)

Decorating at Eppies house.

We spent Thanksgiving at Eppie and Papa's house this weekend. It was really fun. We spent lots of time with the family. At t his stage in Landan's life, he is really in to helping. If you want him to do anything, you just have to ask him to help you and he'll do it. He's actually a really good helper if you can find something for him to do that won't hurt him or mess up what you're doing. So when Eppie decided to put up decorations the day after Thanksgiving, Landan of course wanted to help. Here he is bringing garland up the stairs to give to Eppie to put on the spindles on the balcony.

Floral surprise

With Kevin working days and me working nights, we kind of spend about 5 minutes a day together. He goes to work at 7:30 when I get home and I go to work at 6:00 pm when he gets home. Not much time to be together. So the weekend before Thanksgiving we both had off for a day or so and Kevin came home from work with these.

I love roses and he hasn't gotten me flowers in a VERY long time. It made me very happy to know he was thinking about me.

Houston visit.

A couple of weekends ago, Mike and Ashlyn came to Houston to visit with Avery. Kevin had to work so Landan and I went down there ourselves to visit. We love spending time with the family. Landan loves spending time with his cousins. Here are a few pictures from the weekend.

Me with Avery

The cousins: Nathan, Landan, Kenny, and Avery

Landan and Kenny getting into mischief while Nathan looks on.

Landan with Avery. He loved to hold her. He asked all the time. It was so cute.

Working for the money Part Deux

For all that haven't heard yet I have a new job doing something I am suited for. I am a stalker. Oops...I mean stocker. I work in the seasonal department. I only worked for Michael's for one week. At Hobby Lobby I work full time and make more money. It's always about the money when you are married and have a family. Thank you to all that supported me throughout the last 3 months of unemployment.

What we will do for a little extra money

To everyone that has not already heard, I finally have a job after many months of searching in every nook and cranny of Austin, and Houston for landscaping jobs, and Austin in every retail store known to man. I am working in the framing department at Michaels part-time. It is not my chosen field but it certainly feels good to get out of the house and back in to the working world.

Due Date

It has been brought to my attention that I have failed to mention to those of you that haven't seen me since I've been pregnant when my due date is. I am due on May 17th which puts me at 12 weeks today and 13 weeks this Friday. It is said that you look bigger with each baby and I will have to agree with that for this one. I feel bigger and I look bigger than I ever did with Landan. I think it's because I have leftover from him that is getting pushed outward. So no one has to wonder, I will probably be learning the gender of the baby sometime around Christmas or just after. I'll let you all know when I find out.

PS. check out Landan' new quote on the side

Cute face

I just took this picture of Landan today because he came up to me and made this face and it was so cute.

Trunk or Treat

For some reason our ward decided to have our trunk or treat on Halloween. It kind of made it difficult to trick or treat and go to the church activity. So a bunch of us from the ward that live in the same neighborhood went trick or treating early and then went to the church. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the actually trick or treating but here are some pictures of right before we went.




Isn't he a cute indian. There was this 8 year old in the group of kids we were with and he was running as fast as he could. Landan kept right up with him. He was so excited to be running around with an older kid and knocking on doors he forgot to get candy at one house.


So we didn't get a chance to set up our house for Halloween so we decided to decorate our trunk with our Halloween village. We had scary music playing at the same time.


Here's some pictures from trunk or treat. They had a few games and then a cake walk before the actual trunk part. Landan got a little excited and was running all over but he had fun.



This little boy he's with is Quinlan. He met him at a playgroup at the park the day before and they hit it off immediately. I think it's because Landan has such a dominant personality and Quinlan is more mellow. They were inseparable during the activity. It was really cute. I'm so glad Landan was able to find a friend his age so soon.

Car Wash

We had our first car wash in our new house. I'm so excited to be able to wash our cars without having to pay for it. Landan had lots of fun. He spent most of the time putting his hand in the bucket and going behind Daddy. Even after we were spraying it off, he tried to wash more. It was very cute.

I was the sprayer.

Landan had to help spray too.

The Sandwich Dance

A couple of weeks ago I asked Kevin to make me a sandwich for my lunch at work. Landan wanted to "help", as usual, but that usually makes things take a lot longer. So Kevin came up with an alternative way to entertain him while he actually made the sandwich. I was cracking up. I think it was very creative and cute. Under some protestations from Kevin, I decided to share it with you. I'm sorry about the orientation of the video, we can't get it to turn properly. Please enjoy the show.

Landan Handwalker

Even though Landan is a total mama's boy, he loves spending time with his daddy. They have a lot of fun together. Here is a small sample. (P.S. Kevin came up with the title.)

Short update.

I just wanted to let you all know that we didn't fall off the face of the planet. We finally got to move into our new house this last weekend. We are so excited to own a house and we are loving it so far. I have been working a lot of extras in the last few weeks and I am having a lot of stomach trouble with this pregnancy. I also need to sleep A LOT! I swear I do nothing but sleep and feel sick. Since I'm the one that does most of the blogging, that is why there are no new posts. But I do have a lot of things to write about so when we get everything settled in the house and I'm feeling a little better, I will try to put some pictures up and update everything.

Texan slang.

You know, it's funny how fast you can pick up on the local dialect. When I was in Utah I swore I would never say "Oh my heck!". Mainly because I didn't think it was very appropriate. And I never did. Here, I don't really care if i pick up texan slang and so therefore, last night at work, the word "y'all" slipped out of my mouth as pretty as you please. All the nurses around me thought it was really funny. Most of them are from out of town as well. I wonder what else I'll pick up.

The age old question

As everyone has always said that Landan looks like his father, here is something to put all the debate to rest.

Sour Candy

Kevin was eating some sour candy today and of course, since Landan wants to do everything we do, he asked for some. So Kevin gave him one. It was so funny, we convinced him to eat another one so we could take a video of it. Enjoy!

Annoyed with anonymous

This post is specifically for "Anonymous Nuisance" (not you Eppie we know who you are). We would ask you to either post your name on your comments or not post at all. We are tired of the rude snide remarks on our comments. If you don't have anything nice to say stay off our blog. We have a lot of family and friends that would like to read our blog and leave nice comments for us. So knock it off.

What to do when you're bored.

This is what happens when you are really bored. You sit around and make a tower out of markers. And then you take pictures of it.

Bowling

We went bowling to say. I don't think Landan really knew what bowling meant, but he was really
excited. He picked out a ball and everything. I was so surprised. Landan started with a 6 pound ball and then he chose an 8 pound ball and he was carrying them around all by himself. He didn't like using the ramp that much. He's really into doing things "all by myself". Of course he did a lot better when he was using the ramp. The funny thing is, Kevin and I didn't do any better with the bumpers than without. It was really fun though.

Why I'm a Mom.

Landan came in with Kevin today to wake me up. I had worked last night so they were waking me up this afternoon. Usually Landan crawls up on the bed and starts jumping on it narrowly (or not at all) missing me. Today, however, he crawled up beside me, put his arm around me and said, "Mom, you're the best, Mom." And then he hugged me. He can be such a sweetheart when he wants to be. It's for these moments that I am a mom.

September has been good to us.

The good news is....we're trying to buy a house. We found a small house for a really good deal in a nice neighborhood. It's a brand new 1 story, 3 bedroom, 2 bath starter home. The one we were building fell through but we've been approved for this one. We're still holding our breath because with our luck lately things haven't been going our way, but if everything works out, we should be moving in about a week and a half. We're very excited! Kevin's already started designing the backyard. Here are a couple of pictures. My favorite part...the kitchen Island which equals counter space!

BETTER NEWS...... Kevin got offered a job at Target this week (pending drug test and criminal background check for which we are SO worried). He also had an interview this week for a job at a landscape maintenance company. He's hoping to get that one but at least he has a backup. Not the job he wants, but it's something and he can work while getting his masters.

THE BEST NEWS....

Have a great day!!

New design

Just so you know, Kevin put some new designs on his blog. You can link to it from this one. They're really good, especially the top one.

About Us...

Okay, just so everyone knows, we are not dead. I am usually the one that posts the blogs and I have been working a lot lately. We have also been under some financial stress a lot lately so I've had other things on my mind. I don't know how many of you know, but Kevin lost/quit his job about a month ago. He quit because his boss stopped paying him because his business wasn't doing very well. Kevin figured he could spend his time better looking for a new job instead of working for free. Unfortunately it's taking an abnormal amount of time to get another job. So at the moment he's playing Mr. Mom while I am working. Not our idea of a perfect situation but one that we are in.

Anyway, we're all doing fine besides some high stress levels. We're hoping our luck will change here soon and we're thinking it just might. We decided not to continue with the house we were building because we can't afford it. We're very sad to be losing it. It was on a nice cul-de-sac and everything. Oh, well. Such is life. Right now we're just waiting and hoping something will come along so Kevin can work again and he's planning on getting his masters earlier than we had thought. That's all for now!

Budding designer?

Kevin has been working on a new landscape design lately. We woke up a few days ago to find this...

I guess he wanted to be like Daddy and help with the design. Needless to say, Daddy wasn't impressed.

Lines

Landan has this really queer habit. When he plays with his toys he puts them in a row. A perfect row. He does this all the time. With everything. It's really interesting. Not sure what the motivation is behind it. Whatever makes him happy I guess.

Scripture rewrite...

Landan was looking at his quiet book my mom made for him. It's a Book of Mormon quiet book. It has two little gold fabric books in it that reperesent the Book of Mormon and he was holding one and Kevin was holding one. I was on the computer and this is what I heard:

Landan: Read the books Daddy.

Daddy: "I, Nephi, having been born of goodly parents, write a record of my father and my people..."

Landan interrupts: And my Mommy!

You rock dude!

Sometimes I wish I had the time and equipment to follow Landan around with a video camera and tape him all the time. He does the funniest things that you just can't put on a blog. I came out of my room and Landan was standing on the couch. He looks at me, raises both of his hands and says, "I have a liiiiiiittle trouble" as he's shaking his head at me. He looked so serious as he said it I had to laugh. He then continues to jump off the couch, strike a pose and announce, "You rock dude!" while winking at me. At least, he tried to wink at me. This is more what it looked like:


It was so cute. On a side note, I see what my sister said about putting your kids to work early so that they can one day take over the farm. (See Chiara's blog on mowing the lawn). Landan has suddenly become really interested in cleaning. He loves to clean his room (which he destroys about 10 minutes later) and he's very interested in vacuuming. He gets really excited when I do household chores because he wants to help. I have a sneaking suspicion that it's because he wants to spend time with me and that's his only motivation, but I might as well enjoy it while I can, right?

Bop to the Top!

Sometimes I look at Landan and wonder what he's going to be like when he grows up. Everyone wants their child to be great and I always wonder what Landan's going to become. I, like most parents, have grand visions of him being a piano legend, an actor, a sports star, a phenomenal dancer, or maybe all of the above. Yesterday, it was a singer/dancer. We were watching the Disney Channel movie High School Musical and there's a song called "Bop to the Top". The chorus lyrics go, "Bop Bop Bop... bop to the top".....and so on. Landan spent the entire song behind our couch dancing (which to him means running in circles) and singing, "Bop, Bop, to the top... Bop, Bop, to the top." It was really cute. Then every song after that, and today while we were watching High School Musical 2, he sang the lyrics he could remember from the chorus and danced. To every song. Do we have a future Zac Efron? We'll just have to wait and see.

PS. For those of you who don't know, Zac Efron is the main guy in the High School Musical movies.

And the plan backfired....

For all of you out there who are parents....you know when your child is doing something you don't want them to do and you tell them to stop a million times and they won't? So you come up with what you think is a great way to explain it to them so they will stop? And then that plan totally backfires on you? Well that happened to me today.

Landan has this annoying habit of wanting my attention ALL THE TIME! The way he lets me know this is by jumping on me, biting me, kicking me, climbing on me, hitting me, banging his head on mine, and generally driving me crazy. So today, after I'd yelled at him to GET OFF OF ME for about 2 hours, I decided to try another tactic. I told him that when he did that it was because he wanted attention. I explained that attention was when I talked to him and played with him. I told him that the next time he wanted attention he just needed to tell me and I'd let him know if I could give it. This all sounded well and good to me, a 26 year old. Apparently to a 3 year old, it meant something different.

Now when Landan wants me, he jumps on me, hits me, bangs my head, climbs on me, and bites me while screaming " I want attention!! I want attention!!" Not exactly what I was pictureing. I think I need to work on my skills before the fam gets much bigger.

Funny quotes....

Landan to his parents: "Why are you guys kissing in the car?"

Whenever Landan talks about things in the past, no matter if they were 6 weeks ago or 6 min. ago, he says: " We did that lesterday."

On another note.... we've spent the last three weeks going to my parents house so we've been going to their church with my sister and her kids. Today on the way into church, the poor dear asked where his cousins were. I told them they were going to their church in Houston and we were going to our church. He said, "No, they go to our church. I want them to go to our church." He misses them. It's cute.

The evolution of Pepper Juice

Landan really cracks me up sometimes. He says the funniest things to describe stuff. When he was little he used to ask me and Kevin for a drink out of our cups all the time. Well, actually, he still does that. Anyway, whenever he saw anything in our cups besides water he assumed it was juice. So he'd ask for some juice. Now when it was Kevin's cup it was usually Dr. Pepper. so we told him he couldn't have any because it was Dr. Pepper. So then he started asking if he could have some Pepper Juice. So we went along with it because it was cute. And that's how every liquid that looks like pop (or soda) has now been dubbed, "Pepper Juice".

Treasures

What does a 3 year old count as a treasure? I was sitting on my bed after a shower and Landan brought in a basket and said, "Look Mom! I brought you treasures!" This is what he showed me:

Two puff balls, his blankie, his Geotrax train and its two cars, a hammer, a "twister" (screwdriver), a wrench, a fruit snacks wrapper, and a "guy" (the little guy to his Geotrax).

David and Katherine's Wedding

This last weekend, after we got done with birthday, we got to celebrate my brother David and Katherine's wedding. It was a lot of fun. I love it when my whole family gets together. We have a lot of fun. Things can get a little crazy but that's what makes it memorable. My brother David got married to Katherine Jones in the Houston Temple. I got teary eyed as soon as they walked in the door. I can't help it.It was beautiful. It was really hot outside for pictures but everyone looked great.


Look at this cute boy. What a handsome dude!


You'd think siblings wouldn't be so shy about posing together. Seriously, we thought we were standing closer together. We were so surprised when we saw this picture. It must have been so hot we automatically stood apart. But we all thought we were standing close.

These dresses were beautiful.

Katherine's bouquet was beautiful. They florist had put jewels in the flowers. It was really pretty.
We tried to get a family picture. So far Landan hasn't behaved at a single wedding he's been too. I dont' think he can handle all the heat, excitement and stimulation. We thought he was over that but apparently not. We couldn't get a single good picture out of him the entire time.

Birthday weekends!

If you'll read my sister's blog, you'll know that it has been a VERY busy weekend. I'm going to start with birthday parties. For the last two months, every time we've been to my parents house we've had a birthday to celebrate. In May, it was mine. In July it was Kevin's one weekend, the next weekend was my Mom's. This weekend was my sister-in-law Ashlyn's (which was actually a few days before) and Landan's (which is actually on Tues.). We had burgers and cupcakes. My dad, again, forgot his burger on his bun due to the large amount of mushrooms (see earlier blog from May). It was a lot of fun. Landan got some roller skates from his aunt and uncle. He's been wanting those for awhile. He also got a GeoTrax train set which he loved.