A Christmas Card for Mommy

Dear Mom,

What do you want for Christmas, you ask? You may have presents when Santa comes.

B2

D's 18 month checkup

Tomorrow D is 18 months. Holy...crap. Anyway, so I'm taking him to his 18 month checkup. Our doctor always asks how many words he knows, so this time I'm coming prepared: 20. I thought it might be fun to post his word list:

Hi
Mommy (or Mama)
Dada
Baba (for sippy)
More
Milk
Please
Cookie (yes, my 18-month-old knows the word cookie)
Papa (what he calls Grandpa)
Shoe
No (very important when you have an obnoxious older brother)
Mine (also very important when you have an obnoxious older brother)
(Side note: is there anything besides an obnoxious older brother?? I argue no...at least, not at their ages)
Boo
Up
Down
Nini (every time he sees a picture of my sister, he starts saying, "Nini!! Hi Nini!")
Baby
Choo Choo (haven't you seen the video??)
Hot
All done!

Such an impressive list! And so full of commands--more, down, mine...

Tomorrow, I'd love to post all of my kids' growth charts, both for comparisons as well as to keep them documented in a way other than a pile of papers on my computer desk... But, we'll see. Work is going to be super busy this week, so I think I'll be spending much of my evenings playing catch up. Goal for tonight: work fewer than 2 hours.

So S-M-R-T

I feel so much better educated today. Here's what I've learned:

1.) I learned that eating 2.5 pounds of chocolate cake will result in me not eating for 24 hours, and me losing all desire to eat chocolate cake again in the near future.
2.) I learned how to replace a broken headlamp in my Ford. Incidentally, it's not as easy as replacing it on a Lincoln, since the stupid people at Ford decided to surround the headlamp with a BLACK (rather than clear) cylinder of scratchy plastic, plus make the lamp be held in place by a metal wire spring that has to be latched to a plastic piece with grooves so that the metal must be in the exactly perfect position, all while having this all crammed next to other engine parts making it impossible to a.) see, b.) hold the lamp in place, and c.) maneuver the wire without losing all feeling in your finger.
3.) I learned how to import video from my older (2002) camcorder into my brand new computer. Results: we are finally going to have playable versions of home movies, vacations, and so on from the last 8 years! Beware family and friends--if you come over, we may make you watch our home movies!

While typing this, D pooped in his diaper and it smells. Unfortunately, he's finally asleep after being in his crib for almost two hours. I dread waking him up, but I dread even more scrapping the dried poo from his sore bum in the morning. TMI??

Funny things B2 says

Today I picked B2 up from the babysitter's house. He proceeded to tell me all the fun things he did, including going to preschool, and then having lunch, and then playing toys. He ended his long, tiring day when he "went down and took a snooze."

Then, tonight, B2 was about ready to go to bed (rather, it was his bedtime). I asked if he wanted to stay up and play with toys, or if he wanted me to give him tuck-ins. He thought for a moment, and then said, in a very serious, grown-up tone, "Tuck-ins. I'm not going to play with toys tonight."

What would you do...for money??

Me? I'd eat 2.5 pounds of chocolate cake with my hands tied behind my back.

What are you thankful for? Part Deux

This is my gratitude list, part deux (I don't know why I'm writing that in French, since I don't speak it...and no, it's not Folie a Deux, though that's pretty awesome...okay, REALLY awesome). On a side note, why do I ramble so much in my blog posts? Do I ramble this much when I talk? Anyone? *Crickets*

Okay, back to my gratitude list. As a summary of list 1:

• My parents.
• My husband.
• The LDS temples.
• Baskin Robbins Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream.
• Dave Ramsey.
• My job.
• My kids.
• Prayer.
• Extended family.
• My sisters, Beez and Rinz.
• My many nieces' and nephews' birth mothers.

And now, continuing on...

1. My in-laws--how many people can really say this? Me, because my in-laws rock! When I got married, I got a whole bunch of in-laws at once. In B1's family, you couldn't really separate "immediate" family from "extended," because it was pretty much the same thing (no, not in an in-bred sort of way). Some of B1's best friends growing up were his cousins, and their family did reunions every year--his grandpa's family on down did a 3 day reunion, and his great-great grandpa's family on down did a one day reunion. Holy cow! But anyway, I was quickly introduced to B1's 4 millions cousins, aunts, uncles, and 2nd cousins once removed. While they are all great, the part I really want to brag about is B1's sisters, their husbands, their kids, and my mother- and father-in-law. B1's sisters really took me in when B1 and I started dating. They even told B1 at one point that if he ever decided to break up with me, he would be kicked out of the family and I would take their place. That was comforting, since at times it seemed like our relationship was at a standstill. But, that's another post for another time. I feel sometimes like we're the slacker siblings, since we don't make as much effort as we ought to to hang out with them. But, CH, know that we think about you guys often, just not at times you're available. :) And CB, we would hang out all the time if you lived closer. Okay, that's a lie, as clearly we don't hang out with CH because we're too busy...well, more so because CH is too busy. :) [Wow, the rambling is getting really bad...] So, not only our my in-laws on B1's side awesome, but my in-laws on my side are awesome too! K, Poos, Heyhey, and JoJo are riots!!! They make us laugh all the time, and I can't help feel like our family wasn't really complete until they came in. I thought we were always the coolest family, but now I know we are definitely the coolest family because we've grown in the coolness factor exponentially.
2. Our neighbor J-no-nickame, because he gave us smoked turkey. He smoked it himself, and oh...my...GOSH, it was the most amazing thing ever. He agreed to smoke us a turkey if we bought all the supplies. Unfortunately, we ran out of money in our budget in November, so we haven't had it yet, which means I've gone waaaay to long without it. I feel like Barney Gumble when he won a lifetime supply of Duff Beer--"Just hook it to my veeeeeins!" If I could have a steady IV of smoked turkey, but in a way that I could actually taste it, I would so do it. Mmm....turkey...*drooling*
3. People at work who consider leaving but don't. You know who you are.
4. My bestest friends ever, BHC and LHF. These two girls got me through insanity in high school, stupidity in college (and the reverse of those two as well), and life as an "adult." Some say they made their lifelong friends in college--I'm lucky enough to have made mine 4 years earlier.
5. Good books. I was a huge book nerd as a young kid, and it's coming back with the discovery of Brandon Sanderson. I'm not even sure how many books I've read this year, but it's a lot, and it's sooo much fun. Yay for GoodReads.com and good friends who give me recommendations for amazing books!
6. [I am so ashamed to admit this, but...]Utah volleyball, without which I would have had no life (but more time) for the last four years.
7. And, of course, the bestest school ever, BYU. Go Cougars!
8. Sleep, which brings me to the close of this post...so sleepy....

Sweet sunset

Daylight savings means I wake up when it's dark and come home when it's dark. It's like living in a cave...or the City of Ember. But anyway, the other day I was driving home to this magnificent sunset:

Unfortunately I didn't have my "real" camera...and I was driving while taking this picture (super safe, I'm sure), so it's both low in resolution and a little blurry from my camera bouncing around, but look at those colors!! It was amazing.