Feb 15th 2009...One Year Old!

So being the terrible mother that I am -actually I think I am a pretty dang good mom!- I realized I never posted anything about Alex's first birthday. It is past my bedtime but I'll have to hold off for a few more minutes. Our sweet little boy is growing up so fast. He is such a boy. He likes any kind of truck or car and has the sound effects to go with it. He loves all of Shawn's electronic gear. He loves music and dancing. He likes to talk in his "deep voice" with his dad. He is so smart and is so proud of his "toot-toot" (belly button). He misses mom atleast once during the night and calls to mom or dad to come put him back to bed (a habit we are working on breaking). Alex loves to be outside no matter the weather. He loves wagon rides (Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Nageli for the awesome birthday present!), stroller rides, and just being outside. He loved crawling around in the snow this year. We are looking forward to warmer weather and trips to the zoo. Alex also loves animals - especially dogs. He has a favorite stuffed leopard named Leo. Alex still has a binkie and a bottle - habits we soon hope to break.

On February 1st we had Alex's party a little early because Aunt Susan was in town and we wanted her to be able to attend. Alex was glad that everyone came but was glad to be back to just us after they left. We opened presents, ate cake and had a pinata! It went pretty much as I had planned except the store we bought the balloons from neglected to put "high float" in the balloons. We picked them up on Saturday since we were having the party on Sunday. Sunday morning we woke to find all the balloons on the floor. My mom saved the day by going to All A Dollar and buying some replacements. Thanks to mom for jeopardizing her celestial glory for us. :) Alex was spoiled with many gifts which I will not attempt to name since I will most likely leave one out and hurt someone's feelings.

OK, so on to the pictures.

This is Alex with cake on his face. He is not too happy about being THIS dirty.

This is the cute cake we served everyone else so Alex could totally destroy his.

We had to get a spoon out to get Alex to start eating the cake since he is used to feeding himself with a spoon.

Alex actually blew when the candles were on the cake but not hard enough to blow them out so mom had to help.

Before the mess. What a cute boy!

Some of our guests. We love you all. Thanks so much for making it a special day for Alex and for his parents. We are so lucky to have all of you.

Alex and his cousin, Taylor, trying out some of the new toys. Taylor is less than 2 months younger than Alex and they have so much fun together swapping binkies and stuff.

So excited about the new stuff!

Farm set he got from Mamah Dawn and Papa Jim. He loves the animals and driving the tractor.

There's more?! Awesome!

Learning to read already.



Being a mom is the best job I have ever had. Thanks to my awesome husband for working so hard in school to make it possible for me to stay home and play house all day. Also, thanks for convincing me to wait so Daddy could give me a break in the evenings instead of the 6 years of homework. We are really blessed. We may not have it all together, but together we really do have it all. Happy Birthday "Little Son"! We love you!

The basement

So we have started working on the basement. When I say we I mostly mean Shawn. He is doing such a fabulous job! I took pictures today of some of the crap the original owners threw down there and called it a bathroom. We are going to try to make a few bucks to offset the growing cost of the new bathroom (which, may I add is more than my sweet hubby had planned). Shawn has hardly complained about the money spent - which is an absolute miracle. I appreciate all the time he is putting into it and how hard he worked to have the washer and dryer uninstalled for the minimum amount of time possible. I will post pictures when the project is done.

I know, I know...

So I realize it has been a while since I posted. I have a few good excuses I would like to mention. First off, we have been using our video camera and Shawn says we can make still shots out of the video. When he says "we" he must mean "he" can get still shots because I can't even figure out how to upload the video properly. So I feel stupid posting without pictues. My other good excuse is 13 1/2 months old. He is walking all over. He is crazy. He really wants mommy to be "playing" with him all the time. When he does sleep I feel so guilty just getting on the computer, so I do housework mostly. My parents recently did a photo shoot of the grandkids so I have taken the liberty of stealing some off my mom's facebook so I could have some pictures to post. I know the format is small but it's all I have for now. Enjoy

Cutting Trees

We went on our annual Christmas Tree cutting excursion! We had a great time. We really missed mom but it would have been too much for her to sit through all that drive time with her sore foot. Here are some pictures!

Crazy Life

So I have been going crazy trying to get my house ready. For what, I am not sure yet. We are either going to put the house up for sale or we are going to do some much needed improvements. Our home is feeling more cramped every day with our growing boy and all his stuff. I use every spare moment to go through all our crap and throw it out! Don't get me wrong - in this crazy economy we are definitely counting our blessings to have what we do. I don't mean to sound vain. I also take plenty of time to play with my almost-1-year-old. That's right he will be 1 on the 15th of February which is right around the corner. We are having a party for him on the 1st of February. We decided to have it early so his Aunt Susan would be in town. She is the most thoughtful person I know and we thought it would be nice if she could actually be involved in something for her nephew. The last time she was in town was for during birthday (I like to think she came just for that) so we are rather spoiled to have her back so soon. I also wanted to give a shout out to my brother, Mikey and his wife, Manda and their adorable baby, little Joshua! He is so cute and I only wish I could go over and have play dates every day. Logan and Magna just aren't very close. Anyway, I haven't had time to download any pictures or video but I have a ton so hopefully I will be able to post it soon. Until then, check my family's blogs because they are doing a much better job keeping up than I am. I usually pop online just before bed and check up on ya'll but no time to comment so just know I love ya all!

Baby It's Cold Outside

The Snow is here and it's still coming. Alex is enjoying watching the snow from the window. Maybe Daddy will take him out in it when he comes home.

Meeting Santa For The First Time!

We went to Grandma Lila's famous enchilada party at Suzy's house last week. Grandma LaRille had invited Santa to stop by. We were so lucky that Alex loved Santa. He sat right in front of him after his turn and watched all the kids sit on his lap. We all got a turn. Here are some pictures.