Nesting...

You can't tell it from looking at my house, but I'm nesting.. MAJOR.. I'm just so all-over-the-place it looks more like a tornado struck than a mommy trying to make things nice for her baby.. When I was expecting Ethan, my only responsibility in the world was baby prep, so I had lists and more lists, calendars and check boxes.  Everything was packaged beautifully away into nice and neat little categories, and you could see progress each day...

***************

... fast forward 4 years... I'm working full time, trying to get a lot of scrapping design work stocked up for after baby comes, spending lots of quality time with Ethan now because he won't be getting much for a while come April, and oh - btw - did you know I'm having a baby?  It's seriously almost like an afterthought.. Poor Alec has taken the brunt of the crazy, though.  I'll insist and insist that something has to be done TODAY so it can be ready for everything else that's waiting on that one task.  Once it's finished, though, all those other things have fallen to the back of the line, and he's left wondering what the rush was.

We have the baby's room mostly finished - spent President's Day weekend painting and putting the crib back together.  It did help things feel a little more real, though, and whenever I find myself needing to be grounded again, I'll just go sit in there in the quiet and think.. which is nice.. But now I've also been rearranging closets trying to get everything in it's proper place.  (We used the baby's room/closet as a dumping ground when we moved, knowing that even though most of the stuff would end up in there it still needed to be organized a bit.)  So it's been a shuffle between our closet of storage stuff, making baby stuff accessible in his closet and finding homes for everything that doesn't fit.  (Currently that home is lining the walls in our bedroom, so we have a nice little cardboard box motif going on in there... again...) 

A good number of those boxes contain picture frames and other decorations I just haven't taken the time to unpack yet, so now - of all times - I have this great need to hang things on the walls when my time could be so much better spent on baby stuff, but I want those boxes gone, dangit!

It probably took me two weeks to get all the baby's clothes put away after they had been washed because I kept getting distracted with other projects. We need to replace a bunch of the storage items we used when Ethan was wee because he's still using them, or because one of the drawers on the changing table/dresser is broken beyond repair, so can't be counted as usable space, or there were a lot of built-ins in KC that we've forgotten how much we relied upon them.  Still need to get that checked off the list...

I was able to spend tonight ironing and cutting fabric for some fun decorative projects for baby's room - will hopefully finish that up tomorrow and can post pictures later this week.. I also have a blanket I'd like to get made, too - we'll see how that goes..

I should also prob'ly get a diaper bag packed to take with us to the hospital.. I've been so scatter-brained lately, I wouldn't trust myself to know where to tell Alec to look for things if he had to do it by himself..

And speaking of going to the hospital - last Thursday marked the beginning of the weekly doctor's appointments (everything looks great, still measuring big, but I have been the whole time), so it's going to be a real joy fitting that into my day while I do last-minute prep stuff for people to cover at work while I'm gone.. Right now the plan is that I won't come back after Spring Break (week ending March 17) so hopefully those 10 days or so of being at home will help me calm down a bit, get ready, and feel more prepared.. HOWEVER, Alec and I were talking about things last week and realized that {while every baby is different} if this one follows in Ethan's footsteps of being 2.5 weeks early, he could be here as early as next Sunday.. EEK!  Needless to say I've been a little more anxious since that popped into my head - resulting in all the crazy pregnancy dreams people talk about, most of which consist of people coming and taking the baby away because we're "unfit parents" (that was the major theme when I was pregnant with Ethan, too).  Last night, though, I dreamt I was going into labor, and it was SO real, I had a spend a fair amount of time after I woke up convincing myself it really was just a dream.. 

Anyway, this has been a novel - scattered all over the place - and now you have a better idea of what's going on in my crazy head... the end. .

A Catch-All

Yeah, yeah, it's been 500 years.. whatever.. For what it's worth, most of my friends and family are on Facebook, so at least you all get my more-frequent-than-blogging status updates..  ;)  Nonetheless.. it's been a busy few months for us - summer spent working, doing Lyric, camping, etc.. Flash forward to the last month or so, and this is what we've been busy with...

In order, shall we?...

#1 - On Sept. 29th, we found out our rent was being raised $150 beginning Nov. 1.  Well, that just would not do, so we searched around, couldn't find any other acceptable apartment on such short notice (considering #3) so decided to go the homeowner route, placed an offer and had it accepted by Oct. 8th.  Wow!  I was much less stressed about the whole process than I thought I would be.. It's a far cry from our "dream home" but it's a great little starter - same sq ft as our town home rental, but all on one level in more of an open floor plan, so it feels much larger - PLUS it's a little over $300 less than what our new rent would be - woohoo!  :)  We close on Tuesday and hope to move in either Nov. 25 or Dec. 10 - depends on how much we get done how quickly.. (The interior is kind of like living inside a pumpkin, so we've got a LOT of painting to do before all our crap gets in the way - but we're also into the busiest time of the semester work-wise, so you know how that goes....)

#2 - Ethan is FINALLY potty trained!  In keeping with his general milestone pattern, he's a bit later to "bloom" than average, but only because he has to have it mentally figured out before he even attempts the real thing.. On Sept. 17th, he was in the bathtub, Alec and run into the other room to get his pajamas ready, and I was downstairs on the couch not feeling well.. We hear, "Daddy, I need a P!" which we thought meant he was looking for one of his bath toys, but moments later, the lid to the toilet clangs up, and we hear the blessed little sound of tinkling into the water.. Of course we both totally freaked out and had a huge celebration for him.. as big as you can in a bathroom, that is.. Then the next morning, we were stirred from our happy slumber by the joyous sound of peeing in the potty.. again!  :)  Needless to say, he pretty much potty trained himself.. It took about another month to get the other end of things figured out, but he's been doing such a great job and we're SO proud of him.. and so is he!  :)

#3 - And finally... Baby #2 is on it's way.. and - in true LaBau fashion, it's another boy.. yay!  :)  He's due the end of March (again with the busy time of year (once each semester) for work) but I'm well on my way to having a fill-in trained and ready to go.. Pregnancy this time around has really kicked my butt.. I was SO sick for, like, ages.. we're talking mid July thru mid October - not able to get off the couch, really.. exhausted and past ready for bed by 8:00 or earlier (and for me, that's like 5-6 hours earlier than normal) etc, etc.. I know, I'm prob'ly a totally baby about it, but oh well.. Poor Alec had to be mom and dad and work and clean and everything - he took it like a champ.. And poor Ethan was always so concerned about me - asking if I felt "really well" or if I was "still sick".. Luckily, that's mostly all gone now - just late at night and early in the morning is when I'm still a little woozy, but it's manageable.. :)

So anyway, that's us in a nutshell.. :)  Don't plan on another update too terribly soon - let's be honest, I'm like the world's worst blogger - but once everything is all pretty-fied at the new house I'll be posting pictures for you to ooh and aah over.. ;)

Time for a Change..

I've missed it.. Alec prefers it.. So... 

...just more scrapping...

I know - don't faint.. 2 posts in 1 week is like miraculous for me, but I was kinda feeling it tonight, so here goes.. 

Since going back to work at the beginning of December, I've been taking a bit of a break with my designing, but I have squeezed in a little bit of time for scrapping.. Here are a few of the pages I've done.. links for credits can be found below.. 

 

http://scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/164321/ppuser/906

http://scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/161868/ppuser/906

http://scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/152438/ppuser/906

http://scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/160146/ppuser/906

http://scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/156052/ppuser/906

http://scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/153936/ppuser/906

 http://scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/148117/ppuser/906

http://scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/151763/ppuser/906

http://scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/152161/ppuser/906

http://scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/148118/ppuser/906

 http://scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/155002/ppuser/906

And since I'm in a showing off mood, apparently, here are a few other craft projects I did over the holidays...

http://scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/151136/ppuser/906

http://scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/151766/ppuser/906

... the end ...

We're Still Here ... Kind Of ...

O.K.

So, it's been like 6 months since my last post, and I know that probably makes me the worst blogger ever, and you're all just DYING to know what we're doing, where we are, how big the bug is, etc... So take a seat and grab a snack, because this is going to be a long one..

Just kidding.

To summarize.. roughly.. 

In July we took the big cross-country trek to see our families before we moved to NY.. Ethan actually did quite well on the trip, and while I still have oodles of pics to scrap, here's a page documenting our journey...

We rode on the train in Heber, played at a splash pad in Phoenix, met extended LaBau relations in CA, and in general had a great time visiting with family. 

We also made a rather major decision while we were in Phoenix.. We were about 10 days away from our move to NY date, and still had nowhere to live and no job lined up - not for lack of trying, of course - I think we spent 97% of our time there on the phone and in our email trying to get things worked out.. After much thought and consideration, we decided the best plan would be for Alec to go out by himself, get things situated, and Ethan and I would meet him out there once we had saved a bit more to help supplement whatever spotty work Alec could find until something better came along..  So we dropped Ethan off at my parents and drove out to KC to put our things into storage..

Now - those of you who have moved know what's it's like to pack for that.. and those of you who have put your things in storage know what it's like to pack for that.. and those of you who have done both know that those two systems are nothing alike.. SO all those boxes we had packed before we left - like 75% of our stuff - had to be UNpacked so we could get out of them what we each needed for our separate living circumstances and pack them all back up.. As well as get rid of a whole bunch of food items we weren't planning on because we weren't allowed to keep them in storage - for obvious reasons.. 

We finally got it all situated - despite some potentially major drama with the truck - i.e. we almost didn't get one so were left with a small 14' that was available for 5 hours one day.. two days before we had planned on.  But with some help from our awesome friends Brandon & Melody, we got everything squared away, and made the trek back to UT.. {For the record, I really don't care to do that much driving in that short of time ever..again..}

The sum of our existence in a 10x20 cube...

Then Alec spent a couple weeks with us in Heber again {looking for somewhere to live}, before heading out to NY mid-August.

Ethan and I spent much of August & September hanging out with my parents, having fun on the computer, being totally spoiled by such an awesome backyard at Ethan's feet, following in grandpa's footsteps, going to the county fair, and enjoying lots of quality time with his cousins.. 

Fast forward to October, and while Alec had definitely been keeping busy in NY - working full weeks just about every week he'd been there, as well as re-mounting the show he did for UMKC back in May at a theatre in NJ - he discovered this wasn't really what he wanted to do with his life, and the amount of time it would take him to get to where he wanted to be - 5-10 years at least - wasn't worth it.. So, we started looking at other options .. Fast forward a couple of weeks, and after several emails, meetings, phone calls, and just the right amount of "serendipity," he was offered a job back at USU basically being the supervisor of the people who now have the position he did when we worked there as a student, with possible room to grow.. As a bonus - we feel - they also offered to let me work 20 hours/week from home doing some administrative things for the new box office for the college of the arts.  We took it in a heart-beat.  {The story is actually a lot cooler than that, so maybe one of these days I'll give it the time it deserves, if not, and you're dying to know, just ask and I'll share. :) }

So, we made a mad dash to Logan to find somewhere to live - ended up in an awesome townhouse about 10 minutes from campus - and Alec made the journey back to KC - flying this time - and met his brother there who helped him pack the truck and drive it all out here. 

Oh yeah - Halloween and fall leaves happened somewhere in there, as well..

He was Peter Pan - a favorite of his {at the time} - although everyone thought he was Robin Hood.. Whatever..

So... after all that, it's November.. we're here now.. in Logan.. and are totally happy.. for the most part.. Work hasn't quite turned out as awesome as Alec had hoped, but hopefully with the new year and the transition of him being in charge instead of the students who are now, things will all fall into place.. My position has also changed - about 6 or 8 times just in the last week, lol.. but the latest is that I will actually be working full time as the box office manager starting on Tuesday.. When we were first presented the idea, we had mixed feelings about it - I was super excited and thrilled to be working again - I've really missed it, actually - but we didn't love the idea of putting Ethan in day care all day every day.. BUT after thinking it over, we've decided to do it.. The bug and I are really butting heads lately, so having some time away from him will be good for me, and having the social interaction with other kids will be good for him.. And if things don't work out like we'd like, we can re-evaluate at that point, but for now, we're going with it..

So, that's us in a nutshell.. this turned out to be longer than I planned, and while I left a lot out, I think you basically have the jist of it.. So - what's new with you?

Another Catch-All Post..

I know - I'm bad at blogging.. oh well.. if it makes you feel any better, I do talk to my parents pretty much every week, so not everyone is in the dark.. :D

Alright - what have you missed? Ok - The week before Memorial Day, one of the boys from church who is just 3 weeks younger than Ethan spent the week with us - kind of.. His mom is a teacher, and her regular babysitter was having a baby, so we were fill-in sitters.. We had John from about 8:30 to 5:00 each day and had lots of fun! Ethan loved having someone to play with, and I liked that they {mostly} entertained themselves.. By Wednesday, though, Ethan was showing signs of needing a little more attention, so we just kicked things up a notch each night when John went home, and he was fine.. We went to the park pretty much every day with the two of them, but by Friday, Alec and I were parked out.. So we decided to take the kids to Chuck-E Cheese.. It was my first time, and we all had a blast.. It took the boys a while to even realize that the rides did anything, so we spent a good half-hour to forty-five minutes before even using a single token.. 

 Not the best photo, but it's the only one I managed to get..

It had potential, though - if the darn thing would have stopped spinning!  :p

This one kills me!  They were so beat after it all, lol.... They even slept for a while after we got home!

Let's see - then on Memorial Day, we went to the sprinkler park in Independence... Ethan had oodles of fun playing in the water, and there was a regular playground down the hill as well, that he just went back and forth between the two.. I have tons more photos, but my internet is slow out here, so I only wanted up upload one :)

After sprinkler park, Brandon and Melody came over for dinner and games - as always - much fun was had by all.. :D

Umm... what else?  Oh - Alec has started working again.. He's doing Shakespeare in the park - Richard III - and they open.. Wednesday, I think?  So he's been gone most days and nights and we miss him lots, but at least he'll be finished in less than a month.. :D

Ethan has outgrown his church clothes - not that this is super big news, but I think he's just so darn handsome I need an excuse to show off.. :)

I got this 4-piece suit (3T) and another style in a size larger (4T) -

both for $24 on clearance at Sears - sweet!

Ethan has started taking swimming lessons.. I've been wanting to get him going for a while now, and thought summer would be a good time.. He loves the bath, and isn't afraid of getting his face wet - most of the time - and since I love swimming so much, and remember taking lessons when I was like 3 or 4, I figured why not?  When we went for the first day on Tuesday, they had actually canceled them because of thunderstorms, but he got all signed up anyway.. There was no one in the aqua-tots class, so they put him in level 1 - with the 5 year olds - so he wouldn't be by himself.. I was a little nervous, but figured if it didn't work out, we could try again later on.. So we went again on Thursday, and he had a BLAST!  There were about 20 kids there, and they spent the whole hour deciding who was going to what level.. In the end, they're going to do an aqua-tots class after all.. the other two kids are at least a year older than the bug, but they're the same level of experience, so it will be fine.. They started out the class with everyone jumping into the water one at a time from the side of the pool - in about the 2.5 feet section.. Ethan came right in, as long as I held his hands, and he didn't want to let go of me the rest of the lesson.. But once free time started, he climbed right out of the pool, and after 2 or 3 times with me catching him/holding his hands, he was doing it all by himself - even in the 3 feet section.. I think he'll do great.. :)  Lessons are twice a week from now until July 6th, so the timing is perfect.. :)

Speaking of July, we've almost decided what we're going to be doing with ourselves, lol.. Alec finishes up work on July 5th, then we'll take a day or two to re-coup and head off to UT and AZ for one last visit before the big move.. We'll be back to MO sometime around the 24th or 25th, and probably head out to NYC shortly after that.. We're still nailing down details of how we're going to get our stuff there -ideally we'd like to have it all packed in a pod before we leave for UT then just have it meet us in NY once we get there, but there's the cat issue to figure out, and a few other things, but hopefully we'll get it all sorted by the end of the week... Oh yeah - and a place to live - ack!  

BUT Alec got the official word that he will be going with Train to 2010 - the show he spent every waking hour on at the beginning of May - as it transfers to the Crossroads Theatre in NJ in Sept.  So - one way or another, we've got to be there by then.. :D

And, one last little bit of fun before I'm done with this novel.. I've been really under impressed with my photog skills of late, so I've been playing around a lot in photoshop with different techniques to spruce them up a bit.. Here's a few of the different looks I've come up with.. 

 Some of these are my own actions, and some were created by other people.. Needless to say, I think they really do a lot to make up for my lack of skillz, so hopefully I can "make do" with what I've got now, and work on improving the raw material a bit, too.. One of these days, I really should take a class, but that day is not today.. 

Oh - and one last photo - this was taken sometime last week.. I noticed the light coming in from outside was a little wonky-fied, so I looked out, and the sky was this crazy yellow-brown color.. The actual photo didn't capture it very well, but this edited version is pretty close to the real-life effect..

Finally Finished!

This post has also been a long time coming - but not quite as long as the last.. ;)  

Okay - it's no secret that I'm really good at starting projects . . . not so much at finishing them.. Alec says my hobby is collecting hobbies... whatever.. Anyway - ever since Ethan was born, I've wanted to make him a quilt.. My mom's a fabulous seamstress, and after having been taught at her feet, I figured it would be no big deal.. Mistake #1. Oh well - live and learn ...

So last September, I waltzed into JoAnn's with my list... I found all the perfect fabrics for my toddler-sized quilt, got all the supplies, and was ready to get started.. I began measuring, cutting, and snipping away.. I set a deadline: Halloween.. Oh, but wait! I have a kit I HAVE to get finished by next week - better put the quilt away... Ok - no later than Thanksgiving... Dag nab it, company's coming - can't have all this stuff lying around.. Christmas.. Oh shoot - is that another collab that's due? ... You get the picture.. And aside from all the outside distractions, it was just one thing after another with the actual sewing machine - it {not so secretly} hates me...

Well, long story short, the poor kid went all winter and spring without a quilt made with love by his mother - not that he doesn't have 5 million other blankets made with love by his grandmother.. AND it was only a week ago, or so, that he even started accepting blankets in bed with him, so it's not like it would have been appreciated.. Needless to say, I finally finished it on Saturday, and I am SO relieved! {And so is Alec - he can finally find the bedroom again!}

Here are a few things I learned..

1. This is the only child of mine that will ever own a quilt like this from me. *please see addendum below
2. Ironing boards are not the best work surfaces.
3. Beds are not the best chairs.
4. When you've got nothing else the right combination of heights, what can you do?
5. When machine quilting yourself for the first time, don't get the highest loft batting possible..
6. Sometimes it's just better to get it done {seriously, I hate that I gave in to that, but it was getting a little ridiculous..}

* Addendum:  When I start going off about how I want to make a quilt for the next kid, please refer me back to this post.  The only way I'm allowed to start one is if we have a place the sewing machine can stay out long term - none of this hiding from Ethan and digging it out the next time business.. Also, I need to have a work surface that's meant to be used for sewing - seriously, my back was killing me!  And finally - I can have no scrapping deadlines - self-imposed or other - for at least 6 weeks.  Oh yeah - and nothing with squares any smaller than 4 inches - this 2 inch business was a little tedious.. especially when I realized I'd been looking at the wrong guide on the sewing machine, and my 1/4" seems actually ended up being something between 1/4" & 1/8", so getting all the blocks to fit together and piecing together backing fabric to make up for the larger finished size was a bit frustrating..

Needless to say, it's not the most beautiful quilt ever made - quite frankly, there are a few areas that would warrant it being the ugliest.. But it's to him from me, and hopefully that's all that matters... :D

Wanna' see? . . . .

Where Has All the Time Gone?!?!

My goodness!  You finish one project and vow to spend more time on others and somehow manage to mess it up completely.. Ah well... what can you do?  :D

A quick recap of what we've been doing the last month and a half..

Alec

• Took a nasty spill on the ice about a month ago - he was holding Ethan, and managed to twist his body around so the bug landed on top of him instead of under him.  However, that meant he landed right on his ribcage...  He was in some serious pain for about a week, and it seemed to be getting worse, so we eventually had it x-rayed.. Nothing showed up, so he went on a steady diet of ibuprofen and is just now being able to go throughout the day without some sort of pain..
• Has started working full time on the last show of his grad career, Train to 2010.  This is the show he went to South Africa last year to workshop.. As far as anyone is concerned, it won't be mounting in SA anymore, but it's still slated to go to The Crossroads Theatre in NJ sometime next year.
• Spent this last week at the USITT conference which was held in KC.  {Basically all the theatre techies get together to show off their cool toys and techniques.}  He made and reestablished some contacts that will hopefully lead to some work for him in the very near future.. more on that momentarily.. I even got in on the action, for a brief moment, to meet up with some friends from USU for dinner one night.. It was so nice to get out and see some familiar faces.. much needed, for sure!  :D

Ethan

• Wow!  So much!  He is learning SO quickly!  He can count to 3, and also recognizes other numbers as well.. Knows circles, triangles, squares, diamonds, hearts, stars, yellow, pink, white, black, orange, green, and usually blue, brown & purple - we're still working on red.  I've lost count of how many words he knows, but he strung two together for the first time last night and said "Bye bye, Daddy."  Too cute!  :D  
• Right around the time change, he started an AWFUL phase of not sleeping.. He would refuse to go to bed until 10 or 11 at night - sometimes as late as 12 or 1, then he'd be up again at 4 or 5 - sometimes for the day.. And he wasn't napping, either.. Seriously.. we just couldn't take it!  I don't know what happened or changed, but finally these last few days he's gotten back on track.. His schedule has changed a bit, so he's napping later and longer than normal 3-6-ish but then he'll ASK to go to sleep right around 8:30 or 9 each night and sleep until 7:30 or so in the morning.. MUCH more manageable for everyone involved!  ;)
• We've also been spending more time outside lately with the warmer weather - minus the random day last weekend when we got 9 inches of snow in between 2 days of 60+ weather.. It's so fun to see him running around by himself and making choices of what to do and where to go.. He's such a grown up boy now - and SO independent {not sure where he gets that from} I see lots of fun and exciting times for us this summer.. 
• His imagination is really expanding, too.. Last week he asked me to draw a plate on his magnidoodle, then he proceeded to "eat" food off of it.. Such a silly boy.. :)
• His OCD is also expanding.. oy.. He's obsessed with putting things "away" - he'll walk through the house and point at things and say "away, away" until I put it away or help him put it away.  It's a good habit, though, and I love that he wants to put his toys away before bed.. :D  He also insists on all doors being closed all the time - something I appreciate - especially when it comes to the cupboards - but it's also cute when he wakes up in the morning and proceeds to close his door before coming out...

Amber

• Still just scrapping away.. Designing is going well, and I really love working with that.. I haven't been doing a whole lot of pages since the last post, as I've been trying to catch up on designing.. In the digiscrap world, people really only buy stuff when it's new, so if you're not putting out new product, you're not taking in any cash...
• Speaking of new products.... something I've just started offering is custom blogwear - aka make your blog look pretty using the kits I've designed.. And I kind of have a little favor to ask.. I would love to give links to some of my work in the product description in the shop so people can see what I'm capable of.. If you're willing to let me post a link to your blog in a public digiscrap store, I'd love to do a blog design for you.. If you're interested, email me at stolenmomentsdesign AT gmail DOT com, and I'll get you more info.. :D

And now that this post has been far too long, I'm going to end.. But I PROMISE that I'll post more later with pictures and details of our Easter excitement in the next few days or so.. :D

Just Another Day...

You'll notice another blog makeover, in honor of the recent snow we've been getting.. I'm so glad, too!  I really miss my white winters!  Not that it's green or anything here in the winter.. mostly just yucky grey and ugly brown.

This past week has been so nice!  Alec has been home all week, Ethan's been particularly "easy" and we've had pretty much no obligations.. So.. here's a quick recap of our "not much going on " week..

Tuesday - Dec. 29th... I don't know what it is about the new year.. maybe it's that Alec's home for a bit between semesters so there are more hands to help, but it seems like we're always reorganizing our lives during this time - particularly in the office/book region of our lives.  We've been overflowing our bookshelves for quite a while now, so Alec went and bought a couple more.  We now own 4 of the same style {LOVE that!} so we moved three of them into the bedroom to house the majority of our collection.  {It's really the only safe place for the books since we keep it closed all day and don't let Ethan in there because it's also the safe-haven for the cats.}  There is still one shelf in the office, and we have two built-ins in the apartment that house our church books and games, but now we actually have some room to grow - whereas usually we're just "barely" covered.. It's been so nice to have them in our big and boring white room.. it almost makes it feel like someone lives there!

Thursday - Dec. 31st... We just hung out and had a boring new years - trying to watch a movie, but a certain almost-two-year-old decided he wanted to stay up, too {second year in a row} so we all gave up and finally went to bed around 12:30.  Is it bad when you go to bed "early" on New Years?

Friday - Jan. 1st... After Ethan was up all night, he actually slept in until 10:30 or 11:00 and so did we!  Wow!  Fun, right!?!?  Then Alec and I went on a date to see A Christmas Story - The Musical {that was the show that ate his life for a while in Nov/Dec} and then dinner at Fogo de Chao - similar to Rodizios or Tucanos for you Utah peeps.

Friday - Jan. 1st... was also the first day of one of my new resolutions.. I've never really been much of a resolution maker - I always feel like I'm setting myself up for failure - but this year I've decided to give it a go, and while I haven't actually written any of them down, yet, they are there floating around in my head.. Anyway, one of them was to be better at my journal writing {aka to do it in the first place} so I spent some time working up to this putting together a little project - not unfamiliar to many of you, I'm sure..

I used one of my scrapbooking kits, a composition notebook and an old pickle jar to make a personalized journal complete with a journal prompt for every day of the year.  Now I just have to draw one out each day and take a few minutes to write about it.. I still plan to write a bit about my "everyday" as well, but there are some of those included in the jar as well.. I think at the end of the year, it will be a great compilation of a look into my life, that hopefully will be something my kids will treasure.. maybe...  Anyway - I'm three days in and still going strong!  Woot!  :D

And that's it in a nutshell.. Alec and I will be approaching the ever-popular job hunt with force these next few days, so wish us well with that.... Also - Ethan has been picking up on words SO fast these days!  Just since Christmas he's mimicked - or said on his own - in the correct context, the following NEW words: kitty, cheese, Jesus, amen, yellow, green, delicious {that one was pretty funny}, ball, star, tree, cracker, and probably a lot more.. OH!  And speaking of mimicking, this is pretty funny.. The other day while I was getting ready, Alec and Ethan were in the bedroom, and Ethan waltzed over to my nightstand, grabbed my deodorant, lifted up his shirt and started "applying" it to himself.. hopefully this sense of hygiene will last through his teenage years..

And one more resolution before I move on to other things.. I'm trying to have a more positive outlook on life - I'm pretty sure I'll be needing it as we move on to the next phase of our lives - SO.. I'm going to try to post at least one thing that makes me smile every day.. You'll notice them in my left sidebar.. I have a friend who does this and hers are just GREAT to read!  {Granted, most of them are super funny things her kids say, but you've got to start somewhere, right?}

Christmas

Ok.. not much to say, really, other than we had it.. It was fun to spend the time as just the three of us, and despite the fact that I took almost 600 pictures, they were whittled down to under 200 because our stupid camera and dumb user error made most of them blurry or otherwise unusable.. I've tried to do some quick and dirty photo editing to make them a little better, but I'm still pretty bummed about it - hence the negative attitude you may be sensing right now.. So.. on to happy Christmas! :D

Alec was SO busy with school - pulling 2-3 all-nighters in a single week - that we weren't able to do much decorating until the Monday before Christmas. Of course it was all in vain anyway, because Ethan just wanted to tear everything apart.. So, we waited until Christmas Eve to do the bulk of it after he went to bed.. Now I kind of understand why some people just let Santa do it all.. And Alec has realized it's more fun to be a kid than a parent on Christmas Eve, too.. ;)

The mantle.. Stockings didn't get done this year.. but hopefully we'll have another beautiful one next year, too, so we can take full advantage of it..

Every year we have the debate about a "good" tree or a "pretty" tree.. This year was Alec's year, so we went for a "good" tree..

Unfortunately, we don't have years and years' worth of homemade ornaments, so we pulled out mine from when I was little - thanks, Mom, for sending us those - and did a few crafty things ourselves.. We did the clove-encrusted-oranges at the beginning of the week, but Ethan was so concerned with eating the darn things not many were left on the tree - at least not with cloves still intact. Then I snagged a bunch of cute ornament templates from Scrap Matters {I love free stuff!} and we made about 15 of these pretty paper ornaments using various scrapbooking kits.. Between Ethan and the cats, I think we're down to something like 5 or 6 of them.. oh well - such is life..

And a few pictures of the day..

First seeing the tree.. I'm so sad this one didn't turn out better...

Opening some presents....

Ethan's really been into showing you your ears, eyes, nose, etc..
So he totally loved playing with his new Potato Head family..

If he can push it, that means it's an awesome gift!
If it makes noise, that's even better!

Every year my mom makes each set of kids matching pajamas
{which I think is just the cutest!}.. So here are ours... :D

Aren't we just the cutest little family, ever? Even if I do say so myself.. ;)

All in all, a really great day! We had so much fun just hanging out as a family and enjoying a truly relaxing holiday! Thanks to everyone for your wonderful gifts for us - although some are not pictured here, that doesn't mean we don't love them... it just means the camera doesn't.. :( And for those of you still waiting for a Christmas card from us.. stay tuned.. Turns out it will be more like a New Year's card - that's cool, too, right? ...