2012 Julia

For those of you that don't live here in good old Idaho Falls, you probably have not yet heard me chanting my new mantra. I should probably actually say mantras as it changes from day to day, but the purpose is always the same. This is the year I am better. Better at everything, including but not limited to: more organized, better mother, better wife, healthier, more fit, blog more, craft more, read more etc. etc... I know, overwhelming right? Nope, 'cuz in the spirit of being more organized, I have a plan! Jeff and I both (his might have been a little bit against his will) typed up New Years Resolutions addressing everything we wanted to fix/improve/begin this year. Then they got filed in my new "family binder" that organizes all the stuff that used to collect on my counter tops. Fancy right? So I have decided that you guys get to take this journey with me. Starting with the 52 week organization challenge. For those of you that have not seen the pin on Pinterest I have started this challenge: http://tinyurl.com/6m7lpv4  This week was 'pantry.' Oh man did I need this one! Don't believe me? Check it out....

 Jeff looked at those picture and pointed out that they are quite possible the BEST before pictures ever. I mean really, it's can't get any worse than that right? Honestly, I'm a little embarrassed showing them. My defense: Luke and Alex have recently decided that the pantry is their favorite place to play since it has a swinging door, hours of entertainment apparently. And since I knew it was coming up on the challenge I pretty much gave up on picking up after them. It may also be possible that I just started tossing stuff in there since there was no chance of finding it's assigned place anyway. I know, I know, it's a pretty weak defense, but it's the only one I've got. 
  So, to the cleaning. I decided if I was going to do it I was going to do it right. When we moved it and renovated the kitchen we completely ignored the pantry. So I emptied it out:

(I just tossed everything into the kitchen...)

made Jeff paint it (I helped a little)

Then moved everything back in, in a MUCH more organized fashion.

As you can see, Luke has not stopped terrorizing it yet. He loves that he once again has ground to run on in there! And I have sooooooo much more room, look at how many empty shelves I suddenly have! Next week is the fridge, finally an easy one!!

First Haircut!

Yup, you read right, Luke got his first haircut today! Poor kid had a mullet and the top was so long it either tipped over his 'hawk or hung in his eyes. So today when I was done getting my hair cut/colored Jeff brought him over and Nellie hooked him up. Before:

After:

A whole new kid! I know it's bragging, but man he's cute! Also, I know I have been slacking on the 30 day photo challenge, so I'm going to act like I didn't skip a few days and just move right along onto day 5. Day 5 was 'someone you love,' so I'm killing 2 birds with one stone and using Luke's haircut pics as the one I love also. It's not cheating, I promise.

How could you not love that face? Thanks Nellie for doing an awesome job!

I forgot!

Christine's STATS post just reminded me that I never posted Luke's stats from his 1 year visit yesterday. He is 31.5" tall (96%) and 24 lbs 5 oz (90%) Built like an ox and healthy as ever!

Day 3: I guess

So, I missed yesterday. I have a really good excuse, I promise! Yesterday's photo was supposed to be 'clouds.' So I look outside... no clouds. I look again a while later, no clouds. This repeats itself all day until finally it is dark and I couldn't take a picture of the clouds even if there were any. Great. So I decide to switch it up and I'll do day 4 on day 3 and day 3 on day 4. Perfectly logical, and since day 4 was 'my favorite color,' easy peasy right? Wrong. The taking of the pic was easy enough, my favorite color is green and Alex just so happened to be sitting at the cookie monster piano in a green shirt. Done and Done. However, I have decided to take all the photos w/ instagram (a program on my phone) and I could not get the photo of Alex OFF of instagram and onto my computer. Still cannot figure out what went wrong, so alas, no day 4 on day 3. So you will just have to pretend that you saw a darling pic of alex playing on a keyboard holding his hands with perfect form in a green shirt. And back to day 3 on day 4.....

STILL NO CLOUDS!!!! So instead you get a pic of the pretty at dusk, though cloudless, sky with a windshield reflection that looks like a UFO approaching earth in the distance. Go put on your tinfoil hats so they can't read your thoughts and I'll see you tomorrow!

The fat baby sang.

Oh man, what a party! As far as first birthdays go, this was a good one! We had sloppy joes for dinner (which i kind of screwed up but they came out ok,) followed by.... CAKE!!! A cake that started out like this....

And ended up like this.....

See what I mean about an awesome party? The best part was not actually eating the cake, but trying to convince the kids that it was not actual dirt and it was, in fact, edible.
Next? Bath (obviously...)
And then?  PRESENTS!!

All the cousins were there so Luke had plenty of help opening his gifts, and afterwards plenty of help breaking them in. We couldn't have asked for more!
  After the festivities were over and we returned home I set Luke down on the kitchen floor to help Jeff unload the car. He just leaned up against my legs and wouldn't stand up due to sheer exhaustion, so I just scooped him up and took him right upstairs to bed. As i rocked him he alternated between trying to jump off my lap and play and head back with his eyes rolling back and drool trickling out from under his binky. Since I kept laughing at him I decided to just toss him in bed and let him sort it out on his own. I'm downstairs now posting this story and I'll think he's asleep, only to hear a laugh and a "bah da ma da bah bah bah..." through the baby monitor as his sugar high fights to wear off. Yup, it was a pretty good day. Thanks to everyone who came or sent gifts, we appreciate and love you all!
  Oh funny story for Leanne: (background for all those of you that are not Leanne. In october we went to California to stay with Leanne, my sister in law, for a few days. That was the only time Alex has ever been there, her house is stucco, and her daughter's name is Charly.) So I'm putting the frosting on the cake today and it's buttercream frosting which is a little more airy than regular frosting. Alex looked at it and said, "Mama, that looks like Charly's house!'
 

Day 2: what I wore

An apron! Jeff and I have been working on Luke's birthday dinner and cake for the last few hours, thus an apron. Stay tuned for pics of the cake!

30 day Photo Challenge: Day 1

Ok, so I decided to do a 30 day photo challenge I saw on pinterest. I'm hoping it gets me to remember not only to take pictures, but to then post them. I'm also hoping it will break me out of the box a little bit and mix up what I take pics of and how I take them. So, of course day 1 was the hardest, turn the camera around... self portrait. Here goes nothing.

Jeff pointed out the blurry eye, it is actually an effect where everything but the very center is a little bit blurry. I thought about retaking the picture, but if I did it now you would see something like this:

So... no laughing! I mean it!