My Confession!!

Well KristieSue posted a few days ago about how she is trying to get her little guy off the bottle. So I though that it was time for my confession. So maybe someone had some hints or tips for me. Luke still has his bottle. He is 2 years and 3 months old today!!!! So it is pretty sad I know. He just has one at night before he goes to bed. He doesn't have a bottle at all through the day. Which is a good thing, but also bad because he will STILL not drink milk out of any kind of sippy cup. I have bought every kind of sippy cup known to man and he has refused them all. I have tried to put a little bit of sugar in the milk hoping that might get him going on it....didn't work. I tried chocolate milk. What kid doesn't like chocolate milk?.....mine doesn't!! So really he has no milk through out the day. That is another thing that bothers me, wondering if he is getting all the nutrition he needs. I try to make up for it my feeding him lots of dairy products through out the day, like yogurt and cheese. But I still don't know if it makes up for how much milk he used to drink. When he had his bottles during the day he was a milk drinking machine!!!

So lets just say that Luke is very very very attached to his bottle, and not just any bottle. He is very picky about the bottle that he drinks out of and what kind of nipple is on it. Sometimes he would get a hole in the nipple and I would have to buy some new ones. Well there was only a certain kind that he like and if I went to the store and they were out of them, then we were in big trouble. He would refuse any other kind. I know it is strange that he is sooo particular!!! So you can see why I have a problem finding a sippy cup that he likes!!!

So how did all this start? When Luke was a baby he never took a pacifier. I thought that was good, I never had that struggle of getting him off the pacifier. Little did I know that he would get so attached to the bottle. It is so funny to watch him drink his bottle. He still looks like he did when he was a baby nursing. It is the same sucking motion and everything. When Luke was a baby he loved to nurse too, it was like every two to three hours, even when he got bigger it was that way. So I nursed Luke until he was 11 months old. Then I put him on the bottle. I know a lot of people would have just gone straight to the sippy cup, to avoid the bottle attachment. This is probably where I blew it. But at the time it just didn't seem right to put my sweet little guy, fresh from nursing to a sippy cup. Plus being a first time mom you don't know all the tricks to the trade.

So here we are a year and 4 months later after putting him on the bottle. I have to admit, I really haven't tried that hard to take away his bottle at night. We have such a good routine down. He has his bottle, goes to bed and sleeps all the way through the night in his own bed!!! Which means I get my good sleep too!!! So I am afraid of messing this up. I keep telling myself, "Well when he gets a little bit older and can understand more, I can just tell him he is too old to have a bottle and that he doesn't need it and that it is time for bed without it" I am not sure if this is just wishful thinking or what, cause we are not to that point yet.

I read an article at Baby Center which made me feel a little better knowing that it is not a horrible thing that he still has a bottle at his age. But I think that it is time for him to give it up. So If anyone can relate to my situation and has some words of advice feel free to send them my way!!!

Weekend Pictures

Well we had a really nice weekend. Saturday was a beautiful day. The sun was out...it was a little windy, but it wasn't too cold. It was just the right temperature to spend the whole day outside.

It was sooo nice to finally get to spend sometime outside. Luke loves it outside (but I guess pretty much all kids do)
There is a trail that is not to far from our house that we love to walk. It is a nice cement pathway that goes for miles and miles. It follows along a little river and lots of trees. In the pictures it doesn't look too pretty right now..cause nothing is green yet, but in the summer it is really pretty!!!
Then we took Luke to a little playground at one the elementary schools right down the road from our house. He had a blast!!! Last summer he was too little to really get to enjoy it. I was to nervous to let him play on it very much, without being right by his side. So it was fun this time to let him explore and play on pretty much whatever he wanted.

This was his favorite thing....the big slide. He did it over and over and over. And of course he wanted Joe and I to join in the fun. So we got our share of going down the slide too. He had sooooo much fun and as usual he didn't want to leave when it was time to go. But I am glad that the warmer weather is here and we will be going to the parks and playgrounds a lot. So Luke will get plenty of playtime :-)

~Hope everyone else had great weekends too~

HAPPY~BIRTHDAY~MOM

Hope you have a great birthday today!!!! I miss you and love you very much!!!! Wish we were there with you!!!!! Have a great Day!!!

Beth

Isn't he the sweetest!!!

"Luke's Little List"

(here is a list of some of the cute little things Luke says and does everyday)

1. When Luke wants something he will come looking for me "Mama" and if I am busy doing something like taking a shower or just have my hands full for the moment I will say "just a minute Luke" and his sweet little reply is "*deep sigh* Otay mama" and walks away like he is all bummed out.

2. When I catch Luke doing something he is not supposed to be doing (and he knows it) he will look at me and smile and then run towards me with arms wide open to hug me and yell "mama" thinking that I will forget what he was up to and he will get out of it. Which he usually does then....can't pass up a big hug like that!!!

3. When I find Luke playing with something he shouldn't, I look at him and say "Luke" and he walks over to me and hands me whatever it was that he was playing with and says "Here go mama" wanting me to think that he was just getting it for me...not playing with it. It is pretty funny!!!

4. When I tell Luke NO about something, after I am done telling him not to do it...he will turn to the "no no" and point his finger saying "no no no" like he is trying to tell ME it's a "no no"

5. Well today Luke learned how to take off his diaper. He already knew how to take off his pants but never messed with the diaper untill today!! So he ran up to me not sure of what I would think of his new discovery and says very cautiously "Hi mama" He has done this a couple of times today. Hopefully he will not make a habit of it.

6. When I am doing something around the house he comes up to me and says "what doooing mama?"

Just a few of thing Luke does each day that make me smile or laugh.

Just love the look on Luke's face in this picture. It is so funny!!!!

???? Years in the making

Well I finished this quilt this morning!!!!!! I don't even know how long I have been working on it. Well I can't really even say working on it, cause most of the time it has been stored in my closet.

When I still lived in Washington my mom and I joined the quilting thing at my church. We picked out some fabric that we liked and gave everyone in the group pieces of it to make a block. I picked out butterfly, frog, flower, and sky material and let everyone add other fabric that matched to make a 10" finished block. My mom did the same thing but with cat fabric.

So I got like 15 blocks back, and they were all so cute. Then they sat in my closet for the next 5 years or so. I would take them out every now and then and look at them or show them to someone, telling them how I planned to put them all together and finish it....SOME DAY or some year. Well I guess this was the year. One day about a month ago...I just started working on it. I had forgot how fun it was. The last time I made a quilt was while I was pregnant. It was for my friend who was getting married. It was a huge quilt, so it was pretty hard and time consuming. I really wanted to get it done before Luke was born, but of course I procrastinated and I ended up rushing to get it done like the last month of my pregnancy. Which was very hard with a big belly. Can you picture it.....big belly women crawling all over the floor pinning and cutting and ironing. So I guess what I am trying to say is I forgot that it can actually be fun. Especially under the right circumstances. With this quilt I was feeling no pressure (from myself) on getting it done fast or even caring how it looked when it was done.

First I had to make sure all the block were the same size, but they weren't, they were all off a little so I added some fabric around all of them to make them 12" blocks. They I layed them all out on the floor to see what way looked best....Then just got to sewing, pinning, quilting, and putting the binding on, and today I was done. I am actually really happy with the way it turned out. I am not really sure what to do with it now that it is done. It will not be going on our bed....to girly for Joe. Guess we will just have to wait and see if we ever have a little girl. Hopefully she will like it and want it in her room. But for now I think it will be a good quilt to use when I am sitting on the sofa cold and need a blanket wrapped around me to keep warm.

It is a pretty neat quilt. I like to look at each block and see who made which one...since most of them put their names on their block. It brings back lot of memories of each person!!!

Have a Happy Day!!!

Happy St. Patricks Day!!!
Hope everyone has a great weekend!!!!

Matt & Samantha's Wedding

Well my brother got married in January and I just got some more pictures of it so I thought I would share them. It was a beautiful wedding!!!

They got married on Jan. 14th in Santa Ana, Ca. This is the yacht they got married on. It was really neat. We floated around the harbor all during the ceremony and the reception. It was really pretty...we got to see some really amazing houses. It was Luke's first time on a boat.

Here are some pictures from the rehearsal dinner and then a picture of my brother and me right before we boarded the boat. It was so good to see him and the rest of my family. We don't all get together very often.

Some more pictures from on the boat. Luke was the only little kid there. So he got lots of attention. He loved it...not only that but being able to run around all over the place during the reception was a blast. It was a little bit stressful for me. Had to keep a close eye on him.....there were a lot of stairs and also in the back you could walk right up to edge of the boat and the water was right there....that was a little scary. But we made it....even though I did have nightmares of him falling overboard and me having to jump in after him to save him. Glad that dream didn't come to pass.

Also while we were down there Joe and I got to go to an NBA basketball game. I bought Joe the tickets for Christmas off of eBay. My mom stayed at the hotel and baby-sat Luke while we went to the game. It was the Seattle Sonics vs. the LA Clippers. We were going for the Sonics (Since we used in live in WA) We didn't do much cheering....cause we didn't want to stand out like a sore thumb...since we were in LA. Seattle lost anyways.....but it was a lot of fun.

The whole trip was a lot of fun.

The Case Of The Disappearing Tin Foil

I hate when stuff like this happens...it can drive you crazy!!

So we had some friends over for dinner the other night. I had used the tin foil to line the pan I was cooking the chicken with. And the last time I remember seeing it, it was laying on the counter. We went about our night, enjoyed our dinner and our company. Then the next day I went to use the tin foil and I couldn't find it anywhere. I looked in all the cabinets....under the sink....everywhere. I even had Joe helping me search. So another day went by. It was really starting to bug me. I was thinking "How in the world did it just disappear, it has to be somewhere" Well I decided to call my friend that was helping me in the kitchen that night to see if maybe she put it somewhere or if she saw me do something with it. But she wasn't home. I had pretty much gave up and thought....I must have thrown it away. So a few days later, we are just sitting around and Luke asked me for a piece of cheese. So I go in the kitchen and open the fridge. The cheese is in one of those little drawer with other stuff like lunch meats. Well what do you know....there is the tin foil, in that drawer. I don't know how in the world it got there. I probably wasn't paying attention when we were cleaning up the kitchen that night. And I was too busy talking and put it in that drawer. It was pretty funny. I was just glad we found it. You can tell I don't use that drawer to much I guess :-)

*Snow Days*

Well it snowed everyday this past weekend. It started on Thursday night. We woke up Friday morning to find that Joe wasn't going to be able to go to work. The house that they are building is far up in the mountains and the road can get pretty bad. It was also windy, which can cause some bad drifts. A few weeks back a couple of Joe's co-workers got stuck at the job site and had to be rescued by the forest service on snowmobiles. So they weren't going to take that chance again. So Joe had an extra long weekend.

Saturday Joe and I got to go snowboarding together. We left Luke with the Grandparents for the day. We had a lot of fun. At least I had fun. Joe is a lot more experienced than me, so he had to go a little slower than usual. The snow was great, there was like a foot of fresh powder. So it was really nice. But it was freezing cold and snowing most of the day. My face got pretty cold at times. But I didn't think about it to much, cause I was just enjoying the day. Plus it was so pretty.

Luke had a blast too. He spent the day playing with his Uncle Jesse. (Joe's little brother) He is 6 years old. They played cars and ran around the house and even got to play out in the snow. It is the first time that Luke has actually play in the snow...and he loved it. So that is pretty neat.

Well I guess he had so much fun on Saturday that when we came to pick him up he was not ready to leave. We walk in the door and he give us a quick "Hi Mama, Hi Dada" and then continues playing. We pretty much had to force him to leave. I was just glad that it was not at the grocery store or some place in public. You would have thought he was being kidnapped. He was crying so hard and saying "Jesse...Jesse" It was so sad. I think he loves Jesse more than mom and dad :-) it sure seemed that way at the time!!! He had a very fun and busy day and when we got home at 6:30 he went straight to bed and was out all night. Poor little guy wore himself out.

So then we just spent the rest of the weekend going to church and hanging out with some friends. It was a great weekend!!!

What kids think is fun!!!!

My thoughts while doing laundry:

I am the worlds biggest procrastinator when it comes to doing the laundry. Especially when the pile is as high as a mountain and I know it is going to take forever to get it all done. Like on a Monday and you didn't do anything over the weekend but watch the pile grow. I don't mind the part of putting stuff in the washer, cause that feels like you are getting something done. But I don't like the part of taking the clothes out of the dryer, cause that means you have to fold everything.

So anyways...When ever I do the laundry Luke is always by my side wanting to help. I take the clothes out of the washer and hand them to him and he puts them in the dryer. He loves it. Then I give him a dryer sheet and he puts it in the dryer and then he knows that we are done and he shuts the door. As I watch him doing this he is just smiling away and every time he put a piece of clothing in the dryer he is cheering "Yah Yah" He really enjoys it. I just thought it was so funny how something like laundry or dishes is a chore to me, and if I had my way I would rather not do them. Yet to Luke it is something that he really wants to be a part of, and it actually fun for him. Just as if he were playing with his toys. Funny uh? I wish I had that mind all the time. I really do appreciate the help now, cause I know when he is a teenager I will be begging him to do the dishes and at least put his dirty clothes in the hamper!!

Fun Filled Tuesday

Well started out the day getting up kinda early and going to our church to clean. It is my week to clean, so I went and got it done today. Luke had a lot of fun since we had the whole place to ourselves. He could run around all the benches and make as much noise as he wanted.

Then I spent the afternoon at home babysitting. Usually about an hour or so after Landon (the little boy I baby-sit) gets here I try to put both of them down for a nap. That has been my routine and it gives me a couple of hours to get some things done around the house. Well today both the boys had other plans in mind. I layed Luke down as I always do and he is usually out in a couple of minutes. Then I went back in the living room with Landon and tried to rock him to sleep. Well after about 5 minutes Luke comes strolling out of his room "Hi Mama." So we just ended playing all afternoon. It was pretty fun. Even though I didn't get much done around here. Thats ok, cause Luke and Landon had a blast together. That is untill they both started feeling the effects of missing their naps, and they got a little bit cranky.

Then this evening Luke and I were in the kitchen and I was loading the dishwasher. Luke likes to try to help and always counts the glasses and dishes as I put them in. Well tonight I wasn't paying to close of attention to what he was saying...but then I started to listen and I noticed he was counting in spanish. "Uno, Dos, Tres, Quatro, Cinco, Seis" I was totally amazed. He counted to 6 in spanish. I give all the credit to Dora......thanks Dora and Boots. I knew he loved watching that show, but didn't realize how much he was actually picking up on. It was pretty neat!!!

Pie Auction

Well over the weekend our church had pie auction as a fund raiser. We are trying to raise money to buy or build a new building. Right now we assembly in a very small building that is not even a church building. It is a local grange. The church has been there for about 15 years and is growing and now the building is getting way to small. So They are wanting something bigger. The pie auction was very fun. The whole assembly gets together and everyone brings a few pies or desserts. I brought an apple pie and a cherry pie. Then they auction off all the desserts. The bidding started out slow and didn't get to high. But then everyone starting getting in to it. I was amazed at how high some desserts were going. One of my pies sold for $25 and the other for $15. We ended up buying a cherry cheesecake for $30. It was soooo yummy!!!! The item that went the highest was a big tray of homemade cinnamon rolls. It sold for $82.50. It was pretty cool. All together we ended up raising about $2300. So it was very successful and very fun!!!

Olny srmat poelpe can raed tihs!!!!

I guess I must be sarmt

I actually found this kind of interesting.

Olny srmat poelpe can raed tihs.
Cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty
uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor
of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at
Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht
oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt
tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the
rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you
can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is
bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by
istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.
Amzanig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot
slpeling was ipmorantt!

So could you read it? Pretty cool uh?

Priority Mail

Well I am not sure where he is going....but estimated delivery time is 2 to 3 days.

We went to the post office the other day and this is the sticker they gave him . It was too big and too sticky to put on his hand, so we just put it on his coat. Now he is ready for delivery :-)

Sanitizing Queen

What can I say, ever since Luke and everyone has been sick I have turned into a sanitizing queen. I have always been a pretty clean person. I Don't like to see messes laying around, but to me as long as it looked clean then it probably was. Well that has all changed. I am constantly cleaning and disinfecting in hope to get rid of all the germs and be sickness free. It has become like a nightly ritual. I go around and clean all of Luke's toys and the table and counter tops. I spray down all the door handles and light switches. Any place possible that you could think of. My obsession has even spread outside the home. It seems like every where I go everyone is sick. You go to Wal Mart and just listen to the sounds of kids and adults coughing and sniffing. So, when we go to the store I have to wipe down the cart with the clorox wipes before I put Luke in it. And when we get back out to the car it is time to apply the hand sanitizer. I guess we have just been playing it very safe. We are tired of being sick and having to be stuck in the house for weeks at a time. The cold and flu season is almost over so I am sure I will tone things down a bit after that.