I don't have a baby anymore!

It is official. I don't think I have a baby anymore. Rodney is doing so many grown-up things it kinda makes me sad. I know it's normal for him to progress, but really? He isn't even 9 months yet! I really should still have a baby!

Rodney:
~Would rather feed himself instead of being fed baby food.
~Crawls almost as fast as I walk.
~Knows where the food is at and pulls down my shirt when he wants it!
~Climbs stairs!!! I am talking full flights of stairs over and over and over again!
~Likes to tip the box fan over so he can climb up on it and just sit there.
~almost climbs over our baby gates.
~refuses sippy cups. We want big cups people...
~knows how to pull everything off of the coffee table, really it should be on the ground.
~Loves to go to any door and open and close it, and open and close it, and sit in front of it so Mom can't get him out.
~Has started to crawl away from me when he knows I'm coming to get him.
~Has to be forced to be dressed/diapered.
~Is really starting to enjoy showers (we don't have a bathtub)

We have nicknamed him Taz for his talent for distroying any space within seconds!
But really how can you be mad at this?!

serious update!

So I haven't blogged in a long time and this is going to be a huge update. It is also going to be reversed because I still haven't perfected the picture thing yet....maybe someday?



Rodney has two teeth!! This has happened a long time ago, right during finals week when I was trying to study for my American Government final. He was so fussy and wouldn't let me focus on anything but him. I was getting so frustrated that I was in tears. Finally I just gave up studying and decided to just get ready and be a little early so there was the least amount of stress as possible. As I was dressing him I see that there are teeth right under the surface of his gums. After I saw that I couldn't blame him for being so upset anymore. I felt horrible that I was getting so frustrated and just wish I would have taken the time from studying to take a look objectively and figure out what was wrong, given him Tylenol, and made the whole morning better! Little lessons of motherhood I guess.... Anyway, our favorite teething relief product...Celery straight from the fridge. It is ribbed, cold, and firm. Now that he has the teeth I give him celery to test his teeth out on instead of our coffee table.

When we got home from our trip for the family reunion and Chelsey's wedding I spent the three days finishing up the semester and then on thursday I went to Denver to spend a day with Seth so Angela could tour nursing homes with her Mom and visit her dad toddlerless. We had so much fun playing. Seth is such a ham he just makes you laugh all day. While he was eating his lunch I told him that I needed to go put Rodney down for a nap. He looked at me so distressed and says. But I'm supposed to play with him! I told him that he could play with him once he wakes up. I took him into a bedroom and Rodney wasn't exactly going down very easy. As soon as Seth heard him fuss a little he came running in and said: He woke up! Can I play with him now? so cute! love that little boy!

Friday Rodney and I went to Firestone to play with Ross, Evan, and Grace. They are such cute kids too. We played in the sprinklers. Rodney had a rough night with teeth so we were both tired. Lunch was a little stressful but we had fun otherwise! It was a great two days spending so much time with family!

Amy flew home early so Mark flew back to help me drive home. Rodney was getting a littel restless in his seat so we stopped to feed him and let him stretch a little bit. Mark was holding him and he climbed up on the steering wheel. It was so cute and he was so proud I had to take a picture. My two boys are so cute!

Lia just happened to be staying with her Grandma the same week I was there so we hung out a couple of the days. Mom helped her make pillowcases, we made miniature s'mores on Grandmas patio with mom and dad's chiminea. I think it is so fun. Grandma McFadden came out and spent some time on the patio with us too. I had a blast getting to know Stephaney better and spending lots of time with Jeff. I am so lucky to have Mark who supports me spending such quality time with my family while he goes home to the daily grind!

This is Me, Chels and Lia at the reception. Chels looked so beautiful, and holy cow the Father-daughter dance was a tear jerker!

Grandma was trying so hard all week long to get Rodney to let her hold him. However, he always had different plans like crawling all over, standing up against everything, trying to stand up on his own, walking along furniture...you know all the normal 7 month old activities....riiiiight.... Finally on the last day we were there he pulled himself up on Grandma's foot rest wanting to get up in her chair. Rodney snuggled right in and took a nap with her. He never does that, but Grandma ate it up as you can imagine.

This was one of the first days we were there. Rodney was pretty much napless throughout the whole reunion because he is a picky sleeper. Must be quiet and dark for him to take a nap or sleep without a serious fight. But rest assured Grandpa and Michael can get anything done.

Rodney sure loves his grandpa.

This is a family picture at the copper mine. It was so massive and impressive to see how small those huge machines look on the other side of the mine.

Rodney has lots of new tricks, peek-a-boo and clicking his tounge. In this clip it is one of the first times that he clicked his tounge and you have to pay attention because it only happens once out of his many attempts. Now, a week later, he just clicks his tounge all day long as he crawls or whatever. It's pretty cute.

This is at the family reunion and towards the end of his laughing spurt. It is the first full on laugh. Devin, Brad and Angela's boy is throwing a football in the air about 2 feet and catching it, Rodney just thought it was the funniest thing, so I of course had to video!

Well for those of you still reading/watching. I'm impressed, sorry it is such overload!

Favorite summer treat!

These coconut bar are my new favorite summer treat. Scratch that, they are good enough to eat all year round! They are dangerous to have in my freezer though so I try not to buy them EVERY time I go to the grocery store... really, you need to try them!

GRADUATING!!

If you are wondering why I have a graduation background in the middle of the summer it is because I have been taking two classes over the summer to complete my AA degree!!! The countdown is on with only 2 1/2 weeks left!!! WAHOO!!! Quite excited about it, can you tell?

Cookin'!

Lately I have been having so much fun trying new recipes and making up some of my own. My favorite thing to do is go on Allrecipes.com and look at a recipe and then make it my own. I have created two recipes this way. Two of my recent recipes are from a light cooking magazine that Mom supplied, so yummy. Thanks Mom! And Thanks to Mark for letting me experiment!

Rodney's New Tricks

So I realize that it has been a long time since I have posted. Life has been crazy since the last post we have moved, and unpacked, started school (me), and rodney has gone from only being on his belly to getting up on his hands and knees, to scooting, to crawling, to pulling himself up to standing. This video is of rodney standing, I don't know how to get it flipped to be right side up. He didn't get himself up on the toy, I did help. But, he stood there for probably five minutes and perfected the one handed stand. (Holding on with one hand so he can make the toy make noise!) I am so in LOVE with this little man it's rediculous!

ROAD TRIP!

Quality Grandma time

Hannah walking with Grandpa around the nurses station

Rodney and Hannah became the best of friends this week!

All of us in the hospital the night before Dad got to come home. What a week!

I accidentally put this one on twice, can't figure out how to remove it without starting over, sorry. And I haven't quite got the formatting with pictures down to a science. But you get the idea anyway. Long post, be prepared!

Dad was scheduled for surgery on his hip. I get a phone call from Amy saying that she is coming to town and asked me if I wanted to go to Utah with her to help Mom and Dad with whatever we could. I said, HECK YES! so we did. Thanks for the idea Gary!!

We fit Amy, Hannah, Rodney and I in our little Civic and left at 5 a.m. to get to Utah by about 2. The kiddos did great! It was a great week that was spent taking care of Grandma McFadden, helping run caters at the restaurant, doing a session at the Timpanogos Temple (can I say GORGEOUS!!!), visiting Grandpa in the Hospital, and quality sister time! This has been such a week that I will never forget. I am always excited when I get to see Amy, but everytime I do I love her more and more even though I never think it would be possible. What I would do without my sisters I hope I never have to find out!

We also got to hang out with Jeff and Stephaney and had a blast. Sleep is always limited when I go to Utah because I just don't want to sleep my play time away! So all week I got an average of 6 hours a night. Jeff and Stephaney wouldn't get off of work until about 10 and then we would stay up talking/playing for a few hours and wouldn't go to bed until at least midnight. And then up at about 7. My new absolute favorite ice cream joint is Iceberg (sorry Stephaney) with their Snickers shake...oh my gosh! with an order of their fries. It just doesn't get any better or any higher of a caloric/fat content. Oh well.

What are the odds that we would be in town for not one but two bridal showers! Our cousin Kelsey and our best friend Chelsey both just happened to be having the showers the week we were there! It was so fun to be there and I am so excited for both of them and their new lives to come. It just seems that so many things just fell into place for us to go and so many things just worked out this week. It was definately meant to be!

Rodney loved all of the family he would just be a smiling mess whenever they would say hello, but his favorite was Great Grandma McFadden. He would be all smiles and so happy if I would just lay him down by Grandma in her chair. She has one of the mechanical chairs that raises and she would raise it up so she could just look down at him at her feet and he would smile for an hour pretty much just at her feet. She, of course, ate it up! The cutest thing was right as we were leaving at like 4:30 Rodney was asleep in my arms as we were saying goodbye to everybody and he woke up just in time to see Great Grandma one more time and as soon as he saw her he hammed it up. Grandma just melted. It made me tear up. She is looking more and more frail every time we go to visit, however as stubborn as she is I think she will be around for a while still.

Dad's surgery went really well, the anesthesia however made Dad quite the comedian. He was very agitated as far as the nurses saw to the point where it was taking 4 of them to hold him to the bed. Then they gave him morphine to keep him calm until the rest of the medications wore off, but it had the opposite effect and made it worse. They brought Mom back into the recovery room to help calm him down which they never do. He did some funny things that were making the nurses laugh but then he would get sensitive to the fact that people were laughing at him. Dad hasn't ever had anything done that would require general anesthesia before so it was interesting to see all of that. He was up and walking that afternoon, 1 time around the nurses station and 24 hours after that he walked around 10 times! Hannah dutifully walked right behind him the whole time.

He came home on Saturday afternoon and we made him a yummy dinner of Veggie Lasagna, asparagus, and artichoke. It was really good, we tried a new recipe. Dad is still doing pretty well, he is now taking pain medication but on a modified schedule so it isn't as much. He is feeling relatively pain free, but I am thinking that anything is going to be pain free compared to what he was feeling before.

I will always remember this week and treasure it like you wouldn't believe. A once in a lifetime experience for sure!