Shoe Box Party

Saturday, I got to be a little Christmas Angel.

Every year my friend, Amanda has a Shoebox Party. That's where we save our empty shoe boxes throughout the year and buy small, inexpensive toys, candy, school supplies and hygiene items and bring them to Amanda's house.

From there, we wrap the shoe boxes in Christmas paper and pack them full of goodies for the kids. Amanda brings them to her church and they distribute them to the kids that need them. For a lot of the kids, this is the only gift they will receive for Christmas.Last This year was just awesome, because not only is Amanda 4 months pregnant, but we were able to make 103 boxes. It was just amazing and I loved that I was able to be a part of it. Many families bring their kids to help, and the kids have a wonderful time packing the boxes full and learning compassion for others at the same time. I will be looking forward to next years' party.

Blessed Baby Boy

Sunday was Everett's baby blessing at church. Like any important day, things started out crazy but once I calmed down it turned out to be a wonderful day.

To start off, Everett got a giant bug bite on his face Halloween night, just in time for it to be a big red welt by Sunday. I was having an extreme bad hair day because of the humidity which caused me to fuss with it longer which caused me not to have enough time to feed Everett for one last time which caused him to scream and spit up on his new outfit as we headed out the door. Aaron said it reminded him of the days when his mom used to take him to church...not exactly the effect I was hoping to have since the last time Aaron went to church with me was over 7 years ago.

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I was nervous beyond belief because not only was Aaron there, but his entire family and one of his friends came also. That comes to 16 non-members and my 5 inactive brothers and sisters. I was hoping everything would go just right so they would come away from this as a positive experience. I need to learn to calm down and not worry so much. We made it to church early and my mom informed us she saved us a seat...on the front row. She had 7 kids, did she not remember that sitting in the front row with an infant is like committing Sacrament Meeting suicide? Oh well, it was nice of her to save us a seat. I started feeding Everett his bottle and he and I started calming down. There were to be 2 baby blessings that day. Just as they started to call the participants up for the first baby blessing Everett loaded his pants. It was so loud family members sitting 3 people over looked my way to see what happened. Aaron and I ran out the door to try to change him since his blessing was next. We realized we would not have enough time to change him before his blessing, so we came back in just in time to hand Everett over to my brother with a loaded diaper.

I had visions of leaking diapers bouncing through my head on his pristine white blessing outfit (which by the way was freaking expensive! Who sets the prices on those???). Everett started crying. My dad, step-dad and brother who were doing the blessing are not skilled in the art of calming a baby down and I thought, "here comes the cherry to top off this disaster of a day". Luckily, that's when Heaven opened up and sent some love and miracles my way.

Our Bishop who was helping with the blessing has a little one of his own and knew just what to do. He stuck Everett's pacifier back in and got the guys to start bouncing him and he calmed down right away. He didn't make another peep. My brother, Ben did Everett's blessing. It was his first time so he was so nervous, but I couldn't tell, he did a perfect job and gave Everett a wonderful blessing. Everett slept for the rest of Sacrament Meeting. (After we took him out and changed his pants of course...no leaking! Woo hoo!)

I was finally calm and focused on what was really important. Everett's blessing and all of the family and friends that were there to support us. I know our non-member friends and family all have their own opinions and feelings about the LDS church, good or bad. Whether the experience was positive or negative for them, I'll probably never know. What I do know is that they left that meeting knowing that we believe in a loving Heavenly Father, we believe Jesus Christ is our Savior and that he loves us so much, we believe the love within a family is so important and that we believe in the power of prayer. That made me a happy girl.

After Sacrament Meeting we headed back to our house for yummy food and to enjoy the afternoon with our wonderful family and friends. We truly have the most amazing families.

Everett, you will never have to question if your family loves you. (this blanket was made for Everett by his great, great Grandma Bland)

Happy First Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone! Our internet was down yesterday so I couldn't post photos of our little bumble bee, so here they are today. We had a great day. We visited the grandparents and then headed back to our street for a big neighborhood party. There's about 10-15 families that all get together with lots of food and tons of fun. What a great night.

Wish I could take credit for this way cute idea. It was too cute not to copy. Everett and I made this card for his grandparents for Halloween. They turned out so cute! All in all, a great first Halloween for us! Hope you all had a great day also!

Who's On The Lord's Side, Who?

My mom sent me this picture in an email. Cute, but a bit sobering at the same time.

I've read all about what has happened in Massachusetts since same-sex marriage was legalized and it doesn't look good. I don't want my son to be "party A" when he gets married, I don't think it is appropriate to teach a 5 year old about homosexuality, I don't want him having homosexuality shoved down his throat at school and taught it is morally correct and wonderful - it is not. I don't think it's cute or appropriate to have "gay day" at school. I refuse to have my rights as a parent taken away from me, I refuse to hand my child over to the government to teach him what they think is politically correct and moral.

Opponents to Prop. 8 say it won't effect schools or churches - oh really? Why did the teacher's union spend 1.25 million to oppose it? Why are they saying it is their duty to teach same-sex tolerance? Just you wait for the lawsuits to start flying, opposing same-sex marriage is going to get you into deep trouble. In Massachusetts a Catholic adoption agency has already shut down rather than adopt to same-sex couples, and I believe it is only the beginning.

As far as Satan is concerned, once the family unit has been destroyed, the rest is easy. Ask any kid who grew up in a divorced or single parent home how easy it was to keep their head on straight. My vote is for Yes on Prop. 8, it will have a bigger impact than most realize.

Moooooo!

In review of the latest round of photos of me from the wedding, it is impossible to ignore the fact that I look like a fat cow.

"But I just had a baby!" is no excuse because you don't carry baby weight on your arms, back and second chin. My baby is 2 months old and I'm still wearing maternity clothes because nothing else fits. I've got boxes and boxes of the cutest clothes I can't wear and don't have the heart to get rid of because I am holding out for the hope that someday I'll quit being lazy and fix my weight problem.

Starting NOW, I am going to make better food choices and will do some sort of physical activity everyday. I've got to lose 60 pounds to look great, 70 pounds to look awesome, 80 pounds to look like a goddess - and yes, I am that overweight.

I will track my progress (or lack thereof) with the hope that if I think someone is watching me, I'll stick with getting healthy. Time to get serious.

Busy, Busy, Busy

So it's been a crazy week and a half. Everett's hair was getting too wild so I gave him a trim. Actually, I probably did a hack job, but when all of his hair sticks up anyway, you can't tell. I thought about saving his locks for his baby book I'll probably start when he turns 18 but with how knee deep things are around here lately, I couldn't stand for one more thing to be laying around. I opted to just take pictures instead. I am happy with my decision.

It's finally been cold enough to bust out the fire pit so we had some neighbors over and lit it up! I made popcorn for everyone and we had a good time hanging out. We had Everett all bundled up and he was out like a light.

We got Everett a new swing. He already has one I got used that runs on batteries. We quickly realized the cost of batteries was going to put us in the poor house. We found out Aaron's sister has a swing that plugs into the wall. Seriously, with the way that technology has advanced - it's about freaking time! I honestly feel the baby gear makers have an unholy alliance with the battery makers. Everett loves his new swing and so do we.
Thursday, Everett had a check up and his first round of immunizations - ouch! He was a tough boy and only cried for about 15 seconds while he was getting his 3 shots. After I picked him up he was cool as a cucumber. He gained another pound and a half and is up to 11 lbs. 2 oz. Way to go!
Thursday night we had (Aaron's brother) Andrew & Katie's dress rehearsal at the Fullerton Arboretum. I never knew it was there, it's pretty cool. I had Everett strapped to me while I took some photos. All the groomsmen dressed up in goofy outfits (which didn't make the bride too happy) but it was funny anyway. For the rehearsal dinner they had a pizza party complete with a team banner, sports jerseys and trophies. It was fun.Friday was the wedding. Aaron was the best man and had to get all dressed up ( I LOVE him in a suit!) All the guys wore brown Converse. Everett even had his own tennis shoes but they were too big so I just took some photos of him and had them off the rest of the night.I didn't get to take very many photos at the wedding or reception since I'm a mom now and have a little one to look after. I didn't even get a good photo of the bride and groom all dressed up. Katie was absolutely BEAUTIFUL. She looked like a Hollywood actress right out of the 40's - very glamorous. At the reception I pretty much was confined to the table. The music was way too loud on the other side of the room so we just stayed put. I just took photos of what was around me...

By the end of the night Aaron had had it with playing dress up. Off came the jacket and dress shirt and on came a comfy t-shirt. At the reception they had a photo booth - it was so fun! It gives you a double print of the photos so you put one in the guest sign in book and you keep the other one. We did two. It was a fun day, congrats Andrew & Katie!

Wild Thang, I Think I Love You

The last time I took nekkid pictures of Everett he was only 4 days old. I figured he was long over due for some blackmail photos, so I stripped him down snapped away. There's just something extra sweet about a baby in the buff. He's gaining weight like crazy and is adding on new tucks and rolls-too cute to be ignored.

We braved our first Sunday at church 2 weeks ago and he did pretty well. He made it through the first 2 hours, but staying for the third was way more than he could handle. I'm still too nervous about breastfeeding at church and it was rippin' hot outside so I couldn't go in the car so we just went home. Tomorrow we'll give it another go. Little by little we'll get the hang of things and stay for the full block. It was nice to get out and be back at church.

Draw A Pig

My brother sent me this link to a fun little pig-personality-doodle test. Just follow the link, click on "OK, let me draw a pig", draw one and then find out the results.

http://drawapig.desktopcreatures.com/drawApig.asp



Have Fun!

Round of Applause

So Wednesday, Everett turned 7 weeks old. I put him on the ottoman to take some photos of him (because I clearly don't have enough), and here's what happened:



Who taught you that? I put him back on his tummy just to make sure it wasn't a fluke, and he did it 3 more times. Holy cow, my boy can roll over. It's kind of ridiculous how something so simple could make me beam from ear to ear and call the grandmas to share the news. Geesh, it's not like he did a back flip, but it was just as exciting. I am realizing my days of having him immobile are numbered. Guess I better keep the baby gate close by...

Open For Business

For months now, Aaron has been burning the candle at both ends right down to the middle. Since the economy took a dump this year and no one is buying boats, Aaron has had to switch gears and come up with another way to take care of his family. Currently, he's working his regular job, opened his own label printing business and is going to school. A typical week for him includes going to school all day Monday and Wednesday. After school, he works in the label shop. All the other days of the week he works his regular job until 6pm, then works at the label shop until about 2am (sometimes 3 or 4am), then wakes up at 8am to start all over again. There are no weekends, days off or holidays. The last vacation we took was almost 2 years ago.

Monday I got a call from Aaron. He was at the label shop and wanted to know if Everett and I could come and visit - he missed us. You don't have to ask me twice! I loaded the car up and headed out to Anaheim to hang out for a few hours. I took care of the woman's work (vacuuming, sweeping and cleaning the bathroom), while the boys printed some labels.

I even made Everett his own label.It was so nice to see Aaron holding Everett. Since he's hardly ever home, Aaron rarely gets to spend time with his son. I appreciate everything he is doing so at least I can be home with Everett. I can tell how much he loves us, and wouldn't trade him for anything. I've got the most perfect husband for me.