me sleepy

on one of the very VERY few days i feel like i could fall asleep standing up (my mind does this awesome thing where it kicks into overdrive whenever i lay down, so naps are usually out of the question), my kid takes 45min after being put into bed to fall asleep. and then only stays asleep for 45min. i'm letting him stay in there until i can find enough energy to get my fat duff out of the lay-z-boy and walk all of 15ft to get him up. isn't it enough that i had to share a room with him and morgan last night? i mean, between ferguson's heavy sigh breathing and soft sleep-talking and mor's snoring and flailing, i'm fairly certain i slept (albeit restlessly) for a total of 2hrs. *yawn

question of the day #37

do you think if i asked him very nicely, my little bub would stay this age for a while longer? no? what if i promised him he could grow up someday? still no? but don't you think he's having fun right now too? yes, see! but you don't think that means he wants to be a 19mo old for another 5years?
*sigh
fine. i'll just have to remember him being this kid...

...until he decides to grow up.

courtesah of sarey

my good friend sarah, whom i used to commiserate with while pretending to work, has a really REALLY nice camera that she was kind enough to use to snap some pictures of finn. (hello, run-on, how i've missed you.) i was happy it wasn't freezing cold, although finn could have cared less; he was just happy to be running around outside. sarah just followed us and clicked away. it was awesome of her to do this, esp on the tails of the meltdown at fotofly. i'm borrowing these edited ones from her crafty blog until i get the cd of all the pics. enjoy!

he. is. beautiful.

telling us a story about how when he's old enough to run away, he's taking the train to timbuktu.

unsure about sitting on a ledge about five feet in the air

checking sarah out
yep, she's okay...for a girl

mor thinks he looks like a fat asian kid in this one
can't say i disagree

thank you so much again, sarah. you. are. awesome.

blue 49

i just finished reading book #49 this year, charles finch's "a beautiful blue death." i knew i was going to enjoy this book from the get-go, all because of this little quote on pg 2...
"what bliss was there to compare to a warm fire, fresh socks, and buttered toast on a cold day!"
how could i NOT like a book with a quote like that?! (there were also a few great quotes in wilkie collins' "woman in white." one specifically about count fosco : "he was too yellow to be believed. he looked liek a walking-west-indian-epidemic. he was big enough to carry typhus by the ton, and to dye the very carpet he walked on with scarlet fever." hahaha! that wilkie. gets me every time. and another one : "no sensible man ever engages, unprepared, in a fencing match of words with a woman." morgan, matty and jason all know the truthfulness of this; they live with it in the forefront of their minds everyday.)
anyway, off to read the next inspector rutledge mystery and see if our dear sweet little library owns a copy of finch's "the september society."

lmnop

me : finners, say "f"
finn : f
me : say "i"
finn : iiiee
me : say "n"
finn : o

watching that "super why" and alphapig is paying off. gots to love it.

photo shoot

our first go at really-for-real family pictures was not quite the success i hoped it would be. finn was a mess for the first half, screaming and crying and not wanting to relinquish his beloved john deere. *sigh i didn't care so much about him having a little toy to keep him from throwing a tantrum, but the girl wasn't having it. she kept telling us to take it away from him. i finally told her i didn't care, i wanted him to have it in the picture. we did actually get some good ones. wanna see?

the big one8

our little baby is officially not a baby any longer. *sigh* he's 18mo as of today. *SIGH* and as cliche and overused as the saying goes, time has flown by. except that...it doesn't seem "just like yesterday" that we were bringing him home from the hospital; it feels like he's been home forever, that there wasn't ever just a me-and-mor because we didn't really exist until the fig came along. he's the love of our lives and penny's bestest friend/worst tormentor. he is the sweetest/least snuggliest kid you'll ever meet. he's shy when it suits him and loud whenever he likes, which is usually when we need him to be quiet. he's a terrible eater and an excellent sleeper. he loves being read to, taking baths and playing outside. he loves his bobs and his blanks. he hates having his bum changed and his face wiped, being told no and not getting to watch his shows (dora, diego and mickey mouse). he is my mama's boy and his daddy's best buddy. he is gorgeous and funny and soft and all boy. and we love him more than words can express, every last stinky, sticky, sweaty inch of him.

maybe next year

we had grand plans this halloween to dress up our kid as the dreamiest qb in the nfl or the dreamiest 16yr old pop sensation (tom brady and justin bieber, respectively). strike that. i don't really DO halloween, except that now i have a wee one i HAVE to do halloween, and with the mop finners had brady or bieber were the costume winners. now, did you notice my past tensing? the hads? yeah. about that...

whenever you say "i want it longer on top, shorter in back," the hairdressers take that to mean they can set the clippers to a 5 for the back and a 6 for the top. uh, no. i wanted my little figgers to have some sweet surfer boy hair, NOT a buzz cut. grr. i know he still looks adorable, and you can see that even better now that his hair isn't brushing his eyebrows. but, i didn't WANT it to be short and spiky; i wanted it to be long and luscious. urgh. it is a very VERY good thing he is so damn cute or i would be more upset.

in case you were wondering, we're moving more towards an animalia costume. lion, giraffe, butterfly (jk). any ideas?

once upon a time

once upon a time, there were no clothes to be laundered, no dishes to be washed, no floors to be swept, no shelves to be dusted. and then five minutes ticked off the clock and the clothes and dishes piled up (albeit not together), sippy cups and bobs were spilt on the kitchen and living room floors, smeared onto toys and penelope joneses, held upside down purposefully to splatter their contents haphazardly around the entire ughpt, every flat surface developed a love of all things dust. but you know what? that five minutes were some of the best of my life.

question of the day #36

does anyone want a whiny 1yr old or sick husband? i will gladly hand over either one of them. or both if you're brave (read: dumb) enough.

fringe

whoa whoa whoa...i am NOT talking about the heinous sci-fi tv show or confessing i cut bangs (gack!); i AM telling you i got crafty. wanna see?

way cute, huh? both pieces of fabric were half off at jofab (or joann fabric to all you not in the know), so i couldn't resist (even though morgan says otherwise). i finished it up in under an hour, mostly because i didn't cut the fringe long enough to tie in the first place. (it has to be at least 4in to tie easily. lesson learned.) as soon as fig woke up, he went right to it and started pointing out the truck and trees and airplane. but, in true fig fashion, as soon as i went to snap a picture of him snuggling it, he immediately walked away from the blanket like it had girl cooties. awesome.

gordito

my dear, sweet, wonderful husband pulled the biggest gordo move of the century last night. he poured himself a tall glass of milk, got a big spoon out of the utensil drawer, and tucked right into the brownie batter. say it with me: GOR-DO!

or not

while perusing the newly-reorganized aisles at le costco a couple weeks ago, mor did a very unexpected thing: he asked if i wanted to buy a book. i know, i know. knowing me, that should definitely be a question that is forever dangling on his lips. however, knowing him, i know better than to ever expect an offer like that. he grabbed "mockingjay" for me, tossed it in the cart away from dudes' grubby little hands, and off we headed to the check-out. the book got carefully placed on the table, a safe distance from dudes' grubby little hands, next to the bagel thins i'm pretty certain have been collecting more dust than providing nutritional value to our diets. (just sayin'. we even pawned off a half dozen of the things to our good lady schizz, that's how desperate i am to get rid of them.) anyway...i was still trying to finish up wilkie's fantastic "the woman in white" (it was a freaking beast of a book, but really good), so on the table "mj" sat. and sat. aaand sat. until mor begged to use it as a bribe at work. (it was an esp awesome day for the boys.) then, it sat in his work cubby. then, it came back and sat on the table some more. then, i finished "woman." then, i actually starting reading it. then, i remembered, rather i didn't remember anything from the second book. ten pages in, and i was almost completely lost. (wow, please excuse any errant commas. i really like them today.) and entirely disinterested. so, back to le costco we went, "mj" and i (and dudes, der). on to "the egypt game," which i picked up at savers for approx a quarter. too bad it took more that a dollar's worth of hand sanitizer before i was able to touch anything else without thinking i was getting savers-stink on it. i always forget how much i loathe that place until i walk back through the doors. (i cannot possibly be goodwill connie's daughter, can i? i'll have to repent of my non-goodwill-like ways to get back into gc's graces.)

wdop

in case you haven't checked out nickelodeon today, it's the worldwide day of play. for three consecutive hours, there are no cartoons, no commercials, no selena gomez music videos, nada. i think it's the greatest idea since finn decided to sleep in until after nine that one time. that being said, the computer is being put down, the tv turned off and the bubbles taken outside. i love nick!

question of the day #35

whose child needs their own cell phone at the age of 9? what is your 9yr old doing without you, besides going to fourth grade? i had a mom tell me her 9yr old daughter was complaining about how all of her friends already had cell phones and she didn't. so, her mom bought her one and is now saying she cannot believe a 9yr old needs a cell phone. ummm...i think we've lost the meaning of "need" here, mom lady. and aren't you the one who gave it to her? although, my guess is, said 9yr old probably gets more for her allowance than i do at my age.

tp

thanksgiving point did something awesome this august, and it's called $2 tuesday: pay $2 per person for admission into the farm, the dinosaur museum or the gardens. we took advantage of the offer and hit up the farm.

cute little calf

for grandma connie, who DOES bite

he loved the horses the most

visiting foghorn

 

feeding the cow

she got a bit close for finn's comfort at one point

feeding the kids, fig and the goats

for a second, i thought the little goat's horns were its eyes (creepy)

and the beard on the other goat could have made uncle rog envious

wondering why the sheep doesn't giddy up like his horsey at home

had to make another trip by the horses

we will NOT be enlarging this to hang on the wall, no way

summer scrimage and pool play

schizzer has a friend who plays football for the cougars, so we met up with her and her friends kelsey and april for a little pre-pre-season action. finn dug it...

and yesterday, we got to enjoy some sunshine...

weekend recap

last weekend was packed. we had (in chronological order, i think)...
...chell and dave's wedding in oquirrh mountain
...coop and ains come play at our place
...chell and dave's reception at the art museum's sculptural garden
...breakfast, swimming and goat-feeding with philber and jensinger at the zermatt
...lunch at taco amigo with the b walls and m walls
...ains and roody come play at our place
...dinner at the b walls (if you needed further proof of how delicious mrs lavin's chocolate chip cookies are, you can ask the entire wall clan. can you say "devoured"?)
...philber sleep over saturday and hang out until about 1p sunday
...a restless night of sleep before my mom's hip surgery first thing monday morning (all went well, and she's hoping to go home tmrw.)
...to run philber's watch and shorts up to him monday morning (finn had snaked phil's watch off the table next to his crib; he's a sneaky bugger.)
...other stuff monday afternoon
...our anniversary! (ooh, also whit's bday and em's bday, friday and sunday respectively)

outside the temple

at the art museum

roodifer

having a taste of what he was feeding the goats (just dog treats, no harm done)

trying to break out and get at whatever finn had (which at this point was nothing, greedy goats)

finn loves the singers, the singers love finn

all tuckered out

...make(s) my heart happy

babies that smell of sunscreen and chlorine...
oscillating fans...
shaq vs...
hd dvr and cheap cable...
grey, yellow and teal (in our bedroom!)...
warm homemade chocolate chip cookies and a tall glass of ice cold milk...
floss...
tanlines on baby bums and in baby wrist rolls...
cars with ac that works well...
the soundtrack from "glee"...
coke and mtn dew (depending on the day)...
reading outside with lots and LOTS of ice water...
tarquin hall and amanda grange...
sleeping babies...
ponytails...
the scripps spelling bee logo...

my new bff

her name is karen. she's canadian. and she sent me not one but TWO bottles of my dove deep moisturizer. oh how i love that lady. check's in the mail, kare. (care if i call you that, kare? i mean, we're practically sisters with how much love i felt for you when i opened my mailbox and these beauties were staring at me.)

nevermind that it's mirror-image; it isn't like i have friends who know french anyway

late july showers...

...bring august weddings and october babies. ferguson and i had a busy saturday. we ran a couple morning errands before we headed up north for chell's wedding shower and kassie's baby shower. it was so nice to see the wall/johnson/almost-eldredge ladies. b&b's house is amazing, and the food was even better. but, then again, who doesn't love costco fruit and salads? seriously. amy j is hilarious; so happy i sat next to her during present opening. every nightie chell opened, amy gagged a little or made some not-so-whispered comment that the entire room heard. she's funny. (i'm a tard, so i forgot her card on our kitchen table. of course.) straight from there, we made our way to kassie's shower. she's having a little girl in october, and mor's cousins connie and marci hosted her shower (at connie's house, which is ah.mazing.) there was even more delicious food there, none of which finn would eat because he's a bit fickle like that. (although, he LOVED the blueberries at chell's shower. who'da guessed?) kassie got a grip of the cutest, purplest girly outfits. little jane is not going to have to wear the same outfit for the first 3mo of her life, at least. it was great to see connie and marci and sheila (and everyone else i didn't really know). and finn was such a champ, having about a fifteen minute nap en route from chell's shower to kassie's shower. (he zonked as soon as we were in the car on the way home and slept for three hours. gotta love that kid.) i'm so excited for chell and dave's wedding next week and can't wait to see what sweet baby jane looks like once she gets here.

switch to dish

we took the plunge and switched from our crappy (and expensive) cable to dish network. we found a mad deal that we couldn't pass up: $24.99/mo for 12mo with free hd and 120+ channels AND free hd-dvr. (the price goes up to $39.99/mo for the second 12mo, because you have to make a 24mo commitment, but that will still be less than our current cable.) we have been paying about $55/mo for our cable to pixelate or drop sound or just flat out not work. it's been pretty awesome. i already love dish. discovery channel in hd = amazing. the food on "barefoot contessa" has never looked so delicious; the food on "bizarre foods" never so disgusting. we've already set the dvr to record the next "30 for 30," and i cannot wait for football season; nfl redzone, here we come!

funk

also, in case you were wondering, i'm in a funk this week. (i know, it's only tuesday. nice.) i had one of those write-home-about left-sided numbness partial blindness debilitating migraines on sunday. (sisters? are you with me? dad?) i've done something to my back and haven't been able to get a good night of sleep for a week. finn thinks he needs to go to bed around nine and wake up around six. mor thinks he needs to do anything but be inside during the day (although he has been such a help with finn and penny, like seriously for real). and when schiz left our house after dinner last night, i started crying because she's probably going to be moving away soon for more school, and that made me realize nancy and lance and johnnycakes really are moving away this friday. (and i suck at making friends. you should ask all my friends, they will attest because they probably had to take the first step in the befriending business.) it's been a thousand degrees in our ughpt and doesn't look like there's a cool-down in sight. i'm tired of the colors in our bedroom, but i can either buy milk and food and toilet paper or new sheets and bedroom accessories. hmm...i might have to think about that one...i mean, we have wipes.

question of the day #34

don't you love it when your husband (or wife or child or friend) comments on your (lack of) housekeeping ability/motivation but then doesn't offer to help you pick up the kid's toys or wash a few dishes -gasp!- by hand and instead piddlefarts around on the two unrecognizable metal objects in the backyard? i think it's awesome. and i AM talking about morgan, in case you were wondering.

mehbe

just maybe finn ate cold, stale french fries for breakfast this morning. and maybe he dumped them all over the floor before picking out the ones "suitable" for consumption. and maybe i let him do just that while i ate my multigrain cheerios and skim milk because we're trying to teach him to have a well-rounded diet, ya know.

sundays are for...

...playing in the sprinklers

...going on a drive and seeing some crazy houses (and even crazier garages)

...making new friends, of the 4legged variety

...some good old-fashioned flirting with the camera

hope your sunday was as great as ours.