Wow, It's Been a Month!

So sorry for not updating lately. I just never seem to get around to it. That's the story of my life with journal writing. Maybe if I felt more eloquent with words I'd update more, but maybe not.

Anyhow, we are all alive and well. :) Curtis learns something new everyday! He's about 16.5 months old now and walks 95% of the time. If he's in a hurry he will crawl b/c it's faster than walking. Thankfully he is not running!...yet. He jabbers all of the time. He loves saying the same thing over and over. Most of the time it sounds like puppy or daddy, but yesterday it sounded like mommy! Yeah!! He has said dad for months, but couldn't bother saying mom. Curtis loves his dad! It's bad news if Curtis knows that Travis is leaving and not taking him with him. Curtis cries and cries. He eventually gets over it if you distract him, but he would much rather be with his dad. He is doing great with his signing. I should do more with him, but I don't. Most of his signs come from his cheek, but his sign for help is the best! He does the sign to get a trucker to honk. Yep, and he does it with such vigor. The sign for help has been a LIFE SAVER! It has cut down on 90% of his screaming!! Now he signs for help instead of screaming. :)

His other fun thing lately is to be the center of attention and to be a goof ball. He loves to put on a show for people. He scrunches up his face and makes this cheesy grin and does a fake laugh. It's super funny and so everyone laughs and he laughs back thinking he's something special. It's a crackup.

I just had my 26th birthday and I got to celebrate all week! Cake with family, dinner with friends, dinner with Travis and Curtis, a cake from Travis and a bike!! Travis is so good to me. :) I also went cross country skiing for the first time. It was my first time on skis ever and boy was it an adventure. A friend invited me and a few other friends on a ski weekend. It was good bonding, but let me just say that skiing is a full body workout and you should not learn to ski on hills, even little ones. I have never fallen down so much in my life and have never been so sore. I'm pretty sure that I used/injured every muscle in my body. Despite all of the falling, I would be willing to try it again. It was a good time with friends. :)

Travis is working away. He has a birthday at the end of the month and is just trucking along. School, FFA, scouts, farming and family keep him pretty busy.

Well, that's the latest on us. Hopefully I will update again soon and share some video, or at least pictures of the little monkey.

Mt. Everest

The inevitable has happened. Curtis has conquered Mount Everest. Now what is his Mount Everest? It would be the toy storage bins that came down from his room a few months ago. We bout them at IKEA before he was born and they have been up in his room since. But since he never plays in his room and most of his toys are downstairs I decided to bring the storage bin downstairs to store all of his toys. I knew at the time that eventually our little climber would be big enough to climb on it. I was hoping it wouldn't be so soon.

The other day I was in the kitchen making dinner when I hear Curtis laughing. I look up and this is what I see:

Let me tell you. He was pretty proud of himself. Look at that big cheesy grin! I on the other hand was not so happy. Shortly after taking this picture he knocked the wooden animals off the ledge and broke the wheels off. No amount of disciple would keep him off of his new found mountain.

Since this first incident I have removed everything from the ledge. I have also given up trying to keep him off of it. He just loves it and nothing will keep him off. In fact this morning after he was done eating his breakfast he crawled over and climbed up on the second step. And there he stayed for quite some time. It was nice to not have him underfoot while I cleaned up the kitchen and made muffins.

I do love this boy and love his ambition and drive and hope that it will take him great places in life.

Update

I realized the other day that it has been a while since I posted anything. Mostly it's because life has been the same old, same old. But hey, I'd rather have that then a super crazy life. So here's just a little update.

New years eve was spent having a murder mystery lunch with friends. That was fun. I turned out to be the murder, kind of. It was really my twin sister! Crazy. We then had a quiet evening at home playing games with Travis's aunt and uncle. I love playing games with them! I was a stick in the mud and turned in about 11pm.

Curtis is teething big time! He has one molar and working on a second and has a new tooth on the bottom in front. The poor kid had the first molar come through without any motrin b/c I didn't know he was teething. I felt bad when I saw it. However, the new tooth explained the runny nose, coughing, and having a hard time sleeping the whole week before.

Oh, I guess some other big news is that I have started working as a Jewelry consultant. I know it may seem odd to those of you who know me and know that I'm not much of a jewelry person, but it's pretty fun. I get to have girls night out and talk fashion. I get to give away free jewelry to my hostesses and show their friends how to jazz up their wardrobe. :)

Travis is working hard teaching, advising FFA and working as the scout master.

Well, there is your update of us. Nothing too exciting, but nothing too upsetting either. :)

Christmas

I previously wrote about how I had a hard time getting into Christmas and how I miss my family. I have also been thinking about how I get to enjoy Christmas with a different perspective. It's no longer about me, but about my son. While he is still too young to grasp the concept, it was still fun to see him get exited about getting new things and getting to tear paper. I'm sure as Curtis gets older and our family grows I will learn to love this new way of experiencing Christmas.

Today was a low key day in my book. We got up about 8, showered and then got Curtis up and took him downstairs to see his dump truck that "Santa" had brought him.

We then had our traditional cinnamon rolls for breakfast and then opened the rest of our presents. It was fun to see Travis help Curtis tear the paper and open the presents. It is also interesting to see how I have become less selfish since becoming a parent. I suppose that is the way it should be, but I know that it doesn't always happen. Anyhow, after spending time at home we headed to Travis's parent's for dinner, gift exchanging and quality time with extended family. It was a really nice day. Curtis continued to climb on everything and we got a nice family picture! It was great to spend time together.

Revelation

I had a revelation about myself today. But first some background. I have always loved Christmas, but have found myself not being very excited the last couple of years. I have no motivation to put up and decorate the tree. I'm not interested in doing any decorating or baking. I just can't seem to get excited about the season.

Yesterday I was talking with a friend about Christmas growing up and family traditions and it got me thinking. I realized that I miss my family. It sounds so simple, but it didn't occur to me until this morning. What I love about Christmas is spending time with my family, immediate and extended. I'm not one to be sentimental, but I guess it's normal to miss your family during the holidays. The upside is that I get to create new traditions with my family and have great in-laws to celebrate with. :)

Tuckered Out

Not much has been happening lately but I thought that I would share this picture. This is how I found him when I came home from choir practice on Sunday. Travis was grading papers and apparently Curtis was tired. Poor little guy must have been tuckered out b/c he rarely sleeps anywhere but his bed.

Where Do I live?!

The last time I checked, I don't live in Antartica. I don't live in Alaska or Montana. I don't even live in Eastern Idaho. I live in Southwest Idaho and since when does the valley get 8 inches of snow over night!!! And if that weren't enough it just kept snowing all morning!!!

These pictures don't really do justice to what the snow really looked like, but hey, it's the best that I can do.

The snow did bring some fun times, sledding! The slope off our backyard is a great sledding hill! The Adams family came over and had a great time.

Curtis and Bentley got to hang out inside with me. Curtis was fascinated with everyone outside and watched them the whole time they were outside. :)