A Christmas Blog

Yes, I know it's not yet Thanksgiving (tomorrow), and I know it's not yet December (next week), but I'm really struggling in the christmas spirit department. Not that I don't have any, but that I have too much too soon! I'm trying to hold off on decorating my house before Dec 1, although I do have a "let it snow" rug on the floor infront of my kitchen sink. But so far that's it. So this is the next best thing to house decorating...blog decorating! I picked out my christmas playlist songs and got a christmas background. ahhh...my christmas outlet. And here i thought I was going to explode waiting for December to get here.

got my camera program to work!

So cute playing with her baby.

"Mom, I'm all ready to go shopping!"

Grilling with Dad outside. Brrr!!

Yummy beater... "mmmm".

Bet you didn't know Courtney had a brown belt, too, did ya?

Little Helper

Alright, now I feel a little guilty for posting a gross story about Courtney, so I'll post a nice one to balance it out.
Courtney is always the cutest little helper. Whenever I'm vaccuming, she patiently waits. As soon as I turn it off, she runs to the outlet and unplugs the cord. She then runs back to me (you really should see her run, it's adorable!) and tries to attach it to the vaccuum as i'm winding up the cord. And today during our sunbeams class, I had the kids make turkeys. Courtney was right there afterwards putting all the crayons back in the bucket. She'd run to the table, grab a fist full of crayons, and run back to Jeremy to put the crayons in the bucket. She was a better helper than my sunbeams were! She's always making messes, but is always willing to help clean up. Such a good little helper. It's also pretty cute how she waves at everyone during sacrament meeting. She stand up and turn around and wave at everyone behind us, then she's lean over Jeremy and wave at everyone to the side of us, then stand on my lap and wave at everyone on the stand... continuously, all through church. Very cute ; )
... Now brace yourself for the poo story...not so cute.

Late to Church

I know it's been a while since I last posted, but I've been having some problems getting pictures on. So here's a picture-less post update. But I'm sure you'll all be glad there's not a picture to go along with this story.
This morning before church I was preparing a crockpot roast in the kitchen while Courtney was playing in the dining room. She is always pulling things out of my purse and stringing them all over the house, and I usually have a few diapers in there. So I look out over the countertop to check on her and she's waving a diaper around. I think, "how cute, she's keeping herself entertained with a diaper from my purse" and I continue slicing potatoes. A few minutes later she's going, "ah ah ah ah eww...mom Mom MOM MOM!" and here she comes running, holding this diaper up to me. I take the diaper from her, and lo and behold, it is chuck filled full of poo. So now I'm thinking, "that's disgusting! where did she get this from?!" I figured she had pulled it out of a garbage can. She now has poo on her legs and feet, so we run upstairs (with her held as far away from me as possible) and I'm scrubbing her down in the sink (since she is currently terrified of the bathtub)...when I notice... she's not wearing a diaper. So she pooed...took off her dirty diaper, and brought it to me. How thoughful, right? So Jeremy hears me saying "Ew Ew Ew Ew Ew Courtney, nooooo, Ew" as I'm trying to hose the girl down, and he comes running. She had it all up the inside of her nightgown. It took two of us several minutes to clean her up, and oh yeah, it stunk. Needless to say we were a bit late for church this morning.

So proud of my hubby!

Last night Jeremy and I had our shotokan belt test. Mine is the white belt (obviously) but those yellow tips represent almost 7 months of hard core karate training. i worked my butt off for those tips, and i'm way proud of them, so i'm posting them! tests are every 4 months, but i started a couple months before the last test so i wasn't able to test then. Last night I actually tested for the yellow belt and passed, but haven't been in there for a full 8 months, so i was only able to receive the tips. Our Sensei said he would test me early for the yellow belt since i'm already on that level. So hopefully here pretty soon, I'll be sporting a nice yellow belt! And Jeremy, holy cow, you guys have to see him to actually believe how amazing he is! He got his brown belt last night. In 4 months he'll get to take off a stripe, then 6 months later take off the second stripe, and a year after that, he'll take off the third stripe and receive his black belt. I am very very proud and amazed at Jeremy, he is super impressive and sooo amazing to watch. My jaw just drops to see the stuff he can do. We'll be starting Courtney in shotokan when she is about 5 years old. We'll both be black belts by then and able to teach others. As our sensei says, "A family that kicks together, sticks together".

What else...another post about Courtney

After shopping with Melina, Mom, and Katy this morning, Jeremy took Courtney and I out to lunch. She is always so happy and such a good eater whenever we go out. She usually ends up eating a good chunk of my lunch as well as Jeremy's.

This is the cutest picture ever. Whenever Courtney is upset, this is how she cries. One hand over the mouth as if to say, "Mom, how could you TREAT me this way?" In this case, it was because i set her down so I could take a picture of her in her new peacoat jacket. It was suppose to be for Christmas, but honestly...it was just too cute to keep bagged up til then!

Happy Halloween!

For Halloween I decided to expose Courtney for the little devil she truly is. That sweet little face can be very deceiving.

Here's Jazzy. She was a very cute Princess Pirate.

And Brigham was Spider Man. Courtney didn't know quite what to think of that.

Melina and I took the kids trick-or-treating at Shane's office. Courtney was excited to get her ice cream bar and candy.

Then we met up with Mom at my house and Katy and Jacob at the mall where we trick-or-treated the stores. It was so cute, Courtney would get so excited when she saw the people standing outside the stores handing out candy, she would go "oooh ooh ooh!!" and try to lean forward to get to them quicker. Then she'd dig through the bucket to find that perfect piece of candy and put it in her spider bucket. Either that, or she'd take a big fistful getting as much as she could.

Here's the little devil taking a rest.

After the mall when Jeremy got home from work we went to his mom's house to trick-or-trick. I love this picture, how she's just resting her chin in her hand. So cute!

Our Halloweeny family pic.

Dawn was wearing this necklace that lights up and flashes...Courtney saw it, decided she wanted it, and 2 seconds later it was around her neck. Told you she was a little devil.

After some time at grandma's, we drove out to Menan to spend some time with my side. Poor Courtney was so tired, she had fallen asleep by the time we got there.

Once we were there and got some pizza in her belly, she was up and ready to go. We watched "The Incredible Hulk", and Courtney found the perfect size chair just for her.

All in all, minus washing melted chocolate off my messy baby every 1/2 hour or so, it was a pretty good Halloween!

Silly Sippy Snacker

Courtney insisted on all 3 sippys PLUS my mug for her snack today. Atleast she's happy. I have a super cute/funny video, but for some reason my new camera isn't compatible with putting videos on here.

a few bits of randmonness

All my pictures are newest to oldest...or oldest to newest...however you look at it.... due to how blogger uploads funny, so here's the story backwards ; )

Jaz stayed at our house for a few days while Melina, Shane, and Brigham went to Philadelphia to visit Doug, Mallena, Miriam, and Shay. When I told her that Mom and Dad would be here in a little bit to pick her up, she packed up and sat by her suitcase for almost 2 hours, only allowing herself to leave its side to get treats.

Courtney waited with her.

It was so cute, they were buddy-buddy for the most the time... well, when Courtney wasn't pulling Jaz's hair, and Jaz wasn't screaming at Courtney for looking at her doll, or "looking out my window" in the car.

They chased the poor cats all around the house. Those two little girls are pretty quick!

I took them on a bike ride around community park. I swear I didn't drug them to ensure good behavior. They both just look that way all on their own.

See, they're happy.

I threw this pic in just because Courtney looks like such a big girl standing there. Aww... my baby is almost a toddler....

Here's Courtney kissing her baby. She's such a caring mommy, rocking her baby, feeding it, and kissing it. or maybe she's biting it... that sounds more likely.

I put this step stool under the window so Courtney could climb up it and look out the window. She loves it. She's all about being outdoors and when it's too cold for that, she's happy just looking out the window.

Minus the scraggly bangs (which i'm trying to decide whether to just cut, or grow out) Isn't she stinkin adorable! Her and all those teeth.

*sigh* nevermind

alright, i liked the idea of going private, but i've heard it's such a hassle, and i'm really lacking the ambition/motivation to actually get around to it, so... nevermind.

GOING PRIVATE

i've decided to make my blog private, so as soon as i figure out all the how-to's, i'll send you all an invitation. (well, all you who are actually welcome to the blog!) you'll have to sign in with a google account, which i'm still trying to figure that part out, to verify the invitation, but from there after, everything should be normal again. So here's just a heads up ; )

Halloween Ward Potluck/ trick-or-treat

Every month our ward does a potluck dinner, and for October's we always do a trick or treat thing for the kids. This was our first time we actually got to dress her up and trick or treat since last year she was only a couple weeks old. Tonight she was a fairy princess (minus the fairy wings because they kept flapping her in the head and she was getting irritated) with a spider trick or treat bag. Matches quite nicely, don't you think? Courtney was SOO excited for all her treats. Here she is showing them off. She was one happy girl tonight.

Happy 26th Birthday Jeremy!

Today for Jeremy's birthday I made him breakfast of his choice, which was scrambled eggs with ham and cheese, muffins, and a tall glass of milk. Then he "opened" presents...which was just pulling them out of the sack because i used up all the wrapping paper for Courtney's birthday 2 days ago. But that was just fine with him.

After breakfast and presents we went to his mom's house for lunch. She made him a chicken enchilladas dinner... yummmy! After we ate we watched the second half of general conference when guess what.... Courtney said her first word!!! well, her first word other than Momma and Dad... She was sitting on Chad's lap looking at a Teddy Bear book and all of a sudden she starts saying "teddy bear"! I swear she said it like 10 times, it was SO cute!

OH- and at lunch she self fed herself with a spoon for the first time! She usually uses spoons, but never how they're meant to be used. This time she actually had food on the end and was putting it in her mouth... good job Courtney! And while on the subject of firsts.. Her birthday night was the first night in her life that she slept through the night. And she has every night since then. Wish us luck that she keeps it up! Anyhow.... Happy Birthday Jeremy, I love you!

Happy 1st Birthday Courtney!!!

Courtney woke up yesterday to find out it was her birthday! We started the day off with a baby doll that she packed around all morning while in her pajamas and bed hair.

After we got dressed, we went downstairs and I let her play with her Cinderella Vanity. This is the coolest little thing ever! It is all computerized depending on what color key you stick in it, it'll talk you through getting ready with make up and lotion and nail polish etc, or doing your hair with your curling iron, hair waiver, dryer, style brush, etc. I think I've had more fun with it so far than she has! Although she does love it!

This picture is out of order, but after the party and after her bath, we came downstairs to play with her new baby that Melina got for her. This was soo adorable, she was feeding her baby the bottle!

Here's her cake in one piece...

And here it is in one big smear...

And here's her birthday loot at the end of the night. Happy Birthday Courtney! I have some video clips i'm trying to put on, but they're taking FOREVER, so we'll see if they make it on or not.