3 years of love

"I do"

2nd Anniversary "It's a BOY!"

1st Anniversary

3rd Anniversary

Yesterday was Kyle and my 3rd anniversary!

It was a special day.

Kyle didn't get home until 5:30? I'm guessing because I'm not really sure, but regardless he had our anniversary off so that was a treat. He slept until noon. He got me mint fudge cookies and I.... well... my gift didn't work out, let's just leave it at that. We watched Coach Carter. Mav fell off the bed. We.... Kyle really... made meatloaf for dinner.

Mav? Oh right, you caught that... yeah fell right off. He was taking a nap and apparently when he woke up he decided not to alert us as usual and just go exploring all by himself.

Thud!

Sprint.

Cry. Surprisingly he didn't cry much... I'm very good at my job :) right, that's why he fell off the bed?
Really though, he was happy and smiling 5 minutes later.

Kyle gave Mav a bath. Then we sang songs and Kyle read him a story and it was bedtime.

We washed diapers.

Then, Kyle and I reminisced about our three years of marriage and everything we did and how much fun we had and how hard and depressing it was sometimes a lot of times and how exciting and wonderful it was other times and how much we are honestly, truly, and wonderfully blessed in SO many ways.
a. the gospel
b. each other
c. Maverick
d. our families
e. Kyle has a good job
f. food to eat
g. a home
h. I can stay home with Mav
i. can walk to church
j. can walk to the store
k. have good friends
l. love our ward
m. have seen a lot of the country
n. we are healthy
o. the internet
p. books to read
q. games to play
r. clothes to wear
s. a car
t. electricity
u. an education
v. got to know our extended family better
w. we have learned much
x. we have loved deeply
y. we have laughed joyously
z. we have lived happily

There are many more blessings in our life, but that's the alphabet. We have a lot.

Mav helped me make the bed this morning. He had so much fun.

And in case anyone was wondering... Kyle is still awesome and Mav now has 6 teeth... he finally got him two front teeth! This is his teething face.

Me and my Happy Hippie Self

1. I decided to try my hand at homemade wipes. I was inspired by a recipe I found on, you guessed it, pinterest. You can find the recipe here. It was super easy and Mav has had quite a few diaper rashes in his day, plus his bum always seems to be a little red. I used coconut oil in them because of its natural anti-fungal and antibacterial-ness. The wipes feel nice and moisturizing and Mav's bum has never looked better!

2. We have also been spending a lot more time outside lately (I always feel a little "Little House on the Prairie" while I'm hanging out the laundry) and with that we are getting our fair share of vitamin D and Mav has discovered grass. This also means I have to start thinking about sun protection and since I'm not ready to slather my baby with sunscreen we got the little man a sun hat. It's reversible and adorable and keeps the sun off his head and out of his eyes. Also... coconut oil is a natural sunscreen and makes Mav's curls look delicious.

3. I am trying the "no-poo" hair wash (found here) and so far I'm not sure. I've been at it for about 4 days and apparently there is an adjustment period of a week or two... so we'll see.

4. Cloth diapers.

Seriously?

Yep. Mav is wearing one right now and I couldn't be more excited! 8 months ago I said I would never use cloth diapers because this reason at that. Then I got tired of dumping money into disposables and really, you don't use paper plates for every meal, it's a waste of money. I also have a couple friends who use cloth and love it AND... hardly ever have blowouts if at all!!! Yeah... I hate blowouts.

First creeps as a creeping crawler!

So I did way more research than I was prepared to do and finally decided to start off with 6 diapers, 3 different brands. Not a lot, but enough to get started and wash every night while Mav sleeps with a disposable on.

And they're SO CUTE! So easy too... the all in ones are just like disposable, but you throw them in the wash instead of the trash.

And since we plan on having a tremendous amount of children this should save us a tremendous amount of money and spare a tremendous amount of diaper rash and a tremendous amount of blowouts! :)

And Kyle thinks it's pretty cool.

Shots, Bacon, and more Teeth!

For those of you who don't know and those of you who do, a friendly reminder that we live in Texas. So far we LOVE it. We have heard though that it gets HOT! Heard because we have not yet experienced a summer in Texas yet. It was January and 80 degrees so as you and I can imagine, it gets pretty brutal.

Our air conditioner broke.

The guy came and said it was probably a dirty filter (as everyone knows when you take it in to the shop, it works like a dream). Well, we bought a new filter, the old one was disgusting. Guess what? It's not working.

Anyway.
Mav is 7 months! and he got his first ever shot on the 26th [GASP] ... calm down ...  :( I still don't think he even knows he got a shot, I mean the kid didn't even cry, not one tear. I just sang to him, he got the shot, he made a face for half a second, oh, but mom is singing, life is good. Done and done!

He has also been reaching, more for Kyle than me and it's so cute! He loves his daddy.

He also loves bacon.

Just look at those teeth! He already has his lateral incisors and no front teeth... goofing looking kid :)

And Mav made a friend. They were so cute... Liam was so patient while Mav was trying to eat his head :)

Mav Pooped.

Sunday.

Mav pooped on Sunday and that was the last time ... until ...

today.

This morning Mav woke up at 5:30. Nothing new. We played and laughed and watched as Mav gets closer and closer to crawling. He is already so mobile rolling and army crawling to anything worth the effort. Kyle expressed his concern that Mav hadn't pooped since Sunday. We didn't get out of bed until 6:30. We ate breakfast and played and then it was naptime.
Hour and a half nap.
Happy baby :)
Kyle! He pooped! YAY!

So we are changing his diaper and suddenly Kyle looks up and says "He's peeing!" Pee everywhere. There is pee all over him and the bed.
Strip baby, strip bed.
Bath.
Happy baby. Mav loves his bath!

Day continues as usual.

Short nap on my lap when he wakes up all sleepy. We chill while watching Harry Potter and eating popcorn when I realize Mav had a blowout. Ugh! "Kyle, will you help me?"

"Um... there's poop on the recliner."
"What? OHHH there's poop all over me!"

I'm pretty sure he shot the poop up and out of his diaper. Seriously, I don't know how these things happen. I had poop all over my side. My cardigan, my pants, my G's, all over Mav, all down the back and seat of the recliner and down inside, all the way down to the back flap.
Poop everywhere!
Strip baby, strip myself.
Laundry.

Bedtime.
Sleeping baby.
Sigh.

To tell you the truth, Kyle and I both have found today's events quite amusing and managed to laugh our way through them. And so it goes.

My little Valentine

This Valentine's my love was away defending our castle, but nonetheless it was a day filled with love and laughter. Mav was my little Valentine this year and he was as sweet as they come. We snuggled, read stories, played, and shared a sweet treat (of which I am still cleaning out of every crevice imaginable) of sweet potato fries.

Seriously! This kid kills me... just look at that mug! And a very special thanks to Granny Suzie and Papa Mike for the cutest pj's ever! They are perfect and we miss you!

Anyway, that's all. I just wanted to show off my adorable little Valentine who is now sleeping so sweetly :) Sleep tight little lovebug!

Valentine's Day

“Love is more than a paper heart. Love is of the very essence of life. It is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.”—Gordon B. Hinckley 

Why is it that for holidays such as Valentine's Day and Anniversaries it's all about what the man does for his woman? Because men only show affection on special days, right? Not true, at least not for my sweetheart. He is constantly telling me he loves me, what a good wife and mother I am, how beautiful I am, and how, given the chance, he would do it all over again. Not to mention the greatest show of love of all, going out everyday and working hard to provide for his family. If that doesn't show affection, I don't know what does. I love my man. How did I seriously get so lucky?

I married a good man, so I wanted to show him a little extra love. And trust me, it was little. I put Mav to bed and spent a mere 30 minutes making a couple Valentine's while Kyle was at Young Mens teaching his Missionary Prep. class. I made him this...
 

I did not get a picture of the one I made, but this is where I got the idea (thank you Pinterest) and I tied mine off with a blue ribbon and stuck it in his work boot to find in the morning when he left for work. I also made this...

and put it in his cereal bag to find when he poured his cereal. Cute, I know.

Then I went to bed. I am sooo tired lately! No. In case you think you are funny or are actually wondering, I am not pregnant.

Then Kyle, my sexy, affectionate, hard working man, got called in to work. He left at about midnight. He found the "dynamite sticks" but neglected to eat his cereal. Shame on him. ;)

He deserves so much more and I know that, but it's the little things, right?

Also in the spirit of the holidays, I dyed an entire load of laundry this pukey pink color from my maroon Moby that Mav vomited all over on Sunday. Pink. Ugh. Just in time for the holiday I guess. I can't help but laugh at the irony.

I tried rewashing it with white distilled vinegar, no luck.

Any suggestions would be appreciated :)

Prince Maverick

Mav is fascinated with our ceiling fan. He smiles up at it and sometimes just starts laughing at it. So naturally I decided to write a book about it.

I was just going to write a very short, cute little story about it and put it on a page in his scrapbook.

Somehow it evolved immensely into this big project that will probably take weeks to finish.

I invented a story that is mostly true, typed it all up and then I decided I would illustrate it and put it all together in a mixbook and have it printed for him.

I seriously don't know how it got this far. Oh well. I am now 4 pages in. 20 (or something like it) to go.

It will probably be a movie someday.

Seriously.

Like Peter Pan and his shadow.

Main character is Prince Maverick. Supporting characters are the Queen mother and King father. Kyle loves "his" character. I don't know where he gets the idea that it is based on him.

I'm no writer or an illustrator for that matter, but I won't lie, I'm pretty proud of how it's coming along.