Metro

Madeline, David and I decided to go to DC (add another "state" to Davids list of place he's been) to meet my dad for lunch. In order to get there, we took the metro. David was pretty tired both ways, but he did great. He had lots to say on the way back. Fortunately it wasn't too crowded.





Metro may be handicap accessible, but it is not very baby friendly. When passing through the card/payment thing (I have no idea what it is called), my stroller would not fit. However, 3 very nice men helped me and lifted the stroller (no, David was not in it).

My dad enjoyed carrying David around the cafeteria. David enjoyed "wooing" all the lady...correction, everybody that looked at him.



I needed to change Davids diaper. So we ventured out to find a bathroom with a changing station. Apparently, federal employees don't bring their babies/young un-potty trained kids to work, because there was not a single changing station! We opted for a stack of boxes in a random hallway. Haha. The looks we got were pretty funny.

When we had an extra seat next to us, I let David sit there and play with my phone. My little man is growing up a little too fast. All in all it was a good day.




Madeline has been playing with David on photo booth. Enjoy the pictures!

Love you!!

Simplicity

David got a lot of fun new toys for Christmas. However, one of his favorites can be found in the kitchen cabinet...a cup! When I was down with the stomach bug last week, Dana was nice enough to watch David for me. Well, she needed to do something so she put him on the floor and handed him a green plastic cup. He loved it, and still does. He will lay on the floor, sit in the excersaucer, whatever and wave it, bang it, chew it and smile.





Having a child makes it a no brainer as to why we are suppose to become "like a little child." They know and love the simple things in life.

David is blessed to have musically inclined aunts. David likes to listen to Katie play the piano, and while we have been in Maryland, my sister Madeline has been giving him piano lessons.

Love you! Miss you!

Traditions

Every Christmas we get together with my cousins and go over to my Grandmas house for dinner, dessert, gifts, chatting, and of course the pinata! Inside the pinata is money and candy. We all line up in order from youngest to oldest and each get to take usually two swings at it. David being the youngest got to go first. It was so cute to see him take a "swing" and to be able to have my kid take part in something I looked (and still do!) forward to every year.





Something funny. My cousins have never seen DT before. So they were all over him. My cousin Reggie looked at David then me and said are your eyes brown? I said no, they are blue, but he has Marks eyes. I said David really is a mini Mark. THe only thing I have going for me is that Davids nose is kind of like mine. Reggie looked at me, then David, and said, nope! Haha. David truly is a mini Mark (no exaggeration) and especially while Mark is away, I am grateful for that.

In other random news, we received our flat daddy. However, we didn't get Mark! We got one of his battle buddies! Haha. Oops.

Again, I hope you all had a great Christmas with your loved ones! And one more picture "just because." This is on the way back to the house. Fortunately, he fell right to sleep when I put him in the crib.

Here Comes Santa...!

After being hit with the stomach bug, I changed my flight to Maryland originally for Christmas Eve, but then I changed it to fly out Wednesday instead. It's probably a good thing I did because Illinois is having a White Christmas!

I was going to say I hope none of my family gets hit with the stomach flu... but it didn't happen. Katie has been hit, as well as Madeline, and possibly my mom. Sorry! Anyways, so we are in Maryland for the next few weeks. On Christmas Eve Mark was able to skype. It was a fabulous way to to start off the Christmas festivities. Shortly after that though I received a beautiful arrangement of flowers with a sweet note. Thanks so much Mark! They're beautiful!



Wait, pause. Before we left Illinois we had a little Christmas with Dana, Katie, Amy, Randy & Kennedy. It was a lot of fun. Here are some pictures :-)







I wanted to take David to see Santa. Mark and I were both slightly nervous that David would just cry. But I did it anyways. What is making memories all about anyways? Haha. So my mom, David and I headed off to the mall and waited in line. It wasn't too long of line either which was nice. David was a champ! Not one single tear! I'm hoping next year (and the years to follow) will go just as well. Maybe?







Christmas morning is here. My siblings were in no hurry to get up, but I told them if we didn't do it at 7:30, we would be waiting until about 11 to open presents. They were okay with that. Haha. However, everyone got up and opened presents nice and early.





David got lots of new toys and books. He especially liked the wrapping paper :-)

My grandma is coming over for breakfast, and then later today we'll all go over to her house and meet up with the King Cousins for dinner. Merry Christmas to all! Take a minute and remember the true reason we are celebrating, hold your loved ones close.

Love you!!!!

No more, no more

On Sunday we had an early Christmas celebration because David and I were suppose to be leaving for Maryland this morning. Apparently, my stomach had too much fun and my body decided it wasn't quite ready to leave Illinois just yet. I was hit with the stomach bug Sunday night. I won't go into detail but this picture sums up how I felt:



But, I am happy to report the bathroom and I have not been as close today, so after changing my ticket, again, we are flying to Maryland tomorrow morning! Unfortunately, with this stomach flu, I missed a fabulous (or at least, thats what I'm told) Blues Hockey game...complete with club seats :-( Lets hope there is another opportunity when we get back in February.

Davids 6 month appointment was yesterday. Nothing surprising. Still a "big" boy. He weighed in at 18.8 pounds and is 27 1/4 long. Growing strongly and healthily, for that I am grateful.

I hope each of you have a fabulous Christmas with your families, friends, and loved ones. Take a moment and remember what really matters, especially at we celebrate our Saviors birth.

Do you know your product?

We bought our Travel system through Amazon. We really like it, everything was going fine...until David grew out of the infant car seat and he began sitting just in the stroller. I noticed that the seat would not sit up and stay. Let me show you what I have, just for visual purposes. It is the abbington green. Great gender neutral colors.



Nice, right? Anyways, so, I contacted Graco and they said I would receive a replacement back in 5-7 business days. A month and a half later, an e-mail or two exchanged and this is what I receive:



Weird. Ugly. Even if I had a girl, this would not be in my top ten choice. So, I wrote them again. I made sure I clearly stated what color my stroller is.Graco responded saying that my replacement part was out of stock and they would ship it as soon as they received it. Three weeks later, I receive this:



Again, not the same color of the stroller we own, getting closer, but not quite there. I think I'll skip the email this time and call and speak to a human being and see what we can do to fix this. It's pretty frustrating. And another reason I really want a Phil & Teds Double Explorer Jogging Stroller. Like this one, just in the green apple please. Wish me luck!

Uh, picture of the week?

As I looking over some past blogs, I saw "picture of the week" posts and my first thought was "Oops!" But seeing as no one has complained about not updating (recently that is), I don't think it's that big of a deal. However, to try and make it up to you, I will post not one, not two, but five pictures of the week. Lucky you!Forgive me?

David is such a stud. He is sitting up like a champ (lets be honest, he's an all around champ). Here he is sitting on my bed playing with my teddy bear Mark gave me our first Valentines together. David probably wonders why daddys voice doesn't come out of it like his bear does :-)

I love his face...and those thighs! I'm apparently anti pants for him because most of the pictures of him he is not wearing any. Haha.

Here David is sitting in front of the Christmas tree, again, no pants, but still so cute! I've decided Holidays are a lot more fun with kids.

David loves to read and eat. So why not combine the two?! And look, he has pants!

Love you!!!

Honey Do...

Before Mark left back in August he left me very specific instructions for the car. I was not worried how I was going to complete these tasks, but whether or not I was actually going to be able to do these things. Fortunately for me, Mark wrote it out everything on a sheet of paper, gave it to me and said "dont forget :-)"



Frequently when we Skype he would add in an extra item for me to do. Something about him wanting to make sure we're safe. I think that even if I tried really really hard, I would not be able to forget what type of oil to get, or where to go to get it done. I was worried I wouldn't have time to do this before I left for Maryland, but Mark pleaded and begged (okay, not really, but it was close.) Tonight, I am happy to report that the car has new oil, the tires are rotated and the automatic trans fluid has been replaced (don't ask me what that means, the guy working on the car recommended it and told me if I did it,my husband would be proud! haha) and we are $180 poorer.

The guys at Valvoline were great. Plus, for a little while longer they have a 20% military discount. Thanks Valvoline! Mark, here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure. I love you and hope 1)you can do this the next time it needs to be done and 2)I hope I made you proud.

-If you look real close, you can see the guys under the car sticking his hand/arm out!

-This guy was just plain funny. He asked specifically for this picture to be taken.

Go ME!

Last night was the Relief Society Progressive (Christmas) dinner. It was a ton of fun and I'm so glad I was able to go. Because this was a Relief Society thing, I had no family babysitters. So I had Katelyn Young, one of my beehives, come over. I missed the first part because I was putting DT to bed. This was Davids first "non" family babysitter...and he'll have another one on Monday!



This was probably the easiest babysitting job out there because all she had to do was sit at the house. It's weird to be on the other end of the babysitting scheme.

A little while back my friend Joelle posted on her yummy kitchen blog, ITKWIB that Walgreens was having a sale on their brand diapers. I was skeptical at first because I'm kind of a brand snob when it comes to diapers. I dont want to be changing DTs clothes, my clothes, sheets, etc any more than I have to :-) Well I tried them and they are just like huggies...just cheaper! Walgreens was having a sale last week on their diapers...buy 1 get 1 free! Unfortunately they were out at the time so I got a rain check (or two!) and went back today and got them. I got 254 diapers for $45!! And no, David is not in size 5 (let alone size 6) diapers. I was just stocking up :-)



My new debit card came today-hallelujah! Hope everyone had a great week! We head out to Maryland on Tuesday. Please pray that I dont have another incident like the last. I just don't think I could do it again :-)

Love & Miss you!!

The Lost Wallet

It's been a while since I've had anything crazy happen in my life. Hence the reason, last night happened the way it did. After YWs, I went to SAMs club because we are expecting a nasty ice storm the next two days. Anyways, I get gas and figure since I'm at SAMs club anyways, I minus well run and get a few things (cheese, formula, and a really cute Christmas decoration). I put it all in a box, including my wallet (No, I did not have a purse or a diaper bag). I walk out to my car, open the trunk and try to put the box into the trunk. But with the stroller it did not fit. So I took what I thought was everything out of the box and put in the trunk, toss the box in a cart and leave. I get home, unload everything and realize I don't have my wallet. While driving back to SAMs club, I call and call and finally get through and tell him what happened. He said to meet him at the exit door. I pull up, we talk, we check boxes, he walks on top of carts (I was scared he would fall!), look up and down the parking lot. Nothing. So I leave my contact info and a description of the wallet and leave. When I get back home (now the second time) I call my bank and cancel my credit and debit cards. Katie and I then go back to SAMs (I have a love/hate relationship with SAMs at this point) and we again look up and down the parking lot, search the carts and then decide we have done everything we can and go back home (for the third time). I was exhausted, stressed, nervous, I had no idea to get on the airplane Tuesday morning. I jump on facebook and someone had messaged me: "Hi I found youre wallet off higway 50 in O'Fallon. I could not figure out any other way to get ahold of you so you can give me a call. My number is (618) 973-3549. My name is Brice. If I do not hear from you by tomorrow night I will just take it up to the O'Fallon police station and drop it off there." I run to Katies room and tell her the church is true! Haha. (I've always known it was, but I was just so relieved and couldn't think of anything else!!) Facebook was my hero that night :-) I called this person and he told me his little brother had found it by Gators...no where near where I had been! Katie and I go over to his house, I try to give him $20 and some truffles, but he said no. I'm pretty sure he was 15 too. Anyways, I thanked him again and we left and went home (for the fourth time). The only thing missing was the $30 cash I had. Yes, I'm bummed that that was taken, but I'm grateful that nothing else (pictures, credit cards, Temple recommend, etc. Thank you to that kind person who found the wallet and contacted me, and to the rude person who took, I do not like you.

Sleeping David

Like I've mentioned before, David has some interesting sleep positions. And again, I am not one to judge let alone complain when he is sleeping like a champ. However, I will share some pictures with you.




He is certainly a cutie, however when I look at the monitor and see that he has his face squished into the bumper, I get slightly stressed.This is how he wakes up:



David has a lot of blood related aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins...but he also has a lot of non blood related aunts, uncles and grandparents. This is our Stake President. He and his wife, Jolynn Holt, stopped by the other day. This is how he and David spent the majority of the time:



I am so grateful for such good friends who I would consider family. Thank you!