Ten Months

At 10 months old you are turning into quite the little man. You don't really seem like a baby anymore. You are constantly on the go. You love to climb into the dishwasher. You will just sit there or stand up and work on pulling out all the dishes. You dart for the laundry room whenever the door is open. And always when you get in there go straight for the dogs food and water dishes. You also dash for the fridge when it is opened. You cross your feet all the time, I think its adorable!!!

You are cruising along the furniture like it's nobodies business. I keep thinking one day you'll just take off on your own, but you have yet to do that. You do love your walker toy and walk all over using that. You also love to pull yourself up on my legs and walk with me.
You walk behind me and stick your head through my legs, you laugh and laugh you think it's so fun.You love to fly around and rough house. You are a social little boy and love interacting with people. You smack your lips, it's pretty funny. You can now wave bye-bye, give kisses, and give high fives. You love to snuggle when you wake up. You think dogie noises are funny and you LOVE your dogies! You also love the dogie door and will stand on your tip toes to see over it! You've climbed up onto the couch a couple times all by yourself. You climb over everything, never going around anything, always over. You still just have your two bottom teeth, which is adorable. Your hair is still baby fine and thin, but it's getting longer. You have two little cowlicks that make it so you constantly have a little alfalfa. You probably need a hair cut but I can't bring myself to do it! You love your leapfrog learning table and your sensory balls. You love your friends Lexee and Parker. You have figured out how to get into the cupboards and drawers. You love music. You have figured out how to open lids with your teeth, you open your little puffs all by yourself now. You have learned what the word no means and know when you are being naughty. You will try and hide it! So funny! You are a great eater and will eat anything we give you. You are eating more and more solids. You love fruit and watermelon! You are the best little boy ever and we continue to fall more and more in love!!!!

10 Month Stats

Height 28.5 in 56th%

Weight 17.4 lbs 3rd %

Head17.5 in 47th%

Failure

I feel like such a failure lately. Not at life, just at the housekeeping part of my life. Oh how I try! I try so hard! At least it feels that way. But it seems like I'm never able to keep on top of everything! Or it seems like as soon as I get on top of things something comes up. Now I promise I'm not entirely lazy, I do have my lazy moments but I don't sit around all day on facebook, reading blogs, or watching tv. I work, I play with Croix, I fulfill church responsibilities, I bath Croix, I try and be crafty, I feed Croix, I try and play with/learn about photography, I change Croix's diapers, I cook good meals, I chase Croix, I grocery shop.........The list goes on and on. I know I'm not the only person who does all these things and yet I think my house is messier then the average home. I hate feeling embarrassed when a neighbor happens to just stop by. Or if a client schedules last minute and all I have time fore is to get ready for them, not clean my house. I feel jealous of all my friends who when I was a kid couldn't play because they had to do chores. They were learning, I was not! My Mother, bless her, has many wonderful qualities and skills. House keeping is not one of them. As a result I never learned to to keep a home clean, because my home never was. I know HOW to clean, I know how to scrub a shower. I struggle with knowing how to keep my home clean and tidy. So I'm asking,

How do you keep your house clean?

I'm not asking this as a rhetorical question. I really need to know! I want your tips. Do you do note cards, cleaning schedule, are you constantly cleaning, do you have a chore chart? How do you keep your home clean? I would also ask you, does it get any easier as the kids get older? I feel like so much of my time and day are devoted to chasing Croix making sure he's not trying to kill himself crawling on top of everything, eating everything etc. So I wonder if it ever gets easier or is this just what life is? Thank you in advance for any advice you may have!

LA LA Land

WE WENT ON VACATION!!!!!!!
I was so happy! We had not been on a vacation since Oct '08!!!! That is way too long! We went to LA to visit my brother Travis and his wife Stefanie. We had a great vacation! Beach, spa (me :), a little shopping, a couple movies, lots of time on the couch, early morning snuggles, relaxing and most important lots of time to just have fun as a family! These are a few of my favorite pictures from our trip.

We stayed with my brother Travis and his wife Stefanie. They were so kind and welcoming! Croix LOVED them!!!! (if you can't tell by his giant smile!) Thanks again guys! It was just the break we needed! No work, no school, no clients, no alarm clocks. It was perfect


When we first go there Croix just sat and watched and checked everything out.



We dug in the sand with our bucket and shovel.

Watching the ocean







Beach attire
I've been dreaming of him wearing those shorts to the beach! Dreams to come true! They say: When it's sunny on the weekend my Dad takes me to the beach we go swimming we play catch and sometimes we just sit on the sand. HOW CUTE!!!




Croix did great! He took great naps in a different house and in a pack and play rather then his crib. He did wake up a 5:45 every morning! Sheesh that was not fun. He normally wakes up then, fusses and goes back to sleep. Well in the same room as us there was no going back to sleep. So Brent and I took turns getting up with him/sleeping in. He had fun with their dogs. We loved the beach. I was worried with it being a holiday weekend the beaches would be packed but they were not! We went on some long drives and saw some amazing views, Topanga Canyon is beautiful! Malibu is gorgeous. Baby Einstein saved the day when we were stuck in traffic on the 405. We drove through the night there and back and lived to see then sunrise the next morning! It was a little rough but we decided it would be the easiest with Croix, he just slept the whole way. I went to the Korean Spa on my birthday and LOVED getting away for the morning! My friend Amanda came home with us for a little vacation of her own, which made our vacation seem just a little longer! I don't think we'll go this long between vacations again!

To see all the pictures from our trip go here

9 Month Session

Oh how he melts my heart!
Love him more then words!
Enjoy his sweetness.

















Thank you again to Liz for doing an amazing job!
http://redbucketphoto.blogspot.com/

To see the entire session go here

Bitter Sweet

I sold my piano. I was so SO SO happy when I got that piano. Then even after having it tuned it still was way out of tune. It was huge, took up a lot of space in our little house. I didn't play if very often, hardly at all really. Part of the reason for that was I hadn't had a piano in so many years that I'd gotten really rusty. Being the inpatient person that I am rather then practicing consistently for a while so I could enjoy playing again I'd just get frustrated that I was so bad and therefor not play. Stupid and lazy I know. Really what it came down to though was I made a deal with the devil.....the devil being Brent. He told me if I sold my piano we could redo our floors downstairs. So then I had to decided weather I hated the floors more then I loved the piano. I decided I hated the floors more. I didn't really think it would sell, but it did, for what I wanted. We sold it to some friends in our neighborhood. So at least I know it went to a good home. I love that I now have a lot more space. But I miss that piano. It had a lot of character and potential. I think it added a lot to our home. Some day I will have a beautiful nice piano, that plays like a dream! Right now I'm looking forward to getting new flooring downstairs!!

Before:






They had to take it out the sliding glass door. They had 4 guys to carry it out! It literally broke Brent's back. Chiropractor diagnosed him with a bulging disk :(

It was a tight fit and I was VERY worried about my wood floors getting scratched. They did not! I let Ashley worry about the piano, since it is now hers.



Once they got it outside they had to figure out how to get it down the street to their house.

After a while they decided to just wheel it down.

Do you see the road? It left marks all the way down the street to their house. It also sounded a little like a train rolling down the street.

Bye-bye piano!

Brent the moment it was in their house.

They had to keep it in their garage for a little while. The live in the two bed room model in our neighborhood which is all upstairs. They had to use a fork lift to get it into their house!

So empty!

Brent was happy..........

VERY HAPPY!
I'm a little sad. I miss it, even if I never really played it!