too much to do

i feel so behind on blogging.

i WANT to blog about lots of little things i love that are going on.

BUT there's a long lists of buts in front of my blogging wants.

editing photo sessions,

house stuff,

church stuff,

sleep stuff,

just stuff, stuff, and stuff that gets in front of my blog wants!

sigh

for now i'll leave you with this precious picture of my baby.

THAT'S ONE! whaaaaa????

more to come soon!

ps- my SIL has moved her fabric shop, westwood acres fabric, to her own, new, fancy site, go check it out!!!!
so proud of them.
if you don't already follow her IG account (@acraftyfox_amanda) then you should because she does LOADS of killer giveaways with that there eye candy fabric. (when i was at their house in october i about died and gone to heaven in the fabric room, beautiful fabric EVERYWHERE!!!!!)

family

this was meant to be posted on thanksgiving, i never got around to it.
i'm thankful for my little family.
a supportive, loving, faithful husband.
a sweet, adorable, smart, healthy baby boy.
i feel so incredibly blessed.
(a big thanks to my friend susan who snapped these first 3!)

one year

my baby is one.

ONE!

one year went so fast.

we love this little boy to pieces and can't imagine our lives without him

happy first birthday maxson!

picturas de iFono

i'm thankful for FAMILY!
part of them came in town last night and it's so fun to be squished in our little home.
i'm thankful they all did the big walmart shopping trip right now so i could blog!

a. we finally we to this local burger place called honest abes
oober hipster but even MORE sober delicious!
b. we loved out burgers.
i got the headless horseman (the sauce was a combo of pumpkin, cream cheese, and cinnamon, it was like a DESSERT burger!) and casey got the classic which was amazing.
we've decided every time we go there we'll always get the classic and try 1 new one, always splitting both with each other for flavor.
maxson made a mess, but it's cool
c. leaves!
d. this child loves to have the tooth bruch in his mouth (let's be honest, he loves everything in his mouth) but if we're brushing our teeth he insists on finding one of his tooth brushes to put in his mouth as well. this picture makes my heart sing

a. baby friends! there were lots of babies in our ward born in 2012, this is only a few! we love our friends!
b. shoulder riding it
c. i was visiting teaching with a friend and our boys just stared at the fish tank for like 10 min. the older 2 year old kept pointing stuff out to maxson, adorable.
d. fire in the sky

a. just the beginning of play time.
i HIGHLY recommend rotating toys friends, maxson is so much more interested in his toys now
b. getting excited for the holiday season!
c. gearing up for the cold outside
d. stud

a. getting a last swing in with neighbors on an unusually warm november day
b. casey came to help with scouts again teaching basketball 1) i love that man 2) he had me laughing the whole time 3) the scouts like him WAY more than me
c. why are these store bought sugar cookies so good? i love them dearly
d. trapped himself in the corner


if i don't get around to blogging again today, HAPPY THANKSGIVING FRIENDS!

ps- HA! story of my life!

an anniversary

we had the most wonderful anniversary this year. the first 3 years we celebrated our anniversary were fun but let's be honest, it wasn't that much different than the other 364 days of the year. it was just us and it was always just us. but for the last almost year, we've spent a lot of our time and energy helping a certain little boy grow and survive. so this  year it was a day to really really  focus on US. OUR marriage. OUR love. OUR attention on one another. not that the other 3 anniversaries haven't been special but we are in a different league of anniversary's now, i love it so very much.

like all our other years we continually talked to each other during the day of "what were we doing 4 years ago at this exact time." i love doing that. while another single girl friend of ours from dental school watched maxson, we sneaked away to HuHut grill, one of those Mongolian places that cooks the asian food in front of you. we had the sweetest time together asking one another to list the most BLANK in the last 4 years. best road trip, scariest road trip, best activity, best food, biggest regret, and best decision. it was so good to just sit alone with one another, laughing at past experiences and focusing on each other.



we raced home to our sweet little maxson (because an hour away from him was quite enough;) we put him to bed, i baked some cookies to share at the baby shower i then went to for just a little bit. i left the shower early to race to the theater with my sweet husband to watch the new hunger games movie, catching fire! there's something so endearing about holding hands, running through the snow, racing into the theaters together. we were surrounded by college students (very likely single and a little drunk) on all sides, we made up silly stories about the groups and giggled to each other so glad we were married. we held hands and cuddled (as much as you can cuddle in those ver separated movie chairs) riveted by the movie at every point. suddenly it was 12:15 am and our movie was over! we loved it. go see it!!!



we came outside to another more snow dusting the cars and sidewalks (i'm making this sound all peachy perfect, romantic and wonderful but it was FREEZING outside and i was hating nebraska humid winters, that cold just BITES you!). but the night was fantastic. we were reminded how lucky we are to be married to our best friend.

happy 4 years to us, so glad we have an eternity more together!

cheerio love

have i mentioned how obsessed with cheerios maxson is?

he loves cheerios.

loves loves loves loves them.

there's cheerios all over our ground 60% of the time.
there like little cheerio mines.
you try watching where your stepping but sometimes you just miss and you cringe when you feel that cheerio break beneath your foot.

if i do clean them all up, maxson will undoubtedly find one forgotten somewhere and when in the middle of playing, he'll stop abruptly to pick it up and eat it.

i once walked into a room where 2 women were watching about 8 little kids 8-11 months in age while the moms were at their own meeting, and maxson was just in the corner by himself with scattered cheerios all around him eating and happy as can be.

it made me laugh.
totally my son.

within the last month he happily shares food (especially cheerios) with us when asked to and it's heart melting.
he gets real happy once the cheerio has finally been dropped in your mouth (because he has to put all his fingers in your mouth in order to drop it).
i just love it.

i love how in the top left picture maxson's tongue is out while he's feeding me.

speaking of feeding,
maxson has clearly caught on to what prayers are in the past few weeks.
we pray before all his meals and bedtime, he doesn't quite fold his arms by himself yet, but we'll fold his arms for him and he'll keep them there long enough the smallest 2 sentence prayer.
his new thing is squeezing his eyes shut and bowing his head when we start praying and after 2 seconds releasing his hands in the gesture we do after prayers to show him we're done praying (just holding hands outward, palms up, we only do this for maxson).
he then looks at us with an expression of "i said the prayer was over, why isn't it over? why are you still doing the prayer?"

issspriddycuute.

11.21

happy four years to us.

marriage sure does grow sweeter with time.

my favorite quote:
"Cherish your spouse as the greatest possession of your life and treat him or her accordingly. Make it your constant goal to add to the happiness and comfort of your companion. Never permit yourself to let down in your affection, or your respect, or your faith in one another. Be excellent in every way.
Gordon B Hinckley, "The Quest for Excellence," Sept 1999 Ensign

i love it so much it hangs right above our toilet paper roll ;)



ps- i updated the links on my favorite feeding products post if they weren't working for you

squirrels and pumpkins

hey mom, remember when you said you think the gajillions of squirrels all over are yard are cute?

this is 1 big reason to show you how cute they are not.

this is was out turkey/thanksgiving pumpkin

confound it squirrels!

everyone in our neighborhood doesn't put their pumpkins out on their porch until halloween night or else they get devoured.
last year my thanksgiving pumpkin was protected all november long somehow.
they must have been full from halloween.
this year at exactly 2 weeks after halloween night they began devouring mine. less than a week after they dug the first hole, the whole front side was gone, the back pumpkin has a huge hole, and they are finally in the trash (thanks missionaries for throwing them away for us:)