Ta Da! The Friday Five

Josh is waking up and it's time to feed him, so this'll be quick. I might not even get to all 5...


1. All my dishes are packed except a few melamine plates that we're using over and over. Since there are only 4 of them, there's no use running a dishwasher load, so I've been doing the dishes by hand. This morning Andy helped me rinse.


2. I've been on a quest (and enlisted the help of my mother AND mother-in-law) all week to find a shirt for Josh to be blessed in. We've got the pants, we've got the bow tie, but the kid was going to go 'chip-n-dale' because there are NO white Sunday shirts for infants. Apparently infants can only wear footed jammies to church. Anyway, this was my solution: I took a spare Sunday shirt of Andy's (similar to the shirt on the left) and altered it to fit Joshy, gave it short sleeves and wa-la! The boy can be blessed on Sunday!


3. Speaking of Joshua's blessing, I'm excited to have most of our family up to participate. Except two of my sisters, and one of Kraig's brothers, we'll all be together to celebrate our beautiful little son.


4. As I was sitting here typing this (one handed while I nurse Josh), the boy had a MAJOR blowout. I bet he feels better. Now I need a shower.

Only 4 today, lots to do!

Good ride, Cowboy, good ride.

Last night Kraig and Andy went horse back riding with our friend Shawn, who owns the horse Kraig and Andy are riding. They had a great time. Andy didn't really like it too much when Kraig made Lady, the horse, gallop. This is a direct quote (as related to me by Kraig), "Oww! Stop it! All done! All done!" Other than that, Andy loved being on the horse.
A few days ago we were outside playing after a rainstorm and of course Andy was magnetically drawn to the only puddle in the street.

Hot and Bothered (by the fly)

So I decided to tackle my storage room today. Bottling my own fruit seemed like such a good idea until I had to put it all in boxes and move it 500 miles. Thankfully we've eaten through most of our produce that we bottled last year--there were only about 75 quart jars of peaches, pears, tomatoes, apples, and grape juice that had to be delicately boxed. That might sound like a lot, but I boxed up about 100 empty glass jars that we'd already emptied of their contents.

I'm actually really sad to be missing the Webb Harvest this year. Mom Webb and my sisters-in-law are all SO generous to share their produce. We saved so much money this winter because we could depend on our food storage. I hope I can find a nice neighbor in CO who has tomatoes or tree fruit out her ears and needs to learn how to bottle them. I'll gladly share my knowledge if she'll share her produce.

Happy Birthday, Josh!

Josh was 6 weeks old yesterday. As a birthday present to his Mama, he slept for 7 hours last night! Is that even allowed of a baby this young? I don't know, but it sure felt nice.






Happy Birthday, Joshy! We're glad you're a part of our family!

Los Cinco de Viernes

Spanish? Ok. We'll go with it. Here's my Friday Five:

1. For Kraig's day off yesterday we borrowed Mom and Dad Webb's boat and went skiing on Echo lake. We had a great time. We brought both kids (I was a little nervous about Joshy, but he did ok), Kyle and Jen and their kids, Kurt and Tina and their friend from Guatemala, Blanca. I'm sad to report that this was Kraig's one and only ski trip this year, but the water was great and he looked wonderful. I even got a ski turn and actually got up--only my second time on a slalom ski.

2. The boat usually puts kids to sleep, but Andy didn't nap at all. He loved being in the water and helping Daddy drive the boat.

3. This was last Friday night at the Heber Valley Camp. We'd put Andy to bed at 7:30 (I think this was taken around 11pm), otherwise it would have been a really cute family picture.

4. Packing's going well. We're not as far ahead as we would have wished for packing up the trailer in a week, but we'll get a lot done tonight and this weekend. I did pack up my Grandmother's china (how I ended up with Grandma's china is another wonderful story) in t-shirts and socks. I went to the Uhaul store last week to get a few things and it wholly inspired me to pack my house up right. Man, if I bought all that stuff it would be a breeze. It would also be very expensive. I'm going to stick with t-shirts and socks:)

5. I don't know why this cracked me up so much. Josh is such a cutie.

Have a good weekend!

What are they teaching my child?

Every time we go to the grocery store, our first stop is to go to the bakery and see if they have any free cookies. It's become such a habit that if we even just drive by the store Andy yells, "COOKIE!" I guess that's what he calls grocery stores :)
Today they were out of cookies. Oh dang, prepare for a meltdown. It's hard to help Andy understand that we don't always get what we want, especially when he's throwing a tantrum. We just kept on walking, breezing by the empty cookie bowl as I'm talking calmly to Andy, trying to curb a complete meltdown. Well, the nice ladies in the bakery heard Andrew getting so upset about not having a cookie that they rushed one out to us. Uh, ggggrrrr, thank you! You've just taught my toddler that the louder he yells, the quicker the cookie is delivered on a silver platter.

I'm not actually that upset about it. I mean, that was an awfully nice thing to do. Maybe we'll try going to frozen foods first next time.

A man that can sing

Speaking from a married woman's perspective, I'm so glad that I married a man that can sing. I think when I was single that was one of the biggest things that attracted me to guys.

So somehow the sound track to Mulan Rouge ended up in our disk changer in the car. I've been listening to Ewan Mcgregor's songs over and over. Um, he's got a great voice. Then it got me thinking about some of his other movies where he sings. Most recently, Miss Potter, which I loved and highly recommend, and Emma (the version with Gweneth Paltrow). I think that if he would have been the singing Jedi Master in Star Wars I would have enjoyed that trilogy MUCH more.

So does anyone know of other Ewan movies where he sings?

Moving tips

I'm pretty much a novice when it comes to moving. My idea of packing up is putting everything in garbage bags. Since I've never done a cross state move (as a married woman with kids--going to/from college doesn't count. It all fit in my Jeep practically), I need some packing/loading/traveling tips. We're not renting a U-haul, but are borrowing our bro-in-law's snowmobile trailer for the big stuff. We'll have a few other large cars to help haul our junk--I'm thinking that putting the breakable things inside one of the cars will be safer than in the trailer--less breakage. Is that true? HELP! We're out of here two weeks from today.

THE Friday Five

Here goes:

1. Kraig took a half day off yesterday and we drove down to Manti to eat dinner at the Manti House Inn. The author of my favorite cookbook, Cookin' with the Crazy Lady, is the cook there. She came to our table and sat to visit for the entire meal. It was really fun to meet her--one of my goals to get done before leaving Utah. I even had her sign my cookbook :)

2. While in Manti we went to the Manti Temple, and since we had the kids with us (and were wearing shorts) we played around the grounds. What a BEAUTIFUL temple!

3. It's about a 2 hour trip from our home to Manti. Unfortuantely the return trip home took about 3.5 hours because of stopping to feed Josh and being stuck in construction traffic for 60 minutes in Spanish Fork Canyon. Andy woke up (it was about 8:30 when we woke up and didn't go back to sleep until 11) and just chilled while we sat in the car listening to Harry Potter #5 on tape.

4. Tonight the Webbs are all coming up to Heber to spend the night at Heber Valley Camp, the Church's campground for Girl's Camp. The facilities are so nice with bathrooms, showers, hot water, a fridge, cabins, etc. Anytime I can have hot water and a shower while camping, I'm set. We'll go hiking and play around the lake and then we're going to a rodeo tomorrow night. Since we're leaving in a few weeks we feel like we have to cram in as much family time as possible

4.5 One of my favorite things about laundry day is hanging my clothes to dry on the line outside. I count up the pennies I save by not running my dryer each time I clip a shirt to the clothesline. But now that my dryer is super-effecient, it may not be necessary. But where will I get that 'dried on the line' smell?


5. Warner posted her 'How I met my husband' story on her blog and included a photo of them on their wedding day. She looked so beautiful, and the story was so fun, I thought I'd do an abridgement of the same.

Kraig and I met June 19th 2004 in Centerville. I was living with my cousin, Alli (who hasn't written in ages) and they knew each other from high school. Kraig called Alli to see if she wanted to go waterskiing. She said, 'Uh, sure, but can my cousin come?' 'Ya, sure she can come. How old is she?' (Kraig says he was wondering my age to know if he needed to bring a child's lifevest, but I'm not so convineced).

We went up to Pineview and the water was horrible! Kraig took me out behind the boat to teach me how to knee board, asked me out the following Monday and we were married 7 months later:)

It's fun to post a photo of me when I was beautiful and skinny! I wasn't always a lumpy, sour milk smelling mama!

Colorado, Here We Come!

For those of you who don't know yet, Kraig and I are moving to Colorado! We'll be picking up our stakes and heading east on August 27th, in about 2.5 weeks. We're so excited! Kraig's going to be starting a new career--Apprenticing to become a Chef. I'll actually be getting to do a little work to--I'll be consulting as the Dietitian from home (my ideal job) for a Mother's post-partum wellness program called 'Mom's Assurance.'

One of the most exciting things about the move, besides the fact that my parents will finally have grandkids in the same state with them, is that we're getting a HOUSE! With a two car garage (to keep the car clean during those snowy winters) and a fenced backyard (so I can toss the kids outside and not worry about them getting run over) and a master bedroom/bath (I don't have to share my bathroom with guests anymore!).

It honestly seems that we've been led to this program that Kraig's starting. The doors haven't just been opening up to us, they've been opened and we've been pushed through them!

I'll be sending out our new address and phone number (when we get one) via email soon. Watch your inboxes.

Yahoo! Colorado, here comes the Webbs!

Cleaning the bathroom

So in reference to yesterday's post about my messy house, I've been cleaning like a mad woman this morning. Kraig had the dishes/kitchen done last night, so thankfully that was crossed off my list. So the next thing was the bathroom. I usually clean the bathroom while Andy's in the tub. It keeps Andy entertained while I'm cleaning and keeps him out of my way and away from the chemicals. Well, there was no bath this morning and since the bathroom NEEDED to be done, this is the solution I came up with. Andy 'helped' Mama clean: I gave him a water bottle with about 1/4 cup water and a clean washcloth and let him squirt and wipe it off. He abandoned the washcloth to concentrate on squirting the outside of the shower curtain, but he had a great time. What a big helper!

Following the spirit

I wish that I had some inspirational story to tell about how I followed the Spirit and saved my toddler from eating rat poison or getting run over or something equally as devastating. I would strengthen testimonies, bring tears to the eyes of my faithful readers and everyone would immediately go and hug her children. But no. This is a silly story of how I DIDN'T follow the little urgings. Here are a few of the little urgings that I ignored and what followed:

1. When I'm alone in the house I always lock the deadbolt on the door. I feel safer that way and then Andy can't escape either. I walked past the door a few times and noted that the bolt wasn't done and didn't take the 1.2 seconds to lock it. Missed urging #1

2. I needed to do my dishes yesterday. In fact, they needed to be done the night before, but I chose to watch 'Miss Potter' instead of unloading and loading the dishwasher. I even got off the Internet early yesterday, ending an email to my mom and sisters saying I had to go and do the dishes. Nope. Didn't do them. I think I laid down for a nap or something. My kitchen wasn't clean either. The floor had soggy Cheerios that Andy launched during breakfast, the table was full of cereal boxes and spilled milk, the counter cluttered with old mail, grocery sacks, and baby paraphernalia. I don't know about you, but I'm one of those 'mental' cleaners--I do the task mentally before I can do it physically. I'll walk in the kitchen 15 times (to get a handful of corn chips usually) and think, 'man, this kitchen needs work' before I'll actually do anything about it.

So around 11:30 yesterday I'm in the back room trying to calm Josh down so he can nap and I hear this low gruff voice yell 'HELLO?' Um, there's someone in my house. Dang! Why didn't I lock the deadbolt? What will I do about the kids? (Andy was napping up to that point when the intruder yelled--he woke up and was a grump for the next few hours. Grrr!). I cautiously went into the kitchen and found two very LARGE men in overalls standing in my kitchen. 'We're the plumbers. There's a leak?' Huh. No one said anything about plumbers coming... but we do have a leak in the kitchen sink...which is full of dirty smelly dishes. I apologize for the mess and one of the very large men crawls under the kitchen sink to find the leak. Not two minutes later my landlord come knocking to say 'The plumbers are coming.' Uh, welcome. My house is a mess. At this point I'm mortified of the horrible condition, trying to hide the drying, crusty Cheerios stuck to the floor.

The only thing that saved me was that I had Josh in my arms. Everyone gives a little extra leeway to new moms, right?

If only I would have followed those little urgings my kitchen would have been clean when the plumbers got there, the door would have been locked so they couldn't just WALK in my home or wake up Andrew. My house wouldn't have been a mess when my landlord came by and gave it an appraising look.

Moral: always follow the tiny urgings too. It might not save lives, but it'll certainly save embarrassment.

Jammie Buddies

I had a friend ask me how I spend my free time now that I'm a mom. At the time she was expecting her first (I bet the little slugger's come by now, JP, why haven't I heard anything?) and was a little apprehensive about what to do at home with the little guy.

Well, this is how I spend my free time. I make matching jammies for my boys. It's even made of the flame-retardant material they say is essential for children's nightwear. But, not everyone enjoys the thrill of the serger or the soft droning hum of the sewing machine. But to me, it's MUSIC!

The Friday Five: Monday Edition

What did I do on Friday? I don't even remember if I got online at all. But I have been composing my 'Friday Five' ever since I realized I forgot to post it... (I'm having a hard time uploading pictures, so I'll add them later)

1. Heber Fair Days--The Derby, which I posted about last week, opens the Heber Fair days. The Parade and Rodeo close the fair the following Saturday. Kraig was in the parade with his work, tossing shirts and candy and pens to the crowd. I told him where the kids and I would be sitting and when he spotted us, we got a shirt that just happened to be his size...
Kraig the one in the white shirt by the truck with his arm in the air, ready to throw me the shirt.

2. 10 year reunion--Kraig has his on Friday night and went down to Centerville, leaving me and the boys at home. I had no desire to go and relive the glory days with him (and wrestle with two kids), so I sent him on without me. I watched 'Miss Potter,' which I know Kraig would not have enjoyed since it's a period film about Beatrix Potter, the author of the Peter Rabbit books. I loved it! Renae Zelwigger did a great job being homely.

3. Josh cracks me up. New babies do such funny things in their sleep.

4. Saturday off with Kraig. I know I've talked about it before, but I LOVE having a day when Kraig doesn't work. We went on a nice walk as a family, we ate a fun breakfast together, played in the sprinklers, ate popsicles, and got Papa Murphy's take and bake pizza (the new Mediterranean is delicious) and ate it while watching the new James Bond (umm..his eyes are incredible!)

5. My new washer and dryer! They came on Thursday and the were hooked up by Saturday. Aren't they beautiful? I never thought I'd own a washer and dryer this fancy, but I do! This is a picture of just the washer, but the dryer looks the same.

Wednesday--the downslope begins

Is it only Wednesday? It seems like last week FLEW by and this week is dragging on. I wish there were something more exciting to report about our week up to this point, but the highlights include...huh. I can't think of any highlights. It's been pretty quiet week so far.

Joshua after bath time