Sleep Experiment

Connor has never, and I mean NEVER, slept with Marcus and I in our bed...not even when he was a teeny tiny baby. He has always screamed when we have tried to make him sleep with us. Lately he has been watching DVD's in our bedroom while laying in our bed. He will let us lay by him to watch the movies so we thought maybe, just maybe, he would fall asleep watching a movie in our bed and end up sleeping with us.

First of all, I'm sure many of you think we're crazy, as I know a lot of parents struggle getting their kids to sleep away from them. We do not seriously want Connor to start sleeping with us all the time, we just think it is so funny that he refuses to.

Anway, we got bored enough tonight that we decided to conduct a little experiment. Connor did not have a nap today because of church and has been really sleepy. We took him into our bedroom, put on a Goodnight Sesame DVD, turned all the lights and everything off in the apartment, and laid down by him and pretended to fall asleep. He stayed there and watched the DVD, but as soon as it was over he jumped off the bed and went in the living room to turn the TV on out there. Oh yeah, all this after he screamed his head off about being in our bed (we pretended to be asleep the whole time). He is such an independent little guy.

Thanks For the Recipes

Thank you to the many of you who sent me some good dinner recipes. It's been so nice to try some new things (as well as some old favorites). Everything we've had has been really simple to make and SUPER GOOD! My mother-in-law just posted a cool recipe for English Muffin Bread on our MyFamily website and it sounds so yummy. Can't wait to try it out with my new Kitchen Aid. This brings me to my next moment of begging.

After buying a Kitchen Aid I realized I didn't really have anything to mix in it beside from the box cakes and breads. So...now I am asking for any good bread, dessert, cinnamon roll, rolls, etc. (pretty much anything I can mix and bake) recipes. And Momma Julie (that's you Juliette R. Poole) I would like your dinner roll recipe and cinnamon roll recipe. Yum!

How Can We Possibly Have So Much Laundry?

Today is my laundry day,and like every other laundry day I have ever had I am wondering how on earth we ever accumulated so many articles of clothing! I swear, we must of been millionaire's for one day and blew all the money on clothes...I just don't remember that happening...hmmm. And how is it that I never feel like I have anything to wear? Maybe the clothes just look like double what is really there when they're wadded up in a dirty clothes pile than when they're folded in drawers and hanging in closets.

Just for the record, I am one serious de-junker and we donate clothes we do not wear anymore to D.I. at the the end of every season...and we usually don't buy much to replace what was given away. We are not clothes hogs...that's what makes this huge pile of laundry so mysterious to me. Maybe someone is sneaking they're dirty laundry in with mine.

So Excited for the Happiest Place On Earth

We are going to Disney World in March for the Children's Miracle Network Telethon and WE ARE SO EXCITED!

We just found out this morning that we can go anytime between March 11 and March 16. We are wanting to go the whole time, so if Marcus can just get the time off of work we'll be set (if not he just might be sick for those three days of work he'll miss).

We are so excited that Connor will get to celebrate his second birthday there. I have never been to Disney World (although I have been to Disney Land). Marcus has been before a few times and loves it. It's going to be a blast!

1:00 Church and Nursery

When I first realized we were going to be having church at 1:00 this year I was a little concerned. Connor takes his naps some time between 1:00 and 4:00 every day. I thought moving to 1:00 church was going to be miserable.

Well...Surprise! Connor does better at 1:00 then he did at 11:00. He does not have a nap on Sundays now, but he has quiet time in his room from 11:00 until church. That seems to do the trick.

ALSO, his nursery leaders are SO good! Connor has no problem going and staying in nursery now. He loves it and doesn't even want to leave when we come and pick him up. He had no problem going when he first started nursery, but then they switched his class and we traveled a lot and he started needing one of us to stay with him the whole time. Our ward has 5 nursery classes (that's right 5!), and Connor is in the one that will be getting all the new kids this year, so he is currently just one of three kids in his class. In his last class he was one of 14.

I am one happy momma.

A Bus

My little Connor is totally and absolutely obsessed (and I mean OBSESSED) with busses. As a matter of fact, as I was typing that first sentence he came up to me yelling "a bus, a bus!" The guy stands at his window in his bedroom (which faces out to old state street in Provo/Springville) and just watches for busses to drive by. Every time we go out he cries and begs to ride on the bus. Too bad Marcus and I don't enjoy public transportation more. (He's now asking me if I will put "Ohnners shoes on then bus?")

The whole obsession started when we went to Chicago to the Oprah show and got to ride on a big bus there lots of times. His grandma bought him a little people toy bus (which he loves) but that hasn't satisfied his bus obsession. As cute as I think it is, it may very well drive me crazy. BUS BUS BUS BUS BUS!

Don't be Fooled by too Much Good Behavior

Connor has been a really well behaved little boy lately. Since getting home from our Christmas break he has spent a lot of time entertaining himself with his new toys, coloring at his new little table, and (of course) watching Sesame Street in his new Elmo chair (thanks Grandma Julie and Boppa). Anyway, this streak of good behavior lead me to believe he could be more trusted, and I thought I didn't need to run off and check on him every time it got quiet (because he has spent most of his time playing quietly lately).

What was I thinking trusting a nearly two year old!?!

This is where I found Connor the other day...



Not only did he make a huge mess in the bathroom, but he also misplaced his daddy's wedding ring. We checked the pipes under the sink and found other valuables he dropped down there, but no ring. We are hopeful it is under the washer and dryer or something like that...we have yet to search there.

Point of this post, I learned never to be fooled by too much good behavior.

In Search of Dinner Recipes that are Actually Good

I'm sure if you ask Marcus he might tell you that my cooking has not been the highlight of our marriage. Now, I believe that it is not because I am a bad cook (I hope) but because it's hard to find recipes that are actually good...seriously good. There are a handful of dinners that we both like and I make well, but let's just be honest, we are sick of eating the same old four dinners over and over again!

Now, here's the point of this post. I have a zillion and four cookbooks that I have bought because they looked like they were full of great recipes. Let me just say, many of them were decieving. Anyway, I am BEGGING any of you blog readers out there to share a really good dinner recipe with me. (I know you have some Kristine Lynn...I especially want the chicken a'la king one with the rice pilaf, the monterrey chicken one, your dad's chili recipe, and the meatball recipe, oh yeah, and the hot wing recipe...I know you gave them all to me before, but they were lost when my little recipe notebook went for a ride in the garbage disposal while the water was running).

Anyway, PLEASE, anyone, HELP ME! Let me know what you make for dinner that is good. It doesn't have to be anything fancy (in fact I prefer simple). My poor little family is getting sick of McDonalds and Mac and Cheese.

P.S. Laney, we would love the recipe for the teriyaki chicken you and Steve made that one time. We've been craving it!

Back to Normal

With Marcus returning to work last Monday life seems to be getting back to normal...which has it's ups and downs I guess. The plus side is that life is again predictable and we have schedules and stuff like that. The down side is, I again remember all the things I need to do and should do and could do but don't want to do.

When I went to bed last night I had a few ideas of things that I really should do when I got up this morning. I thought it would be good to exercise, take care of some errands, clean up my living room and finish putting my Christmas things away, etc. Guess what? I have so far done NONE of it. But I will...I think.

Anyway. That's what's going on in my life.

Oh, I forgot. We went to the Bee Movie yesterday with some of our friends. It was 2 for Tuesday at the dollar theater so it only cost us $1.00 for Marcus, Connor, and I to get in. Amazing! Can't beat that. Anyway, it was the first movie that Connor has seen at the theater (besides when he was just a teeny-tiny who had no idea what was going on). He had such a blast! It made the movie a lot more fun for me to see Connor enjoying himself so much.

A Happy New Year!

Marcus had to return to work last night so we rang in the new year a little early. We watched the ball drop live in New York City and considered it 2008 here as well (even though it was really just 10:00...no biggie right?).

Anyway, while we were celebrating our early New Year we were talking about all the great things that lay ahead of us this year. We will both be graduating from UVSC in April and will then be moving on to Texas to hopefully buy a house, start a career (Marcus), and enjoy a new lifestyle...one where we should actually be able to have a normal schedule! Wahoo!

We are looking forward to an anniversary trip to Hawaii in February, an Osmond family trip to Disney World in March (which is where we'll be for Connor's 2nd birthday), a possible trip to Maryland in April where Marcus might have the opportunity to present his research at a National convention...and who knows what else.

I have about a million and two resolutions...maybe with that many I can actually accomplish atleast one of them. We'll see!

Happy New Year Everyone!