dino on the loose!

Christopher is now in 6-9 month jammies.  I bought him a few new ones the other day & pulled them out of the washer tonight to wear and thought they were just adorable!  I took a few pictures of him in them and thought I’d share.

This is what he does anytime he’s on the floor… prop himself up on his arms.  He has no desire to roll over to his back!

Aren’t the little green dinosaurs cute? I think green may be C’s “color.”

Check out THIS picture! He can sit unassisted for quite awhile.  He eventually starts leeeeaning one way and will fall over, so I have to watch him so he doesn’t bonk his head. Which may have happened tonight. But I would never admit that it happened while I was snapping pictures, cuz that would make me a bad Momma. 
 

You might also notice that in most of these pictures, he’s sucking in on his bottom lip.   Not quite sure what that’s all about, but it’s cute!
(He’s starting to lean here!)
   

Did you notice the little toes on his feet?  Here’s a shot of them.  I didn’t notice these till I put this sleeper on him tonight.  I thought it was cute!

Aww… brotherly love. Baxter MIGHT have been giving Christopher *kisses* in this picture, and C-man wasn’t feeling it tonight. I normally don’t let Bax get up in C’s face and lick him - this is RARE. I know some people find it unsanitary to let a dog lick a baby - but Baxter is a good, clean, gentle indoor dog and I always watch to make sure he doesn’t actually - you know - french kiss C-man.  I guess I’m just one of those God-made-dirt-and-dirt-don’t-hurt Momma’s, and I don’t see the harm in letting Bax give him a few licks on the cheek now and then. :) After all, Bax is my baby, too! 
Baxter is seriously such a good dog.  He’s adjusted really well to having a baby in the house.  He doesn’t chew C’s toys, he isn’t *very* jealous, he’s very gentle with him… I love this little dog so much and I know he and Christopher will be big buddies when Christopher is older!

We’re supposed to get a big ice storm tonight and tomorrow, so we have plans to spend the day at my parents house tomorrow! They have a fireplace, so in case we lose electricity at least we can stay warm over there!

We’ve had a L-O-N-G day, and I’m exhausted. Stephen and I are going to watch a movie and go to BED!

loves,
Steph

Gamblers Anonymous

Earlier this week, I needed to put gas in my vehicle.  Stephen is pretty good about gassing up the vehicles for me and I don’t really like doing it, especially because I usually have C with me and hate leaving him in the car without it running while I get gas.  So, usually Stevo will take the car to town and put gas in it for me when I start running low, just because he’s a sweetie like that.

Well, Monday night I had Bunco and didn’t have Stephen get gas for me beforehand, so I got it myself after I finished playing. I had a few dollars cash with me (which is rare and never a good thing, because I always spend it) and decided I’d buy myself a scratch-off lottery ticket with it.  I hadn’t bought any scratch-offs since the “Arkansas Scholarship Lottery” started several months ago and I always LOVED picking up scratch-offs in Texas.  SO, anyway, I went into the gas station and bought a $2 scratch-off ticket.  And I won $2 with it.  The next day, Stephen and I went back by the gas station to “cash in” (haha) our winnings and he bought 2 $1 tickets.  We scratched THOSE off, and one of them had a $20 prize on it! I was SO excited! We kept the $20 - even though I was tempted to buy MORE tickets with it!  I could SO become addicted to gambling.  Not good!

a bunch of stuff

I’m writing my first post using Windows Live Writer.
(totally copied from you, Kristy.)

We’ll see how it goes.

I’m basically just keeping myself occupied and as far away from the remote control as possible until Stephen comes home, cuz otherwise I’ll start tonight’s episode of Biggest Loser without him.  And when I watch BL without him, I feel like I’m cheating on him.

We lead such an exciting life.

Let’s see… what to talk about…?

Oh – here’s something.  I snapped these pictures a week or so ago, one morning after Stephen had left for work.

Stephen’s way of loading the dishes…

AAANNND my way of loading the dishes.

WHY?  Seriously.  That’s ridiculous.

I will never understand.  Never.

I guess I should just be glad that he actually put the dishes into the dishwasher.  I seriously cracked up laughing when I opened up the dishwasher and saw those three bowls thrown in there like that.  We’ve lived in this house for over a year now, and I’ve ALWAYS put the bowls in the dishwasher the same way.  Hmm.  Maybe he should unload it  more often, then he might learn the “correct way” of loading a dishwasher.  I am always rearranging things that he’s put in there so that I can get the most space out of it.  Men are so funny.

Ok.  SOO.  Twenty minutes till Stevo can clock out.  That’s plenty of time to talk about this sweet little guy!

Isn’t he adorable?  And WAY too big.  I moved him from his “car seat” position in the stroller to the front-facing position.  =(  We went for a walk one day last week (the weather was spring-like!) and I was constantly stopping to look at him and see what he was doing and if he was enjoying himself. He seemed to like it but Momma was sad not to be talking face-to-face with him. ha!

While on our walk, we saw…
 

this hound dog…

this deer…

and these chickens…

all within about a 50 foot radius from each other.
(Thankfully, the dog was tied up. Otherwise we might not have seen the chickens. or the deer, even though it was in a chain-link pen.  Poor little deer.)
(And also thankfully, I chose to walk BAXTER that day instead of BELLA. Cuz even though she’s a great dog, I’m not positive that she wouldn’t decide she wanted some  chicken for dinner and would have drug C & me around the block to get them.)

Oh and ALSO…  I don’t live in the country.  I live in town. 

Christopher now thinks he’s old enough to feed himself.
(I let him hold the spoon just long enough to capture this photo.  Otherwise he would have cereal up his nose, in his eyes, and slung all.over.the.kitchen.)

These next few pictures are from Sunday.  It was my church’s Baby Dedication day, and Stephen was able to go into work late so that he could come to church with me and dedicate C-man. The pictures of all 3 of us are with my mother, so I'll have to get them later.  Nana also came to church with us that day and we got some cute pics of her with him, too – but again, they’re on my mom’s camera.

Isn’t his outfit adorable? Granny picked it out! (And bought it. Thanks, GRANNY!)  
I big-time love this kid.

So – if you’ve made it this far through this extremely long blog, you can take a big sigh of relief, cuz I just have one last thing.

Jennifer over at MeetTheMcFamily is giving away a blog design for her 2nd Blogiversary, and I would really really really love to win it!

So I’m telling everybody about it but I don’t really want you to go and register for it, too, because that would make my chances for winning it go way down.

(Not that I have that many people {with blogs} who read my blog anyway.)

Just go check out her cutie-pie kiddo, her super-cute blog, and her awesome “blog facelift” portfolio.  She’s really talented and creative!

-♥-
Steph

Oh, and I’m pretty sure I’ll never use blogger OR picasa to write my blogs in EVER.AGAIN.

keepin' it real.

my time at home with christopher is oh-so-quickly coming to a close.  it's been the best way i could ever dream of spending these last 5 months.  his first 5 months.

truthfully - i've had my ups and downs.  it hasn't been easy, and i know it's not going to get any easier when i go back to work.  juggling a baby and a house and a husband (haha) has been crazy busy, but i feel like i've really learned alot (like when to clean and when to facebook.) and i'm going to be a better, more-balanced person when i go back to work this time.

there have been times when i've "needed" christopher to take a nap, or lay on his blanket and play with his toys or entertain himself, and he just hasn't wanted to do it.  he's cried (yes, the perfect child - crying, arching his back, screaming. who knew?!?) and thrown a fit and just refused to do what i "needed" him to do so that i could clean or blog or facebook.  and i've found myself getting irritated with him for just a split second, then looking at his sweet, precious face and thinking - this is what i wanted. i wanted to stay home from work to spend time with my son. not to have dusted furniture, a vacuumed floor, or every piece of laundry clean, folded, and put away.  and just like that - my anger would melt away and i would pick christopher up, give him a hug and  kiss, love on him, play with him, and spend quality time with him.  because eventually, he's going to take that nap, and i'll get my chance to get on the computer, clean house, or take my shower.  and one day, i was going to have to go back to work - and i wouldn't be there during the day, to hold him and feed him and play with him and watch him learn new things.  so i've treasured every.single.minute. i've been able to spend with him and i know that he has too.  (i can tell by the way he smiles when he sees me. ha!)

while we're at it.

ok.  so i figured while i was dreaming about canon rebels and 5ds, i may as well list all the other things i'd *like* as well.  i mean, if you're gonna dream, dream big - right?

so - what else do i want?

 

an iphone.

and this is probably the only thing on the list that i might actually get over the course of the next 3 years.

designer sunglasses.

d&g not necessary.

but i do love this pair. =)

designer purse.

coach is preferable.

but i'm not gonna be picky.

dream home.

hey - i said i was gonna dream big.

ford escape.
black. with all with fixins.

ford quad cab.

for the hubby, of course.

her body.

...without having to work for it.

and while we're at it, i'll take her hair, too.

elph, rebel, 5d

so - my laptop is being stupid and won't connect to the internet.  {i think its death may be looming in the ever-so-near future.  i've been working worked one time on organizing my pictures on there into year/month/occasion folders.  i should probably finish that up and save them to a disk.}

anyway.  i don't feel like loading pictures onto the desktop.  but i've got a lot of cute ones of c-man.  he is SOCLOSE to being able to roll from his back to his belly.  i think if he realized he could be doing it, he would.  he'll get his whole body twisted over except his one arm.  if he could just throw his shoulder on over, he'd be on his belly.  and speaking of which - he loves being on his tummy.  he can roll from his belly to his back, but hardly ever does it now.

and also.  my camera has been acting up alot here recently too, which just can't happen.  well, it can.  i would LOVE (and i say this while wiping drool away from my mouth) to have this pretty baby. (i've been wanting one for about, oh, 2, 3 years now?)

problem is - they kinda cost 500-600 smackaroos.  and with the exception of about 3 weeks in october, i haven't worked since, um, july.  which means i just cain't afford it.  right now.

and ANYWAY, i've just about decided that i don't want one anymore.  cause i'd rather have this sweet thang.

so i'm gonna pray that my cute little canon ELPH lasts about another year 2 3 years, cause that's how long it's gonna take me to save for this puppy.

Utah

finally...pictures from our trip to Utah!

hanging out

random, i know - but we NEVER shop at non-walmart stores, and i had to document

hot tub! =) LOVED this.

view from the hot tub

this is the street in front of larry's house - beautiful, huh?

usps in park city, utah

view of some of the houses, with a ski slope in the background
(park city is where the 2002 winter olympics were held)

little man was tuckered out!

of course - we found a walmart!
kicker is - it was about 2 blocks from the "smiths" we had shopped at a few days earlier.
if we'd known the walmart was so close we'd have gone there to save 10 percent!

pretty view of mountains in the background
i was in constant awe of the view. it was gorgeous!

ohmygosh. this stuff is the best.
we had this for the first time in branson last month.
stephen ordered the "apple pie a la cold stone" and i ordered the "all lovin' no oven."
{click here!}
we ordered the same thing again in utah because it's just that freaking good.

snapped this as we were driving down the road. it was this porsche dealership in the middle of the 'hood.  seriously.

i thought tyler would appreciate it!

c-man with his grandpa larry

four generation shot. =)
(i feel the need to explain that this picture was taken at about midnight, hence the tired faces and stephen's 'do.)

too cute.

christopher with his great grandma and great grandpa

i think out of about 28957 shots, we got NONE of everybody looking at the camera at once.

oh, well.

hope you enjoyed!

i realized after looking through ALL the pictures i took while we were there, i didn't get one single one of diane with any of us! this makes me sick! larry - if you read this, and you have some pictures of diane with christopher (or any of diane with us or anything!) will you email them to me? thanks!

five months old!

Christopher,

I can't believe I'm actually typing this - but you are FIVE months old.



You are growing so much - I can barely believe it with my own eyes. My time at home with you is really winding down - unless something major happens (like if we were to win the lottery) I'll be returning to work within the next month and you'll go back to staying with your Granny during the day! I know she will take perfectly good care of you and I think that I will be able to handle being away from you a lot more than I was able to back in October. I just wasn't ready! I know you're going to have a ton of fun with her!

At five months old...

-- you can eat cereal from a spoon like a PRO.  i know you're going to LOVE baby foods.

-- you are back to sleeping through the night again - especially if you have a cereal bottle right before bed.

-- you are starting to "reach" (although it's more like lean) for people.

-- you love to try to take drinks away from us.  you watch us constantly and you like to take sips of our water. (but don't worry, i just let him have a sip or two.  mainly he just gets his lips wet and cold!)

-- you are definitely teething, but nothing has popped through yet!

-- you've outgrown your 3-6 month sleepers and i'm pulling out the 6-9 month ones TONIGHT.  you're in almost all 6-9 month clothing now.

-- you still wear size 3 diapers

-- you've been in arkansas, missouri, texas, oklahoma, utah, and arizona.  plus you've flown over a bunch of states!  you are a PERFECT traveler. you're the best baby!

-- just in the last few days you've started using your bottom lip to make raspberry sounds.  it's too.stinkin.cute.

-- you can roll from your stomach to your back. (although you don't always do it.)

-- you've started "putting yourself to sleep."  for the past few nights either your granny or i have put you to sleep just by laying you down in your crib and singing to you.  you've also been going down for naps this way.  it's so sad for me not to rock you to sleep - but you were getting to where you didn't really want to be rocked anyway, you would just bow up your back and SCREAM.  i know i'll miss rocking you to sleep but this is just another step towards not being such a "baby" anymore.

-- your hair is turning blonde and you've still got those steel blue eyes.  you're going to be a heartbreaker!

i love you more than words can say, C-man. being your momma is the best job in the whole world!