How To Celebrate When A Leprechaun Turns One

Sorry this post is so late. Between the little leprechaun and tax season (which I celebrate during Blake's naps), my spare time has been significantly squashed. But for the record, this did all take place back on Blake's birthday--St. Patrick's Day.








In full disclosure, anything cute and crafty was created by my sister Hayley and/or her friend Holly. With the exception of cute Blake. I take full credit for him. Okay, 80%. I'll give Bryan 20%. ;) Happy birthday to my amazing little guy who makes the world better for being around.

BONUS VIDEO:

Catch Up

by Lisa

*sigh* FOUR MONTHS behind on the blog, but rather than trying to write a million posts, I think I can sum things up pretty well with a few pictures and sentences.

For a long time, I was partying hard with these guys (aka the Fam):

(We were in Disneyland on the day of the Ole' Miss game, so this was our way of representin')

This guy is getting bigger by the millisecond:



And now has one of these:


Being in Utah was great, minus being apart from this guy:


So I'm glad to be back home! And blogging again, apparently.

p.s. In a moment of bad judgment, I removed all the links from my blog (to switch to Google Reader) but neglected to write down blog addresses. If you could comment (a simple "holla!" would suffice), so I can link to your blog, that would be exquisite.

New Parent Humor

by Bryan

As new parents we do our best to be considerate of those around us. But alas, despite our best efforts, Blake is his own man.

Yesterday, during the passing of the sacrament at church, Blake started fussing. I put him up on my shoulder to comfort him and he started to calm down. Slowly I put him on my lap, when Blake could hold it in no longer and "broke wind" not once, not twice, but three times. I was more embarrassed than disgusted, hoping only I had heard him, until I saw this face. He went from a stern look of concentration to the biggest toothless grin he could muster (with his eyes closed).



I could take it no longer and tried to muffle my laughter as tears began to form. To my astonishment, we had avoided embarrassment as it appeared that no one around had heard.

Blake, however, was not pleased with his initial performance. During the next hour, he repeated his gastrointestinal efforts to draw attention to himself and managed to get myself, the father in the bench in front of us, and the sisters in the row behind us all struggling to muffle our laughter as Blake once again grinned from ear to ear and batted his long eyelashes at us - so proud of his accomplishments. Oh the joy of being a new parent.

The Hot New Fashion Sensation

Problem:
Bryan and I made a rare trip to the mall on Saturday. Deciding that at least one of us should be fashionably dressed, we quickly chose Blake as the designated "stylin'" one, since he--by far--has the most clothes. My co-worker gave us some adorable jeans from Baby Gap. Unfortunately said jeans, though size 3-6 months, *barely* fit over 2 month old Blake's super chubby thighs. The problem was made worse by the fact that Blake's thunder thighs were extra tender from getting shots the day before. I had resigned myself to the fact that Blake would have to give up the style and sexiness of designer jeans for soft and comfy pajama bottoms.

Solution:
Bryan reminded me that--thanks to Carter's (definitely my fav baby clothes maker)--Blake could have the best of BOTH worlds because he is the proud owner of the hot new fashion sensation . . . Pajama Jeans! Complete with mock fly, front-to-back contrast pocket stitching, and a smooth butt-lifting design. Thanks Pajama Jeans!

What I Accomplished Today

I always look forward to when Bryan comes home and asks me how my day was. I feel exhausted, so naturally, I look forward to impressing him with how many things I managed to accomplish while taking care of Blake. However, over the past two months, I've noticed that once I actually have to verbalize what I did, it sounds lame, "Well, I fed Blake, then changed his diaper, then he was being fussy so I basically just read through my e-mails while holding him, then I fed/changed him again, got the mail, emptied the dishwasher...and well...obviously I fed/changed him more, and..." *getting frustrated* "...I did stuff, I promise!" I can hear how lame I sound, to the point where I hardly feel like answering anymore because as honorable as I know taking care of Blake is, the other things I do sound so pithy and lame. I want Bryan to know how hard I'm working since I know how hard he works to provide for our family.

The other day, I tried making dinner for a wonderful family in our ward who just had a baby. I knew when Bryan came home, all I'd really be able to say I did was, "I ran to Target, made dinner for that family, and took care of Blake." A list of 3 things sounds so lame. But for me (a terrible multi-tasker) that was a Herculean task that resulted in the house looking like this by noon. I was pretty tempted to just leave it looking like this so Bryan wouldn't have to ask how my day was, he would just know.


I decided that rather than trying to verbalize how insane my day was, I might just take a picture of the house at various points during the day so he can get an idea of how crazy my day was without me having to stumble through words to make it sounds impressive. Anyone else have this problem?

Diaper Heaven

by Lisa

I always assumed there were two kinds of babies in the world:
(1) Babies that HATE having their diaper changed
(2) Babies that tolerate having their diaper changed

Just recently, I learned there is a third kind:

(3) Babies that think having their diaper changed is the best thing in the entire world and enter a state of euphoria as soon as they're placed on the changing table.

I don't get this kid, but Blake is definitely Type 3.

Blog Slacker

by Lisa

Do you ever get caught up in life and stop posting on your blog and eventually it's been so long, you feel like your next post has to be really great...so you just continue to slack off? Well, nothing great here. Just a few pictures. I'm still riding the new baby rollercoaster. Loving the ups and loathing the downs, but just so overwhelmingly thankful for the ride.

This pretty much sums up our life. Exhausted and barely staying in balance. But grateful for this little angel.