Family Get Together

My side of the family is pretty crazy. Just sayin'. We have a lot of fun when we get together and, now that my mom moved to the area, we have a lot more get-togethers. This was kind of a just for fun party, but a lot of out-of-town family was present. I love my family. :)

My Aunt Jen and Uncle Tim (II)... plus my photo-bombing step-brother Michael. :D

I can't believe this is the only picture I got of Amy's new boyfriend, Will! He's the one in the pink shirt and hat. This was his debut/meet and greet with Amy's family. Hehehe... We like him a lot.

My step-sister Melissa and her partner Patty. Love them! Melissa just finished firefighter training! AWESOME!

My soon-to-be step-sister-in law (Stacie), my cousin (Tyler) and needs-no-intro Michael. I think he was doing that on purpose. ;)

Ally, Tyler's sister. She's adorable!

Me, my mom and Amy

My great aunt Mary and my cousin Johnny



My cousin (Beth) and her son (Declan) singing songs. He's only 18 months old! Such a cute kid!

Derek got into the last brownie bomb!

No closeups please!

Jesus Wants YOU For a Sunbeam

Think the WWII Uncle Sam Posters. If I had Photoshop, I might have had a visual. ;)

Best. Song. Ever

http://youtu.be/e4ujS1er1r0

The Cuteness that is Derek

Derek and I went to the dr earlier this week because of a strep scare. Luckily, we only have upper respiratory infections and the dr gave us some antibiotics to help fight off the bugs. We also got to have our height/weight taken! Not so excited about mine, but here are Derek's stats...

At 33 lbs, he's in the 91st percentile for weight and at 3ft 2 in (38 in), he's greater than 97th percentile for height (meaning he's almost off the chart). If you go by the double-at-age-two rule, he'll be as tall as Mitch at 6ft 4in. To all the future tall girls: You're welcome. :)

For being so good at the dr's (and because it was so nice outside), Derek got to play with moon sand outside. We love this toy! My friend Sheila gave some to us months ago and I finally dumped all of it out at once. Usually it was just one bag at a time, but I stopped caring about mixing colors. Whatever, right?

He really liked it

Telling me stories with sound effects... see videos below

Stories and sounds

He picked up this,"A-HA!" remark from me, I guess. I usually say it when I find something I'm looking for. Derek has adopted it more as an expletive/universal comment and uses it for various entertaining situations. I finally got him to say it for the camera!!

Binkie Ceremony

We had a Binkie Cutting Ceremony for Derek last month to help him get rid of his addiction. :) But before I get to that, I had to share this funny moment in the life of Derek: I walked into the room a couple weeks ago to find this...

Megamind is currently his favorite movie, and he looooves climbing on the couches though we discourage him every time we catch him, but I just had to grab my camera before I did anything. He's blissfully oblivious to my presence...

Until I catch him!! He was in such a rush to get off the couch, he face-planted. Awesome.

Moving on to the Binkie Ceremony... I got this idea from somewhere other than Pinterest. I know this because I can't find it in any of my boards there, so I must've picked it up, well, elsewhere. Regardless, it worked like a charm. We had a rough first week, but Derek has done marvelously well. He helped me weed through all these movies and pictures this morning and kind of had a little binkie revival, but we squashed that with a let's-go-play-with-your-cars distraction. Hehehe...

We brought out all the binkies we could find and let Derek have them to suck on for a few minutes while we set up. He and Grandma aren't sure what we're doing yet, but they will.

Happy with his binkie

The premise is simple: let the kid see/help you cut the tips off the binkies and then try to suck on them. Tipless binkies are usually too short to keep in their mouths by just sucking. Once they show lack of interest, help them throw them in the trash - and then immediately take the trash out. Voila!! No more binkies, and the kid thinks they did this on their own. Genius.

Attempt with Binkie #2 - we could only find two that night. I found two more later, but secretly threw them away. Bahahaha!!

See? He's trying so hard to keep that binkie in his mouth, but the tip is waaaay too short.

Operation: Binkie Dump!

This video is optional viewing: it shows what happens 30 seconds after the binkie dump, when he finally realized what we'd done. :)

Bigfoot and Mitchell

I totally forgot to add this super funny story to the blog, but I'll add it now. This happened a little over two weeks ago on the 20th...

Mitchell got the job offer from Nationstar on Friday the 20th and he promptly put in his two-weeks notice to Walmart that night. He left for work like usual around 3 and I did the afternoon routine with Derek. Once Derek went to bed for the night around 8 pm, it was Mommy Time!! YAY! Animal Planet had been showing old and new episodes of "Finding Bigfoot" that I had recorded, so I stretch out on the couch and flip it on. I watch one and start on the second, a particularly creepy episode in which a sasquatch had left a greasy hand-print on the inside of a lady's house in Florida. The windows are making sounds like little pebbles hitting the glass as the temperature drops outside. The walls are creaking occasionally as the house settles. A cup falls off the counter in the laundry room (it was left on top of the washer and the more energetic spins at the end of the cycle shook it off) - you can tell I was a little jumpy.

Mitch calls around 9 pm like he usually does during his lunch breaks and we start chatting. I tell him about what's going on and how I'm a little freaked out and he rolls his eyes (over the phone) and tells me I'm being ridiculous... and I know I am, but it's fun to be freaked out. We're chatting about his day when I suddenly hear a soft knock knock at the back door. I instantly stop talking. Knock knock. "Who's there" was the very last thought on my mind at that point, so I settled for a terrified whisper: "Mitchell! There's someone at the door!" He says I'm hearing things, but I hear another knock knock followed by a BANG! At this point, I'm sure I'm gonna die by the hand of some axe murder, so I shrink under the blankets (because everyone knows murders sneak in saying, "I'm gonna kill y - aw, crap; she's under the blanket!") and tell Mitch that someone's trying to break down the door. He very calmly tells me to go see who it is. "What?!" He comes back with, "No, seriously, let me in." At this point, my mind stops working. He's supposed to be at work! He raises his voice and calls to me from outside, telling me to open the door.

The stink pot had been sent home early so Walmart wouldn't have to pay him the overtime he earned.

New Job - Part 2

AHHHH!! Mitchell has his last night tomorrow! He was really having a hard time going in to work tonight and I'm sure tomorrow will be difficult too. His managers have been telling him multiple times a night for the past week that they're going to miss him (I think that means they don't know what they're going to do without him). They don't have a replacement so far as we know, but I sure hope they find someone soon.

As far as getting out on our own... sigh. I can't answer that question now. I wish I could. Mitch and I are going to look at apartments on Thursday, but we may just be teasing ourselves. Let you know what the results are from that trip (including pictures of first, second, third and honorable mention apartments).

Derek and I have been getting over some killer colds. No fun. He's been a great sport about it. No problems since we got rid of the binkie - I think he's forgotten about it. YAY! He's such an awesome little guy. :)

No pictures in this post, but I promise I'll have more this week. We're going out to a Brazilian food place to celebrate both Mitchell and Jeff getting jobs, Derek is going to show you how he can "bam, jam, slam dunk the basketball!" and I'll probably put some of Mitch's comments about starting his new job (and what exactly he does).

NEW JOB!!!!!

Alright, alright, so he found out last Friday.... we've just been celebrating too much to slow down and blog! So, here is the blog. :)

Mitchell is going to start 06 Feb with Nationstar Mortgage managing the quality control in the mortgage and tax departments.He's so thrilled and excited to be able to get out of Walmart and into a more suitable career. No offense to people who like working at Walmart (is there ANYONE who likes working for Walmart?!). Mitch went in early on Friday just to put in his two weeks' notice. Technically, he won't be able to stay the full two weeks (and he told Walmart that) because Nationstar wanted him to start sooner, so his last official day at Walmart is 31 Jan... a week from tomorrow!!

More to come later!!

Trip to the Park

Nana gave Derek a convertible tricycle for Christmas. He's been getting the hang of pedaling around the house, so Mitchell and I attached the steering handle and off we went to the park. One thing we didn't figure on was the pedals moving faster as we moved faster. There was NO way Derek could keep up with those pedals, so he ended up just letting the pedals move his feet. It was so funny that a lady pulling out of a nearby subdivision stopped her suburban in the middle of the road to tell us how funny he looked. Nice laugh there.

Big cheesy grin on his trike - yes his legs are already a little too long for it. Sheesh!

First thing he wanted to do was swing with Daddy

Second thing he wanted to do was push the trike...

...Til he saw the slide!

Big boy!

I love his smiles!

This kid talks up a storm! Here he is trying to tell me how fun sliding is... too bad I don't speak Derek.

Still talking...

WOOOOOO!!

The many faces of Derek. I don't think I can get the same face in two pictures.

This is what I get when I ask for a "BIIIIG smile!"

Yet another face... such a cute little stinker!

Ok, so for this picture, I'm just using a placeholder because I forgot to snap a picture. Mitch went home to get the car because I was feeling really sick, so Derek and I stayed at the park a little longer. Out of the blue, a lady walks by with her little Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. Anyone who knows me (or has talked to me in the last year) has heard about how much I love these little dogs... but I hadn't ever met one in person. Until last Saturday that is. :D He was soooo cute! Looks just like the one in the picture except he was a little chunkier and was prancing along with a stick in his mouth, just as happy as could be. And his owner was so nice, she stopped and let Derek and I "pet the puppy" (he wasn't too sure what to think, even though I tried coaxing him to pet the incredibly soft fur) and I asked her questions about where/how she found her Cavalier (totally forgot to ask his name). What struck me was how small he was... 12 inches at the shoulder if that. I mean, I know that's the normal height (they ARE toy dogs after all) and I'd seen pictures and televised dog shows but it hadn't just hadn't sunk in. I totally can't wait to foster when we get our own place! They're pretty expensive little dogs and we wouldn't be able to afford one until we're very firmly settled (probably after Mitch gets his masters' and we get into a more predictable chapter of life) but I would LOVE to foster and at least get some experience helping homeless Cavaliers find good homes.

Happy Birthday Derek!!

I'm finally getting around to blogging about Derek's birthday party he had last Thursday. We kept it really small and had a nice time just chatting and watching Derek open and play with his presents. The missionaries (including the new elder, Elder Derrick... not kidding) came over for cake afterward and my mom, Rick, Amy and Valerie drove up from Keller. I'm still working out the kinks in my camera (I know, two weeks is a long time, but I'm stubborn) so I don't have ANY pictures of Derek with Nana, Papi or the aunts, but I think I'm figuring it out. So here are pictures!

Nana and Co. gave Derek two talking pop-up trucks. He loves them but popping them back down is still a puzzle for him.

This was Jeff and Tammy's gift to him. I think Mitch was more excited about this than Derek. :)

Grandpa Bazemore sent Derek a wooden bear climber toy...

...which Mitchell figured out how to use. Gold star!!

Jeff gave him an extra little light up airplane

Derek takes the airplane to bed at night. The propellers (which he tore off this morning) spin and the middle knob lights up lots of different colors. Poor description, forgive me, but I'm afraid I don't know enough about airplane anatomy to be more specific. :)

Tammy made this super cute little cake - french vanilla with a light lemon mousse inside. Delicious!!

YUM! I was surprised how neatly he ate. I think he licked the buttercream off his fingers after every bite. For a kid who doesn't really like sweets, he sure liked this cake!