Trucks, trucks, trucks

Yesterday afternoon, some friends of ours stopped by to play. It was just a spur of the moment thing. My friend, Rebecca, was telling me about a fundraiser that they were going to go to this morning. It was just a few dollars entry fee and then kids can go check out and sit in a bunch of different trucks. It sounded like something that Cason would like but I wasn't too sure that we would end up going. Kelly left town this morning and I wasn't too keen on the idea of taking two kids to something like that myself. I routinely take both boys to stores to run errands, to play dates, and to church. But a public event like that where Cason can run around? No thank you.

This morning I woke up and started to reconsider. The weather was so nice out and it was only a few dollars. Plus, Cason is now getting to the age where he actually enjoys this sort of thing. So I called my friend up and told them that I would meet them there. I got Cason sunscreened up and made sure Bryce had napped and was fed. There were all sorts of trucks there. Mostly different kind of construction trucks, but there was also a fire truck, a police car, some semis, and even a bus that was converted into a traveling gymnastics vehicle. Cason ended up loving it. We only stayed an hour because it was lunch time and it was starting to get hot. But I got a bunch of cute pictures.

Cason loves sitting in cars pretending to drive them and I never let him do that. I've read too many stories where kids do this and somehow run over a sibling. Anyway, he loved sitting in each and every truck and kept asking me to turn them on.

So I cut off the side of the car that shows that this is a police car. But it actually is a police car.



In the bulldozer. Is that the right word? I'm so bad with construction names. I need a book or something to help me learn them.





Here he is climbing up the side of the bulldozer. I have no idea if this is a photography no no but I like how these pictures turned out with the sun streaming down. This was not intentional. This was the result of me trying to take a picture while staying close to Cason so he wouldn't fall off and staying close to Bryce in the stroller so I could make sure no one would walk off with him. I was barely even looking at the screen of the camera.







Here is a red pickup truck. But apparently, it's not just a red pickup truck. It's the actual truck that Bella drove in the movie Twilight. We walked up to the truck and the door was open so I put Cason in. I took a few pictures when a woman came up right beside me. I said "are you guys waiting to sit in it?" To which she replied "yes, they're waiting, they have to pay to sit in this one". Oops. I apologized and quickly took Cason out of the truck. The woman was very nice though.





Um, this was a big truck but I have no clue what it was. A flatbed? I think the crane was sitting on it.





Cason loved this bobcat.



The crane. Cason was going to go sit up in the seat until he realized that I had to stay on the ground with Bryce.



Checking out the boots in the firetruck.



Driving the firetruck.

Our latest home improvement project

Kelly has been pushing to get some exterior illumination for a long time now. I saw an ad in the latest copy of Ad Pages in our mailbox a few weeks ago for a local company who specializes in this. I e-mailed their website to Kelly and he called them to get a quote. Their bid came in surprising lower than I thought it would so we agreed to have seven up flood lights and three path lights installed. We really like how it turned out. Our next project is in the works, we are going to add quite a few bushes and shrubs to our flower garden to fill it in. The before pictures are too embarrassing, but I'll be sure to share the after pictures when we finish up.



Just for comparison's sake, here is the rest of our street and the street running parallel. I really hope that some others near us are inspired to upgrade their curb appeal.

It's fall!

Yesterday was the first day of fall, as I was informed by my Facebook friends. The weather has cooperated and we have had some wonderful cool weather the past few days. I think it's supposed to get warm again but the past two days have been great. It was so cool, we actually wore pants. After nap today, we went for a walk around the neighborhood. Cason is holding his ice tea pitcher full of rocks. I need to do a post about those rocks sometime soon. Bryce loved the walk and stayed awake the entire time.



When we got back to the house, Cason rode his bike around for awhile.



See Kelly in the background? He's trying to reclaim the flower bed...again. If you look closely, you'll also see the stroller up there. Bryce just chilled out and watched Kelly while Cason was riding his bike.

I scream, you scream...

we all scream for our monthly ice cream! As I've mentioned before, one of Kelly's New Year's resolutions was to take the family out for ice cream once a month. If you remember from way back when, Cason was not a fan of ice cream at first. He didn't start eating ice cream until June, when we went out when my mom was visiting. Since then, he's loved it. We usually just let him eat some of ours, which basically means that I end up sharing with him since Kelly gets the no sugar, no fat, no taste version. But today we visited a local self serve frozen yogurt shop so we let him have his own bowl. I let him choose between chocolate and vanilla yogurt and he chose chocolate. Then we came to the toppings and I pointed out things he might like: mini M&Ms, chocolate chips, etc. He chose gummy bears. Not my idea of a good combo but it was his bowl of yogurt so we went with it. And no, that bowl was not even close to full, it was just the smallest size they had.









Yes, he did just swirl his hand around in melted yogurt on the table and then stick it in his mouth. Boys are gross.

Bryce's new night light

First of all, about 2 hours after my post yesterday, Bryce started rolling from belly to back. So now he can go both ways. The funny thing is that he never attempted it or even looked like he was thinking about attempting it before yesterday afternoon. He just up and did it. And then kept doing it. Now he will roll back and forth over and over until he gets angry. But he only rolls toward his left side so he never really gets anywhere. Someday, he'll learn how to roll towards his right side and then he will really be mobile.

Back in March, I made Bryce the night light at the end of this post. I was never totally happy with it, I thought it looked kind of cheesy. But I could never really find what I had in mind so I just left it alone. I rarely turned it on because I was afraid it would start a fire for some reason.

Let me explain, I have an irrational fear of fire. I know it's irrational but I can't help it. When I was a kid, most of my nightmares had to do with being trapped in a fire or my family being in a fire and they wouldn't get out of the house. I can still vividly recall many of these nightmares. I also swear that my mom told me that my uncle's house burned down from a fire that started with a toaster. Mom -- I'm talking about Leighton. Is that true? So now as an adult, I cannot leave a toaster plugged in, I always unplug it and put it away after I'm done using it. I can't let any random item get within about a foot radius of the fan or night light in either of my boys' rooms. I'm convinced that a book, toy, or stuffed animal that is too close to either the fan or night light might burst into flames at any moment. I am always asking Kelly about the flamability of objects. My dad bought stain for me to re-stain something he had made one time. After giving me instructions on the staining process, he mentioned that I need to be careful about how I dispose of the rag because of the risk of spontaneous combustion. This terrified me so much that I didn't even use the stain for almost a year. So anyway, because this night light was made by me and was not a certified night light, I was always a little hesitant to use it due to fire risk.

Anyway, a few weeks ago, I was searching the internet for something. I don't even remember what I was looking for but I came across something called The Photo Light Frame. This is what I had in mind when I first set out to create Bryce's night light last spring but I couldn't find anything like it at the time. So I went ahead and ordered one. I found some great tree frog pictures at stocklib.com. Here is the end result, a night light that looks a little nicer and I will actually turn on!

Rolling

I'm a little behind on posting this but Bryce is rolling now! He started rolling from back to belly on Sunday, which is also the day that he turned 4 months. So now when I put him down on his back, he immediately flips over onto his belly, even if he doesn't want to be there. Sometimes it lasts 5 minutes, sometimes only 5 seconds before he starts screaming because he would rather be on his back. So hopefully, he will learn how to roll from belly to back soon and have the option to choose himself!

He is completely weaned off the swaddle and is starting to dislike his beloved bouncy seat. He will tolerate it for a bit if I'm making breakfast, lunch, or dinner for Cason and I but other than that he wants to be held or free to play on the floor. He doesn't sleep in his bouncy seat at all anymore. He is also a pro at taking his pacifier out of his mouth and then waving it around or throwing it. If he's in the right mood, he'll work hard at getting it back in but he still needs lots of practice. So for now, I'm still his paci slave. He loves getting out of the house, just like the rest of the family, so that is great! He usually does awesome in the church nursery.

Cason is really liking preschool! He had a two week break after his first day due to Labor Day. Last week, he kept talking about it, mentioning his teachers names. He was really excited to go on Monday. Kelly and I picked him up at noon and the whole way home he kept saying "Today is.... MONDAY! Today is..... MONDAY!" So they must have circle time where they talk about what day it is. I've been telling him what day it is and what we are doing each day so he doesn't start thinking every day is Monday because he only goes to preschool on Mondays.

He's also keeps talking about preschool in our everyday conversations. The other day he just came up to me and said "play doh at preschool" I asked him if they played with play doh at preschool and he said "Yes. Brown." So I replied "Oh, you had brown play doh?" He said "Yes. All over hands," while showing me the front and back of his hands. I said "Oh, did you have to wash them?" Cason said "Yes. Eat lunch." Whenever I ask about stuff they do at preschool, he tells me about eating. I think it must be his favorite part. He also always says sing, dance, and play outside. I'm glad they sing because I don't sing much to him. Yesterday he was singing his ABC's and got most of the letters for the first time. He usually just goes to G but this time, he did the whole alphabet but skipped some chunks of letters. I'm excited for him to learn more songs.

Cason also keeps telling me about toys that we have that he plays with at other places. One day he wanted to get out his tunnel and crawl through it. So we were playing with his tunnel and all of the sudden, he told me that they have a tunnel at churchandplay. A few days later, we were at church and when I dropped him off, sure enough, there was a tunnel in the 2 year old room. Another day, he was playing with his blocks and he said "these blocks gymandplay".

We were supposed to take our annual Cowboys pictures on Sunday but it rained for 7 days straight. I know I've said it before many times but rain = dark house = lousy photos from me. So stay tuned and I will post them as soon as we get a nice sunny day.

Pages We've Turned: Volume 1

After almost exactly one month from start until completion, my book arrived today. I first looked at blurb.com's website on August 15th (I only remember that date because my dad was here and I was looking at it while he and Kelly were out in the garage doing something) and my book arrived today on September 16th. It took me about a week to get the majority of the book done. Then I took a week long break from it because I was sick of looking at it and tired of the software running excruciatingly slow on my computer. The third week was spent finishing up the last few pages, proofreading and looking through it multiple times, and agonizing over the title. I finally ordered it and it took a week and a half to print and ship.

I ended up going with Pages We've Turned for the title. Not just because it won in my poll, but I do appreciate the opinions. I honestly liked both potential titles and had a hard time deciding. I was leaning toward using Pages We've Turned but what cemented me was a comment that my friend Amy made on my blog. She made a comment stating which title she liked. When I read her comment, for some reason, I clicked on her name and it took me to her blogger profile. I looked at the blogs that she follows and the second one was called 1000 Words. So that made the name Worth A Thousand Words seem too common for me and I went with Pages We've Turned. So if you read this Amy, thank you!

When I submitted my order with Blurb, I felt excited and nervous. I told Kelly it's like studying really hard for a test in college. You leave the exam feeling really good, like you nailed it. Then a week goes by and you get the test back and made a bunch of stupid mistakes and didn't do that well. I was worried that when I got the book, I would dislike a bunch of things about it or make some really dumb errors that would drive me crazy for the rest of my life. So I was pretty nervous to open it today when I got it.

Overall, I'm very happy with the book. It is a very nice quality. I got the hard cover with image wrap, meaning there is no annoying dust jacket to get torn, the image and words are printed directly on the cover. Right away, there were a few things that I would like to change in future volumes but they're not so annoying that I dislike the book. First of all, the page backgrounds were a great, vibrant turquoise color on my computer monitor. When I got the book, they are not turquoise at all, they are baby blue. I wouldn't have picked baby blue but it's not a terrible color. I wanted to make each volume a different color but now I'm not sure if the color is that different in person. I may have to contact Blurb and see if they can send me an example of what the different colors actually look like printed. The second thing I would like to change is the cover. I definitely need to make the title and author much bigger next time. And maybe use a different background than all of the pages or something. It's a little boring. I'm sure I'll find more things to change as I take a closer look at it but those are the two things I noticed right away. Oh well, live and learn.

So here is Pages We've Turned: Volume 1. I choose the largest book, it's 12 inches by 12 inches. Here is the front cover (the deck of cards are just for size comparison).



I chose to go with the 12x12 for two reasons. The first reason is that I want to make a new book each year and line them all up on our entertainment center. The smaller books would look kind of puny up there. The second reason is that the 12x12 had better options for the layouts of all of the pages.



I plan to create future volumes straight from my blog but since I didn't start my blog until June 2008, I backlogged some of the important stuff. I actually started in Oct 2003 with a quick entry about our Maui wedding. Then I sped through the next 4 years in just a couple of pages. I highlighted the main events of Cason's first year and then pretty much followed the blog from then until just before Bryce was born. I figured that was a good stopping point and the next book will begin with my entry on May 17th, 2009. I've been trying to update my blog more often lately so that my next volume will be more complete.



The cool thing about the Blurb book software is that you can use one of their many page layouts or you can design your own. I tried to use a lot of different layouts so that the pages don't all look the same. Here are just a few examples of the pages so you can see that every page is different.







And the back of the book. I thought this picture was appropriate.

A hedgehog, a puppy, and a brother

This hedgehog was the first thing I bought for Bryce, before we even found out he was a boy. I was reading one of the many baby magazines that I never ordered that get mailed to me anyway. Seriously, how do I get on these lists? I don't have time to read multiple baby magazines every month! Anyway, this adorable hedgehog was somewhere in an article and I had to have it. I googled it until I found out who made it and then scoured the internet for the cheapest price. Bryce loves it and I couldn't be more pleased.

He also likes this blue puppy that some friends from church gave him.

Craning his neck around to see the TV. I've never seen a baby so interested in the TV before. We usually have to keep the TV off while he is awake or he just stares at it.

Watching his big brother, oblivious to the blue puppy I put in front of him.

Oh hi, friend!

Shrieking with glee.

Here is what happens when I try to get a cute picture of the boys together. Bryce was lying like this in the living room and Cason came up next to him and copied him. I thought it would be a cute picture but the living room has bad lighting and was littered with toys. So I moved Bryce to Cason's room and told Cason to do it again. So he decided to be difficult.

This was the best I could get.