First Temple Trip of the Year

For the first FHE of the year, Tony and I wrote down resolutions.  Personal and family goals for the upcoming year.  One of our family goals was to attend the temple three times in 2011.   
We started the year off right by going to our ward temple session yesterday.
 
I packed our breakfast/lunch in a cooler and about half way there we stopped  to use the bathroom & have breakfast in the car.  Charlie thought having breakfast in the front seat was the best thing ever!  He was so excited to be eating in the car and the steering wheel turned into his jungle gym.

 Balancing on the wheel

Who knew eating in the car could be so fun & exciting?

We met our friends at the temple for a kid swap (us doing a session while they watched Charlie then them doing a session while we watched their kids). With temperatures in the high 60's (maybe even 70) it was the perfect day to be at the temple!  We went in first and then watched the kids outside on a blanket while their parents were inside.  We collected sticks, pinecones and kicked a soccer ball until the other session over. 

It was a great day.  It was a long day.  I told Tony that the drive home is NOT what we are taking away from this day so I won't go into details about coming home :)

 I keep crossing my fingers that our area will be announced for a temple in general conference.  Maybe this April?  :)

I am so happy we were able to go and even happier we were able to be inside together. 

Exploring and Peanut Butter Toes

Charlie is a great sleeper.  Bed at 7:30 PM and up at 8:30 AM.  Am I a lucky mom or what?! 

I told my mom about this last week and my mentioning it has jinxed me. 

For the last week Charlie has woken up at 6:30 AM.  6:30 isn't that early, but I love my morning sleep.  I can wake up at 7:45; get dressed, have breakfast, dishes, scripture study and then get Charlie out of bed feeling like I've made a good start to my day.

The last few mornings have been rushed, but this morning our family had breakfast and morning prayer together.  It was nice.

Maybe earlier mornings are a good thing?

For lunch Charlie had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  With sticky fingers he grabbed his foot and put his fingers in between his toes.  Gross...things between my toes creeps me out. 

After a thorough wipe down we went exploring.

 

Charlie was in heaven picking up sticks, rocks and dried up leaves.  

He stomped around using his stick to sword fight anything sticking up out of the ground more than a few inches. 

 

I brought along a tupperware container and we collected "treasures." 

Treasures being twigs, pebbles and leaves, but who's to say those aren't treasures?  He sure thought they were!  

Charlie would thoroughly examine each item, give it a lick and then put it in the container.  I guess everything needed a taste test as well?

On our walk home, Charlie stopped and reached up for me until I picked him up.  

That tells me it was a good outing if he was too tired to keep going.  I'm usually the one feeling that way.

 

We have fun together...until about 4 o'clock.  Once the clock says 4 it's as if something clicks and we're both grumpy, tired of each other and counting the seconds until daddy gets home.

Daddy is home now and I'm getting my break from Charlie by blogging about Charlie.

How does that work?

Today.

Today was a great day.  

It started off at the gym. I usually go at night so going during the morning was a real treat. 

 After showering, lunch & Charlie's nap, we packed up our stuff and headed to the mall.

The weather is starting to warm up and it was just warm enough to go today (it's an outdoor mall).

We walked around the shops then made our way over to Rocky Mountain chocolate factory.  I'm a See's girl myself (the scotchmallow is my favorite) but unfortunately there isn't one where I live.  

I picked a raspberry truffle to enjoy while Charlie and I played at the outdoor children's play area...

We had the place to ourselves. 

Charlie was in heaven running around while being chased by mommy.

 

Doesn't he look so big in this picture?!

I think little places like these are genius. It's nice to take a break get some wiggles out.  

 We ended our trip at the bookstore. We played with stuffed animal puppets, a train set and board books.

We picked up Tony on our way home.  Charlie gets this high pitched squeal when he sees his daddy walking towards the car.  It's so sweet.

It was a great day.

Not a whole lot is going on these days, but here are a few things we've been up to...

LOST

Thanks to instant play on Netflix, Tony and I are finally catching up with the rest of the world and are now in season 2. 

Do they ever get off the island?!  Seriously! (but don't tell me)

BABY KICKS

This little baby in my tummy has turned into a kicking machine and I love it.

THE JUNGLE BOOK
over and over and over and over...
  I'm confident I could do a one man show of the whole movie and not miss a thing.

That's about it.
I crave the weekend when Tony surprises me with dates for Mexican food or trips to the mall so I can browse Williams-Sonoma.  He's wonderful like that.

Some things I am looking forward to in the next few weeks...

TEMPLE TRIP
We haven't been able to make a trip out there for several months so I am looking forward to this.  Better yet, we are doing a "kid swap" with a family in our ward so Tony and I get to do a session together.  This is very exciting.

GENDER ULTRASOUND
We find out what this baby is!  We are very excited to know if Charlie will have a little brother or sister.  Plus, I am anxious to start changing the spare room into a nursery (or Charlie's new room.  Haven't decided that yet)  This room is currently where I put random stuff and shut the door.  Who knows what is in there?  Maybe I'll find some cool things I forgot I own?

HAIR CUT
All right, this one is kind of lame but I put off calling until I am ready to shave my own head before I call to schedule a hair cut.  Every time I promise myself I am not going to do this but I always do.  This time I'm serious.
If I didn't have a stylist I love I would walk in somewhere but I've done that before and had to wait a year for my hair to grow back.  Not doing that again.

VALENTINE'S DAY
I love, love, love Valentine's day.  It is one of my favorite holidays.  My mom would make V-day a family event.  She decorated the table all festive, prepared a fancy dinner, placed a heart shaped box of chocolates at each table setting and had a wrapped gift for each kid to open.  Doesn't that sound like fun?

I realize that I'm one of those people that needs to have something to look forward to.
Do you have anything you're looking forward to?

It has arrived....

...the baby bump that is.  It's crazy how one day you look in the mirror and all of the sudden you look pregnant.  With Charlie I was so excited to be pregnant I started wearing my maternity clothes as soon as I possibly could.  I think I even know what week I put them on, but I'm too embarrassed to admit it.  All I'm going to say was it was too early.  Anyways, because of this I wanted to burn all of my maternity clothes even more once I reached the end. I felt like I wore them f.o.r.e.v.e.r.  These babies are too close together in age for me to forget how sick and tired I was of those clothes.  Thankfully, I lost some weight and had to go buy some new maternity clothes (smaller fat clothes?  yes!) This has put me in a much better mood.

I vowed to wait as long as humanly possible before I put the maternity clothes on.  I've been wearing two pairs of sweat pants for I think two weeks?  It's pathetic.  It's either A. look fat in regular pants or B. look pregnant in maternity pants.  My friends, I am now choosing to embrace this wonderful stage in life and am now sporting the maternity pants. 

This pregnancy is going great (except one scare of cramps and bleeding that led to a quick ultrasound to check everything out.  Baby was fine, but wow what an emotional wreck I was that day).  Time is flying by and I'm getting more excited.  We're 17 weeks along.
At the same time, I'm nervous for a second baby.  I'm going to miss the days with constant one on one time with Charlie.  I remember how tiring the beginning is and I'm worried I won't have enough energy to be a good mom to Charlie and a new baby.

I guess I want time to go by faster AND slower...is that possible?

Fort play

It's that time of year when I just want spring to come!!!  I miss being outside and wish Charlie and I could enjoy going for walks, etc.  I'm trying to get extra creative in our play so we don't get cabin fever!

We spent the other afternoon making and playing inside our fort.  Naturally, we were joined by all his stuffed animals and books...don't want to leave anyone out!

 Bringing all the animals inside

 Having a little snack inside

 Clapping for himself because he's helping

He gets on these kissing kicks, but all kisses HAVE to be on the lips :) 

It's just the sweetest thing.

Climbing

In the short time since I last posted about Charlie, his personality has changed so much.  He is much more creative in his play and I can see the wheels turning in his little mind as he marches around the house with purpose.  He's constantly on an adventure. 

His new obsession is climbing.  The only problem is he likes to climb on things that are too high for him to climb off of.  I'll be in another room and hear "ma! mom! mom! mama!"  That's his cry meaning "come get me!"  In the mornings, if I'm not already up, I'll wake up to this on the monitor as well.  I love that.

Do you like how he wears this whistle as a backpack? 

He is becoming quite the helper.  Tony is better at involving him in clean up than I am.  I tend to do it myself because I can get it done faster, but I'm trying to remember that's it's important to teach him to help.  He loves to help unload the dishwasher, push the hampers into the family room (so I can fold laundry) & pick up blocks. 

We're going to love these videos when he gets older.

2010

2010 was an eventful year!  Here are some things that happened....

Charlie learned to roll over, sit up, crawl, walk and RUN!

Bought our first home

 

I would say I accomplished my goal of becoming a runner and got up to 8 miles of continuous running.  Worked really hard and lost the baby weight plus 25 pounds.

My family came to visit before my brother Jack left on his mission

Tony's parents came to visit

Took a mini vacation to St. Louis

Took 3 trips to the temple

Enjoyed trips to the park & library

Charlie and I spent a week in Utah visiting my family

Charlie took a swimming class while Tony and I took a spinning class

Went trick or treating

 

I turned 23, Tony 26 and Charlie 1

Spent Thanksgiving in Kansas

Planned and finished a big yard project

Had family pictures taken

Pregnant with baby #2

Spent Christmas at home

and enjoyed Tony's vacation time together at home!

I forgot about half of these things until I went through and reread old posts.  It was a busy year!

I'm excited (and a little nervous) for 2011!