just so you know...

... the $3 bottle drying rack from Babys'R'Us and some bottles are the best toys ever.

                                 

 

     

           

(ignore the boys' jammy face)

whattaweek.

We've been some sickies this week. Morgan was patient zero in our house- he seemed to be pretty sick for a couple days last week. It's sooo great how he can verbalize everything so well now. He can say "I feel sick". I want to talk about all the great things he says now but that would just take forever! But I'll say that he can totally talk now. Complete sentences  All the time. You can have a legitimate conversation with the boy and it's the funnest!
Anyways, then Josh was sick, then me, then Jaclyn, then Pearl. It's that nasty stomach flu. Ugh, I hate hate hate it. So there's been a lot of just chillin', cuddling, and crying. But I think we're pretty much out of it now.

It was such a bummer too, because Josh and I had this super awesome (and rare) date weekend planned this last weekend. Friday night was sushi and a movie, Saturday night was a couples church thing that had dinner, an improv group, silent auction, and dancing. Two nights in a row without the kiddies is kind of unprecedented. So we were like, suuuper excited. Then when it came time we still weren't 100% feeling good... but we went to both of those things anyway!... probs not a good idea? But we just did sushi and no movie, then only stayed for dinner at the other thing. Oooooh how I've missed sushi. I think it had been a YEAR since we've had it! How wild is that? Needless to say I was excited. It did not disappoint. Not one bit. Mmmm.
And we really wanted to make it to that church thing because it seemed like fun aaaand we already paid for it... It was a fundraiser for the youth. It felt wrong to have the money go to waste! The dinner was delish. But our favorite was looking at the silent auction stuff. It made me love where we live even more. It was all stuff people donated and included things like raw honey, farm fresh eggs every week for 3 months, a beehive, crane service, and my favorite- a newborn pig! Yay for living in farmland. But for real, I love it. It Josh and I had more monies, we totally would have made good on some of that awesomeness.
It was the best being out with my man. I'm the luckiest woman on earth. That Joshua.... I just love him so much. And I really appreciate his manly beard-growing abilities of late.

We havent had a picture together in forevs so I made him take one with me. Photo cred to Jaclyn. Taking pictures isn't really his favorite thing in the world. This is how he rebelled:

The joke is on him, I think they're cute.

love/hate relationship

I just want to put out there that I have this crazy love/hate relationship with blogging.

I do it because I want to keep family and friends who I don't see or talk to enough informed, and also because I sincerely enjoy it. It's fun to write down what's going on in my life, and thoughts I have. Just to put them in words. Definitely an outlet of sorts. Since I enjoy it so much I've kinda been wondering if I should do more with it. Not that I'm good at it or anything, or that I would ever have a lot, or even like, 30, followers. But I just feel like there are so many things as a blogger I DON'T want to be. I don't want to be the dime a dozen mommy blog. But like I mentioned before, I think part of my aversion to this scene is living in Utah. Because I perfectly fit the mold of those way typical mommy blogs... I DO like to get a little crafty sometimes, I DO love to bake, and I DO like to cook, and I AM obsessed with my kids and looove to talk about them and parenting in general. So it's like I AM all those things that are in the blogs I'm sick of. I just don't want to be in a mold.
And I don't ever want to seem like my life is perfectly put together- like so many blogs do. You bet I'm a dang happy woman and I feel blessed beyond comprehension, but my life sure isn't perfectly polished. No sir.

I think if I wanted to be more into the blogging thing I need to maybe find something I'm passionate about, and that I can make my own. I mean, it's my family for sure- my kids are totally my calling in life. But I think I could have a specific focus in the future. Like... homeschooling. I'm really excited about that.

For now it will remain mostly family happenings, with some of my perspectives on life now and again.

Anyways, I just wanted to express my blogging identity crises. What do you other peeps out there think?

P.S. I probably sound super judgmental about mommy bloggers. I do appreciate the merit of sharing ideas and advice in parenting, "DIY"ing, cooking,  and all that good stuff. I've learned some great stuff from you guys. 

Obligatory Birthday Post.

Morgie's birthday was a total blast. Mostly because he is the funnest/smartest/cutest/greatest boy alive...  but also because of all the great family and friends who came to support and celebrate.

The boy is obsessed with cars. I don't think I can begin to effectively explain how obsessed he is. You're just going to have to trust me on this one. So naturally, he love love loves the movie "Cars". If I wanted him to be excited about a birthday party this theme was a must. But I did wonder how the heck not to make it kinda lame and uber commercialized. Luckily, there were free printables and ideas all over the place (the place = pinterest. Duh.)
I made the boy this shirt- I love how excited he got when I showed it to him. He grabbed it and put it on his head and was saying "put it on!".

 

I think I like how the little favors I made turned out. They are some red, yellow, and green play dough- think traffic lights. Homemade play dough is the best. Morgan loves the stuff. THIS recipe is super great. I used baby food containers to put the three little balls of play dough in.

The tags for the food were really fun, even though only people who have seen the movie cars wouldn't really get all of them... oh well.
We had "dipsticks" (litt'l smokies), "Fillmore's garden" (fruit and veggies), a "fueling station" (punch, water), "spare tires" (chocolate doughnuts), and "Mater's taters" (potato chips). I totally failed getting pictures of most of the labels, but whatevs. Then the cake- I kept that super simple.

 

Josh drew a snazzy car on some posterboard and we played a little "pin the license plate on the car". I'm glad people humored me! It was a lot of fun. Who doesn't like watching other people look foolish?

Probs should have taken a picture with all the

                                         license plates on it.

It was such a fun group of friends. Morgan is one lucky guy to have such great people in his life. I like that there were a lot of kids around his age, give or take a year or so. My friends' littles are so cute and so fun! Even Pearly found a buddy. 

He had such a good time. People are way to good to us. 

 

 

 

I even got to have my parents here from Washington which made it infinitely more awesome, and exponentially easier on me, because they always know just what to do to help out. You gotta love people like that. They are just as good, loving, and supportive as they come. I'm a lucky girl and Morgan is a MEGA lucky boy to have grandparents like that.

Let me end by saying I love this boy like CRAZY. I'm in total awe of him every single day.