Plucking Chad's unibrow

So the other night I was looking at Chad and realized how out of control his eyebrows had gotten. I busted out the tweezers, forces him to lay down, and went to town. He always cracks me up with his comments when I pluck his eyebrows. He always seems so tough, but somehow this process turns him into a baby. There were a few of my favorite comments:

• Why don't you take more breaks in between
• Are you pulling them out by the root
• Wait - I'm positive that you are plucking hairs in the middle of my eyebrow
• I think that you got them all
• I don't want girly eyebrows
• I'm done
• You better not be giving me that curved shape
• Why do girls do this to themselves
• Seriously - you are getting the skin
• This hurts!
• Are you sure you aren't getting the skin
• You had to have gotten them all by now
• Allison, I'm really done now

What a baby!

What won't a chocolate shake fix?

So this has been a really long week. Actually, it has been a really long semester (and we aren't even half way through). Chad and I just don't really see each other at all. At first it was okay, but as the semester continues the weeks get a little harder.

The hardest part is being a single mom. Since we laid Vance down to bed on Sunday night at 7:30, Chad has only seen Vance awake for 3 1/2 hours. He won't see him until tonight at 7:00. If you do the math that is only 3.5 hours out of 95.5 hours or 3.7% of the time. That was a REALLY long 95.5 hours!!! Vance has actually been really good, but I just need the support. I am just not good enough to do everything by myself for 96.3% of the time!

So back to the chocolate shake - I finally reached my breaking point last night. I was talking to Chad when he finally got home at 11:00 pm. I was telling him how I wish we had more time together because I need a little help. I am still having fun with Vance, but internally I am worn out. I started telling him about the little mishaps of the day:

• I wripped Vance's diaper when I was putting it on him but had him wear it anyway
• He fell off the bed
• He ate lunch at 2:00
• He didn't take a bath
• He threw up on his clothes
  

I know that none of these are a big deal, but as I continued the tears just started coming. I was laughing as I was talking because I knew that it sounded so ridiculous.

Well, Chad came to the rescue! He didn't judge me for having a meltdown or offer solutions that I didn't want to hear. He knew exactly what I needed - a chocolate shake. He made me a shake and before I even took the first bite I had a big smile on my face. So my question to you is - what won't a chocolate shake fix?

Freezer Meals

Last week, five ladies and I got together to do freezer meals. We put together 14 meals for each of us to keep in our freezers, which is a total of 84 FREEZER MEALS. And those 14 meals cost us each $108, which turns out to be about $7.71 per meal. Awesome huh!Above are the five other ladies that are part of my group.

We each got assigned a different job as part of the group. We were originally going to rotate jobs after every get-together, but I think we decided that we each liked what we did so much that we are sticking with our original jobs:

Leslie - The Shopper (She's in charge of buying ALL of the food we need for the meals, which is a ton of food. And I'm glad she likes that job first of all because she is a great bargain finder and secondly because I cannot imagine trying to buy 64 pounds of chicken, 15 pounds of hamburger, tons of canned veggies and soups, and the list goes on and on, with a busy 1-yr old.)

Krista - Food Preparer (Some of the meat needs to be cooked and cut or shredded beforehand to save time when we get together. Krista was in charge of cooking and preparing 30 POUNDS of chicken. Phew. That's a lot of chicken.)

Me - The Shopper (I help Leslie do all of the shopping and do a little prep work myself.)

Kindra - Food Preparer (Kindra got to brown 15 pounds of hamburger meat. Can you imagine all of the grease that would need to be thrown out from that?)

Rachel - The Organizer (Rachel was the pro who had done this with another group twice before, so she sent out the emails containing the shopping list, the recipes, and our responsibilities in our specific jobs. Rachel loves being in charge, which is awesome because I don't.)

Emily - The Hostess (She's in charge of getting her house ready for everyone to come over and prepare the meals. She also calsl the prep girls to let them know when Leslie and me have dropped off all of the food so that the prep girls can pick up their stuff to prepare. Then she organize the remaining ingredients by what meals they are going into.)

We had a few minor mistakes being that this was our first time doing this together. I think we will get better as we go along. Here are some of the fun things that happened that we just had to laugh at:

• Rachel didn't put sliced Swiss cheese on the shopping list, so Emily had to run to Smith's to get some. We needed some chocolate to snack on anyway, so she was glad to go.
  

• Cooked chicken was used to put together the Chicken Parmesian meals when raw chicken should have been used (me & Krista's fault). No big deal - we just had to cook a few more pounds of chicken. We did that while we continued putting other non-chicken meals together.


• All of the hamburger was used up before we put together the 6 lasagna meals. We thought only two recipes called for hamburger when it was actually three. So we made meatless lasagne instead (again me & Krista's fault).

Below is a picture of all of the meals in their baggies in the freezer ready to eat with little work the day of - just the way I like it!!!

PS - Thanks Emily for letting me borrow your post: text, pictures, and all!

It's a beautiful day

On days like today I LOVE living in Las Vegas. The weather is absolutely perfect. Chad woke up this morning and decided that we should go for a family bike ride. It couldn't have been a better day for a ride. We rode from our house to Bonnie Springs (in Red Rock) and back for a total of...

25 miles!!!

It felt so good to get outside and be active. Vance loved it too. He slept for the first half and just took in the scenery on the way home. What a beautiful day!!!

An extra little something-something

So yesterday at work my boss walked in and handed me $100. I asked him what it was for and he just told me thanks for being such a good employee.

YEAH!!! Money that you weren't expecting is the best. I don't know what I will do with it, but something frivolous for sure!!!!

Enrichment H*ll

Let me start off by saying that I truly do LOVE my calling. I am on the enrichment board and am in charge of planning one craft enrichment a quarter. I am supposed to offer 3 crafts for the sisters. I love to craft so this is right up my alley, but the last week and a half has been INSANE!!!

This month's crafts were cards, FHE kits, and a framed Living Christ with a custom mat. Sign-ups ended two Sundays ago and enrichment is tomorrow, so I didn't have very much time to prep everything. Here is what I have been up to lately to get everything ready:

• spent over $500
• gone to 10 different stores to buy supplies
• made 3 returns (due to lower pricing at different stores)
• unloaded the car 1,000 times
• made over 300 copies
• ordered 2 things online

Once I had everything bought and at my house the real work began:

• cut out over 2,00 flowers (using a cricut)
• cut 200 pieces of cardstock
• cut over 300 other pieces of paper for the cards
• cut over 175 pieces of ribbon
• ran the same 175 pieces of ribbon through the sticker-maker
• counted out 21 brads and 3 buttons for each person for a total of 588 brads and 252 buttons
• assembled 56 card kits with all the materials needed for each card
• assembled/separated 120 FHE kits
• cut almost 50 pieces of velcro
• made 2 templates for the Living Christ mats
• loaded my car

This is all I can think of for now! I can't wait for enrichment to be done. I am glad that we had such a good sign-up, but I am ready for my life back. I think next quarter I will definitely pick easier crafts and let more people help. Chad was my trusty worker this time - a job he was simply thrilled about (Katherine - he said he would take brownies as a thank you - j/k).

Hopefully everyone will love it and it will all go well!

Rug anyone?

I am getting rid of a rug to who ever claims it first! I was going to sell it but decided I would rather give it to a friend if someone wanted it. It is 5' x 8'.

First one to leave a comment claiming the rug has dibs. If that person doesn't get it in a week I will move on down the comments until someone picks it up!

Scripture Study & Prayer

This post is because I am trying to make my blog more real (as I posted before). So - Chad and I just stink at family scriptures and prayer. I mean we stink real bad! We try, but we have the typical "we're so busy" excuse. Our schedules are so different from day to day that we don't really do well with a set time everyday.

So I would love any suggestions that anyone has. I would love to grow spiritually stronger, but my ideas just haven't worked. Maybe yours will!

Valentine's Day <3

I love Valentine's Day. I know that it is such a Hallmark holiday, but I don't care. I am a complete sucker for anything even halfway romantic. This year I tried to be cheaper than in year's past and put a little more thought into my gifts. I wanted everything to be pink, red, hearts, etc. (obnoxious I know!) This is what I came up with:

We'll start with the decorations. I bought a dozen red heart balloons and put them all around the house. I also got red and white streamers that I draped around the living room. I then topped it all off with same red paper hearts that I cut out and red heart garland.

I put myself in charge of breakfast and lunch and Chad did dinner. Keeping with my overload hearts, we had heart donuts from Krispy Kreme with strawberry milk for breakfast. We also had heart-shaped bagels from Einstein's Bagels. For lunch we had a heart-shaped pepperoni pizza from Papa Murphys. Delicious and corny - just what I like!

I also made some Valentine chocolate suckers. I am REALLY proud of my level of cuteness with these suckers. I used a paint brush so I could use different colors instead of simply making each sucker one color (as I usually do). You can't see them great because I forgot to take a picture before I put them in bags.

I copied my friend Krista's idea to decorate mailboxes. I decorated one for each of us. I plan to use them throughout the year to leave little surprises! They aren't the cutest, but the do the job.

I'm not going to talk about the little gifts I got them except for Chad's gift. I made all of these little cards that entitled him to something and hid them around the room. It wasn't your typical foot-rub coupon kind of cards though. One card was a "get out of an argument-free card." Another was a "I'm not cleaning-you do it card." His favorite? (see below)

I might regret that! I absolutely loved Chad's gift for me. When I woke up in the morning he had two boxes on the kitchen table. One was for me from him and the other was for me from Vance. Each box was filled of reasons why they loved me. There were a lot of really sweet ones that I will keep personal, but below are a few of the funny ones!

A couple of my favorite reasons from Vance. I love you because:

• you dress me so cute
• you are the 1st person I see every morning
• you let me empty ALL the drawers while you get ready

A couple of my favorite reasons from Chad. I love you because:

• you squint your eyes when you spray hairspray
• you are always late to church - no matter what time you start getting ready
• you share our plans with me using post-it notes you "forget" to show me that I usually find the day before the event

Chad finished off the day with a wonderful homemade dinner - lemon asparagus, twice baked potato, and lobster tails!!! YYYUUUUMMMMM! It couldn't have been more delicous!

The next morning I woke up Chad had yet another surprise for me. When I turned 18, my dad gave me his original wedding ring. It fell off my finger one day and I was never able to find it. I have always wanted to get a ring made that looks like it. I know that it wouldn't be exactly the same, but it would still hold the same sentimental value to me. Well, Chad worked with my parents and came up with the ring!!! I just have to get my finger sized and then he is going to order it. It was such a wonderful gift.

Google Reader

I have been debating for quite awhile now about this post. Google Reader is one of my favorite and most useful websites but I didn't know if everyone already knew about it. Well if you do - no need to read on.


If you don't - you MUST check out this website. It helps you keep up on the blogs you like to read. You simply set up an account at google.com/reader. Then there will be a button on the top left of the page that says "add a subscription" you copy the link of the blog you want to follow. After that, whenever you log into Google Reader you will see any posts you haven't read. It saves so much time and makes it easier to keep up on everybody.


It does take a minute to set it up though. I think the best way is to have your blog open in one window and Google Reader open in another window. Go to where you edit your friends/family list and just one by one copy the link and paste it in Google Reader.


Happy reading!

Pizookie Pan

So pizookies are my new favorite dessert. You have to go to BJ's to try the real thing at least once! You think, "how good could a cookie and ice cream be?" Well, it can be freaking fantastic!!! When we were at BassPro for Vance's birthday we wandered through the camping area and we found the perfect pizookie-cookers! There were two in a box for $19.99. We took them home and ate dessert with my mom and dad. One pan is a generous serving for two people. I HIGHLY recommend this purchase!

Vance's Version of Heaven

So Vance loves my boss's wife Anita. Who wouldn't? She is one of my favorite people! Anita always wants to play with him and give him plenty of her homemade treats (she is the best baker I know). She also has three dogs that Vance loves. Everyday when I walk in the door he starts moving his head around to search for the dogs. Then once I put him down he crawls out of the office to the gate that separates him from the dogs and just waits for them to come and play with him.


So this is a picture of all of Vance's favorite things combined - Anita, a blanket, eating a homemade cinnamon roll, and dogs? What else does a 1-yr old want?

Happy Birthday Vance

My baby is officially one! That sounds so crazy! I know that every mother understands exactly what I mean when I say the year literally flew by. It feels like just yesterday that I was in the hospital. Can you believe that in one year we went from: to this?

I have absolutely loved being a mom to say the least. You really can't describe a mother's love to some one who isn't a mom. The bond you have with your kids is so different than any other bonds you have. It makes me feel a guilty for what I put my own mom through in days past and present!

So onto the birthday celebration. I am going to go in reverse order because quite frankly the stuff at the end of the day was just more interesting. So stop reading whenever you get bored!

My parents went out with Chad and I to celebrate. I really wanted to take Vance to do something that he would actually like - not just something that I would like. The only thing I could think of was how much he loved aquariums so we decided to go to the Silverton. We walked through Bass Pro Shops for quite a while first. I am not sure who had more fun - the adults or Vance?

Our favorite part was the shooting game. My dad won with 18/25. Then it was me with 6/25, Chad was 5/25, and mom was a sad 1/25. Vance was just happy to watch and laugh at us!

While we were there Vance also learned how to drive a four-wheeler, drive a boat, fish, shoot, golf, and rock climb!

We finally made our way out of BassPro to the big aquarium. We timed it perfectly because one of the mermaids was in there. Some of you may remember a post back during Christmas time when Vance visited Santa and his helpers in the aquarium. He loved it back then and he loved it again!

The mermaid just sat there and played with him for forever. He was intrigued by the bubbles and never quite understood how come he couldn't actually touch her. After the mermaid left we took him to the side of the aquarium where there is a little room thingy (technical I know) so he could watch the fish a little longer.

So now the boring stuff that probably only I care about!

Vance 1 year stats:

• 29 inches - 25th percentile
• 20 lb 8 oz - 10-15 percentile
• 47 cm head circumference - 25-75 percentile

He is always doing something new these days. These are his favorites:

• taking baths
• eating anything in sight
• pulling things out of drawers, cupboards, boxes, etc.
• hide and seek
• peek-a-boo
• boxing
• playing Wii
• going on walks
• balls
• cars
• jibber-jabbering all day
• pushing his walker
• taking off his shoes
• throwing his food
• animals
• shake his head no
• chocolate milk
• blankets!!!
• fridge magnets

Happy birthday Vance! Mom and Dad love you SOOOOOOOO much!

I Love My Boys

I think one of the most romantic things is watching men interact with kids - specifically Chad playing with Vance. They both get a little light in their eye that is only there when they are together. They are always laughing and learning new tricks together. I feel so blessed to have these two in my life.

One of those sweet moments happened the other day when Vance and Chad were taking a bath. Look how cute they both are in this picture:

They look SO happy! Moments like this keep me sane. It's so easy to focus on the bad...which brings me to my new blogging goal (I hope that some of you might take this challenge too). I want to make my blog more real. I think sometimes we think everyone else is living this perfect life - like we are the only ones with challenges. I think if we all try to be a little more open about our own problems, we will be able to help each other out. To know that everyone else's life isn't perfect is comforting sometimes. So occasionally I will be posting the not-so-perfect details of our life!

A Wonderful Day

As I keep saying, Chad and I have been so busy lately. This last weekend Chad finally didn't have to work overtime and we didn't have any plans. We thoroughly enjoyed our day together! It started with breakfast from WaffleS Cafe. Chad woke up with Vance and went and got them. They he put Vance down for his morning nap and we enjoyed breakfast in bed.

We decided we wanted to get out of the house so we called my parents to see what they were up to. It had been awhile since we did something as a family that was just for Vance, so we took him for his first trip to Chuck E Cheese. It was insanely busy. So busy that every single table in the entire place was reserved for a birthday party. We let Vance play around for a little bit before we decided we didn't want to fight the crowd anymore.

We picked up lunch at Whole Food (delicious) and met Jennie and her kids at Color Me Mine. Chad and I had been there once before, but it was much more fun with kids. Color Me Mine is one of those places where you pick out a ceramic something to paint and use all of their stuff to create a masterpiece. We didn't end up with masterpieces, but we still had fun. Chad and I painted a little tile to match Vance's room. We put Vance's handprint on it so we can see how much bigger he gets throughout the next year. Now we just have to wait a week for them to fire it and we can pick it up.

We ended the day with a little treat from Starbucks and Golden Spoon. Vance thought both treats were fantastic!
I absolutely love when Chad and I get to just hang out together. We never get as much done on the weekends as were supposed to, but I think it's worth it. Life will go on without your house being spotless or your homework getting done!

Waldron Grandkids

Chad's brother, Brent, is getting ready to go on a mission and asked my mother-in-law if she could take a picture of the three grandkids for him. I thought it was so sweet that he wanted to make sure and have a picture of his nieces and nephews with him on his mission. We did our best to snap a couple of pictures, but with three little kids the results were the best!

Vance's 1st Birthday Party

I can't believe that my baby is almost 1! We celebrated his birthday a little early to avoid conflicting with Valentine's Day. I am going to save the update on what Vance is up to lately for a post on his actual birthday. Today is just about the party! So I may have gone a little overboard, but I really tried to keep it under control. I don't think I went too crazy. We just invited our families, but even that was a big group. There were about 45 people there!

We'll start with the invitations. I decided the theme would be fourwheeling (check out Vance's riding jersey in some of the other pictures) and the colors would be blue and green. I didn't have a lot of time to make the invitations, so I stuck with something simple:

Next - the decorations. We kept everything blue, green, and white. We got some balloons and streamers and put them around Chad's parent's house (they were nice enough to let us have the party at their house). We also parked a few fourwheelers on the front lawn and tied some balloons around them. Vance was a big fan of the balloons!

Food - Luckily everyone was willing to help a little. Dinner for 45 people can get expensive quickly. We had pizza, chips, salad, veggie tray, and soda. We didn't have too much food leftover at all. I always agonize over how much food to buy, but I think I am slowly getting better at buying enough to where there are still leftovers but not so much that you feel like you wasted your money.

Entertainment - I am not too big on games so we definitely didn't overplan. Chad's parent's house is perfect for kids. They have a big indoor gym with a basketball hoop, Wii, ping pong table, and more. All of the kids just went in there and played most of the night. We also took the fourwheelers out for a couple of rides. It was cold, but the kids didn't care! Vance even got to some use out of his new Fox riding jersey. It is so little - I think it's adorable!

We also had a pinata. I got this Finding Nemo pinata for like $5 and it happened to be the right colors, so I covered it up with a big #1. Once again, thank goodness the Waldron's have the indoor gym so we could do the pinata inside. The kids had so much fun even though they didn't all get a turn.

Cake - I found a really cute idea for the cake and asked my sister, Leslie, if she would make it for me. She said yes and I think it was perfect!

We also had a little cake just for Vance.

We put Vance's party hat on him (once again - so cute!), sang happy birthday, and let Vance go crazy with his cake. We weren't too worried about him not eating the cake. This little boy loves junk food and this was no exception. He had quite the audience watching him.

After a little while he got impatient and decided he was wasting way too much time picking up the food and putting it in his mouth. He thought he could save time by putting his face right in the cake!

After cake we opened presents and just visited. Thank you to everybody for all of the wonderful gifts Vance received. He is going to love playing with all of his new toys.

Also thanks to everyone for helping out and making sure Vance's 1st birthday party was great!!!

We love you Vance!

Waffle Cafe

So Chad and I have been trying a few of the restaurants in our area. We decided we should support the businesses in our neighborhood before even more close their doors. In our process we have found a few great places! One of our new loves is WaffleS Cafe. It is off of Fort Apache and Tropicana across from the Walmart shopping center.

This place was delicious!!! They have four different types of waffles and about 30 different toppings. Our favorite so far is the banana split waffle: ice cream, banana, chocolate syrup, and whip cream served on top of a waffle. What's not to love? So if you are ever looking for a new breakfast or dessert place you should definitely try it out.

Friends...this second

So Colton and Vance definitely have a love-hate relationship. Vance normally likes Colton, but Colton does not always love Vance. To put it lightly Colton doesn't like to share with Vance - at all. It doesn't bother me though. I actually think that it is hilarious to watch Colton go after every toy that Vance touches and Vance isn't old enough to get it so he just kind of looks at Colton after he does it. I'm sure once Vance starts crying about it I will care a little more.

Well lately Colton has been warming up to Vance. I couldn't catch a picture of this, but the other day Vance was crawling and Colton was crawling behind him pushing Vance's butt down. This may not sound like playing but at least Colton was interested in interacting with Vance!

Yesterday Colton must have been having a really good day. Not only did he share with Vance, he kept putting his arm around Vance to help him out. How cute!!!

Colton (left) and Vance (right)

That's what moms are for

So the other day my mom stopped by to drop a couple of things off. She sat down like she was going to stay awhile, so I asked her if she was up for a project. For those of you who don't know my mom, she is organization queen. She organizes everything and then reorganizes it just for fun.

Well, my pantry was in need of a little help. Actually let me rephrase - my pantry was in DIRE need of some organization. Chad and I get so busy that we prefer to spend our free time hanging out instead of doing our chores (who doesn't right?). The busier we get the more out of control the pantry has gotten.

My mom helped me get my life in order in at least one little corner of my house. Here are some of the after pictures (I couldn't talk myself into posting the before pictures).

The next picture is proof of how much unnecessary crap was in my pantry. This is a pile of all the things we threw away when we were done.

Happy Vance is Back!!!

After a couple of rough weeks, happy Vance is back!!! I couldn't be more happy. I know the saying is "happy wife, happy life" but I think that we should make it "happy baby, happy wife, happy life."

It starts earlier than I expected

So you know when you were younger and everybody would always tell you how fast you were growing up? How you should still be a little kid? How they can't believe how old they feel?

I am starting to feel that way. I know that I am only 22, but at times I get believe how fast life goes by.

Case in point -

This last week was my niece, Briton's, band concert. First of all I can't believe that she is even in junior high. Second - I can't believe that she wears make-up. Third - I can't believe that she is already starting to like boys. Fourth - I can't believe that she is in the Beehive class presidency.

Briton (left) and her friend Sydney (right)

I remember this little girl being born and changing her diapers. Now she comes over to my house to babysit Vance in her skinny jeans, Hollister t-shirt, and Uggs. Where did the time fly by?

PS - If anyone needs a good babysitter this girl is the best! She is 12 1/2 years old. I leave her with Vance all of the time and she never has any problems. The best part? She is cheap and almost always available. She only charges $4 or $5. My sister won't let her charge anymore than that and she is happy for all of the money that she gets. If you are EVER in need she comes highly recommended. Leave a comment if you are interested in her phone number.