The Madness of March

No, I don't follow March Madness, but it is a cool alliteration so I figured I'd go for it. :)

So here comes March!

J's sister, Kristin was in town for a few days and one thing she really wanted to do was teach a Zumba class to the family.

So we got together early morning at J's parents' church and did Zumba in the gym.

Here's C's mad basketball skills.

I'll probably get in trouble for taking and posting this picture, but oh well! Here's a snippet of our awesome Zumba skills!

Kristin is really good. She knows her stuff. Me? I'm apparently uncoordinated with using dance as exercise. :)

My sweet boy holding Gma's wind up, retro radio that sings "Hickory Dickory Dock"

We went to the Library and C got to choose 6 books to bring home. He LOVED it!!!

Let's play "Find the baby!"

Grocery trips got really fun. We play games, giggle, squeal. It's been awesome. Everyone looks at us funny, but that's because they wish their 1.5 year old was laughing this much!!

The book I got from the library was Inkheart.

(I loved it, but it was kinda scary! It took me a bit longer than some books take me. It was so well written that I had a hard time not worrying about scary things coming out of my book!)

C showing off his page awareness skills

Sitting in the neighbor's car. Much cooler than his lonely discarded car in the background...

This is his "base." He likes to stand on small platforms in the yard like the sprinkler box as shown or the water thingy in the front yard.

I love this picture because of two reasons:

1) J is wearing a potholder on his head

2) C looks like he is being knighted, he feels so honored to do what Daddy's doing!

More coloring fun

I like this one because of the fact that he organized the food. How awesome is that? The cheesy grin is actually what he started doing when I told him to smile…yikes...

I pruned back the rose bushes and on the very first one, my poor clippers broke! Sad day!

This picture I remember very clearly. I was SOOOOOO SOOOOOO SICK!!

I had a yucky head cold and just wanted to lay there all day. It was awful. Especially because the day was soooo beautiful!!! :( It lasted a few days, but this was the worst one.

The one plus was that the breeze eased my head congestion. It was lovely. I was able to relax and not sniffle for a little while so that C could get his energy out

His chalk writing on the cement transferred to his pants. :)

Pretty sky.

Recently, J asked me if it was a bad thing that C's favorite toys seemed to be books.

No.

It's not. :)

When I was feeling about 80% better, I just needed to get out of the house. 

J took me to the new Village in Meridian. It's a very nice, fancy strip mall.

There's a fountain in the center that has been made to be like the Bellagio fountains. Every hour, they do a show with a song. We were there for a beautiful opera song. It was awesome.

After I was all better, I got a different bug. A cleaning bug. I wanted to organize just about everything. 

So I kinda did. 

First thing was J's hat collection. Most of his hats I had never seen him wear…some I had never seen at all...

He has an idea that he'll cut out the logos on the ones he got from places-especially places he hasn't been- and will put them on a jacket like a patch. He might end up looking like a race car driver in the Indy500, but that's ok!

This is a picture of 49 hats.

He got rid of half. Pretty amazing.

I'm very proud. :)

Cocoa crispies face!

Remember the too-big-for-the-saucer-but-not-wanting-to-lose-shower-time dilemma? 

We figured something out!

We bought a baby gate and stuck it in the bathroom so that he can play in that little space where the door swings open. 

So I put toys in, stick him in there, and he plays while I get ready.

This is the first time we tried it. It was NOT a hit. :)

C found some of Mommy's toys and wanted to play with them. So I was daring enough to let him hold them and play a little with them under very heavy supervision.

They are what my family calls "Temping Princesses." (My niece just called them that, so it stuck)

They're plastic figurines whose rubbery clothes you can change and put shoes on them and stuff. 

Mine is Padme from Star Wars. I got it in Disney World.

Growing up, my big brother (who is very very much a Star Wars nerd to the max…) would give me Star Wars toys. My favorites were the female Jedi from the prequels. As time went on, Padme became my favorite. I have two of her from the execution arena in episode 2. I have about 4 Queen Amidala ones, her wedding one, her preggo one where she tells Anakin he's breaking her heart (lame moment in movie, but we're moving past that…), and the list goes on. 

Then I have an epic lightsaber collection with lots of cool female Jedi. It's really nerdy, but we established I was a nerd long ago. :)

Anyway! Moving on!

Here's my cute Ducky after a bath. I love holding him then. He only lasts about 4 seconds, but it lasts about 6 seconds if I hold him up and let him see himself in the mirror.

These two are the cutest pair of boys I have ever seen. Man oh man, it's so cute!!

Pretty sure this isn't a tantrum. Just being strange. He definitely doesn't get it from me...

With all the playing outside the little boy does, he is still learning that the road is off-limits. 

This picture below is his first road rash.

He decided to run out into the road and run faster when I called him back. Booger.

So I ran out into the road and snagged him. While fighting me, he fell and scraped his elbow.

What's even better is that he didn't care. 

He did care when we went inside to clean it up. Not happy to be away from the outdoors!

So I cleaned it up and put a cute sticker on the bandaid.

He played with that sticker the rest of the night. 

Our Stake does a special recognition for Young Women who receive their Young Women's Medallion. 

They do a program that is very like a Seminary Graduation. Talks, slideshow, awards/presents, and snacks afterwards.

Our 2 girls who were receiving theirs soon were the ones to give talks. Since the theme this year in all Young Women is "Come Unto Christ," they were asked to talk about which value project or experience helped them to come to Christ. It was so special. My "mama" feelings were just exploding with joy for my sweet girls!

So proud!!

More coloring

The product of more coloring… grr!

So where do I turn? Pinterest!

Some smart person suggested non-gel toothpaste, scrub, rinse off, dry.

It worked pretty well! (side note: after having LOTS more in another place, Magic Erasers work a LOT faster and better!)

Building a tall tower with the best blocks ever. I love those blocks.

Cuteness overload

In talking about building a garden, we needed to find the sprinklers. So J got on the ground to find them. And C joined him. heehee

Bragging moment! I did this run on my own (with C) and it was a great run!!

I rearranged all the books in the house. The picture books were in C's closet so he wouldn't ruin them. 

That worked well while he was ruining things. (he still is, but somewhat less?) 

So when I was moving things around, I wanted to see the beautiful picture books I'd collected and been given over the years more frequently.

So they are now in the living room bookshelf and all of the binders from college and callings in church are in the office where they belong! ;)

C has LOVED being able to have MORE books!!

I'm still nervous every time one comes out. Especially since he likes to take the dust covers off.

We had friends over to play Settlers of Catan, Cities and Knights. I love this game. 

I had never won ever, but I still loved it. 

I won!

It was really cool! (so of course I had to document it!!)

C learned to like hanging out in his little nook while I showered. Here's his line of Little People.

In my drawer in the bathroom. :)

Reading Inkheart again

One of my favorite "Mommy-Moments."

I said, "Do you want to hold my hand?"

And he replied "yeah."

Oh my heart!!!!!!!!!!!

Without him begging at all, I caved and bought him this $1 ball at Walmart. He was so pleased! He plays with it every time he is outside, now!

While eating, if he's really just happy and satisfied, he crosses his ankles. 

I got a flat in my jogging stroller, so Tami and I went biking.

So this is C and Gigi ready to go.

It was an exhausting trip. My thighs hurt from this 50 lb load in the first 3 minutes!!!

Gma came to play one day, so C learned some new places to put his Little People

Making an airplane noise with Daddy

An old roommate, Gracie, from my first semester in college comes to Nampa pretty frequently to visit her Grandparents. She came for her Spring Break, so we got to visit!

She came over for a few hours one day, then went to see Divergent with me and J opening night. It was fun. I love how much Gracie and I have gotten closer over the years since we really didn't get along as roommates. Just shows that people grow up. :)

C LOVES emptying the dishwasher with me. He picks up one thing, gives it to me, and then grabs another. It makes emptying the dishwasher really move fast because you worry he'll stick the spoon in his mouth or run away with the fork.

I gave him a haircut. It was a really hard haircut to do. It made him age about 2 years. *sigh.

When he realized his entertainment had a shirt on, he immediately demanded that daddy remove his shirt as well since he had to be in his diaper for this. :)

Toddler boy.

More Little People fun

We went to Gma and Gpa's, but Gma wasn't there. What was there was her new copy of Frozen with a dvd in it!

So we borrowed it. :)

Makin a mess!

This was our first DND night. It was fun! We got to kill some bad guys and find out what our quest was. (the brown things that my brother said look like poo are actually big rocks which happen to be the stands for my female Jedi figurines. :) )

Our characters. Mine is the second from the right.

LeAnne is my Visiting Teaching companion turned friend. She started running with Tami and me and has been a really great person to have in my life. I learn so much from her and really love having her around to laugh with and be silly with.

She invited me to go to the park with her for a little bit one day and then I got this message.

Made me laugh soooo hard!!!

J and I went to Olive Garden with little man and he had his own kids' meal. He chowed down! and he did a fabulous job eating out of his big ole soup spoon. Quite impressive.

Frozen has become C's favorite movie. He will watch it from beginning to end without ever moving.

More silly selfies. I love this boy. He is my light.

Daddy changed C's diaper and put his pants back on him wrong. Both feet in one leg. Made me laugh for a really long time. :)

This book is probably the most frequently taken off the shelf. My aunt Valine wrote it. It's called "When I Grow Up, I'll Go On a Mission." So cool.

Examining Daddy's tool chest.

Auntie Kristin's kitty is so very patient with C.

Sending texts with Gma

There's a game that J's dad loves to play. It's called 3 to Kings. It's a rummy-style game and it's practically identical to 5 crowns, except you just use 2 decks of regular cards.

The goal is to get a low score.

And I never win. I'm usually the one with the smoke and flames at the whopping 200 mark.

But this time, the one time I suggested we play because we'd played something J's dad didn't like….

 I WON!!!

Whoa!?!?!

I sent the above picture to all the world when it happened. J's younger brother on his mission in Florida said that he wished he'd been there and was shocked and amazed. Which is why I took a picture. Proof!!

C snoring on his way home from Gma and Gpa's house

One of my rearranging things was C's closet. I combined ALL of Daddy's legos into one place. 

It feels sooo good!!

C loved playing a little with Daddy's big kid legos. :)

J has trained C to bring me dandelions when we are outside. It's so cute and tender! (I do see through it as a way to pick dandelions so they don't multiply, but it's still cute.)

This is the stash I had while I sat in my new patio furniture checking blogs.

Silly ham face.

And that was March!!! Woohoo!