New Hampshire Trip

Dean and I were lucky enough to tag along with our friends who took a trip home to New Hampshire!!! We left Friday March 18th and got home Saturday the 26th. Dean did pretty good in the car...better than I expected. I'm sure it helped having two other kids in the back to talk to him, sing to him, and give him toys and snacks. If he had slept better that week, I would say he was the best vacation baby ever! A couple days into the week we figured out a little routine, he got better naps, and it was easier for me to enjoy him. Oh and you'd better believe he LOVED exploring a new house! It was a fun adventure for both of us and I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

Unfortunately, I didn't get as many pictures as I probably should have (of course), but here are some I did get:

The Children's Museum in Dover
For the California people: it's kinda like Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana
For Utah people: It's kinda like Discovery Child's Museum at Gateway

They had a little section for infants and toddlers
Dean's favorite parts...
Mirrors

And the trains

We titled this video "Success. Fail. Fail. Success."

My favorite thing to do on Vacations....

Eat.

Here are a few of the places we went...

Papa Gino's
It had really good pizza. And I saw for my first time the New England way to eat hot dogs.. wrapped in a piece of really good bread instead of in a bun.
Crazy. But good.


Moe's Subs
Went there twice. Best Italian subs ever.
When they first started they would only serve one type of sub- the Italian, but now they have a variety. But if you order the "Moe's Sub" from the menu they won't substitute anything on the sandwich...or something like that. But you wouldn't want to anyway. It's heavenly.
(ignore the send it here thing... best picture I could find on internet)

LaFiesta Brick & Brew
Yummy Yummy Yummy pizza. Like, so good. I'm really into the thin New York style pizza, and boy is this some of the best (that i've had) yet. Even the 4 yr old in our group wanted more than just his usual cheese pizza... it was that good.
The Friendly Toast
Tied for one of my top three favorites.
Funky place, with funky decorations, and funky staff. I loved every bit of it. It's in downtown Portsmouth surrounded by streets lined by quaint and cool shops. I loved it. If I were to move to NH, I would bet it would be here.
Portsmouth...not Friendly Toast.
Although...that'd be cool...
We shared Friend Green Tomato BLT, a Mission Burrito, and King Cakes (really yummy pancakes with bananas, chocolate chips, and peanut butter)

Newick's
Another tied for favorite.
For two reasons:
1. The location and view. It was right on the water and you might not be able to tell but the whole back half of the restaurant had windows looking out onto the water like this:

2. I had my first lobster at Newicks. It was a good, yummy Maine Lobster. Loved the taste, not so in love with the dismembering part. I just avoided eye to eye contact with the poor guy.
Last favorite, but definitely not least...the food I don't have pictures for...
Home-cooked goodness by my friend's parents.
I had corned beef and cabbage for the first time, awesome steak sandwiches, Zuppa Tuscano soup (home-made Olive Garden soup), and pumpkin pancakes with buttermilk syrup. It was all so delicious. Yum.


New England Scenery pictures:
Cool bridge we drove on coming home
Look how close to the water you are... you're basically driving on water..

Cool houses.
I told my friend it was like Laguna Beach, but half the houses and two times the trees. Same great view...

Hampton Beach
One day I babysat the kids while my friend and her parents attended a funeral. I took them for a 10 minute drive to the beach!

Beach on the right, east coast beach houses on left

Definitely less crowded and crammed than the beach cities I'm used to. Driving inland from the beach it went: shore, houses/stores/restaurants, and a mile inland you see this:

It was an adventure, I loved it, and I can now say I've been to good ol' New England. I would love to take Alex someday because 1. he'd love it, 2....I want the food again :)

Dean 11 months

I can't believe our Bean is one month away from being a 1 year old!

Here's what he's done this month:
-finally, finally, finally started eating food! Baby peach puffs, baby cheese puffs, yogurt melts, little bites of whatever i'm eating, and of course...baked lays...
-jabbering (jargoning?)... talking like he's actually saying sentences, but in a foreign language
-cruising along furniture, moving from furniture to furniture
-watching a little Baby Einsteins, mostly when he wakes up at 6am before mom is ready to be functional
-There was a week or so that I would have to give him a chip to keep him still long enough to get his clothes or diaper changed
-road tripped to New Hampshire (post on that coming soon)
-he's started being destructive...hitting toys together, crushing food we give him or hitting it against the table, picking up and throwing things that are in his crawling path
-He is up to 6 teeth! 4 on top, 2 on bottom.
-He's gone through a fussy/yelling phase (probably due to the teething mentioned above). But the boy has definitely learned volume and gets pretty dang loud.

Mostly, it's just been fun to see him go from baby to kid...
See what I mean:

He's trouble(permanent marker on his face and chin folds)

Speaking of chins and folds...
He is getting taller, thinning out a little, and I actually see his neck more than just bath time when I would lift his chin to clean his neck.
He plays and explores

Loves playing/tagging along with the big kids
Luckily, they like Dean as much as he likes them

(Can't keep him out of the Burger King play place)

Did I mention he's getting tall?

(too tall to stand under a kitchen table)

He can {kind of} walk with only one handed assistance

Loves playing with his dad

{who is apparently way more fun than mom}
(if you make this picture bigger, you can kind of see his top teeth. Cute and gappy)

He just starting holding his own bottle {finally}
And now holds everything like he's drinking from a bottle

Did I mention he's getting tall???

He's started climbing over things...

Into things...

And I probably already mentioned that he's tall...

Oh, and I had to document one of his sad faces...

And of course
Videos.

What our General Conference weekend was like:


Loves when we help him drink out of a big cup, or tries it himself.


Little bit of his one hand walking.


23 days left of year #1!

Dean turned 10 Months!

(two weeks ago)

I seriously love this age.

Dean is more fun, less work, and we've seen more and more of his personality. He is silly, adventurous, social, flirtatious, needy, and very curious.
He thinks he is a big kid.
He gets into everything now.
He carries toys in his mouth while he crawls.
He walks like a champ with push toys.

He is finally starting to eat big boy food!!!
Though he is non-committal about foods... for example he will only eat a certain food for a few days then refuse to eat it again.
The one food he will ALWAYS eat....

Baked Lays.

Showing off 2 of 4 teeth

I LOVE this picture.
This is our bedtime routine: tub, lotion, jammies, eat, bed.
Dean hates the lotion/jammies part. So Alex distracts Dean with videos on his phone.
The videos are of Dean. I love that he loves videos of himself.
And, Dean looks so big in this picture.
I can't believe it.

Helper? Explorer?
...Trouble....?

Dean loves the bathroom. Almost as much as his mom.
This is what happens when she showers:

Can you believe he is tall enough to touch the doorknob?!
Me neither.

Playtime with dancing Dean


Love this noise he makes. Love him in his diaper.


Love spending all day with this face and silliness.

February Things: Decor and Weather

First...Weather

Crazy weather we've had the last month. Up until this week at least. Right now we are enjoying weather in the 60's. A couple weeks ago we had this:

Ice covered trees. Our first ice storm.

In case you couldn't tell from the first picture, sticks coated in ice.
Stick-cicles
Don't worry about us though, today we went played at the park.
Without jackets.


Next: Valentines Decorations

I have been meaning to put these up for a LONG time now...Most of it was done before February even started, but I had a really hard time with what to do on my DVD shelf. So, anyways, here it is:

Books with "Love on them", sitting on books that I wrapped with paper (secret: on most of them I only wrapped around the binding since you wouldn't see the bottom or most of the top), Valentines art on top, and changed up the tree over "Drake". The Frames and red boxes are left from Christmas Decorations

The seasonal change for my tree: tiny pink silk flowers with rhinestones in the middle. Attached with mini glue dots.

Got the idea for the framed art here on Etsy. Would have been perfect if the white paper hadn't puckered. I'll fix it next year.

Remember this from Christmas? You remember how I love re-purposing?

Here is my Valentine's "Love Bird" version. I cut birds with hearts in them and flipped the clothespins upside down so it'd look like they're sitting on the line. Cute right? Pretty much my favorite decoration this holiday. Wish I had a better picture.

Here is my first attempt at the DVD shelf decor. What to fill the frame with... what to do, what to do...

So I picked a pretty frame to cut with cardstock, modified it a little so there were two of my love birds, look closely..

But, I wasn't a fan.

So, inspired by The Giving Tree by good 'ol Shel, I drew this:
By doing this:
(rough draft on two printer papers taped together, then traced onto the paper-y side of freezer paper with sharpie. High tech, i know)
Ta-Dah.
Not crazy about the whole arrangement/set-up. But eh, oh well...next year I'll get it...
Notice: lovely birthday flowers from Alex

Oh yeah, and I put a pink heart in the frame around me and Alex. Wah-la.

Happy belated Valentines Day/V-day decorating

Dean is 9 months!

Dean now:

-knows how to crawl!!! He is loving it! It's nice for both him and his parents that he can now help move and entertain himself
-pulls himself up on everything. At first he would only do it in the tub. Probably one of the hardest, most awkward places to do it, but whatever... crazy man.


-knows how to wave. Well, knows the motion and loves it, but doesn't quite understand what it means.
-throws tantrums by crying and throwing himself backwards
-does the 'baby dance' where he waves his arms and bobs his head and upper body to music. I LOVE IT.
-still loves to talk, smile at everyone, and flirt with other ladies.

-Loves graham crackers
-still hates baby food

So one day I decided to let him play with his food... knowing some would end up in his mouth (at least more than if I tried to feed him)...hoping he would get used to the taste and texture

He had fun...

But still won't eat it.

Now of course...videos.

Dean crawling...


Means lots of this...


and this...


and going to play with this toy.


Dean's a natural at:



Look at me go Grandma Suzy!