Best looking elves on the block

This cracks me up :)

Attention seeker

Sawyer has been inhaling his baby food (not literally) but i've noticed something funny.  I cannot tell when he has a dirty diaper very often anymore.  It doesnt smell strong like it used to.  I feel bad because i dont know how long he was sitting in the mess before I notice it.

Sawyer has always slept all night since he was born.  He would always wake up to eat every few hours (until he was a couple months old) but he wouldnt just cry for no reason.  He would normally sleep fine until around 11 (and still does).  Last night though he cried whenever i sat him down in the crib.  He would fall asleep in my arms, but the second his body touched the hard mattress, he woke up wiggling around and started to whine.  It was 2:30am that he woke up and decided to pull that trick after i gave him a bottle. I was wondering how he could be hungry because we just fed him a 6oz bottle and a tub and a half of baby food plus a little rice cereal mixed in at like 11.  After a few quick attempts at the asleep one second, awake the next, i decided to have him sleep on my arm :(  I love him in there with us, but he gets all sweaty and i am afraid andy will roll on him so i have to have him sleep on my arm.  I hope that doesnt get to be a habit!  He has had a few bad nights (luckily only a few) but he has not pulled this trick until last night.  Looks like he is starting to need a lot more attention. Eek! Lucky me and Andy switch off nights to get him so we both get full nights every other day haha.

The good news is that he is starting to enjoy more things.  He was laughing when he woke up and i started to ballroom dance with him after work- it was so cute.  He is the smiliest baby, but he doesnt laugh much. It is good to see that he is more.  He also grips a little harder when we hold him so it feels like he is giving us hugs :)

I took his 5 month pictures, but i thought this one was cute.  He is going to outgrow that outfit (size 12-18 months at old navy) within a couple months!

Shenanigans

So I realized i should post about last weekend's shenanigans before I forget about them.  I was waiting for pictures because I forgot my camera plugged into my computer and the person taking the pictures is a friend of my friend so I can't get them yet. We'll have to go off my crappy 2 megapixel camera phone lol.

Anyway, last weekend I went with 2 of my best friends in high school, Jenna and Sean (and Jenna's friend Nicole) to Portland to see Daniel Tosh (comedian, you may know him from his show, Tosh.0).  They offered me a $90 ticket for $30 so I couldn't say no.  Plus, I love him! We left on Friday about 6 but traffic was awful.  It was a super windy day and there was an accident in Olympia.  We wanted to go down, get checked into the hotel, find a happy hour to eat, then see the show at 10:30.  Our plans got a little delayed.  The restaurant next to the building was packed, and we had to walk a few blocks to the other restaurant the lady suggested only to find out it was a super expensive sea food restaurant that we just ended up gettting some fries to tide us over.  Ugh. We ran into another friend from high school though!

It was about 10:20 so we decided to go get our seats.  We passed the back of the building on our way, but we had to get will call tickets so we had to go to the front.  The line was SOOOO long!  We got the tickets and asked the lady in the window if we had to wait in that line or go to the back.  She said the back was just another entrance so we wandered right in (no line in back) and got to our seats right at 10:30.  We met up with our other high school friend Ashley, but she and her bf went down earlier and didnt want to hang out after because she is 8 mo.s pregnant so we just saw her at the show. It was hilarious!  I wish i could type all the funny jokes on here but I can't remember them all and they are never funny when someone else says them. Plus the ones i do remember would probably offend a lot of people lol.

Show was over, we wanted to go out.  Contrary to what you'd think, there isnt much nightlife in Portland.  Sean had a "club" looked up on his iphone (like the top rated one) but when we got there and pulled out our id's they said we didnt need them becasue they didnt serve alcohol meaning everyone was probably 15 in there.  We asked were another one was and she sent us up the street.  We got in and it was WEIRD.  Like a bunch of gothic kids and it looked like it was trying to imitate a rave in a small way.  Sean said he couldnt figure out what bathroom to go to so he had to follow a guy in and saw the urinals so he knew it was right.  I thought that was a little strange.  It wasnt until some guy told nicole "stay off my man" when she bumped into him that we realized we had made our way into a gay bar and upon closer look, a lot of the 'girls' were really men.  It was hilarious!!! Oops.  We obviously didnt fit in so we wandered like another 10 blocks in our heels to a pizzeria/bar.  It was like 1:30 but it was fun nonetheless and we got to eat at least.

We got back to the hotel room and Jenna tried to smoke in it.  We were all flipping out thinking she would set off the smoke alarm so we were fanning the air and put a towel over the alarm but she lit the wrong end and couldnt smoke HAHAHA.  Lucky us, we didnt have to smell it lol.  It was funny cause she woke up the next morning and was like "why is there a towel on the smoke alarm" :)  She got a call from her bank the next morning suspecting fraud, and turns out someone had somehow gotten her debit card and used it like 4 times!  It was sometime after the gay bar because we remember the bartender giving it back when she paid her tab.  Must have been talented because most places closed soon after that. :(  We went out to Denny's (she had enough cash) and then came home.  It was so fun, and i'm glad Andy was willing to take Sawyer alone for the night/morning.  It was also good to see old friends :)

Here are my awful pictures of Tosh (you cant even see him), the creepy gay bar, and a view from our hotel:

2nd post today...in the holiday spirit!

I am not really a fan of Thanksgiving.  As much as I like mashed potatoes, the rest of the food is alright (i'd rather eat Andy's stove top brand stuffing chicken cheese thing) and the whole "pilgrims feasting with natives only to kill them and move them to reservations not long after" thing isn't the *best* idea of a holiday for me.  The one thing I love about Thanksgiving is that it means Christmas season starts!!! It is only the day after and here is what i've been thinking of:

I finally put everything together for my first crafty homemade decoration ever! I am so proud of it because it took me awhile to cut those circles out (they've been out for a couple weeks) and i figured out that bow by myself without a picture to copy.  I saw a picture of that kind of wreath on the internet and thought i'd give it a try.  It gives me confidence to make more decorations!

He doesn't know what to do with that thing

What the heck is this???

Worn out baby.

Thanksgiving

We had 2 great thanksgivings with the Olson family in Puyallup, then the Monson family in Olympia.  Andy's uncle and cousin were up from Salt Lake to stay with his dad and Jan and it was good to see everyone!

He has started sticking his tongue out all the time

Shirt number 1 "baby's first thanksgiving"

beating up uncle Erik

Great grandpa's making faces

He was laying like this on my dad's lap forever- it was so funny

Shirt number 2 "thankful for mommy"

Super baby with his turkey bib (thanks, grandma Smith)

Winter wonderland...

Pretty sure it is still fall- unless someone forgot to tell me it switched to winter.  It doesn't look that way outside! WA hardly gets much snow.  We would be lucky for one snow day a year, and it melts later that day.  I think global warming is definitely taking effect though because 2 years ago and this year it has already started.  It has been snowy for a few days and it isn't even Thanksgiving yet!  We wanted to get some pictures of Sawyer in the snowsuit my mom bought him the day after we found out he was a boy.  Here are a few winter pics.  I'm sure there will be more to come this "La Nina" year.  Yay for good skiing though!

Here is Sawyer looking out his bedroom window.  He was so interested- it was cute :)

And here are a few Andy took yesterday:

Snow and a birthday

First things first, we woke up to go get my parents from my aunt Irene's house and we found a nice surprise outside- Sawyer looked confused.

It snowed throughout the day and am glad I just work across meridian from my house, because driving on ice is no fun- it is supposed to get colder tomorrow and continue snowing....and as much as people from other people make fun of our drivers "not knowing how to drive in snow", it is mostly because we don't have snow plows, and only the main roads get graveled with i think only a total of like one truck so it is pretty dangerous!

P.S. Did you know MONSON upside-down is NO SNOW lol

On the way home we got to look at the condo that we *might* get the chance to move to.  It is by the DQ when you first get to Bonney Lake.  My aunt and uncle are buying it and are offering it to their granddaughter's mom, but not sure she wants it so we might get the chance to snag it.  They just want to charge like $500/mo. for it!  We are paying $1050 right now, so cutting it in half is pretty sweet.  It is just 2 bedrooms so we would lose that plus our garage, but for that small amount a month it is worth it..  Plus the kitchen is nicer than ours- it looks like the drawers can actually open nicely.  We are crossing our fingers!

Now for the party! Cooper's first birthday party was today! It was fun, but loud. He didnt like his cake though, it was funny.  We think it might be because he just ate a corndog so he wasn't hungry. He seemed to like his presents though.  I can't believe he is a year old already.  It seems like just yesterday he was living with us in the house downtown.

Jumperoo

I got off work early yesterday (Friday) for my trip to Portland to see Daniel Tosh with some friends (blog will be later since I was dumb and left my camera plugged into the computer and need to wait on pics from others), and the Jumperoo had arrived when I got to our door! I had a little time before I had to leave for Jenna's so i manned up and put it together so Andy could put Sawyer in it when he got home.  I was a little sad I wouldn't be there for his first jump but I wanted him to try it ASAP.  Turns out he LOVES it! He jumps and and can go to the different toy stations- it is so cute! It took a little practice, but he figured out how to be a pro today.  Here is how much fun he had:

Oh and here is a cute picture andy sent to my phone of him at Fred Meyer while they were waiting for that awful traffic yesterday to die down. It cracks me up for some reason :)

Mr. Messy

This is Mr. Messy:

 This is also Mr. Messy:

PS: it is super windy and the lights have flickered. I hope there is enough power to charge my phone through the night or else i might not be waking up for work in time!

Nov 14

As promised, I have a few pictures of Sawyer and Everett together...these are straight off Tyrell's blog so she gets credit :)

Sawyer stopped smiling as soon as she would go to take the picture lol

Today was a pretty good day though, too.  Andy dropped Sawyer off at his Uncle Davey and "Titi" Moraima's house.  We then headed up to Lynnwood to our friends' church "Image Church" because they were announcing the engagement of "Victoria and Maksim" aka Vicki and Maks lol.  It was great, everyone was so happy for them- they all cheered and said a prayer for them and then we got to line up to congratulate them if we wanted to.  I think they must have gotten 20 bouquets of flowers.  I think it was a Russian thing because Jessica (their best friend and our other friend) didnt know about the flower thing either and she goes there.  Most of the people there were Russian too, though it was all in English, you can tell by how they look (all of them are good looking lol)  It was quite fun and it was a good message (soli deo gloria! lol) It was so good to see them again, because it is rare that we get to.  We used to work with Vicki and Jessica at Pierce on the leadership team that Andrew and I met on and Maks came to a lot of events.  We picked up sawyer (he had fun), and then went to Famous Dave's because we like to go to a restaurant about once a paycheck. It was a pretty good but relaxing day!

Here is a picture of Jessica's i stole from her facebook of Maks, Jessica in the middle and Vicki. Aren't they cute? We are so happy for them! Congrats!

Fragile Bones :)

We had our first Fragile Bones Council tonight. (That name is based off a Balderdash acronym lol.) We went to Jake and Tyrell's house with the Webbs and Jensens.  I just have to say that their house is beautiful! I am very very jealous.  Not only is it a nice house (the tile floor was heated), but we were talking about all the cool little crafts Tyrell did and decided she needs to have some craft days to teach us so we can decorate our own places like that.  I love doing that type of stuff, but feel like my time, finances, and imagination are just not up to standards to do things like that.  I hope we end up doing the craft thing though because I'd like to take pride in our home but I feel like the second anyone steps in the door, all they see is that ugly couch. (We're working on that one.) They can venture into the kitchen and see our awful cabinets that don't open properly.  We try to decorate with photos, but with such a small space, and all the pictures are of us, it is a bit overwhelming.  It is also nice to have friends that are in the same spot we are- being pretty young and married and wanting or having kids already.  It seems like most of my friends still just want to go out all the time and what-not and it is nice to have fun doing things like board games- it is way more fun if you ask me!  We played last word and it was so funny that my mouth hurt from laughing so much.  The babies Sawyer and Everett had a slumber party and I will post the cute little pictures of them if i get them (hopefully Tyrell sends them this way wink wink) :)  Now it is time for bed, Sawyer is seeing Uncle Davey and Aunt Moraima tomorrow and we are going to our friends' church in Lynnwood because Vicki and Macks are engaged and I guess they are announcing it to the congregation :)

New things

First of all, I am starting a photo blog. It will not be updated as much, but it will be a place that I store my pictures that I have edited and taken for more than just capturing family moments (plus i tend to not edit them for this one). The address is http://amycmonson.blogspot.com


Now on to Sawyer's new things.  So far he eats carrots, sweet potatoes, squash, and peas.  And apparently applesauce that Destiny's mom threw in his bottle without telling anyone and I was flipping out when I smelled a weird bottle and nobody knew where it had come from.  I was very relieved when she called her mom and found out what it was lol.  Every time we feed him, the first bite, he eats it really slow and makes this bad-tasting face.  Then he will open his mouth for more and eat like a pig for the rest of the bowl like he never had an issue.  We fed him peas for the first time yesterday.  I will say that I cannot stand peas and was secretly hoping he hated them.  The first bite he ate it, did his little face, then squeezed his face into the funniest thing i have ever seen and shook his head vigorously.  I thought that he hated them and did a silent cheer, but then he opened his mouth for more and ate like a pig as usual with no weird faces at all. Darn.  Maybe it was my face at first.  Destiny told me that Cooper only eats peas for other people, but Erik told her that he probably hates them when she feeds him peas because she hates them and makes a disgusted face the whole time.  This boy has not had any problems with eating anything yet (even when he was a month old and we fed him orange pedialyte. I guess he is just like his daddy....which means he will eat anything but Sun Chips :( I love Sun Chips.

Sawyer is also getting a Jumperoo!  I googled it to find reviews and one for $65 came up at Walmart.com.  I got excited and waited for today (pay day).  He needs somewhere to go that doesnt require him to lay or sit down because he wiggles himself out of them and gets annoyed.  I figured it was time for a jumperoo because he has started swinging himself into the doorway in his Johnny Jump Up; plus it doesnt allow for toys.  I went to Big Lots to see if they had them cheaper (nothing at all there), then walmart by the South Hill Mall and they only had one that was the same brand but different style for $90. Ugh.  We went to the one by our house and they had the same thing.  Target had a different one (same brand) for the same $90 so I decided we just had to buy online :(  Which means waiting longer.  Normally i'd say screw it, but $25 is a lot and I think he can wait lol.  We also got him 2 funny shirts.  One is "baby's first thanksgiving" and it has jars of baby food labeled "turkey" "peas" etc.  The other is "Daddy's little elf". Oh, and he got a crinkly elephant toy that he just loved.

I wish i could put on here that I have a new car on here but we havent talked to my insurance guy or the car place to see how much the payments would go up.  My parents are going to Hawaii (yes, again) next week so my mom said i can drive her car at least.  This is getting old!  My mom has had to drive me to work, and my dad picks me and Sawyer up.  I have had to find lunch in our parking lot which consists of Target, Big Foot Java, Qudoba, Sushi, and the Ram (which takes too long and pricey). So i had Qudoba 3 times in a row, and i dont even like it, and today i only had a bagel and small coffee.  I wish i liked sushi. Grrr. Hopefully this will be straightened out this week.

Today, me and a girl Charlene at work were watching youtube videos of digital makeup and touch-ups so i took a picture of myself and changed my eyes and stuff.  This is what i ended up with:

Sorry that was so long! I better feed the bean and hit the sack since we have to be up at 5:45 to drive my parents to the airport (luckyyyy).  They had never been to Hawaii their whole life until a few years ago, and they've been like 6 times since then.  I am so jealous! They go like twice a year!

Wish I could wear that now

A girl came into my work today.  She was probably about 15 and was wearing a warm up jacket for cheerleading.  I had one that was exactly the same except green instead of purple (I'm not sure what hers was for but it wasn't PHS).  I was thinking about how awesome those jackets were.  I'm not sure what they were made out of, but as soon as we put those on it was warm again whether it was 17 degrees out or raining.  Then i thought about letterman jackets.  I remember when i was at UNLV and some kid wore his for awhile and everyone would make fun of him.  It is kind of lame to wear those things after high school.  I wish it wasnt.  Andrew and i both have ours sitting in a box.  They cost $400+ and for what? To wear them once or twice a month in the cold times?  I guess there were those weirdos that literally wore them every single day, usually getting theirs for something like band or orchestra (nothing against clubs, i lettered 2 years in DECA in addition to cheer and gymnastics, i'm all for offering letters to the non-athletic folks, it was just normally those kids that wore them daily) but if you narrow it down, that is an expensive buy if you divide the price by how many times you wore it.  Have you put one of those on?  Paired with a sweatshirt, i think it would be impossible for any wind or cold to get inside.  A homeless man could live in a large one and never need to build a fire. I guess my main point here is a complaint that once you leave high school, you pretty much can only wear "high school" things when you are exercising (unfortunately i wore my jaguar athletics and fastpitch t-shirts down to holes so i no longer get to :( ) or if you are camping.  Maybe someday we will have a high school party when you wear what was cool when you went to school and we can use them again.  I feel like it is too soon for that though (maybe not Andrew lol he can throw on some overalls or something hahaha) zing!

I dont have any pictures of the mentioned clothes, so i will put the only picture from HS i have saved to the computer here lol. Me and "Jake the Jaguar" which looks really funny when you take off his football jersey and PE shorts.  Oh man, I forgot about my PE uniform....i think it is in the garbage LOL.

Actually, this brings me to another meaning of my title.  I wish i could "wear" that now too- as in fit in it.  I was 5'6 and size 4 lol.

Crib time

I got off early today and since my car is still broken down at my work, we were home all day.  I put him in his crib because he started to fall asleep (normally he just stays in his bouncy chair to sleep) and of course he woke up when I set him down so I took some pictures of him.  He finally fell asleep.  Babies are supposed to sleep on their backs, but he won't sleep until he is sideways or on his tummy.