18 Months O' Fun!!

A couple weeks ago Blythe turned 18 months old! In the melee that has been our June it kind of got overlooked, but here is a little insight into all her toddler glory.

This is her serious face. She gets very intense when she is sorting things or coloring or such.

I think she must have just woken up in this picture. She's getting pretty tall, and can climb on the couch, chairs, and piano bench all by herself. She then gives herself a round of applause if you are not quick enough to do so yourself.

She loves being outside and we try our best, but it's just so stinkin' hot these days. Here she is on her tricycle. That's a piece of bamboo which Dad is pushing from behind. Her legs are almost long enough, but not quite there.

Potty training is going good. We still aren't very good about being consistent. We pretty much just go when she says she needs to which means some days we go 3 times and others we go 27 times. I think her main motivation is to get her diaper off so she can streak through the house like so....This I'm throwing in for Caleb. He, all the sudden, is really into bandanas and wants Blythe to wear one all the time. Sometimes she'll leave it on, but in this picture she looks less than impressed.
I think the biggest change is the chattiness. She is talking a lot! Many words we can understand and then there are entire monologues in which I have no idea what we are discussing, but she is so serious about what she's saying that I just act like I do. Some of her favorite words are Sas, Mama, Dad, cheese, juice, outside, shoes, and apple. Lately, she has been yelling at Sas to stay which is funny cause she usually does it when Sas is asleep and thus not moving.

That's our girl! She's so much fun and makes us laugh all the time. We are so very grateful for our little blessing. We love you, B!!

The Triathlon

Success!! I had two goals for this triathlon...

1. To finish.

2. To do so without throwing up.

With those parameters in mind it was hugely successful! This weekend, myself and two of my wonderful friends did a sprint triathlon in Austin. A sprint tri consists of a 1/2 mile swim, 12 mile bike, and a 3.1 mile run, in that order. This morning at exactly 7:42 for me and Hayley and 7:45 for Cassie (affectionately dubbed C-Mase) started the swim. Here is Hayley and I's wave taking off...

The biggest problem or hurdle was that the race took place in Austin. This made the course hilly and I would go so far as to say borderline MOUNTAINOUS. I would guesstimate that about 1/2 a mile of the 12 mile bike ride was flat. The other 11-1/2 miles were up and down. Some hills were long, some were steep, and some were ridiculously long and steep at the same time... Good Times!!

All said and done it took me 2 hours and 45 minutes which is not impressive. In comparison, the two rock stars who were doing it with me finished under 2 hours. Cassie finished in an hour and 35 minutes and Hayley finished in an hour and 55 minutes. They are amazing!! The one good thing about coming in last (other than getting to go much slower) is that when you finish you have quite the cheering squad yelling for you! Here I am about to cross the finish line, and I'm pretty sure those are Hayley's hands clapping for me!

Here we all are after we finished. I should sleep good tonight and if you see me in the next couple days I'll probably be walking funny cause my legs feel a bit like jelly. In the end, I'm proud of myself for finishing and unbelievably relieved it's done with!

Preggers...

That's right folks, we've done it again! I'm officially 11 weeks pregnant and have had my first appointment. We heard the heartbeat and everything is perfect with the baby. This time around I have been much more sick than with B which has really thrown me off. I'm hoping to almost be done with that part though nearing the end of my first trimester.

I'm due December 21st, adding to the mayhem of Decembers for us. Poor Caleb, even Sasquatch's birthday is in December. We're still getting settled in the house and now have some stuff to accomplish with B before the new addition arrives! We've been half-heartedly potty training for awhile now, so we'll have to get serious about that. And she's gonna have to give up her crib and become the big girl in the house it looks like.

What's funny is one of the first things to cross my mind when we found out was how MacFest was going to work that soon after the baby. So don't you MacFesters fret... you haven't been forgotten!

My New Hero

Tasty

Our New House!

We've moved! We moved in last Tuesday, Wednesday morning Caleb left for Houston, Thursday afternoon I left for Menard with my parents, and then Friday Caleb met us down there for Brandon's wedding. It's been a bit of a whirlwind, but the weekend was really fun. Unfortunately, in the car swapping my camera was left at the ranch with Sasquatch, so I don't have any pictures, but Valera was gorgeous, Brandon was smiling, and it was an all around perfect weekend.

So the above is the house. I kind of hope Grammie doesn't look at this, because that is one of the nice dining table chairs on the front porch. I guess Caleb and Clay don't like to sit on the swing together so I keep finding it out there. We are slowly getting unpacked and settled in. The fantastic thing is the house doesn't need any work. We'll probably paint in the next month or so, but that's about it. Contrary to that fact, Caleb insisted he needed work boots for this house. I think it may have to do with all the cowboys we were around last weekend, but whatever the reason he got him some work boots. Here he is in the backyard surveying the projects and giving Squatch's head a scratch...

The Christmas Tree skirt that wouldn't die...

Caleb and I got married 5 years ago this May. That same year I fell in love with a Pottery Barn tree skirt. As we all know, Pottery Barn is a little expensive so the $65 or $75 price tag seemed a little high for something that I would only see about a month of the year. Being the new little wifey that I was, I said to myself, "I can make that for waaay less." So in September of 2004, I started working on a tree skirt for my Christmas tree.

Well, today, April 21st, 2009, I finished it. That's right it took almost 5 years for me to finish it. Turns out, I had to hand sew the ribbon on which took forever! I would get bored or frustrated and stop working on it for a year at a time. Caleb has been randomly bringing it up since I started it too. Just every once in awhile he'd throw out a, "How's the tree skirt coming?" Sometimes in the middle of June he'd ask about it. It would make me so mad and about 2 years after I started it he told me to just go buy the thing, but I refused. In retrospect, I would've paid $100 for the stupid thing, but I had to finish it on principle alone!

So without further ado.... TADAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!

Don't look too closely, cause the lines aren't all straight, and as you can see it doesn't actually even form a circle. Maybe one day I'll add some more panels, but most likely my Christmas tree will just always be in a corner. How ya like dem apples, Johnson!