What a crazy busy weekend this has been. Amongst taking a cheese-making class and celebrating a friends birthday, I was able to meet my newest niece, Gabriella. She is such a cutie and has the perttiest hair you ever did see on a baby. Plus my grandma Martin is visiting from California, so I got to see her as well. AND Chase got his first hair cut. And my uncle Mark got engaged and my friend and my boss got engaged. And I got my first birthday present and I LOVE it (thanks Jeffy). And I was able to spend most of the day with my niece, Audrey, which was a lot of fun. I was able to get to know her so much better and we realized how much we have in common. It was fabulous. As wonderful as this weekend has been, I'm glad it's Sunday and I get a day of rest.

He started off pretty good...

But things quickly took a turn for the worst!
Welene had her work cut out for her!

I love this picture of my grandma and Gregory III and his little sister, Gabriella. I have the best family and it's so fun when we all get together.

And this is my sweet niece, Gabriella. Don't you just love babies? Knowing how perfect and innocent and sweet they are...

Love me Tender

Love hearing my husband hum Elvis to get Chase asleep. So cute. Here's to hoping that he actually sleeps through the night. Since starting him on solids two weeks ago he's decided he doesn't want to sleep through the night any longer. If we're lucky he only wakes up once. Sometimes it's three and four times. I don't know what is going on. Any pointers?

Hiccups

I don't know about you, but I've heard a million different remedies for getting rid of hiccups. Some of them work some of the time, but I've never known one that works every.single.time. So yesterday at work I got the hiccups and a new co-worker says she knows a trick that works every.single.time. So then it kind of became a challenge. But guess what? It totally worked! So I've only tried it once, but I figured y'all could try it and let me know if it was just coincidence or if it really works.

It sounds kind of weird. And you need a friend that you can trust. Get a glass of water. If you're the one with the hiccups, plug both of your ears (with your fingers). Then have your friend give you some water to drink. This is where the trust thing comes in to play. You want someone who will actually give you a drink of water and not try and make you chug the whole glass. She said you just drink as much as you can, but I barely got anything to drink and it still worked. THAT'S IT! Just take a drink of water with your ears plugged. They were gone.

Have you heard of that? I never had. But I like it. It's something easy for kids to do as well.

Wellness

Wow...has it really been two months since I've posted anything? Such a slacker I have been. That is all about to change (I hope). I have embarked on a "Wellness" challenge with a couple of friends and one of the items is to blog/journal once a week. I'm excited for the motivation it is bringing me to do a few things I know I should have been doing anyway. So here's the concept:

You get one point for each of the following:

1. Drinking 64 oz of water a day

2. Eating 6 servings of fruits/veggies a day

3. Reading scriptures/something spiritual for 15 minutes a day

4. Not eating after 8pm

5. Exercising 30 minutes per day

6. Not eating sweets/soda/candy

You get one point for each item every day. Then each week you get a point for:

1. Serving someone outside your family

2. Blogging/journaling

THEN there is a weekly challenge that is worth 10 points. This week is to write down 5 things every day that we're grateful for and to also send someone a thank you note. That's a pretty easy one. Some of them aren't so easy. Like not eating out for two weeks straight. Anywho...that's the challenge. Everyone pitched in $10 and then the money is divied up between the winners. I'm on day 4 and I'm already loving and hating it. It really is more of a challenge than I thought it would be. But it's good to challenge myself and grow.

Each week I hope to blog about what happened the previous week and whatever else might have happened that week. It'll be good to start writing again.

So...the above picture is of my little man. We went to Dumont this past weekend and the weather was GORGEOUS. Like the best EVER. I took a ton of pictures, but I just love this one. He's such a good, happy boy. He makes my heart smile.

Magic

The other day I was thinking about babies and just how magical they are. Even when Chase is up at two in the morning I love just holding him. And when he's in his Exer Saucer and playing with his toys, it's truly magical watching him learn and figuring things out. After having this thought the other day, I then had a little conversation with myself about the magic of babies and wondered when the magic fades. Does it disappear when they hit the terrible twos? When they go to school? When they become teenagers? And then an amazing thought occurred to me. Perhaps it NEVER fades. Maybe your children seem magical forever. Because they're always learning and growing and I'm sure they're just as exciting when they're 30 as when they're babies. And that was kind of a cool concept, 'cuz it made me think that maybe my mom and dad still feel that way about me. And if they feel that way about me...just think how Heavenly Father feels about each of us! I bet he gets so excited seeing us learn and grow and develop. And if he feels a smidgen for me the way I feel about my little man, then he loves me a lot! And that makes me feel all warm and tingly inside.

Vaccines

Is there anyone out there who doesn't vaccinate their children? I've been researching this for the last couple of years and I just can't bring myself to do it. It seems like he's more likely to be harmed from the vaccine than he is to get whatever the vaccine protects against. And have you read the ingredients in these vaccines? Formaldehyde, Mercury, Polysorbate 80...half of the ingredients have been linked to cancer, improper brain development, neurological disorders, etc. What is a mom to do?

It's not like I think he's going to have some major issue...the chances are small. But if it's a 1 in 200 chance that he suffers an adverse reaction from the vaccine and a 1 in 500 chance that he actually gets Hepatitis, Polio, etc., it just doesn't make sense to play the odds. Especially because vaccine reactions can be just as bad as the diseases themselves.

What are your thoughts? Has anyone done research on the subject?

Hooded Towel

A couple weeks ago I turned this....

In to this....

Okay, so the people are added, but two towels became one cute hooded towel for Chase. Isn't he a cute little elephant head?