Climb every Mountain

couch, chair, table, or toy box

I have a hard time keeping up with her lately. She is very curious and ALWAYS on the move. Lately, her favorite thing to do it turn the oven light on like 30 times in a day. She also has moved on from the kitchen cabinets to our desk drawers. I need a nap!

Lullaby

When Morgan was first born my mom would always ask me "Are you singing to her?".  I would have to admit that I wasn't singing to her as much as I probably should, but when they are so little and sleeping most of the time you just don't think about it. Well, at least I didn't. I understood that It was important for a babies calmness and security as well as making a connection with their mother. So, I listened to my mother and made sure I sang to her. Then as she got older I could tell that she was interested in my singing and it made much easier to remember to do it more often.

I was thinking about what songs I sing to her and I realized that I have a handful that I tend to shuffle through. Sometimes I will be holding her and trying to think of a new song. That is when "Crazy little thing called love" by Queen or "Hold On" by Wilson Phillips will come pouring out of my mouth. I have a pretty large memory bank of songs and I find it funny that over and over I sing the same ones.

Here is my list of my favorite "lullabies" to sing:

Blackbird-The Beatles
Somewhere over the rainbow-Wizard of Oz
You are my sunshine
Homeward bound -Simon and Garfunkel
Freshman-The verve pipe (I know strange choice, but it is mellow)
Favorite things-Sound of music

I really don't know why I picked these songs as my go to songs. Really they picked themselves because they kept coming to the front of my mind. So, I am curious. What songs do you sing to your children? And if you don't have children what songs where sung to you as a child or when you do have kids, what songs do you plan to sing to them? I think I need to add a little variety to my set list. :)

Trip to the dairy farm

Last week my good friend, Emily and I took our Kiddos to a local dairy farm.  I heard about it from some women at church and we thought it would be nice to let Morgan and Joe see some animals close up.  Plus, we heard they had amazing chocolate milk. : )

All in all I think it was a good, cheap trip. It was neat to see the kids point to all of the different animals. Joe is a year older and can name them by name, but it was fun to hear Morgan moo when asked "What does a cow say?" (She also says "woof woof" any time she sees a dog and kind of grunts for a pig)

Oh and they were right. That chocolate milk was delicious!

What ever happened to Billy Bob?

If you were a kid in the 80's like me than most likely you know that before there was Chuck E Cheese's there was a little place called Showbiz pizza. Instead of a Giant rat, its front man was a hillbilly bear named Billy Bob. There is a picture of me in some old photo album wearing a birthday hat and dancing to mind blowing songs played by Rock-afire Explosion, a motley crew of animatronic animal musicians, that rocked out to classic songs from the 60's. I remember thinking that was the coolest place ever and I always wanted to go play there.

Recently, Kevin and I took Morgan to check out Chuck E Cheese's. I was curious to see what she thought about the hustle and bustle of all the kids running around. She actually enjoyed it a lot. The only problem is a 14 month old doesn't quite understand that you have to take turns to ride the rides.  So not only did Morgan have a blast running around and riding rides, she also had a few tantrums as well.

Morgan and daddy checking out the concert.

Morgan driving the car. We were actually impressed because we never told her what to do.  She just grabbed the steering wheel and started turning.

Then "real life" Chuck E. came out to say hi.

"Is it ok, dad?"

"I've never seen teeth like that before."

Right after this picture another tantrum started. I took her by the hand and started walking to let another little girl have a turn and she freaked out. This girl goes crazy for giant characters. I guess we know how she would be at Disney. Too bad we aren't taking her until her 5th birthday :)

After we left I kept thinking that just wasn't as cool as when I was a kid. It felt smaller and well not as edgy because Showbiz was a little rough around the edges.  I remember being a little scared of the gorilla keyboardist, but loving the show just the same.  I think about the gradual transition from Showbiz to Chuck E. Cheese and I can't help but wonder what ever happened to Billy Bob? He was such a sweet, loving character. Sure he wasn't the most educated of all childrens characters and he might have promoted alcoholism (*Note the jug of moonshine on stage), but I loved him just the same.  Billy Bob thanks for helping making my childhood a little more fun!

Coasters

Way back in December I started making some coasters out of tile. It took me a while to complete this project  because I kept finding myself involved in Christmas activities or chasing after my daughter, but after I got my creative juices flowing and just went for it I came up with these two designs..

 

 I have to say I was actually pretty happy with how they turned out and I know Kevin was happy to have our dining room table back :)

If this is a project you think you would want to do all you need is:

Tile

220 grit sand paper

bonding primer

waterproof ceramic type paint

and felt to hot glue to the bottom

utah Part 3

When I lived in Utah, forever ago, I met my friend JoAnn. She and I were roommates for a while and had a blast. JoAnn is now living in Idaho, but when I told her I was going to Utah she made the drive down so we could meet up. I thought that was so amazing that she would drive all the way over there for one night.

I had never met her husband before and she had never met Morgan so it was nice that we can now actually say we know who the other is talking about instead of just feeling like we do.

I learned that Jordan does not like taking pictures and therefore rarely ever takes a normal one.

This is the picture I got after trying to do a stupid dance to get him to smile. He may not be looking at the camera, but seeing this smile on his face makes me consider my mission a success.

These guys will be welcoming their first child, a daughter, in April.
Congratulations guys! I'm so excited for you :)

HoAnn it was SOOOO good to see you. I'm so glad that we have stayed such close friends over the years. You and Jordan make a cute couple and I know you were just meant to be a mother. I love you hand twin! I I hope we can see each other again soon.

This whole trip I was really impressed with how comfortable Morgan is with people she just met. She really likes people and loves feeling like she is part of the action. My mom warned that this could be a bad thing later on. I will definitely have to teach her about not talking to strangers.

On my last night in town the Alabama crew got together again. This time Jared asked if I could stop by for a quick visit because his family wasn't quite well enough to venture out, but he wanted to make sure we got to meet up if even for a second. So...a few of us stopped by on our way to kjirsten's place.

Here is Jared's cute family. They are expecting their first little girl in May :)

It was so nice to see everyone. I find myself saying that I recharged my "friend battery" after missing people for so long it is nice when a friend comes to visit or I get to visit someone else. It just makes me remember that even though I am still building friendships here, I do have people that truly  know and love me. Even if they are hundreds of miles away.

Brooke thank you so much for letting Morgan and I come and stay with you. It was so good to spend time with you again. You are such a compassionate and sincere person and I love that about you. I always find myself laughing when you are around and that really is the best medicine. I know you aren't quite sure where the future will take you, but I know that we will always be friends. I love you Squnch face!

utah part 2

Every time Brooke and I get together at some point she does my make-up for me.  It is one of our traditions.   Well....one of Brooke's  roommates happens to do hair so it just made sense that together they would give me a make over :)

Before:

After:

 she added some blonde and it is considerably shorter. It is hard for me to not be able to just throw it up in a ponytail, but knowing me, if it were longer that is still all I would be doing. Thank you so much, Leah! I'm so glad I got to meet you. You are one cool chick and you are hilariously funny. I enjoyed getting to know you and I hope we will get to stay in touch :).

One thing that I love about good friends is that you really don't have to do much to have a great time. One night we had some of my oldest friends from Alabama over to have a cook out (there is some southern jargon for ya) and to play games. Let me introduce you to-

Jessica

Mark

and Vinny

Isn't his beard out of control? Apparently, this is brought on by his mother asking him to shave. Instead he decided to grow it out even more. He said he isn't shaving until MAY! Brooke lovingly pointed out that with his head shaved and beard like that he looks like Shel Silverstein.

Crazy huh? Anyways, it was nice to see everyone again and to have us all in the same place. (All except my friend Jared who couldn't come because his family was sick)  We attempted to take some group pictures. These are the only ones I can post. The rest are not exactly blog appropriate. (I'm talking to you boys)

After dinner we played some games. The first being Beatles Rockband.   I swear I had nothing to do with that. Brooke's roommate just happened to have that version :)  Austyn, Jessica's little girl was a riot.  She has such a spunky personality.  She was the singer for Rockband a couple of times and she wouldn't let her mom help at all.

Jessica already knows she is in for trouble with that one ;)

After Rockband, the kiddos went to bed and we went upstairs and played catch phrase. Ok can I just say that I love that game? Every time I play it I have so much fun. We were all being ridiculously silly and laughing way too much.

Here is Vinny with his girlfriend Kjirsten. I really wish we had known her and Brooke when we were growing up. They would have fit right in.

Now on to part 3