Happy Blog-iversary

I've had this blog for an entire year now! Our family has done a lot of things and grown in many ways in one year. Here are a few things that have happened, in numbers.

1 beautiful baby boy born in March.

1 grad school acceptance letter.

1 huge tax return!

2 - number of bachelor's degrees Mckay will have completed by April. Then on to grad school!

3 - days Dallin was in the hospital while we waited to hear about his heart. And 4 weeks of him on oxygen at home before his heart was considered healthy.

4 - states Dallin has been in: Colorado, California, Nevada, and of course Utah.

5 - times my mom has come to visit (and she's here right now!)

6 - the number of days a week Mckay works and goes to school

7 - the number of days each week that we both work taking care of Dallin.

8 - the number of times I feed Dallin every day. You'd think he'd be bigger after all that!

9 - the most blog posts I've done in a month. I hope to make that number bigger.

10 - months it took for Dallin to double his birth weight.

333 - days our baby has been alive.

562,738 - smiles I've gotten from my sweet boy.

Gotta love junk mail!

I got some junk mail from a local community college. They were advertising a free laptop with enrollment in their program, and the letter included a little paper laptop. So I gave it to Dallin to play with and this is what he did.

All by himself.

My smart boy.

If you can't see it...

This morning as I was feeding Dallin some sweet potatoes, he kept making this really funny face to refuse the food. He would close his eyes and make this squinty face, almost as if he was saying, "If I can't see the food, then I don't have to eat it." Lucky for you, I caught this amazing face on video.

Look what came in the mail...

...a letter from Purdue University, one of Mckay's choices for Grad school.

He was really nervous to open it...

...but it was good news!

Mckay has been accepted to the Ph.D. program in Chemical Engineering for Fall 2010!

Not only will Purdue cover all tuition and fees, but he will receive an additional stipend to cover our living expenses. Awesome! They are paying for Mckay to fly out to Indiana to see the school and attend a colloquium (fancy grad school language for a meeting). He will be able to meet fellow grad students and faculty, and learn about their research and programs.

We have not officially decided that we are going to Purdue. We're still waiting to hear back from other places and then we'll look at our options and decide what is best for our family. This will definitely take a lot of thought and prayer, but we are excited about the future prospects.

I think I can handle living in Indiana for 4.5 years.

Baby Food Jar Crafts

Since Dallin has started eating solid foods, we have a lot of empty baby food jars. Granted, I'm sure we have WAY fewer jars than a family with a baby who actually enjoys non-milk food, but we have collected a sizable stash. The crafty/frugal/borderline-pack-rat in me wants to keep some of these jars because I know I can find some very clever uses for them. And little jars are so cute!

I've been searching the internet for useful ideas. Here's a great use for empty baby food jars:

I don't think I'm quiet ambitious enough to do this one.

I like this idea of using the jars for growing plants. I think pictured here is a little bit of grass. I've always wanted a little herb garden in the kitchen for cooking with.

These next two are some cute uses as candle holders.

I think it would make a great decoration for a party or wedding. (What do you think Sarah?)

You could use the jars in a garage or work area to hold screws, nails and little items.

The jars are also useful for making salad dressings, transporting small liquid items, or storing small amounts of leftovers.

I can see a lot of application in storing scrapbook embellishments, jewels, bits of punched paper, etc. If only I had a large enough scrapbook supply collection to make this useful.

So far, these are the only uses I've found for my home:

storing safety pins, little bits of ribbon for various crafty purposes, and buttons and thread.

What are some clever/crafty things you've done or heard about doing with empty baby food jars? Please share!

10 Months

It's hard to believe that I have a 10 month old baby. In just two more months he will be 1 year old! This is what Dallin has been up to recently:

• He now weighs 14 lbs 5.5 oz. That's 3.5 oz in 2 weeks. Not bad... And he has officially doubled his birth weight. Wahoo!
• He has 2 teeth now and they are sharp little guys.
• He is talking a lot and he can say "Dada." Of course it's always followed by "Adadidoodoodegoo." I'm still trying to get him to make more "Mama" sounds. He makes a lot of "G" sounds too. Maybe for "Grandma"?
• He really likes to jump, bounce and dance. Really, he just likes standing up. It makes him feel like a big boy.
• We're still working on crawling. He can scoot a little bit, but it's usually backwards.
• He loves sitting in the seat in grocery shopping carts. It makes him smile even more while we're shopping, if that's possible.

I don't have any new pictures of Dallin, and he's asleep now so I'm not even gonna try to get one. So here is a picture of Mckay as a baby. What do you think? Does Dallin look like him?

TV Therapy

Some days when I'm feeling stressed, depressed, or like things aren't going well, I like to turn on the TV and watch TLC. Their shows always make me feel better about myself.

Last week I saw one of their new shows, I'm pregnant and... . This episode was pregnant and "homeless," and "have an eating disorder." My apartment may be small, but at least I have a nice comfy home and a husband who is able to get a job. And I've never had a problem with wanting to eat enough food, while pregnant or otherwise.

After watching the show I didn't know I was pregnant, I'm always glad that I had plenty of warning I was pregnant. There was no other explanation for that belly.

On days when I feel like taking care of Dallin is a challenge, I like to watch Jon and Kate plus 8. Watching the craziness of the little septuplets running around makes me glad that Dallin is only one child instead of 6. And it reminds me to not get worked up about little things, which often happens with Kate on the show.

But the one show that doesn't really help to brighten this particular mood is 18 Kids and Counting (now 19 kids). It's sometimes hard for me to keep up with Dallin and everything I have to do, but some how Michelle Duggar has raised A LOT of healthy, happy, well behaved children, and their house always looks clean. I don't know how she does it.

Some day I will be like her.... with less children.