Aaron Talks With His Hands

Aaron Makes Animal Sounds

Aaron loves to mimic what I say and do - to the point where he yelps when I yelp and now talks with his hands... oh boy. I've gotta admit, it's pretty adorable.

He's also learning to make animal sounds. He doesn't have them perfect, but he's getting there. He does Moo, Quack, and Woof. He tries to do a Snort for a pig and Baa as well, but they aren't as well defined. I tried to get him to say Yay at the end so you could hear it but he wasn't in the mood apparently...

Diablo III

I know I've mentioned it many times, but since I married Eric I have become more and more into games. I've always enjoyed board games (not to the extent that I do now, but I did enjoy them) but I had never been into video games (ask my siblings...). I am more of a watcher than a player generally speaking, but Diablo III was calling to me to play!

It came out May 15 at midnight. Now, we are not hard core enough to go to a midnight release party. However, Eric is hardcore enough to really really really want the collector's edition. It came with all sorts of fun stuff. He also wanted to have a party at which we would enjoy the things in the collector's edition as well as have a Diablo III cake... yeah, he wanted me to make a cake.  Let me just say that not one single part of this cake turned out how I envisioned. I would also like to say that if you are afraid of fondant, don't be - it is your friend. If you are not afraid of buttercream frosting - you should be, it is evil.


Eric also mentioned dressing up in passing and asked about my awesome Harry Potter cloak that my grandmother made me. When I told him it was in Utah with my mother who wanted to keep it he seemed to be a little sad and forgot the dressing up thing.  However, I did not forget and I surprised him with some sweet Zombie make-up and a cut up shirt covered in lip gloss for him to wear. (this was because in the game you fight a lot of flesh eating zombies - gross, I know...)

Even when we tried to look normal we looked creepy...

To stick with the whole flesh eating zombie theme, Eric's brother, Jon, brought over some ribs for the party - fun huh? We then flipped through the concept art book and put in the blue-ray dvd of the behind the scenes of making the game. We also listened to the soundtrack and played a bit of Diablo II. When we tried to get on to play Diablo III the server was struggling - too many people wanted to play; so they had to shut down the server till 11:45pm! By then, Jon had gone home, but Eric and I eagerly jumped on and played till after 1:00.

Overall, I think our party was a big success. Even though we weren't able to actually play the game during the party, it was still a lot of fun to hang out with Jon and watch some of the awesomeness that went into making this game.

Mother's Weekend!

If you were to ask Eric what Mother's Day is, he may tell you that he's never heard of it... but if you ask about Mother's Weekend, he'll have lots to tell you!

Last year Eric turned Mother's Day into a weekend long event and this year he did not disappoint! I just want to start off by saying how much I love Mother's Day (and other holidays like it; i.e. Father's Day, Valentines' Day, Easter, and all the other holidays that are there simply to give you a reason to spoil someone and remember the great things others have done for you). It's not like Eric never tells me that I'm doing a great job and it's not like he doesn't randomly spoil me... but we're frugal people and it is WONDERFUL to have a reason to spoil someone because ... well ... it's fun to spoil those we love!

To start off the weekend, we went on a walk and picked up a movie, The Vow. We then went home and made dinner to have as a picnic outside. Once Aaron went to sleep we settled down to watch our movie - which is a Chick Flick... we never get to watch those (Eric was so nice to let me pick a Romance movie!).

Then Saturday morning, Eric let me sleep in and then surprised me with breakfast in bed and a gorgeous necklace! I absolutely love this necklace. Either Eric simply knows me and my tastes really well or he's just gifted when it comes to picking out jewelry because he has yet to go wrong!

I then got to go shopping, by myself! I needed to make a trip to the craft store, Goodwill, and the grocery store for various things and I didn't have to entertain Aaron the whole time. It was SO nice.  When I came home, Eric gave me my next gift: a gorgeous homemade card (that he purchased... knowing I would appreciate that time was put into making the card even if he didn't make it himself) and The Muppets. Eric and I both loved this movie and I am excited to watch it with him again. We then went on another walk to return The Vow to go to Baja Fresh for lunch. That evening we had friends over and played games.


Sunday morning brought super early church but following church I received my last gift: a swimsuit cover up from Hapari that I've had my eye on for a while now. We then took a nice nap and had dinner.

After dinner we did a google hangout with my family and then I informed Aaron that I'd had a great Mother's Weekend but he wasn't allowed to mooch off of Daddy's gifts next year - he had to make me a card or something (I was, of course, joking). He then proceeded to come toward me and spin my chair around and around and around. He was giving me a ride... kinda like my own personal chariot, except, we didn't go anywhere. It was cute though!

I absolutely enjoyed Mother's Weekend and I am so stoked for Father's Week (it has to be week because Father's Day we leave for a cruise, so I plan to celebrate early before my family gets here to watch Aaron). Like I said, it is SO fun to spoil those we love!

For Fathers of Unborn Children: the Complete Guide for More Sanity

I pulled this from my friend Socorro Smith's blog - I did not write this, but I got a kick out of it, agree with it whole heartedly (minus the fact that the pregnant woman is only sick for 3ish months...I was sick the whole time), and wanted to share it:

Dear fathers of unborn children.  Your wife is pregnant.  Please cut her some slack.  In fact, please cut her as much slack as is humanly possible.  In the first three or four months the fact that there is a little tiny person taking over your wife’s entire life might be completely incomprehensible to you (and heck, you may even be in denial), but it’s something she is reminded of every second of every day.  

Have you ever had another person decide to take up residence in your body (which you’ve had to yourself for 20 odd years) and suddenly start calling all the shots?  Well let me tell you, for the first bit it’s kind of like having the worst roommate ever.  Chances are, your wife is feeling sick, puking, not feeling like eating even if she can, having a lot of mood swings (no, she can’t control them), has to pee all the time, and is extremely tired.  There are a few variations, and some women have it easier than others, but a good rule of thumb is to treat her as if this is the case.

So, since I hear guys aren’t mind readers, here is what you need to be doing:

·       

·         If you know what your wife likes when she isn’t feeling great, do it.  LOTS of it.  Unless she says otherwise.  Some good ideas are foot/back massages, watch her favorite movie with her, cuddle on the couch and talk, buy her flowers unexpectedly, write her a note, etc.

·        Be willing to talk about the baby and the pregnancy, in fact, be the one to bring it up.  Talk to her about the future, how she feels about the pregnancy, etc.  Most likely she’ll do a lot of the talking, but it will mean a lot to her that you’re showing interest.

·         Chances are, if your wife does certain things to make you feel better when you are sick, she’ll be happy to have you do the same for her.  Think really hard about how you like to be taken care of while you’re sick, or things that you liked your mother to do back in the day, and do it for your wife!

·        Be really patient and remember, she isn’t feeling great even if you can’t really see it all the time.

·        Offer to let her take a nap.  (This is in bold because I think it's super important!!!).  If she has chores she needs to do or dinner to make, offer to do them for her so she can take a nap.  If she tries to refuse, insist (lovingly).  This is especially crucial if you already have a child, offer to take him/her out of the house for an hour or two so she can get some rest without hearing her child in the background.  Mommies have a hard time taking a break if they are constantly reminded that their child might need them.

·         Please be sympathetic.  It’s a lot like having a mild case of the flu for three-ish months, I’m assuming you’d be pretty cranky if you were in her place.

·         Be sympathetic to her mood swings.  Her hormones are seriously running the show at this point, if she gets cranky at you, say you’re sorry for making her upset, offer to talk about how she’s feeling, and ask if there is anything you can do for her.  If she bursts out crying unexpectedly, just hug her and tell her you love her.  In general, it’s not a good idea to ask her what’s wrong, because she might not know, and that might just make her cry more.  I know this sounds like I’m asking a lot, but the most important thing you can do is to act sympathetic and caring, even when she’s acting crazy.  You are a manly man, I know you can do it.

·        If there is something that she says she wants to eat, get it for her, quick!!  If your wife is one of the (un)lucky ones who can barely eat during the first part of her pregnancy, it’s really important to get her anything she thinks she can/wants to eat when she says she wants to eat it.  Important tip, she may not want it for long, so do your best to get it soon, or figure out what the next craving is.

·        Tell her often how much you love her and how much you appreciate the sacrifice she’s making to bring your baby into the world!

·         Bottom line?  Be willing to make a lot of concessions for her for the next several months, pregnancy doesn’t last forever, just hold on and try to make it the best experience possible.

You may think I'm absolutely crazy, so you'll just have to trust me on this one.  I know this sounds like a lot to put on your plate, especially if you’re working or going to school full time (or both!!), just know that it will be soooooo worth it!  You don’t have to do all of it at once either, just make an effort, and I promise it WILL pay off.

Crazy Day

Yesterday was crazy. I had a ton of laundry to do and I volunteered to watch my nieces for a few hours while I did it.  I thought it would be fun to paint their nails, and it was; so much fun in fact that Aaron grabbed a color and stood next to me grunting and waving the polish in my face... o_O  He didn't calm down till he was in my lap and the lid was off. He was entranced as I painted his toe - he didn't try to grab the polish or the toe and he even helped me blow on it as it dried (so cute!). He has been giggling and playing with it ever since!

As always happens with laundry, it took me longer than I thought and so I was late with dinner and our friend who watched Aaron was late from work so we didn't make it to the temple as was our original plan.

Aaron did not sleep hardly at all all day and so I was eager to not be around my son(don't get me wrong, I love him, but I had used up my last nerve with him several hours earlier). Since we didn't make it to the temple, we simply went out.

Eric took me up on a mountain where we should have been able to see Portland - except the trees had grown since Eric had been there and more houses were put up, but we were able to see a beautiful view nonetheless.

The only picture we took after the sun went down was one of this amazing room

I want it... I'd put a library at the top or the master bedroom with remote controlled shades

I had so much fun on my date!

The Amazing Cardboard

Eric was joking today that I could start a craft blog dedicated to things you can do with cardboard (simply because I would rather use what I have than go out and get something and since cardboard is what I have, I use cardboard for practically everything...). Ever heard of the Paperbag Princess? Well, I'm the Cardboard Queen!

Here is my latest creation - it isn't finished but I didn't show you any inbetween pictures with my last project so I thought I'd show you this stage.

I saw this on pinterest and thought it was cool. I don't have guests who need to find towels like this but perhaps in the future so I stuck it on a board and moved on.

Then I saw this wall decor piece being thrown away so I snagged it and wanted to hang it in our bathroom (as you see here) - right where the fun picture of Eric trying to drop me in the ocean was hanging.

No problem, I thought, I'll just hang it above the eye sore that is my shelving unit above the toilet.
(for those who don't remember - it's to the left <--------------)

Yeah, that didn't work so well, it already made the bathroom look cluttered (besides being rusty, falling out of the wall, etc.). Well, I've been wanting to replace this thing for a while anyway so I thought, how about today?  Like I said, I'm not done (they obviously aren't covered yet) but this is what I've come up with. I need to cover them in packing tape or something to keep out the moisture and then make them look nice with twine or fabric or paint or paper or wrapping paper or something...

From my perspective, the bathroom looks enormous now that that shelving unit is gone - not sure why

What do you think?

I was taking apart the shelves that were above the sink and Aaron came and sat down in the same position I was in and tried to help me - it was adorable!