Let Me Hear You ROAR!!

Perfect

And as if that wasn't cuteness overload enough...

Safe to say we had a great Halloween with this little munchkin. Looking forward to many more!

Forever Flowers

So the other day Darrell wanted to get me flowers because he knew I'd had a few rough days at home with William, but he was out of his allowance money so he couldn't afford to buy me any (yes, we do allowances, and yes, it works incredibly well. I can't tell you how many "money" arguments we've probably avoided because of our allowance system). His solution? Make me a bouquet.

Is that not awesome? And I think I like it even more than a "real" bouquet because it'll last forever. The only thing that would have made it better would have been if he had used those scented markers--do you remember those? I don't know if I ever actually colored with them; I think I just periodically took the caps off and smelled them. (Actually... Now that I think about it... I'm pretty sure the markers were my sister's and I was forbidden from using them, which was why I just took the lids off to smell them without actually coloring. My sister and I were not exactly "buddy-buddy" growing up.)

Sneak Peak!

We took William's six-month photos a few weeks ago, and while we are still waiting on all the images, we just got a few sneak peaks that I have to share!

 

Love our little family!!

Baby "Suspenders"

When we got dressed up to go to the Speakeasy last month, we needed a cute mafia-esque costume for William. I started by perusing Amazon, and found some definite winners.

Can anyone say Mafia boss? All he is missing is a semi-automatic rifle

I think this is awesome--mafia party or not!

However, $20+ was a little more than we were looking to pay for something William would pretty much only wear once. And since Darrell wasn't planning to do anything too extreme for his outfit (black pants, white shirt, suspenders, tie, and fedora), we decided we could keep William's outfit simple as well--black pants, white onesie, and suspenders. Rather than buy a pair of suspenders (that again--he'd probably only wear once), I figured this would be a good opportunity for me to do some crafting; it didn't seem like it could be that hard to create a pair of suspenders fit for William. And you know what? It wasn't!

Here are the only supplies I needed:

A yard-ish of strap material from Hobby Lobby, black pants, and my sewing kit (with needle, thread, and hook and eyes)

All I did was sew the strap inside the front of the pants and the eye in the back, and then I put William into the pants and pulled the straps over him to figure out where I should sew the hook. Easy-peasy! And super cute when finished!

Although the suspenders worked plenty well, I would definitely do a few things differently if I were to do something like this again. For starters, I would get straps that had some elasticity to them; it would have been nice to have been able to sew them a little short and then stretch them to fit so that they stayed on his shoulders better through the night. On a similar note, I wish I hadn't bothered with the hook and eye at all; safety pinning the straps to the back of his pants would have guaranteed a much better fit, and I doubt the pins would have been uncomfortable for him. Live and learn, though--I'm still pretty new to this whole crafting business!

Lightning

Back in August, my book club decided that it might be fun to try reading a love story since that was a little different type of novel than what we had been reading (and no--I'm not talking like a trashy romance novel). So, we pulled out our handy smart phones and did some Googling. One of the girls found a list of "Best Love Stories for Book Clubs"; seemed like a pretty good place to start, right? One of the first novels on the list was Lightning by Dean Koontz. If you are thinking "so what?", then you have clearly never read any Dean Koontz. I, however, went through a serious Dean Koontz reading phase (we'll ignore the fact that I was in late middle school/early high school and the books were probably waaaay inappropriate), and was shocked that one of his books would be on a list of best love stories. One of the other girls echoed my sentiments, and because curiosity got the better of us, we decided to give the book a shot.

While I will definitely agree that the book has a "love story" element, everything else about it is very typical Dean Koontz--lots of thrills, suspense, science fiction/fantasy, and a few murders for good measure. And while Dean Koontz may not be typical book club fare, we did actually have a pretty good discussion about the book's approach to fate/destiny. I don't think anyone regretted that we read this book--although I'm not sure we'll be rushing back to read more Dean Koontz anytime soon.

As someone who has read and enjoyed lots of Dean Koontz, perhaps my recommendation to read this book (or anything by him) should be taken with a grain of salt. It definitely isn't going to be one of those books that changes your life and sticks with you for a long time (in fact, about halfway through, I realized that I had in fact read this one in my adolescence, but had pretty well forgotten all the major plot points. Although some of that may not be a reflection the book but rather a testament to the fact that I used to speed-read like a madwoman), but if you've never read any Dean Koontz I definitely think he is a writer that has a very unique "flair" to his novels--something that everyone should try at least once.

Time Travel

You know you are a (sleep exhausted) parent when you are discussing a problem with your spouse and the best only solution you can come up with is to build a time machine.

Yesterday was crazy busy for us and poor William was exhausted from being carted around and not napping well. As a result, he was way overtired when bedtime rolled around. And, like his parents, he twitches/startles while falling asleep, especially when he is super tired--and last night he twitched hard enough that he woke himself up three or four different times (and these weren't quick awakenings. He didn't start to twitch until he lost his pacifier, which usually took about twenty/thirty minutes after he was put in his crib. And then the startling took another ten/twenty before it got bad enough to wake him. So it was a lot of up and down for mom and dad). In trying to figure out what to do to remedy the situation, the best thing Darrell and I could think of was to build a time machine and go back to the beginning of the day and make sure we cleared our schedule enough to allow for him to get sufficient naps. And since I'm still here today complaining about the situation, it's safe to assume that our plan was unsuccessful.

Fun at the Orchard

So even though I have pretty terrible time management and soccer consumed waaaaaay more of my fall than I wanted it to, I still tried to make sure we had time to start a few fun fall traditions. And really, this isn't exactly a new tradition; Darrell and I have gone to the apple orchard a few times in previous years; this year we just brought William along! I really don't know how much of the trip he appreciated, and I'm pretty sure he just thought apples were fun new toys to suck/gum on, but eventually he'll learn how awesome it is. For this year, it was fun just to enjoy the nice day and have him be content taking part in the activities from his Ergo carrier. Because I know those days are numbered--soon enough he'll be scampering to the tops of the trees trying to get the highest apples!

William: Six Months!

Halfway to his first birthday! What a big boy we have!

If I had to sum up the last month in just one word it would have to be BUSY. I was super busy with soccer, Darrell was pretty busy with two or three events for the Shrine, and William is just a busy boy. Seriously. I don't think the kid is ever still. There is no sitting down and cuddling on the couch with this boy--if you attempt to sit and cuddle be prepared to have your face poked at and your body used as a jungle gym. I'm always in awe when we go out and see other babies sitting contentedly in their car seats--William is sooooo not content to just sit and take in what is going on around him; he has to do everything in his power to be a part of what is going on. And believe me, he'll let you know if you aren't including him enough in what is happening. Is it a lot of work? Sure. But for the most part we enjoy every minute of it (and if you are thinking that all this energy he burns would make him a good sleeper you'd be wrong. We're still battling with waking up two--sometimes three--times a night. But as our lives start to settle down and we are able to get into more of a routine we're hoping that will help. Until then I'm going to try to enjoy the middle of the night cuddles because it's one of the few times during the day when he is calm and relaxed--at least most of the time).

At his appointment last week, William weighed in at 16 lbs, 10 oz, and measured 26 inches. Not a whole lot of growth since his four-month appointment, but his doctor isn't concerned because he said a lot of exclusively breastfed babies tend to dip in their growth after shooting up right after birth. Because of this, we're still wearing pretty much all 3-6 month clothing (although some of his long-sleeves are 6-9 months; they'd be too short on his arms otherwise), and we went out and bought another small package of size two diapers before making the transition to size three (actually, we tried size three for about two days, which resulted in two pretty massive blowouts. We attributed the blowouts to the fact that the diapers were too big, but he blew out of his size two the very next day. Go figure. We haven't really had any issues since then, though, so we're finishing out the last of our size twos--for the second time--and then we'll be in size three for good).

Despite the fact that William has really only improved on his five month skills (sitting, reaching out, tracking objects, etc) and not really added any new skills, he is still (as his doctor put it) perfect plus. The only developments I would possibly add are that he has managed to pull himself up a few times and can sometimes take a few steps while we have his arms, but neither are terribly strong or consistent. I would be really surprised if we can't add crawling to his repertoire by seven months; we've already begun baby-proofing in anticipation. Another thing to look forward to at his seven-month update: solid foods! After my babysitting stint with a one-year old a few weeks ago, this momma isn't too sure she's ready for what is going to be coming in his diapers, but I know it's a necessary step.

We are continuing to enjoy watching his active, happy-go-lucky personality develop, and are loving all the smiles and giggles. In fact, we've even had some church members "complain" to us that William is a distraction during church--not because he is loud and fussy but because he is so cute and smiley! And like usual, here are a few out-takes showing off some of that fun personality!

101 in 1001: The Recap

Well, our 1001 days are up (actually... They were up like six months ago... But sshh, who's counting?). How did we fair?

If you remember, I posted an update last October, and at that point we were right around halfway through our list. Since we only had six months left to complete the remaining tasks (and although I didn't say it at the time, I knew some--like skydiving--weren't going to happen since I was pregnant), I made it my new goal to get to 75 items. Sadly, we didn't even make it through that many, but we were just a little busy with the whole pregnancy thing during those final six months. Here's the rundown (and I really don't feel like linking up to all the related posts... If you are interested, just click on the "101 in 1001" label at the end of this post and it'll pull up all the linked posts):

Get a dog: We had a baby. That's a bigger accomplishment in my book. I consider this one complete

Landscape the house: We have trees and we have a rock trim. We don't have any shrubs--or even any decorative pots--in our rock trim, but whatevs. Still a success in my book 

Skydive: Yep, nope. Maybe still on my "to-do" list for sometime in the future, but hard to say

Go skiing in the Rocky Mountains: I definitely see this one happening someday, especially since we now have good friends living in Montana... But it hasn't happened yet

*Personal*: Done! And no, you don't get to know what it was 

Build a lower deck in our backyard: Done! Love my husband for making this one happen

Go to a professional dinner theater: It wasn't technically a dinner theater, but it was Phantom of the Opera and it was in London. Good enough in my book

Go horseback riding: Turns out they don't recommend doing this while pregnant. Not that I ever found any place around here to do this anyway....

Get passports and use them: Done and done!

Reach $20,000 in savings: Done! And remarkably, we've even managed to keep it above that figure even with a little one and my not working

Go to an amusement park: Eh, no. We never even went to the Sioux Empire Fair, otherwise I'd totally try to make that count (hey, they have rides!)

Go on a date once a month: Mission accomplished! We did take a three-month break after William was born, but we plan to get back into that routine

Take a wine tasting course: I came across a few possibilities for this, but only after I was pregnant (and what's the fun in that?) I was going to find a cooking class for us to take and count that as a substitute, but it just never worked out for us to make it to one. Although there are some fun-sounding ones locally--definitely a new goal!

Go white-water rafting: Sadly, no. You definitely would have heard about this if it had happened

Go to a real zoo: Well, we did go to the Great Plains Zoo, although we had said that didn't really count as a "real" zoo. Next summer I'm definitely thinking we'll take William to the Omaha zoo though!

Camp in five State Parks: Done! Four of the five were in SD, but we did manage to throw a WI park in there

Take old-timey photos: Done. And have we ever done anything with the photos? No. Whoops.

Play all of our classic board games: How sad is this? We had all but one game played by November 2011, and we never played that final game. In our defense, the remaining game is Clue, which requires more than two people, and the opportunity just never presented itself. Played or not, it sure does look nice with the rest of our collection

Put a puzzle together: We've done this one a few times over

Bike around the Sioux Falls bike trails: Another one I'm sad to say we didn't cross off. Hopefully, though, all the construction they've been doing on them will be finished this summer, and then next summer we can take William along with us (just have to get one of those fancy bike trailer things)

Go to a DI football game: Done and I definitely want to do again! Darrell even got to go to a DI basketball game too

Organize the basement: Considering we've now moved our guest "bedroom" down there, definitely complete. Sure, there are always more organizing projects I could find to do... But it's at least clean

Have a movie marathon: We watched (and I enjoyed!) the Bourne Trilogy

Watch five classic movies: Well, we got the Netflix membership that we needed to help us complete this one. And we did watch four (Breakfast at Tiffany's, Les Miserables, Casablanca, and Sleepless in Seattle). But then we discovered all the awesome TV shows on Netflix... And the rest is history (and for the record, I realize that Sleepless in Seattle isn't a "true" classic. But it's a movie that is commonly referenced, and neither of us had seen it, so we decided to count it. It's our game, we make the rules)

Go cross-country skiing: Honestly, we never really had good winters for this. When we had snow, it was miserably cold (or it was March 2013 and I was eight months pregnant). I still think it would be fun some day

Spend a night on the Appalachian Trail: Never got to this one, but I would still love to someday

Go snowshoeing: See note on cross-country skiing

Go sledding: See note on cross-country skiing

Take ballroom dance lessons: Well, before our wedding (and before this list existed) we took Jitterbug lessons... And at my sister's bachelorette party we got belly dance lessons... So no, I don't think we accomplished this goal

Help someone pulled over on the interstate: Honestly, this was a totally random one to have on the list. And no, we didn't do it

Go to a shooting range: Also random--and totally not Darrell and I. As it turns out, I don't have much of a desire to shoot a firearm, which is why I was never gung-ho about making this happen

Shop at a Farmer's Market: We went to one once, although we didn't buy anything. Now we do that Bountiful Baskets thing, which is kind of like a farmer's market, so we have even less reason to go to an actual farmer's market

Order a restaurant meal that we can't pronounce: We've actually done this a few times. Nothing like the good old "point at the menu item because I don't feel like trying to pronounce it" trick

Eat at Touch of Europe: Still one of our favorite places to eat downtown. Hard to beat a carafe of wine for under $15 (although Darrell discovered last time we were there that they serve beer by the liter... So I may be on my own for drinking the carafe next time...)

Have a romantic picnic: I was going to say no, but we actually did do this--in London no less! We bought some sandwiches, fruit, chocolate, and a bottle of wine and headed to a park to enjoy. Granted, there was no fancy picnic basket, no blanket, or even wine glasses... But good enough in my book

Go stargazing: I was so convinced that we could complete this one anytime that I wasn't really worried about getting it done. And really--we could have done it. Anytime. But we didn't. At least not intentionally (and as much as I want to make it count, randomly seeing a shooting star while driving is not "stargazing")

Go skinny dipping: Didn't quite see this one through. You can all breathe a sigh of relief.

Eat a lobster: Sadly, no lobster in this house. And honestly, I've heard that they are a fair amount of work to eat, so maybe I'm okay with having skipped over it

Be greeters at church: We've definitely done this a few times, and I'm pretty sure people at church are starting to make the connection that we're married (and what my new last name is). It took some people a little bit of time though

Play bocce ball: Yup. Somewhat anti-climatic with just two people, but we make it work

Ride a trolley: We actually never got on the trolley. We also never spent much time downtown, which is where the trolley is. Double fail, right?

Go on a carriage ride: We did manage to accomplish this downtown one night... Way cooler than riding the trolley I suppose

Start a garden: I'm on my third year of gardening. And I'm pretty much just as clueless as I was when I started

Host a holiday party: Hmm. We never actually hosted a themed/costume holiday party, but I did host my book club last December and made lots of Christmas goodies. And Darrell helped clean. So it totally counts in my book

Buy new kitchen chairs: Had them for years, still love them

Go to a homecoming at Wartburg: I think we've only actually made it back for one Homecoming, but we've also gone down a handful of other times for soccer related stuff. And let's be honest--my heart lies more with the soccer team than the college as a whole (although there is an alumni beer tent at Homecoming...)

Visit the State Capitol: This was a surprisingly enjoyable venture. Glad we ventured out there

Go ice skating outdoors: Probably picked one of the coldest days to do this, but we did it. And mostly enjoyed it

Give $3000 in offerings to church: I know I could go back through our bank account and figure out the exact amount, but I quite certain it's over $3000. So I'm not going to calculate the exact donations

Take a canoe trip: Unfortunately, no. I was envisioning some sort of canoe rental, a day paddling on the river to some secluded campsite, a night in the tent, and then some more canoeing the next day. And while I know there are plenty of places in MN that offer trips like this, we never had the time to do one. But I did look into it--and I do still hope to do one someday

Fly a kite: Quite certain we didn't do this. And if we did--clearly it wasn't very memorable

Go to a Pow-wow: Although I'm not exactly jumping at the bit to go to another, I will say that it is definitely worth the experience to go if you've never gone

Go to a State Fair: Totally loved the MN State Fair. I've heard IA is pretty good too... But I'd be hard pressed to ever choose IA over MN (mostly because we have family up there. But also a little because I just don't like IA as much)

Throw a dart at the map and go where it lands: Doesn't this just sound so fun? I wish I could tell you just how fun (and random) it was, but we never did it. Definitely an idea to keep in the back of our minds though

Spend a weekend at my parent's lake cabin: Very much enjoyed doing this one. And as William grows up, I'm sure there will be many more weekends at the lake

Read "The 5 Love Languages": If you've never read this, it's definitely worth the read. I won't say that it was totally relationship changing for us or anything, but very interesting and enlightening

Go to a Pheasants game: Well, we went to a baseball game at the Pheasants (actually, now they are back to being the Canaries) stadium, but it was to watch my brother play. Not quite the same thing

*Personal*: Still not saying what this was, but we didn't get it done

Tour a battleship: Took care of this during Beach Week one summer. It was cooler than I thought it would be--definitely something we'll take William to tour (once he is quite a few years older)

Make one of the drinks on our drink mixer: We've done this quite a few times now. Pretty sure our (my?) favorite is the Tequila Sunrise--Darrell just made one for me a few nights ago actually!

Go to a driving range together: Well, we went together. I don't actually remember if I swung a club or not, but that's a minor detail

Carve pumpkins: Did this a few Halloweens ago, and I hope to do it again this year (maybe we'll even go pick the pumpkin ourselves at the orchard! Sounds like a fun tradition to start with William, right?)

Make a decision by flipping a coin: I'm pretty sure we used a coin to help us decide want kind of alcohol to buy one day. It's the important things

Clean and organize the garage: Did this over two years ago and I'm happy to say that it's pretty well stayed that way (our basement though... Kind of a different story)

Insulate the garage: Nope. And probably not going to either

Celebrate Christmas morning at our house: We did! And not only was it the first Christmas morning that we celebrated in our house, but it was our last Christmas as a family of two. I'm pretty sure we did something super remarkable, like make pancakes or something :-)

Go to a museum: We went to a South Dakota Museum when we were out in Pierre for Labor Day a few years ago... And we went to a bunch more in London

Go to an art gallery: Definitely hit up a few of these on our London/Paris trip (including the Louvre... So that should count as like double points)

Stay at a Bed and Breakfast: Stayed at one just outside of London for our three-year wedding anniversary (again--we should get bonus points or something for that. Plus it was a winery was well--double awesome)

*Personal*: We talked about this one a few times, but never actually did it. So I suppose that doesn't count

Complete the wine passport for downtown Sioux Falls: They stopped doing the Wine Passport promotion shortly after we complied this list, but we still made it our goal to visit the majority of the restaurants downtown. I'm pleased to say we did (in fact, it's about the only place we go for date nights anymore; there are so many good eating establishments to choose from!)

--Darrell's items--

Get an eagle (while golfing, not the animal): Well, he got a few birdies... So pretty close?

Golf eighteen holes in under 85 strokes: The closest he came was 87. And that was this summer, which was technically after our 1001 days expired. Darrell's resigned himself to the fact that he just doesn't have the time (or money) to be as good of a golfer as he would like

Visit Mount Rushmore: We did the lazy way of driving past it on the highway and taking some pictures from the shoulder, but it beat paying the park admission

Learn a song on the guitar: I think the only time he touched his guitar in the past three years was to move it out of William's room and into the basement. And even then it was in it's case

Get a new computer: We did get a new laptop... And I'm already itching to get another new one (but a Mac this time!) since I had to turn my computer back in to work

Randomly send Jess flowers: He did! It was sweet--he sent them the day before I ran my 10K. And actually, he sent a plant, not flowers (he didn't realize the difference...) I think my mom planted it and has managed to keep it alive

Be hoakey and agree to see the project through to completion: Eeh, I give him about a 75% on this. He never rarely remembered to do anything without my prompting, but he was usually pretty willing to do things that I reminded him were "on the list"

Hang hammocks in the basement: We did. And not really for fun/pleasure, but more out of shear frugality. He refused to turn the air on the night before we left for London, even though the house was oppressively hot, so he hung the hammocks to give us a place to sleep that was reasonably cool. I think we left them up for the rest of the summer; I may have used mine a few other times, but that was it

Build a wine rack for the kitchen: We've been back and forth on whether or not we're going to do this. So suffice to say it hasn't been done

Surprise Jess with a romantic dinner: Our definitions of romantic may be a little different, but I'm not going to cut him slack on this one. No spontaneous romantic dinners at this house

Take a photography class: Does reading through manuals count? No?

Learn how to drive a boat/pontoon: Well, I don't think he got this one in before the deadline, but he's driven the pontoon without my dad around this summer

Pay off car: Two years and counting without any car payments! Woot!

Start swimming laps again: Meh.. He made swam laps a handful of times after we made this list. I wouldn't exactly call that getting back into the habit

Donate one gallon of blood: He never remembers to ask, but he does a pretty good job of going every eight weeks, so I have to imagine he's hit the gallon mark

--My goals--

Donate hair to Locks of Love: Chopped it off over two years ago, and I'm getting close to be able to again (although I don't know if I'm going too)

Run a 10K: It wasn't pretty, and saying that I ran the whole thing is maybe being a little generous, but I did it

Read 25 books: Oh gosh. I totally lost count on this. Considering I currently have 38 book reviews posted on the blog I think it's safe to say I hit 25 before April

Not buy clothes or shoes for two months: I did manage to accomplish this. And it was actually harder than I thought (turns out I'm a little bit of a compulsive shopper)

Enter a writing contest: That would have meant I needed to write something. And something more substantial than a grocery list 

Have a "Pirates" marathon: Unfortunately, no. Doesn't mean I love Captain Jack Sparrow any less though!

Mow the yard: We closed on our house four years ago this month. I've mowed once. Whoops

Finish our wedding scrapbook: It only took me nine months, but I did it. You can't rush craftiness!

Score a goal: I scored one two summers ago, didn't play last summer because of the whole baby thing, and scored one again this summer! At this rate I'll be in the record books in no time!

Get comfortable driving Darrell's car: Well, I did drive it a few times. But only when Darrell was in the car. However, I did drive it all by myself this summer--and only killed it once!

Bake a cheesecake with no cracks: I've managed this only a few times. And not because I've had cheesecakes that have cracked, but simply because I haven't made very many cheesecakes (much to Darrell's disappointment)

Sing karaoke: Well, we kind of cheated because it was a group karaoke thing at the MN State Fair, but I'm totally counting it

Subscribe to a cooking magazine and make a recipe out of every issue: I got the magazine... I clipped at least one recipe out of each one... And made maybe half. The magazine was just a little too fancy for us and had too many specialty ingredients that we never have on hand

Get and use a gym membership: I was really good about using it for about a year/year and a half. And then... Not so much. In fact, Darrell and I both cancelled our memberships this year. It just wasn't worth it anymore. But I'm still counting this one as successfully completed

Get all my stuff cleaned out of my parent's house: It's cleaned out of my parent's house AND nicely organized in my house (for the most part). Definitely a success!

If you combine some of the ones that were partially completed, I'd say we completed 65 items. Not awful... But I'm hoping for better results on my "30 before 30" project. (Which, for the record, I have been making progress on, even though it hasn't been showing up on the blog. Someday I'll get around to it... Someday...) 

Marching On...

The good news about this weekend? We didn't get the 30+ inches of snow that fell in Western South Dakota. The bad news? We still had pretty miserable weather (highs in the 40s, wind, misting rain) and obligations to fulfill that required us to be outside. But, since this is South Dakota and it's only going to get worse, we bundled up and made the best of it. Like I told Darrell, if we balked at taking William out this weekend because of the crappy weather, we wouldn't be leaving the house at all from November to March. And I think we managed just fine.

All bundled up and snuggled close with Mommy thanks to our Ergo carrier!

And our reason for being outside and all bundled up (at 8:00 on a Saturday morning, no less)? To watch Daddy do some marching!



I suppose I should be more accurate and say marching and fife-playing, but I don't know how much Darrell actually plays and how much he just marches with the fife at his mouth.

After the parade we warmed up with a delicious breakfast (compliments of one of the other Shrine units--love me some Shriners!), and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to snag a picture of Darrell with his number one fan.

Because the unit dresses like Revolutionary War era patriots, the wives--and children--show their support by donning red, white, and blue. So of course I had to buy those pajamas for William when they went on clearance after the 4th of July!

Fun at the Speakeasy

Who is the cutest little mafia man?

Don't worry, we aren't actually encouraging illicit behavior for our little man; we just got him dressed up for a little party a few weeks ago down at the Shriner's Mosque. Every year the Potentate (kind of like the President) hosts a big party, and this year it was a murder-mystery dinner event set in the roaring twenties (you may remember the party from a few years ago with a prom theme, and last year was a hillbilly/Western theme, although apparently I never actually blogged about it. Fail). We were originally not planning to attend because our primary babysitters (aka my parents) were also going to be in attendance and I'm still a little too chicken to leave him with any one but family for more than a few hours. But, my parents insisted that we should bring William (because he's such a good baby, of course) and at least come for dinner--their treat. And who are we to say no to a free meal (and drinks)? Plus, I'll totally admit that I love a good costume party--and thanks to some simple crafting (post on that soon!), a few thrift store finds, and gracious friends, we were able to throw together some pretty awesome outfits.

Excuse the quality--it's a picture of a picture. The digital file is probably buried somewhere on Darrell's SD card, and any complaints about my life being busy mean that Darrell's life is usually twice as busy. So on the SD card they remain.

Despite plenty of a few concerns on my part, we all ended up having a good time, and no one thought we were too crazy for bringing a five-month old to the party (at least not that they said to our faces). Hopefully by next year I'll be able to leave him with a sitter so we can actually stay for the whole night... Hopefully  :-)

September Randoms

Let's pretend it hasn't been two weeks since I last posted, shall we? Things have been crazy busy around these parts--between soccer (we play Saturday to qualify for the State Tournament!), William, and a temporary stint as a daycare provider for a former co-worker, I have barely had time to eat, let alone think about blogging. But, this week is a new month, and hopefully a less-busy one at that, so fingers crossed I'm able to get (back) into a regular routine of blogging. Because I have lots to share--and what better to start with than a bunch of pictures of my little cutie!!

Practicing his Superman pose! (Actually--more accurately--I'm pretty sure he was telling me that he wanted to get out. He's definitely learned that his arms get pulled out for him to get taken out of his car seat, and shortly after I took this picture he started fussing. So I'm pretty sure he just wanted out--not to save the world)

Our little Motzart

Yes, he sleeps with his butt in the air. Yes, we think it is terribly cute.

Enjoying a nice day and working on his sitting skills

We went to the store to buy some teething rings and I didn't even need to take them out of the package for him to make good use of them!
 

For whatever reason, this is how he calms himself when he's falling asleep in the car seat. What the camera can't capture is the fact that he actually sucks on the fabric. It's totally random.

Day one of watching my friend's two boys (ages 2.5 and 1). Suffice to say things got a little better by the end of the eight days

William enjoying the new toys to play with at the house I was watching the boys at

I couldn't resist taking this picture; I thought it was too cute how he curled his hands under his head to sleep

Laundry fun with one of the boys I babysat

Showing off his cute Tigger outfit

Showing off one of my favorite onesies--you're a total nerd like me if you get the shirt!

Supporting the local football team at their homecoming game (their mascot is a Tiger, so we figured we might as well get more than one use out of William's Halloween costume. He was definitely the best-dressed kid there)

Looking all cute and innocent after I had to change his whole outfit due to a massive diaper blowout

Oh, and a final word on the babysitting I did? I'm definitely not ready for three kids. It wasn't all awful, though, and we had some fun times--but it did make me really appreciate being able to stay home with William!