Back To Our Boring Life in Texas

We made it back to Texas and we're back to our regular boring life again.  We had a great time in Utah and can't wait to go back in a month!

Bear is such a good crawler now!

Bear and Pops playing on the phones

Ali and Bear

Liv is so sweet to share her American Girl doll with Barrett- he loves that doll!

We got to see Papa and Grandma a couple of times in between their trips.

Barrett liked playing trains with the triplets

He got some good cuddles from Grandma CC

We went to play at Kelsey's with Tyce, Camri, Macie, and Rylee.

Bear is loving stuffed (and real) animals right now and really loved this bunny puppet!

Pops feeding baby Bear

Jill found this cute little sunglasses in her car that fit Barrett perfectly!  You can't tell very well in the picture but they have pink tulips on them :)

While we were in Utah, Barrett turned into a very busy boy!  He has always been really relaxed and super clean, but that is a thing of the past.  Now he wants to be moving nonstop; he won't hold still so I can change his diaper, he rarely lets me just sit and hold him for ANY reason, nursing has turned into wrestling, he pulls his bib off, and he grabs his food and spoon and makes huge messes!
He's the opposite of everything he was a month ago!

Berrie and nakie Bear

Poor little guy got really sick while we were there and we were glad it happened while we were in Utah so he could go to the doctors we like.  He doesn't look sick in this first picture but he had the worst cold, a fever, a cough, was throwing up, and not sleeping or eating.  We were all miserable!  When I say "we", I mean me, Barrett, and my mom; we were all exhausted.  It was seriously awful.  And to top it all off, he got a flu shot (my bad) and broke his first 2 molars through too so he was just feeling horrible!  He now has 10 teeth at 9 1/2 months!  

I thought being cuddled up outside might help him calm down enough to go to sleep. The ONLY good thing about a sick baby is all the cuddles you get.

It's hard to come home to a mostly empty house (Neil works a lot!) but Bear was very excited to see his daddy and we only have a month til our next trip!

The Boxcar Child

This little man loves playing with boxes.

Shelley's Story

Shelley's been in the hospital the whole time we've been here in Utah.  You may remember from this post that she was in the hospital only 15 months ago and 15 months before that too (no post to refresh your memory for that visit). Between hips breaking and emergency surgeries, this girl needs her own suite in Davis Hospital! 

Here's the story about this year's visit...

Friday night around 10 pm, she called my mom to take her to the ER because she had been in terrible pain and was so sick.

They got her in quite quickly and discovered that she had an obstructed bowel.  She has a lot of scar tissue on her insides because she's had so many surgeries throughout her life (they started when she was only 3) and some of the scar tissue had adhered to her intestines and made the intestine kink basically.  They were hoping it would unkink itself but that wasn't the case.  They did surgery on Sunday and luckily didn't have to remove any of her bowel.  She's in the hospital for probably 7-10 days.

 

Here's Shelley a few days after surgery with some of her favorite visitors.

 

And this is Jill ratting Shelley's hair.  This story goes back to when Jill had Tink (or maybe Reagan?), and she kept ratting her own hair higher and higher every time someone wanted to take a picture.  The funny things people do on drugs (legal drugs of course).

We are really hoping she'll get feeling better soon and can start recovering in her own bed!

Kindermusik

I signed me and Barrett up for a Kindermusik class last week to see if he would like it.  I don't know why I thought he wouldn't, I can't think of anything he doesn't like!

He really had so much fun. I haven't decided if we'll go again though because it's kind of far away from our house and we'll be in Utah for the majority of the next 3 months.

Coming Home

Yesterday, Barrett and I took a flight home to Utah.  It was our first flight by ourselves and it was surprisingly awesome (only a couple mishaps, which I'll get to shortly).

 

Here's me and Barrett.  I should have had Neil take a picture of me and my baby Bear when we were all ready to go through security. Next time...

 

Saying goodbye to Daddy.

First I'll tell you why the flight was fantastic and then I'll get to the things I could've done without.

At DFW, you go through security only with your own area.  Like, since our gate was E-13, only people who were leaving out of E gates went through our same security.  This was great because I wasn't rushed or stressed.

Then, we got upgraded to the Economy Comfort seats and were on the very front row (right behind 1st class) so we had TONS of room.  It was great!

Bear sat and played on the floor for a while and had a blast.

Then I sat on the floor for a while and Bear had a blast in my seat.

We were sitting by the greatest people too.  The lady next to me was really nice but she was sleeping most the time, but the couple across the aisle played with Barrett the entire time.  They were so sweet with him and even held him while I put on the baby bjorn.  Super helpful.

Plus, my beautiful boy is just so freaking happy and sweet that even when he misses 2 naps, he's just plain wonderful.  How did I get so lucky!?

On to the mishaps... The first one is kind of long but it's funny- you should read it anyways!

Like I said, I wish I would've had Neil take a picture of what we looked like going through security.  I wore the baby bjorn instead of bringing the stroller and I had 2 massive carry ons.  All these things were ridiculously heavy - Barrett is like 20 lbs or so now and honestly my bags were just as heavy, so I got uncomfortable quick!  Anyways, on the way to the airport, I was telling Neil that I literally was not going to be able to go to the bathroom since I had no one to watch Barrett while I went.  I purposely dehydrated myself to help avoid this problem.  When we had a few minutes before we were boarding, I figured since the airport bathrooms were obviously bigger than the plane bathrooms, I should at least try to go while I had a better chance of figuring something out (and more space).  So I head to the handicap stall, hang up my bags, leave Barrett on me and pull my pants down.  Just as I'm about to sit, the door swings all the way open- keep in mind that since I went in the nice big handicap stall, I wasn't even close to the door AND it swung away from me!  So, I hurry and stand up, pants literally around my ankles, still wearing my baby, and start waddling forward trying to catch the door.  Meanwhile a lady walks RIGHT past me, looks at me and instead of swinging the door my direction, just keeps walking- Thanks lady!  Eventually, I got the door, shut it again, tried to make sure it was locked nice and tight and went to the bathroom even though I didn't really need to (remember, I dehydrated myself).

The other minor mishap happened as soon as we were about to take off.  Barrett pooped.  Not a big deal as he does this all the time, but it was almost an hour before I was able to get to the miserably tiny bathroom and change his bum.  It was a smelly hour and his poor bum got red :(  Then probably 10 minutes after I changed his diaper, he pooped again. We had to use that tiny, disgusting shelf thing twice.  YUCK! 

Nevermind the mishaps, it was a great flight.  And honestly, the bathroom door thing only made the trip more memorable :)

It Won't Be Long Now

Barrett has been relatively immobile up until just recently.  I could sit him in one spot, go get/do something, and I knew I'd find him in just about the same place when I came back.  

I hold him most of the day and he just hasn't had a desire to get around on his own.  I mean, he could roll and scoot to get things he wanted, but he generally has been content enough to just sit and play with the things I've put in front of him.  It's only been in the last couple of weeks that he's started to get interested in crawling.  He's really started army crawling a lot more and he'll get up on his hands and knees and do the rocking thing.  

As I've mentioned before, we obviously spend a lot of time in our jammies...

It is so fun to watch him, but I haven't been pushing him too hard because I know everything is going to be different (#harder) once he's really moving.

PS he started crawling (more than just 1 or 2 scoots at a time) the day after I posted this!

My Maids

Let me start this post by stating that I really like having maids and I'm so grateful that we get them and especially that we don't have to pay for them.  Keep that in mind if you continue reading this post...

Oh and no, my maids don't actually wear cute little maid outfits.  That's probably because they (the outfits not the people) are not very practical and probably even more because the ladies that come to my house are from Mexico, not France.

So, as I've mentioned before, Fidelity hired us some maids to come every week and clean our house.  I've been especially pleased about that because I didn't bring (and haven't bought) any cleaning supplies at all.  The nice ladies are supposed to come every Monday but for some reason they are showing up all the time (and only once it's been on a Monday)!  Don't get me wrong, anytime someone wants to come and clean my house for free is a good time.  But allow me to explain the reasons I even care about this (there's a few, but feel free to quit reading when you think I'm an ungrateful brat)

1. They show up unannounced and knock as they're walking through the door.  I've always been kind of a nudist, so I'm left scrambling to get something on before they notice me.  

2. Sometimes (#mostofthetime), if I'm clothed, I'm lounging around in my leopard pj pants that I've had since high school and my "Got Implants?" t-shirt.  I'm looking like a hard working stay at home mom!  Which brings me to my next point...

3. I'm pretty sure they'll be bringing my mother of the year plaque next time they come. Last time they came, I had just put Barrett down for a nap and he wasn't going down easily.  He cried for about 30 minutes while the maids were trying to work and I'm sitting on the couch with the iPad.  I'm sure they appreciated the background noise and thought very highly of me as a mother at that point.

4. If/When they come on Mondays, I can pick up certain things before they get here that I don't want them touching.  For instance, I don't like strangers touchin on my blankey.  I like to put it away so it doesn't accidentally get taken away with the sheets and towels.  I also don't like people touching my breastpump/nursing stuff, my clean dishes that are (still) on the counter to dry, my bras and swimsuits that are hanging in the shower and on every doorknob to dry, or my medicines that I get out so I won't forget to take them with my lunch.  Not to mention Bear's toys that are all over the floor.  I feel like an idiot when they come and they can't even do their job because I didn't do mine.

Okay, you get it.  
I love having free maids (and I'm very appreciative of them even if it doesn't seem like it), but I am a schedule and routine person and just WISH they could help me out by sticking to one.
That is all.

Labor Day Weekend

We had a great Labor Day weekend (aren't all long weekends great though!?)  I was so confused on Tuesday morning when I heard the shower running, I couldn't figure out why Neil was up and getting ready.  Eventually I remembered that weekends don't last forever and Neil had to go back to work :(  Super glad he has a job though!

Anyways, we went swimming every day.

It was a lot more crowded than I've ever seen it, but Bear really liked the people watching.

We went for a little hike on a trail next to Grapevine Lake.  (I know Bear's hat is flipped all funny in these pictures, but I couldn't see his face at the time so don't blame me.)
Family picture attempt on the trail.

 

Me and Bear by the lake.  We plan to go back sometime soon and go to the beach part of the lake.

Another family picture attempt.

After our trip to the lake, we went to a friends house for more swimming.  Barrett has never seen cats before and he LOVED John and Carrie's cats.  He just squealed and laughed anytime he saw them!  They were nice cats so I let him touch them a few times and he really loved that!

Down by the pool. I didn't even plan for Bear and I to be matching in tie dye.  Poor Neil, we'll have to get some tie dye for him too!

Barrett had even more fun in their pool than in ours.  The water is warmer and John brought out this big ball for him to play with.

John, Carrie, Neil, Me, and Barrett.  Carrie and Neil went to Thunderbird together, so that's how they know each other.  It's such a great coincidence that we live just a few miles away!  Bear really liked Carrie even though it doesn't look like it in this picture!

My Little Puppy

Barrett likes to chew on things, anything really.  Most toys, books, fingers, phones, and anything else he can grab will be in his mouth at some point.  

He's always liked to chew on his raggie and now that he's getting interested in crawling (more on that later), he reminds me of a little puppy (only much more adorable and lovable).

X Box

It looks like Barrett's wanting to play some X Box with his daddy.  Luckily, it broke on the way here (that's why it's unplugged in the corner over there).  Bear can play with the paddles all he wants!

The Ark

Earlier this week, Barrett and I went on a playdate to The Ark.  The Ark is in a big Baptist church and it's a huge play area for kids.  The have a smaller play place for little ones and a giant one for big kids.

It kind of grosses me out to be in places like this, but Bear had a pretty good time there (even if it doesn't look like it in this first picture).  

See?  He's having fun :)

This is one of Barrett's new friends, Fint.

Part of This World

I've been letting Barrett grow up a little more lately and when we go out to restaurants or to the store, I don't make him stay in his car seat anymore!  This is a big step for me because I really want him to stay a tiny baby that wants and needs me forever!  He loves sitting up and being part of everything around him.

When we found out we'd be moving every 6 months, we put most of our stuff into storage because we didn't want to pack and unpack everything we owned a million times.  One of the things that I wanted to bring, but we didn't have room in the car was Barrett's exersaucer.  He really loved that thing and it gave him something to do while I did other things.  It didn't take long before I realized how much Bear and I both missed that exersaucer that stayed in Utah, so we went searching for one.  We couldn't find one anywhere in stores here, so we hurried and bought the first one we found on Amazon!  It's not as cool as the one at home, but we're both just happy to have it!

Story Time Mondays

We are having a blast going to story time at the library here in Texas.  I don't know if any libraries do this in Utah, but if they do, I missed out on like, 9 months of fun!  Barrett loves seeing other babies and I love seeing other moms!  He loves books at home, but he usually doesn't pay too much attention to them at the library because there's so much other stuff going on!

All the babies are about the same age (between 6 & 13 months) and we've made several new friends already!