Dooms Day We're On Our Way

Sydney and I have been thinking that we've needed to start getting our own food storage and not relying on our parents.  Because Sydney's mom doesn't really have much and the Ron Blake Smith's isn't as full as it used to be when mom was in charge. Also we feel that Ivins might be too dangerous of a trip if and when we do need food from storage.  We don't have much so far but we got a little a months worth of freeze dried food our 55 gal of water and some other items from the cannery we're working on getting more as the funds become available.  Also as you can see, and as much as Sydney hates it, I am also working on ways to protect said  food storage. Now if only the ammo shortage would go away.

72 hour kits here we come!

Valentine's Day

Yesterday was an exciting day at our house.  It was Chapter's first Valentine's Day!
Here are the Valentines that he sent to his Aunties and Grandmas.

We had a lot of fun making these:) Super cute!

Then he also got a card with money from Grandma Deb and a card and stuffed puppy from Grandma M.  We also got him a balloon.  There is only so much you can do when he can't eat candy! He also got his sweet bib from my sister Kristy and the shirt he is wearing underneath (that you can't see) but it's really cute too, it has a raccoon on it and it says Love Bandit:) His girlfriend or godmother or whatever she is calling herself these days (Allie Madsen) also brought us some cookies.

This year was similar to last year in that we had dinner at home and had the rest of the fancy steaks we bought for my birthday in December.  Super yummy!  I also made cherry drop dessert.  This year to mix it up we set a $5 limit for each other to get gifts.  We basically have a ton of junk food, but it really made it more fun to scheme what we could get for only $5.  Logan got me a bunch of Reeses Eggs.  I got Logan some orange soda, swedish fish, baby ruth, and chocolate covered pretzels.  And much like all the other events since Chapter was born, it seems we only managed to take pictures of him:) He's so much fun, but we're going to have almost no material to put on the anniversary video this year. Maybe it will just be a Chapter video:)  But anyway, yesterday was quite memorable!

4 months

My boy is 4 months old!  When we took him to the doctor he did a great job with his shots and only cried for a minute.  He has been rolling over intermittently and laughed for the first time on Feb. 8 (other than in his sleep which he has been doing his whole life pretty much). We tried feeding him rice cereal and he ate it the first time like a champ, but he hates it now and he cries the whole time.  His eyes are still blue and he's pretty amazing.  I'm so worried that I won't be able to remember every little detail of his whole life and that terrifies me.  I want to remember every moment just the way it is and remember how happy we are and how sweet and adorable my boy is.

Baby: $1,000/lb

What do you do when you need to decide if it's time to move your baby to the next diaper size and you don't have a scale?  You take him to the local grocery store and try to get your friend Kali to weigh him in the deli department, but when she won't, you do the next best thing and weigh him like a melon on a produce scale.

Turns out, we don't need to move him up a diaper size and he has gained about one pound in a month.  I guess that Costco formula is working:)

New Years 2013!

Since Chapter got his first sickness the day after Christmas we spent New Years Eve day at the Dr. office with half of St. George.  We decided to spend the night home and start our own traditions.

 Since we are "rolling over" to a new year we're going to make Rolo cookies and eat them.  More things will come later I'm sure, but it's a start.

Also since Chapter is 1/8 Danish he get's visited by Mother Goose, who leaves a present in his shoe on New Years morning.  Mother Goose brought him the three month nipples for his bottles, because tomorrow is his three month birthday.  We all know Chapter likes to get his milky as easily as possible.

Our House Turns 40

My Parents moved into the home they built on January 1st 1973.  It was a modest home with some peculiar quirks, but it was a place of love and laughter for many years.

 Over the years the home evolved into what it is now.  As you can see it got a tan, it grew a foot or two, and it also has many more neighbors.  

We moved in about a two and a half years ago and we love it.  The house is now on it's 1st automatic sprinkler system, 2nd set of windows, 3rd Generation of Blakes, it's 4th TV, and 5th child.

Happy Birthday House! 

Stuff you Pawn

This year for Christmas we treated ourselves to some things we've been wanting.  I've been wanting to get a new gun of some sort and I thought it was a good time to buy my first AR-15.  I was going to get another shot gun for mom and Chapter, but I thought I would be more likely to be able to purchase one of those down the road.  Sydney blames Glen Madsen for me buying this "Tacky" gun, but she really should blame Glenn Beck.

For Sydney we got her a new opal ring.  a few years ago after we hiked Coyote Gulch, Sydney bought an opal ring to commemorate her first backpacking trip.  You see Sydney has a fetish for birthstones and opal happens to be my birthstone.  Last spring while listening to Elder Oaks at Stake conference the opal fell out of her ring and we lost it.  I guess you can't expect a 30 dollar ring from Ruby's Inn to last forever, but at least more than 3 years would be nice.  With Chapter deciding to be born in October instead of September. We decided that instead of getting two birthstone rings we should get one nice one.  Luckily we found a simple yet beautiful black opal at Mack and Sons Jewelry  which was good because every where else was out of them or had lame settings even the pawn shops.  I like the Black opal because it's different and blue, so it matches mine and Chapter's eyes, seems more fitting that way don't you think?

Chapter's 1st Christmas

This year was the very 1st Christmas for Chapter.  It was an eventful one at that. We started out at home and took some pictures after we had the "Christmas" dinner with my family.

We decided that we needed to participate in the tradition of eating soup and listening to the scanner in Elsinore, so we went up there for a couple of days and had a white Christmas. It snowed all day on Christmas Eve.   

 Chapter couldn't quite open his presents, but he tried, we think next year will be his year.

 He did like the left overs...

and sleeping on his Christmas pillow.

This year Chapter was also the star of the show at the ward party.  He played baby Jesus and made all the old ladies cry with his moving performance.   

Chap LOVES getting mail

Especially if it's a package:)

Ward Party #1

Let me begin by saying that we have THE BEST WARD in the whole world!  There are so many fun people here and we feel very blessed to be living in such a wonderful place with so many great friends.

This ward knows how to throw a party.  Like seriously.  Incredible!  This was the Relief Society party for couples.  But we got permission from the RS Pres to bring Chap.  And he didn't make a peep the whole time.  He was such a good boy.  Anyway, Logan was asked to participate in the program.  It was an original program that was written by Jill (I think, she can correct me if I'm wrong).  At least she choreographed it for sure.  Anyway, the premise was that Lail was going hunting on Christmas and Jamie didn't want him to and she was trying to convince him to stay.  I get that nobody will think this is as hilarious as I do unless you know everybody.  But Logan was a member of the Jackson 5.  Only there were 3 of them. 

 Here's a couple of pictures of Logan on stage.  His sweet shirt is his dad from the 70s.  It's "authentic":) We made his pants from some pants at DI and a scrap of polyester I bought at a yard sale and knew it would be useful someday.

 And this is Chap, the 4th Jackson 5, only he was sleeping during the performance, just kidding:)  He decided to sport Logan's wig after the program.  He seemed really bald to me when we took it off:)

New Job

Logan got a new job this year.  He is now an Estimator/Project Manager for Quality Excavation.  So far he likes it very much.  Since he gets paper paychecks now, I insisted that we take a picture with his 1st pay check.  

The year there was a Fall

This year instead of green leaves suddenly all dropping off at the same time we had fall.  Well, fall for St. George.  The leaves didn't change color all the way like they do in places with 4 seasons but this is probably as close as we'll get.  Here's a picture of Chapter when we tortured him and put him in a pile of leaves.  Enjoy:)

12:12 on 12/12/12

I thought it would be fun to take a picture of Chapter at 12:12 on 12/12/12 so that someday his kids could look at it and make fun of Logan's phone:)

Interestingly, I have a nephew that turned 12 today.  What a cool day to turn 12!

25

Yesterday was an exciting day.  It was my 25th birthday and we took exactly zero pictures of it.    We went to Pizza Factory on Saturday night and then went and got my buy 1 get 1 at Coldstone (which made us sick from all the sweetness).  Then yesterday we went to church, took birthday cake to the Beehives and had steak for dinner (which is the tradition we started last year).  But the main reason it was so exciting is that I was exactly the age Logan was when we met.  We met on his 25th birthday and he seemed soooo old to my 18 year old self:)  He was still a fun loving 25 year old college bachelor, and now I'm a 25 year old married mom.  So crazy how lives change!  Thanks for all the fun presents and all the birthday wishes! It was a fun day and so far 25 isn't half as bad as I thought it would be!

Yes, I'm one of those mothers

I guess I'm one of those moms who has a baby and then can't really talk (blog) about anything else.  But, hey, it's what I do for a living now:)  Here are some pictures of my boy.

 This is Chapter when we go for walks, or when we go to a store that doesn't have shopping carts.  He sort of hates it:) And he genuinely hates that hat.

 This is Chapter chilling on the "Meatball" aka tiny Love Sac   It's his downstairs lounge place and the only reason I am able to blog.

 This is what Chapter looks like at 10pm.  Wide awake while daddy (and mommy) are tired.  We wait to put him in his cradle until he is drowsy if not totally asleep.

 This is Chapter "Angry Sleeping".  Everybody wants to see what we're talking about so here it is.  Sometimes the kid just looks angry when he sleeps.  PS I didn't move his binky because I knew it would wake him up.  I wasn't being mean, I promise:)

 This is Chapter smiling.  He's super duper handsome!

And this one is just cute.

I didn't think this would happen to me but I guess when they say that having a baby changes everything they really just mean it changes your priorities and sucks up all of your attention.  And that they are really fun to look at! :)