I'M SUCH A BIG FAN

...OF LIGHT! Ammon and Dad were able to put up the other two fans a week or so ago, and I am LOVING IT!! We didn't have any light in our front room (see the before and after pictures) and now we have 8 lights and 2 fans!! And it only took them about 6 hours to get it all done. Men are AWESOME, aren't they?!?

The Story of the Three Bears

Most of you have heard the traditional fairy tale of Goldilocks breaking into the home of the poor defenseless Bears' home and tearing apart their chairs and beds... Well, here is a story of another set of three bears.

Once upon a time, or as I like to call it: 2006, there once lived a young girl bear who was snowy white and oh, so fun, but she was very lonely. She wanted to find her true love and get married and live happily ever after. Well, at this enchanted time that we will call 2006 she did just that! She found another bear who was just as fun. He was much bigger and much darker than her and very sweet. So she called him her Honeybear. Since she had such a cute name for him, he decided to call her Sugarbear (cuz she was white like sugar)... which eventually evolved to sound like Chugarbear.

Well, these two funny bears got married and found a wonderful cave to call their own, but they knew they would not be complete without a bunch of cubs bouncing around, so they had a little bear that they named Kaleb. It was a good, strong sounding name, but it was not a bear name. What could they call their little baby bear? They couldn't always call him 'Baby Bear' because they would eventually have other baby bears. No! There had to be a special name just for him. So Honeybear and Chugarbear watched the little Kaleb for almost a year, trying to think of something that would be just as special and finally one morning, while Kaleb was eating his breakfast, they found it!

Chugarbear said, "What is Kaleb's favorite treat?" and Honeybear said, "Toast with butter of course!"

"And what color is Kaleb?"

"He is a soft creamy color, like his mommy," Honeybear stated.

"And, " Chugarbear continued, "What is our favorite part to kiss on little Kaleb?"

Honeybear smiled and said, "His round, chubby cheeks, of course... He's our little butter-ball!"

"No," Chugarbear exclaimed, "He's our little Butterbear!!"

The END (well, to be continued... eventually)

Kaleb at 10 months

Kaleb has taken many leaps and bound over the last month. Literally... okay, leaps might be exagerating slightly, but Kaleb has been kinda walking sortof ish for almost two weeks now. Here is the link to the first decent video we got, which was done at my parent's house Easter Sunday. We had a bunch of other family members there, including my nephew Christian who couldn't help but steal a few seconds of fame while his mom was taping. It adds to the fun, I think!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLzYVea6L98



Kaleb has also learned how to wave on his own, only Hello. He doesn't yet understand that ByeBye is the same thing.



Another accomplishment that I'm very happy about is that he has realized how to allow gravity to help him drink out of a bottle. He has been holding a bottle since he was 3 or 4 months old, but unless he was on his back, he wouldn't hold the back-end of it up. We finally got him used to using a sippy cup a few months ago, but then I was worried the size of it was preventing him from wanting to lift it properly, so we've had him using a small bottle for water the last few weeks and it appears to have done the trick. He consistently drinks on his own now... I'm just not looking forward to getting him to use the sippy on his own. Baby step, Baby steps (and we are full circle)

THE HAIRCUT(e)

Kaleb's hair has been getting into his eyes for the last several months. However, I really didn't have the guts to take him in for a trim until I knew it was absolutely necessary. Well, Ammon had his Mountain-man campout last week, for which he had grown out whatever hairs he could to get the 'rugged look'. BUT as soon as he got home, he was like, "Can I go get haircut?" and we knew it was time for Kaleb too. Here are some before pictures of DA BOYS:

Ammon's Scruffiness:

Da Bangs of Kaleb:

Da Sideburns of Kaleb:

Overall it was not a bad experience. The guy at Walmart who normally trims Ammon's hair was not very accustomed to dealing with children (except for Ammon), but nevertheless he was quick to jump away from flailing arms and didn't hesitate to pause whenever Kaleb needed to be free of Daddy's restraints.

"Look, Daddy, we have matching backwards capes!!"

"Why is this man vacuuming my head?" (trimmers)



"Could we BE any more handsome?!"

Sweet Photos

With Ammon out of town I was a little bored, ahem, I mean inspired to take some photos of Kaleb. These are my favorites!

Kaleb's Travels

The other night Ammon and I were at the church building, helping out with the weekly cleaning, so of course, we brought Kaleb. He had a blast chasing us and the vacuum around the entire church. By the time we got home, his poor little feet were a nasty shade of brown. May be the darkest those feet ever get ;-)
Much to our surprise, Kaleb has taken it upon himself to learn to stand all on his own. He's very steady for sometimes minutes at a time, but I tell you, there is no moving those feet to take a stroll. He lands face first before that happens! My favorite moments are when he picks up large items (like a full package of baby wipes) while he's trying to balance on his two little tree trunks. His confidence is phenomenal!

Simple Things

Ammon left Wednesday morning for the Mountain Man Rendezvous. We have a brother in our ward who is in charge of the Trading Post up there, and when he invited Ammon, it was like a little boy in a candy store... or Ammon in a candy store! He has been SOOOOOO excited ever since. He grew out his 'beard' (the poor guy is still part Navajo) for two months and has been talking about it ever since to any man that would listen (men are the only ones who understand). I've tried to be as supportive as possible... usually I tend to rub it in how much I will miss him when he makes plans to be gone for overnight things. It's horrible of me, but apparently it helps get the missing out early cause I have REALLY missed him these last few days. More than usual. Here are a few random things I miss:

1. Perfect blankets. Every night, after our family prayer, Ammon tucks me into bed. It's not the same when you do it yourself.

2. Laughing at me. I don't think I'm all that funny, but when Ammon mimics me or repeats something I say, it is HILARIOUS!!

3. Kaleb's Ni Ni. Kaleb has a bottle before bed every night and he's always so sleepy when he's finished. However, when we wave "Night, Night" to Daddy he gets a big grin and his eyes light up again. Then as we walk away, he tries to keep his eyes on Daddy till we turn the corner. So adorable!!

4. Heavy CARSEAT! It's just understood that if Ammon's around, he carries the carseat full of 22 pound baby... but (insert whine here) I've had to do it!

5. Goosebumps. There's a way that Ammon smiles at me that sends chills up my spine and gives me goosebumps. I think I miss that the most.

Kaleb-9 Months

Kaleb continues to be such a joy in our lives. Now that he is crawling, his personality really shines through. We've actually even started to discipline (and by discipline I mean teach) and it has brought out a lot of his stubborn-ness, but we also have seen some genuine compliance and understanding. It's so exciting to watch his precious little mind work.

At his doctor's appointment, Kaleb was 29 inches and just shy of 22 pounds, which is 75th percentile for his age, so he's finally starting to level out. Thankfully we have yet to find any food he doesn't like and we're even giving him small bites of our meals (baked potatoes, veggies or even Gramma's brisket tonight). Also, Kaleb now officially has six teeth and has been clapping for almost a month (a small but crucial step in development that I took upon myself to teach him.)

I haven't had a good laughing video in awhile so here is a great one. The two things Kaleb likes most are games of Peekaboo and random objects flying through the air (a close third are his silly cousins). Plus, he has this inbred need to knock down towers of boxes... which causes some issues with his older cousins. Anyway, here are some flying objects:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SYnrdTfpu0

Here's a great photo we got after Kaleb's bath one night. He really needs a haircut, but we're waiting until Daddy needs one too so they can go together. I feel this just captures his whole personality, "I'm cool and laidback, but I've got attitude!"

Our 3rd Ammoniversary

February 17th marked our 3rd Ammoniversary, and somehow, my wonderful husband made it all about me. He bought me a dozen roses; we went to a fun romantic comedy and then he whisked me away to the Melting Pot (my favorite restaurant) which he paid for almost entirely with money he got from donating plasma (cuz it aint cheap... The Melting Pot, I mean) All through my pregnancy I had craved cheese fondue, but I never got any... but he made up for it in spades. It was wonderful and very romantic and we had such a blast. Splurging for that one night really helped us forget our troubles for one evening. My fantastic hubby made it all possible! He's so awesome! I still have to do something for him, so check back in the next month (or maybe next anniversary) for that.

Remodeling

Whilst Ammon was helping a family friend remodel a house recently, not only did he obtain some old but fully functional fans, he also acquired a strong desire to remodel our home. Thankfully, we were in need of four fans to put in our kitchen/dining area (which had lights, but no fan) as well as our front room (which has no lighting at all currently). SO, Ammon and my dad began work on the little project of replacing the current light fixtures with ceiling fans. I won't go into the messy details about how our house has proven to constantly be a remodelers nightmare. However, I will mention that my kitchen looked basically like this for a full week:


In the kitchen area, there originally was a flourescent light fixture. The problem with replacing it with a fan was that the people who had put that original fixture up made it so that the entire area it was attached to was ruined. So Ammon had to replace a large section of the ceiling (see below).

Then he had to putty up all the cracks and sand that down to make it more even. None of this would be so bad if we hadn't moved in yet. BUT for those of you who have ever sanded anything, you know that the dust gets EVERYWHERE. Below is a picture of the floor after Ammon had sanded. See all of the fun footprints? The dust ended up all over all of our kitchen appliances, the adjacent carpets and even traveled as far as the guest bathroom.

Anyway, in the long run it was worth it. We have a beautiful (all be it old-fashioned) set of fans in our kitchen/dining room. I'm dreading the day when they decide to get started on the front room. (YEESH!!)