No Rag? No Problem!

I bought Kyler a water bottle a few months ago. He loves it, but it's not spill proof. Yesterday he apparently spilled some water...then [I'm guessing] he felt guilty and wanted to clean it up, but couldn't reach the paper towels/rags which were on the kitchen counter. So what did he do?

He stripped down and used his underwear to mop the water up! Not his shirt. Not his shorts. His UNDERWEAR. Sometimes I wish I could have a lil peek into his brain to see why he does the things he does.

 

He's the grandson of an engineer, I tell people, he figures out how to solve problems that might otherwise seem impossible.

Out the Window My iphone Went (literally)

After driving around for 2 hours looking at houses, Kyler screams out of boredom from the back seat.

Jared: "Can you do something about that?"
Me: "Sure! Kyler, want to play the robot game on my iphone?"
Kyler: "YESH!"

I give my iphone to Kyler to play with. I'm not worried about him breaking it. It's in the indestructible otter box iphone case. 5 minutes later Kyler screams out of boredom from the back seat again.

Me: "It's kinda hot in here and so pretty outside...can you roll down all of the windows?"
Jared: "Sure!"

10 minutes later I look back at Kyler to see if he needs any help playing his robot game on my iphone. That's when I realize he is no longer holding my iphone.

Me: "Kyler, where is mommy's iphone?"
Kyler: (blank stares)
Me: "Ughh he probably dropped it on the floor." (I look on the floor. I look on the seat.)
Jared: "Do you want me to pull over?"
Me: "Yeah, he's probably sitting on it."

I crawl into the back seat, unbuckle Kyler, and check. It's not there. It's not anywhere....then I realize Kyler's window is still rolled down.

Me: "OH. MY. GOSH."
Kyler: "All gone!" (smiles)
Jared: "Let me guess. He threw your iphone out the window?"
Me: "I hope not. Call me!"

No ring. Then Jared uses the "Find My iphone app".  My phone is on Cambridge Street 10 minutes away! We race back, and there it is...safely in the hands of an elderly couple who had been riding their motorcycle and happened to see my phone in the street and picked it up.

There wasn't a scratch on it. I was just grateful it hadn't been stolen or run over by a car!

 Beware. This little face isn't as innocent as it seems.

He'll Only Be Two Once...right?

This past weekend we had a huge muddle (I meant to write mud puddle bahaha) on our driveway. Of course Kyler ran straight towards it the second we got outside. I was about to yell "KYLER STOP!!!" but then the thought came into my head that he will only be two once, and pretty soon he won't want to play in the mud.

Kyler had a blast getting messy:

I had a very difficult time trying to get him to look at me for a picture

I tried flipping the camera on my phone around (he likes to look at himself) to get a picture of his face, and it worked!

My mommy "thoroughly entertained but grossed out" face in the background. lol

 I literally carried him straight inside and dumped him in the tub with his shoes and clothes still on. I had to refill the tub about 10 times to get him squeaky clean, but it was worth it to see him have so much fun!

Then of course after all is said and done this picture of my husband playing in the mud in his COLLEGE days comes into my mind. I guess boys never grow out of playing in the mud :p

Typical Monday Happenings

I decided to document my day today, for no particular reason. Sorry in advance for the horrible grammar. I wrote some while they were happening, and others after they happened so I switch tenses back and forth.


9am. Wake up. Kyler has been waking up around 8am lately, but today he slept in! Breakfast? Bananas and Cereal.
10am. Gym. I had a very lazy workout- I walked on the treadmill- slowly I might add, while I caught up on my fav netflix show haha.
11am. Off to the library to return books. After the library we headed to the Boardwalk to feed the ducks and play at the castle/boat park!

12:00pm Home for lunch, and Kyler helped me empty the dishwasher, and then we played in the living room with our dog. During this time Kyler went to time-out sevearl times (for pulling the dog's tail when I told him not to).

1:00pm NAP time. Glorious nap time.
2:00pm Yes, I think I'll take a nap too.
3:00pm Ky (and I) woke up, and tidied up the house.
4:00pm I got some yard work done outside and made Kyler some sidewalk chalk paint.

5:00pm Dinner preparations.
6:00pm Jared came home from work and headed outside to mow the lawn.
Kyler and I gave Bauer a bath in Bauer's bathtub (He has his own bathtub. Spoiled dog). After we rinsed his conditioner out I realized that I needed to retrieve a towel out of the linen closet to dry Bauer I darted down the hall (a whole 4 feet away) to get the clean towel. When I returned to the bathroom, I discovered that Kyler had decided to take the matter of drying off Bauer into his own hands using an entire roll of toilet paper. I tried not to cry and took a picture instead thinking I might laugh about it later.

 7:00pm. Dinner. Finally. French Dipped Sandwiches never tasted so good. After dinner we had a quick FHE lesson on choosing the right, and obeying.

8:00pm. Kyler's bedtime. Finally me and Jared time. We are currently watching The Voice (awesome show) while I am writing this. Good night blogging world!

Spontaneous Camping Trip: FAIL. FAIL. Success?

Friday after Jared got home from work, he said: "Let's go camping".  I said "Great idea!" So we threw a few things in the trunk including a meal we planned to warm over the fire for dinner, and were on our way.

Because this happened a week ago, I am a little blurry on the details, but lucky me (and you) I documented the trip as it was happening on my iphone. I will now copy and paste (beware it's long, and really for my own purposes of remembering this camping trip, so you might find it boring) ps. there are lots of grammatical errors that I am too lazy to fix :)

-We just drove to hours, and the road to South Mountain is closed.

-Lucky for us we have a Gps! Calculate alternate route.

-We are in the middle if nowhere. I'm pretty sure we just passed an Amish community.

-Oh hey look! A golf course!... the GPS says to take the mini golf cart road? Okay!

-It is 30 min later...and we are right back where we started at the closed road >:(

-We calculated a new route, and are finally at South Mountain! (an extra hour later) Oh well! At least we are here.

-Every camping spot is full.

-The park ranger makes us pay a fee and shows us which trail we need to hike up to get to the available camping spots. She tells us that she hopes we are in shape. What does she mean?

-Did I mention it's getting dark?

-Hike hike hike

-It's completely dark now, and we are sharing a flashlight to light the way.

-I'm paranoid that I'm going to step on a snake.

-Hike hike.

 -Ky is being very fussy, so I give him a few pieces of candy that I plan to roast over the fire. If we ever get there.

-This camping gear is heavy, and so is Kyler!

-Are we there yet?

-We just hiked over another river and up a mountain.

-We are there!

-There is only one other person camping.

-Is it creepy that he is camping by himself? He seems suspiciously friendly to me.

-Tried to make campfire but it is so humid all of the wood is too wet to light!

-I'm attempting to put our sugar high toddler to bed in this tent we set up in the dark (I hope it holds).

-Jared did his magic and got the soggy firewood to light! However, we are too tired from the hike to cook, and are getting eaten alive by bugs! In the tent we stay.

-No dinner.

-No s'mores.

-I have to pee, but do I wanna risk getting poison ivy on my bum in the dark?

-Nope! I'll hold it!

-Kyler refuses to sleep and is squealing and dancing in delight at the thought of the whole fam sleeping in this tent. He is literally a happy camper.

-11:30 Ky is finally asleep!

-Jared and I see flashes of lightening in the distance. He asks me if our Walmart tent is water proof. I have no idea.

-I can't sleep. Is that creepy loner camping guy going to murder us in our sleep?

-Why are the dang crickets and birds so loud? Don't they sleep? I'm pretty sure we set our tent up on rocks.

-Everything just went silent...too silent. I'm scared.

-IT IS POURING DOWN RAIN.

-Sweet it turns out that our 20 Walmart tent IS waterproof!

-Whew! That creepy loner camping guy won't wanna get wet in the rain to murder us so I think we are safe!

-I guess I fell asleep for an hour or so because it is 2am now, and the rain is still coming down hard.

-Drip drip...I checked on Kyler and his blanket is soaking wet!

-Our $20 walmart tent is not as water proof as we thought >:(

-I'm hungry.

-Jared just woke up too with his side of the tent leaking water.

-CRAP Kyler just woke up, I know he is going to cry and we are in for a long night. There is no way we can hike back down the mountain in the rain and dark.

-Kyler is a maniac! He is so happy and hyper! It's the middle of the night! What the heck? He's hilarious.

 -I just changed Kylers sopping wet PJ, and we all just scooched to middle of tent to try to stay dry. We are all 3 sharing the same pillow.

-It is 4am now and it is still raining, I am still awake, and I still have to pee. Really wishing I had a few hours ago right about now.

-I just heard a soft growl. Are there bears in NC? CRAP I just remembered we have our dinner we never cooked sitting in our tent! It probably smells so good to hungry wild animals!

-Turns out the growling I heard was Jared snoring. How is he sleeping?

ll

And that is the last thing I wrote. Next thing I know, it was 9am, the sun was shining and I woke up to this (which I of course took a picture of)

I love how they are sharing a pillow and Jared is all wrapped up in Ky's blanket :)

I actually completely forgot about all of the things that happened previous to this moment, and if I hadn't written them down, I still wouldn't remember! We had such a fun day when we woke up, hiking and exploring, seeing waterfalls, and watching Bauer swim in the river. I'd say it was a successful camping trip, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat. (Well, after re-reading this post, maybe next year :p)

Here are a few more pictures from our Spontaneous Camping Trip:

This was in the middle of the night before I changed Kylers rain drenched clothes.

This is us hiking down the mountain the next morning. We were all muddy and Kyler looked like a ragamuffin in his footy pjs with shoes over the top (only dry clothes left). We got some pretty weird looks from other hikers.

We hiked past some HUGE boulders!

We hiked up next to some beautiful waterfalls too!

Also at one point during our camping trip, Jared got this HUGE tennis ball sized bruise on his arm.  The story of how he got it is HILARIOUS, but he made me promise not to tell anyone what happened. So I will post a picture of it instead :p  Here is what it looks like almost a week later:

The Hose.

Whenever we leave the house, we leave Bauer in the garage (I don't like him having free roam of the house when we are out). This morning as I was pulling out of the driveway to run a quick errand, my neighbors were outside, and I got distracted by waving to them, and completely forgot to close the garage door with Bauer inside! I was gone maybe 30 minutes. When I returned home and saw that the garage door was left opened I PANICKED and thought for sure he had run away, and that would be the end of Bauer.

I jumped out of the car and yelled "BAUERRRRRR!!!!"......nothing. I bolted around the corner of the house, hoping that maybe by some small chance he would be there but seriously doubted that, because we don't have a fence, and our yard backs up to a golf course- a field that I know he would just love to run in- but I was wrong. There he was running around like a crazy dog in our tiny back yard completely covered in mud that was a result from last night's rain storm. He was filthy and smelly, but he was alive and home so I wasn't too disappointed to see him that way.

I gave him a bath on the driveway using the hose, because he was too dirty to bring inside. He hated every minute of it.

...and gave me dirty looks the whole time.

 Kyler, on the other hand, LOVED every minute of Bauer's bath. I thought he would be scared of the hose, much like the sprinklers, but I was surprised yet again to find that he loved it. I ended up taking his outfit off, because it got completely drenched. 

Ky sprayed himself in the face many times, the first time he panicked, but after that, he thought it was hilarious. I caught the first time he sprayed himself in the face on video. LOL poor baby! He went right back to playing after.

Naughty Toddler Moment #2

Remember THIS awesome "noticing silence" mommy moment?? 

Well, here is another one of those.

Jared and I were sitting in the living room, watching a show together. Kyler was running around playing with his toys, when all of the sudden it got real quiet. No pitter patter steps on the wood floors....no clanking of his toys....or little toddler jibber jabber words....

  

We paused the TV and said "Kyler?!??"

......... no response........

Jared and I looked at each other, and said the same thing "Uh oh. He is up to no good!"

Here is the no good he was up to: 

Not only was he playing with the dog's food, putting it in the water bowl, and squishing it with his fingers, and splashing water EVERYWHERE...buuuut he had also found his stuffed animal puppy and was making it eat and drink our dog's food and water as well!

Hmmmm guilty or not guilty?

Jared and I couldn't help but laugh, he looked SOOO guilty.

I love little moments like these. You might think I'm crazy for saying that, but I really do!

Jared and I are so lucky to have this little guy in our lives. He brings so much joy and happiness! 

My name is Charlene, and I'm....

My name is Charlene and I'm addicted to Chick-Fil-A sauce.

Confession time:

• Every-time we go to Chick-Fil-A I have to order like 8 extra packs of Chick-Fil-A sauce so that I can re-stock my car, and fridge with it.
• I put it on EVERYTHING. Including sandwiches I make at home, and on any other restaurant food I eat that is not Chick-Fil-A.
• I am convinced that Chick-Fil-A sauce makes everything taste better.
• After we go through the drive through at Chick-Fil-A, I will usually park the car, go back INSIDE the store (after we just went through the drive through mind you), and ask for additional packs of Chick-Fil-A sauce (just to make sure I have enough).
• Just like a kid, I sometimes even lick the container to make sure I get out every last drop. Yeah. I just said that.
• My husband still loves and fully supports me through it all. He even grabbed an un-opened Chick-Fil-A sauce off of a tray that was about to be thrown away...just for me! Is he a keeper or what?!
•  In California, the Chick-Fil-A kept their sauces out for anyone to take as much as they wanted! It was HEAVEN:

• I admit that I am the reason many Chick-Fil-As have stopped doing this and now have to keep their sauces behind the counter. Hey, admitting it is the first step to recovery....right?

A Few Things This Teething Mom Has Learned.

Kyler's two bottom teeth have finally arrived, and now the top two will soon make their appearance too!

Here are a few lessons I've learned about teething toddlers:

Lesson 1. Teething is difficult for the baby, AND the mom!

Lesson 2. Cool, wet washcloths work wonders on sore gums.

Lesson 3.  RazBaby Razberry Teethers aren't what they appear to be. They look like this:

Cool right? Maybe even.....delicious?

WRONG

Glued cheaply together +Too big +Not flavored = LAME.

Lesson 4. Don't give your teething baby foods that they actually have to chew, or this might happen:

On a brighter note, the dog LOVES when Kyler is teething!

Glamour shots.

I'm doing the 15 Days Photo Challenge (album from facebook). 

Today is Day 8-A picture of your pet.  I tried to get Bauer to cooperate, but it turns out that he is indeed a member of our family because he is quite UN-photogenic. See for yourself~

 FINALLY!! A GOOD ONE!!!

We love our pooch.

Noticing Silence= Naughty Toddler!

Today Kyler was helping me pack up some boxes. I was taping up a box when I noticed silence. Now if you're a parent too, you know what I mean when I say "noticed silence".  Noticing silence almost always means that your child is up to no good. 

Take today for example...this is what Kyler was up to, when I noticed silence:

He was just right next to me two seconds ago!

Slobber on the cardboard

The whole roll....gone.

It is incredibly hard NOT to laugh at moments like these. I wanted to tell him "No no Kyler! We don't play with the toilet paper roll" with a stern look on my face so that he would know it was wrong, but instead? I laugh and snap a picture.  Sooner or later I'm sure I will stop laughing at moments like these and he will get the point, but until then? 

HA HA!!!

Embarrrrrrassing

I have had A LOT of embarrassing moments lately. Here is one that happened recently:

(mind you I've had 4 more embarrassing moments since this one. story of my life)

We live in a pet-friendly apartment complex, and everyday at 7pm the dogs are allowed to play together outside (as long as the owners are outside too). The other day, my neighbors were outside talking to each other while watching the dogs play. I wanted to go out and join them, but since Jared wasn't home I had to bring Kyler with me. Soooo, I put Kyler in his snugli/kangaroo pouch thingy...it's like a backpack for a baby, except in the front.... so I guess it should be called a frontpack? Anyways, I put him in one of those so I could have both hands free to play fetch with the dogs.

So there I was holding the tennis ball over my head, about to throw it, when the neighbor's Labrador Retriever jumps up, TAKES the ball from me, and on his way down.... his foot pulled my skirt down too.. ALL THE WAY to the ground... and to make matters worse, I couldn't just bend over and pull it back up because Kyler was hanging on my stomach in his snugli/kangaroo pouch thingy  so All of the neighbors just stood there and watched as I awkwardly tried to bend over backwards to pull my skirt back up. 

EMBARRRRASSSING. 

It's finally warming up here in Idaho, and everything is starting to turn green!

We have been going on LOTS and LOTS of walks lately. Kyler loves them.

naked baby before bath

 7 months

Bauer the Ballerina

It's been a while since I've had a blog post about the D-O-G.  He has been pushed to the back burner ever since baby Kyler joined the family!  Anyways, because the little giant pooch has been ignored for so long, we decided to do something nice for him...WE ENROLLED HIM IN DOG BALLET CLASSES!!!
You think I'm joking?

Okay, so yes of course I'm joking. Some random girl I don't even know asked if she could film my dog and my neighbor's dog in ballerina outfits for part of her senior project.... of course I said YES.  How funny is that?  Bauer has always had a crush on our neighbor's dog Sadie.  She is one of the only girl dogs on the block! Sadie usually pulls the "Defensive Maneuver #41" if you've ever seen Mary-Kate and Ashley's movie Our Lips are Sealed. (one of my favs!)  meaning...she turns the cheek. hahahah. This vid proves it!

School projects, weddings and moving!

I feel like I haven't blogged in forever, but its only been a week. pfff. So here is what has been going on lately:

1) For my Young Adult Lit class, I had to create a collage from pictures in magazines to demonstrate what the novel was about. I had to do mine on a book called The Witches Boy. The book is about a an ugly boy named Lump who was raised by a witch. There were lots of fairy-tales incorporated through out the book, like Cinderella, Hansel and Gretal ect... there were also fairies and talking cats. So I spent forever trying to find pictures from magazines that would tell this story. It was pretty much impossible. I should have just chosen a different project to do (because we had a few options) but No. For some reason that day I was determined to finish what I had started (pregnancy hormones). After being frustrated for 2 WHOLE HOURS I finally just grabbed a glue stick and globbed everything on the poster. Then I took a look at it and started to cry because it looked SO horrible. Seriously, I think a second grader could have done a better job than I did.

Then, Jared tried to make me feel better by saying "it isnt so bad." but then he took a closer look at the poster couldn't help laughing. So then it made me laugh too, and this was the result. Preggo char laughing and crying at the same time over a stupid school assignment.

2) This weekend we went to Boise, because my brother Calvin got married! It was a beautiful wedding, and I love my new sister in-law~


Here is a picture of the fam! Everybody but my brother in-law Dean was able to make it. It was a very short trip, but I enjoyed spending the time with my family.

Most of the family left Saturday morning, so we spent all day Saturday in Boise shopping at REAL malls with our friends Aaron and Courtney, and my brother and his family. The reason I say REAL malls, is because we dont have any around here. Rexburg has 2 grocery stores, a wal-mart, and a k-mart. That is pretty much it.

3) Lastly, we have been busy getting ready to move into our new apartment! The new apartment is smaller than the one we have now, but it is SOOOO much nicer. Anyways, to fit into the new apartment we had to sell our huge couch and projector. :( So our living room is pretty much naked right now. A new smaller couch and TV is on the way though! More pics later~

Hewie

Jared and I walked out of our apartment earlier today, and as we turned around the corner, we saw our neighbor's Basset Hound, Hewie, laying flat on his back, as they were sweeping a metal detector over his abdomen. As we walked by we heard BEEP..BEEP..BEEP. Yup, wedding ring.