Vacation from Blogging, Sort of

This week I have started potty training Jared. Without going into too many details, I think that it has been moderately successful so far (he's not putting up a fight or anything!) but I'm sort of paranoid about letting him go farther than 20 feet away from the bathroom. Thus, I have not been on the computer much. In fact, our computer, a laptop, has been in our kitchen so that we can watch DVD's upstairs close to the bathroom instead of downstairs. I'll post pictures of cute Jared sitting on the John someday when I can get around to it.

It's crazy how detached I feel when I don't get on the computer at all during the day!

Wish me luck for the next few days. . .weeks. . .months. . .

Edit: I just noticed my baby ticker says 50 days left! Holy cow!! Where has the time gone???

Anna

Today is the 10th anniversary of the day Alan's sister Anna passed away. To read a little bit more about Anna and my feelings about her death, see my post from two years ago.

All of Alan's family has an exciting weekend planned. We are going to have a family dinner tonight and tie quilts to donate to Primary Children's hospital. Tomorrow morning we are going to have a family excursion to the temple, have one of Alan's mom's famous brunches, and then visit Anna's gravesite. In addition, since it is the 10-year anniversary, we are compiling a time capsule about our family to open again in 10 years. What a fun way to remember Anna!

Big Boy Jared

Here are some cute pictures of Jared.

Bath time! He said "Take a picture of me, Mommy!" right before I took this.

"Helping" Daddy do the dishes. Jared is standing on a step stool.

This past week we moved Jared to his new "Big Boy" bed in his new "Big Boy" bedroom so that I can get the nursery all ready for our little girl (only 2 months left!! Aaauuugghhh!) I would like to get some cute wall decals for his new room, so it's still not finished, but here's basically how it looks now.

Since Jared is only a few months away from being 3 years old, we went straight to a twin bed instead of a toddler bed. We have a rail that we can attach, but we haven't needed to. Out of 8 nights sleeping in his new bed, he has only fallen out once, and that was on the second night. He is doing so well and loves his new bedroom and bed.

This is how we found Jared sleeping in the morning after his first night in his new bed.

Pancake Day

I just read in a magazine that tomorrow (Tuesday) is supposed to be National Pancake Day at IHOP. If you go in, they will give you a free short stack of pancakes (like 3 decent-sized pancakes). Then they ask you to donate a couple bucks to some kind of foundation (I forget which one). My mom and I went last year, and it was tons of fun and really yummy! The location we went to wasn't busy at all, and they even gave little 18-month-old Jared his own short stack.

I thought I would pass this info along! Anyone want to go with me?

Cutest!

Here are some pictures of my newest nephew, born about 2 1/2 weeks ago! I love him already!




(This post was long overdue.)

Projects

As we are getting ready to move Jared to his big-boy bedroom, we have finally gotten around to some projects I have been wanting to do forever! First, we painted an OLD yellow dresser that we inherited when we were first married. Now it's a nice, lovely tan color. I'm excited to be able to put Jared's clothes, pj's, socks, etc. in this dresser (rather than in his closet) so that he can actually reach them.

before

after

We also painted an old, crappy nightstand that we inherited when we got married. It's now a lovely white instead of dirty beige. I've also been anxious to organize our computer room, so I found a half-size filing cabinet for free on KSL classifieds which needed a new coat of black spray paint. It looks so good now! Not bad for a 97-cent can of spray paint. (Sorry, no pictures of the nightstand or the filing cabinet.)

Other "nesting" things I want to get done before our new baby comes in less than three months:

• organize Jared's playroom
• organize my bedroom closet
• organize our basement storage closets

Unfortunately, in order to do this organizing that I want to, it means we need to buy some things: shelves with bins for toys, an additional dresser, and storage shelves. If only money grew on trees...

A little sunshine today...

Lately I have been searching like crazy for used baby girl clothing on KSL ads online. Wow. There's a lot of good stuff there, but the trick is having it be pretty close to the city we live in and also being the first to call on it!! Alan is probably so sick of me telling him all my woes searching through KSL. :) I have collected some decent used clothes already, and thanks to my mom's shopping sprees, my little girl will not freeze at night. (Thanks, Mom, for your generosity and good taste in clothes!!)

Anyway, imagine my surprise today when a package arrived on my doorstep from my dear friend Kalee, who lives all the way on the East Coast. She sent me a bunch of stuff for my upcoming little bundle of joy: about four outfits, a couple of hats, shoes, and even a new toy. Thank you, Kalee, for brightening my day!! You can't imagine how stressed I have been lately! Kalee and I suffered through the math education program in college together, and although she hasn't lived in my same state for YEARS now, she still is so good about things like remembering my birthday and staying in touch. You seriously are the best!