So lame, I know...

...but this is the last day of NaBloPoMo and I want to make sure I get somewhat of a post in before another crazy day of packing and wondering when I'm going to get to log in to my beloved Internet again. I'm actually rather proud of myself that I stuck with this all month. I don't usually follow through with anything unless it involves the well-being of another living thing. Anyway, I'm sure I'll have more interesting posts as we travel down to California.

Do As My Daddy Does

"What was that, Mommy, about not climbing on the furniture?"

Tired...So Very Tired

Well, we are back home in Washington after a very long day of traveling back west from Missouri. Aaron did not do so well coming back. It started to snow during our layover in Denver, so we had to spend an extra hour on the airplane after boarding so that we could be de-iced. This meant three and a half hours on the plane instead of two and a half. Not fun. We finally made it to Sea-Tac and found that there was snow here as well. What the heck? Plus, Aaron has this green goo coming out of his eyeballs, so that's no fun either. Anyway, gotta go to bed because the packers are coming tomorrow at 8:00 a.m. Is this move over yet? Oh, wait, it hasn't even begun.

I ♥ Celebrities

Pamela Anderson, Kid Rock to Divorce

I think he just missed me too much.

How 'Bout Those Rams, Baby!

O.K., so what if they have lost their last five games in a row. THEY WON TODAY! And you want to know why? 'Cause I was there to cheer them on! OH YEAH! They beat the San Francisco 49ers by a score of 20-17. It was such a good game and it was so much fun going with my dad and Bill. My sister kept the boy for the day (Thanks, Aunt B!) and I guess I had forgotten what it was like to go do things on our own. I kept having mini panic attacks thinking I had left him somewhere because he wasn't with us! So lame, I know. Here are a few pics that I took today.

Oh My Goodness!

So many pictures, such a cranky, cranky Blogger. Today was the day of my sister Bethanie's wedding to Paul and I've got so many great pictures that my head's about to pop off from the excitement. My Aaron did so well for being a seventeen-month-old forced into a monkey suit and pushed in front of an audience. He mostly went around and entertained everyone with his curiosity about everything. At the beginning of the ceremony, though, he allowed my niece Emilie to drag him down the aisle and then sat quietly on his Daddy's lap during the rest. I was so impressed! Here are some of the pictures from our day.

Bethanie and Emilie getting their hair done.



Aaron and his daddy before the ceremony.


Aaron, up close and personal.


Aaron being tortured with squeezies from me.


Emilie and Papa.


Emilie and her momma.


My nephew Stiehl and his daddy waiting for the ceremony to start.


We have re-learned "Touchdown" in the past few days.


Aaron stuffing about five french fries into his mouth. He's turning into such a boy!


Preparing for his debut. Let's get this show on the road already!


Self-portrait.


First picture (at least on my camera) as husband and wife.


Papa and Aaron.


The Remembrance Candle lit for my mom.


The head table at the reception (Emilie looks so pleased).

Congratulations Paul and Bethanie! We love you!

In Case You Didn't Believe Me...

...here is the visualization of Aaron's first word that I was talking about in this post. It's pretty funny!

You Had to Know This Picture was Coming

The two little boys in the bathtub! So cute! (Big sister and cousin Emilie was helping out).

More Missouri Pictures

Today was a very busy day. We had the little boys fitted for their little tuxes for my sister's wedding on Saturday. It was the sweetest thing you have ever seen and it was, of course, the one time I didn't have my camera with me. Trust me, though, I'll have it on Saturday. We also picked up my bridesmaid dress, my niece's junior bridesmaid dress and my sister's wedding dress from the cleaners. That made it all the more real and I think my sister is starting to get butterflies! Here are some more pictures from our day.

The two grandsons sharing some puffies. And when I say "share," I mean Aaron shoving all of them into his mouth in handfuls while Stiehl gets to eat whatever doesn't make it in there.

My niece Emilie working on the bubble favors for the wedding.

Aaron in "No Man's Land" - Papa's chair. You have to be someone pretty special to be able to sit there!

We Made It!

After a very long day of traveling, I am ecstatic to report that we are in Missouri! It doesn't matter where the Air Force moves us; this place always feels like home to me. And about the long day of traveling, THANK GOD for the portable DVD player we decided to buy the boy for an early Christmas present. You just can't underestimate how good the Little Einsteins are to me. As it turns out, seventeen-month-olds really don't like to stay in the same spot for more than 5-10 minutes at a time, unless they happen to be unconscious. Go figure! So, during each leg of our trip, we waited as long as we could (hoping he would allow the plane to lull him to sleep) before we popped in a DVD and finally were able to fly in peace. Anyway, check out a few pictures of our first day in Missouri.

This is Aaron during our layover in Denver. We always fly Frontier so we always layover in Denver and I have posted a few times before with pictures I have taken of him during our stops here. I thought it would be interesting to compare them. You can check out those past pictures in this post.

Here is my gorgeous nephew, Baby Stiehl, even though he isn't quite such a baby anymore. I haven't see him since the end of May and he has changed so much! He is crawling and pulling himself up to a standing position. He is also much more vocal and responsive to those around him.




Here is Aaron with his cool airplane toy that Papa got for him.


Stay tuned! I'm sure I'll have more pictures tomorrow!

And So It Begins...

The craziness that will be our lives for the next few weeks, that is. Tonight is the last night that Bill, Aaron and I will get to sleep in our own beds for a long time (My Reagan is getting to sleep in her own bed, but at Lisa's house!). It is also the last night we will spend in this house. I am deeply saddened by this but am trying not to show it because I'm a good Air Force wife. O.K., maybe not, since the whole world knows that I'm sad. This house was our first new house that we bought together, the house where we had our first child, etc., etc., etc. I picked out the carpet, we painted the walls a color we got to choose, I even picked out the tile backsplashes in the bathrooms. I have become very attached to this house and this state and this assignment and I should not have done that. Hopefully I will learn my lesson during the next assignment. Anyway, California, here we come. Well, via Thanksgiving in Missouri, of course. We can't wait to see you Papa and Aunt Bethanie!

Another New Thing

Another one of Aaron's new quirks is he likes to stick his fingers in his ears and scream as loud as he can. I'm not sure if he likes the way it sounds in his head, or deep down he just likes to torture his Daddy and me. Check it out. It's actually pretty funny.

More Writer's Block

I guess I will write about another thing Aaron did today to impress me since I have come down with another case of writer's block. Over the past few days, I think Aaron has been saying his first word! It isn't "Mama" or "Dada" or anything cute like that. When he puts a phone, or anything really, up to his ear, he says "Ho." I think he's trying to say "hello"! My boy is so smart!

Blah, Blah, Blah...

So sue me that I can't be interesting for thirty days in a row. I can't think of anything to write about tonight, so here's a picture of me and my Reagan 'cause I love her (back when I was super skinny 'cause you know that's the only pictures of me that you're getting).

Is It Wrong to be So in Love with a Household Appliance?

I need this:

The Staples MailMate Junk Mail Shredder. Why do I need it so badly? It shreds everything. Credit cards, papers with staples in them, DVDs (Why would you need to shred a DVD? Who cares? It can do it!), and, most importantly, unopened junk mail, people! I don't even have to open the stupid credit card application, with its stupid fake credit card and the stupid little stickers you use to pick out what lame credit card design you want. SO SWEET!

You wanna know the for-really-real reason why I need it? Here it is:


Did you see it on tonight's episode? SO AWESOME! Yes, I really am that shallow. I am a consumer product company's dream.

Help Me...I'm Stuck!

What's the Most Embarassing Song on Your iPod?

When my in-laws came to visit this summer, we played a game that I stole from a magazine called "What's the Most Embarassing Song on Your iPod?" It was fun; mostly because I think I won. Anyway, P & K's Mommy's post about her rockin' time at an Alison Krauss concert got me thinking about how eclectic our music tastes can be. I never would have dreamed that you liked Alison Krauss, Arlene! That's so awesome! For some reason, I just assumed it was a requirement to live in the Midwest or South before you could enjoy good country music.

I thought I would give some insight into myself by letting you in on some of my song picks on my iPod. A few of my recent downloads are:

• "Remember When" Alan Jackson
• "When You Were Young" The Killers
• "London Bridge" Fergie
• "Remember the Name" Fort Minor featuring Styles of Beyond
• "Jesus Walks" Kanye West
• "Proof" Coldplay
• "I'm a Slave 4 U" Britney Spears
• "Grillz (Dirty)" Nelly featuring Paul Wall, Ali & Gipp
• "Testarossa" Sir Mix-A-Lot
• "I'd Die Without You" P.M. Dawn
• "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own" U2
• "Bulls on Parade" Rage Against the Machine
• "Crazy Bitch" Buckcherry
• "A Thousand Miles" Vanessa Carlton
• 8 Aerosmith songs
• 4 Christina Aguilera songs
• 5 Evanescence songs plus "Broken" Seether & Amy Lee (Can you tell I love Amy Lee?)
• 5 George Strait songs
• 18 Kid Rock songs, people (I would divorce Bill in a second for my Kid Rock)
  
• 9 Limp Bizkit songs (I LOVED the entire Chocolate Starfish And The Hot Dog Flavored Water album)
• 5 Prince songs
• 6 Stone Temple Pilots songs

My taste in music is almost schizophrenic in how eclectic it is, isn't it? I mean, why must we be pigeon-holed into liking only one or two genres? Yes, I enjoy Rage Against The Machine as well as George Strait. So sue me!

By the way, to answer my own question - "Good Vibrations" Marky Mark and The Funky Bunch. Stop laughing! It's a good song to dance to. What's your most embarassing song? Be sure and leave me a comment and let me know so I can hopefully feel a little bit better about myself.

Future Computer Geek...Just Like His Mommy

At Least He's Pretty...

...'cause from the looks of this video, it doesn't seem like he's got a whole lot going on in the brain cell department:

Of course, this was right before we put him down for his afternoon nap, so maybe it was delirium due to sleep deprivation? I can hope, right?

Crazy Glowstick Guy!!!

Without the camera flash...


With the camera flash...

My Stomach Hurts

All I needed was a little perspective...or not. 'Cause I am officially freaking out now. Today we are at exactly T minus three weeks before Bill, Aaron, Reagan and I will be piling into our cars and moving to California. So Cal to be exact. The DESERT to be even more exact.

One of those three weeks will be spent in Missouri for the Thanksgiving holiday. My sister Bethanie is also getting married the Saturday after Thanksgiving. We get back from Missouri on November 28th, the movers are coming November 29th, 30th, and December 1st, then we will be heading to California on December 2nd. Have I done anything to prepare this house for a move? Heck no. It's already sold, so that's a good thing. And the government is moving us, so basically we just sit back and watch the movers pack our stuff and haul it away (Sweet!). I still feel like I should be doing something, though. It's kind of like the calm before the storm and the storm isn't going to end until we finally make it to California and get settled into our house, around mid-December.

Auugghhhhh! O.K., breathe...

How Can I Get Him in Trouble When He Looks So Cute?

My Heart Melted Tonight...Again

Tonight Daddy returned home from San Antonio where he has been for the past four weeks or so. I was very concerned about how Aaron would react to him. I even gave Bill the "don't get your feelings hurt" speech because I was worried that Aaron would be indifferent to him like he is to every stranger on the street. Maybe even a little scared or, at the very least, stand-offish. As it turns out, I didn't give my son nearly enough credit. From the moment Bill got in the car when we picked him up at the airport, he had Aaron giggling and talking (well, Aaron talk, that is.) When we got home, Bill chased Aaron around the house and played with him like they were old pals. Aaron reached his arms up for Bill to pick him up, which he usually doesn't do for anyone except me. I absolutely loved every minute of it.

My poor heart isn't going to be able to take this child-raising thing for very much longer.

From the Third Whitest Chick in America...

...here is my most favorite Scrubs clip ever. Tonight one of the reruns of Scrubs that I was so fortunate to watch on the TiVo was entitled "Her Story." This particular episode has the funniest bit in it and I have it memorized because I have watched it so many times. It doesn't even have my Dr. Cox in it! Go figure! Anyway, I thought I would share it with you.

Writer's Block

Well, I've got some pretty good writer's block going on but I'm determined to keep up with NaBloPoMo, so I've decided when this happens that I'm going to write about one of the several things that Aaron does each day that impresses me. Today, I noticed that Aaron has gotten in the habit of sticking his fingers in his ears when I am rinsing his hair during his bath. He doesn't like water in his ears, so he plugs them up! My boy is a genius!

Now if I can just keep him from drinking the bath water, we might be on to something here.

Baby's First Black Eye

I promise I wasn't the one who gave it to him! See, the thing about toddlers, sometimes they are so preoccupied with what they're doing with their hands, that they aren't paying attention to where they're walking. Or, more specifically, what they're walking into. Aaron was in his bathroom last night chewing on the snot-sucking aspirator thingy (I only let him do this after his bath so he'll stand relatively still and let me comb his hair) and he started walking away and tripped over the rug, falling face-first into the side of the bathtub.

I look at it as a learning experience.

Come Catch a Ride on the Pineapple Express!

We're drowning up here, people. Apparently we have something called the Pineapple Express over us right now, which is a jet stream that brings very moist, warm air from Hawaii. This means record rainfall plus higher snow levels in the mountains. So what does more rainfall and less snow mean? You guessed it - flooding. You know you live in Washington when they cancel school due to rain rather than snow. I guess I don't blame bus drivers who don't want to drive through the streams that have formed over the roads. According to King 5, our local NBC station, normal rainfall measurements at Sea-Tac for the month of November is 5.90 inches. As of today, 6.39 inches was recorded at Sea-Tac for November. It's only November 6th and we've already surpassed normal measurements for the ENTIRE MONTH!

I don't really mind the rain here. I look at it as the price you pay for the gorgeous summer months we have around here. However, I am afraid that my poor little spoiled puppy is going develop both a bladder infection and constipation because she does not enjoy getting her tootsies wet at all. Not even to go to the bathroom. This should be a fun few days.

My Mood Ring Says I'm Frustrated

Reason #1: I can't get my freakin' Flickr Flash Badge to work. Check out The Girl's Moma's Blog to see what it's SUPPOSED to look like (By the way, Lis, I have figured out it has something to do with my new fancy, schmancy template. At least I've narrowed it down!).

Reason #2: My boy won't stop climbing up on top of the coffee table. Sometimes he even likes to stand on it and bang on our million dollar flat screen TV that his daddy had to have. I've tried yelling, time-outs, pretty much everything I can think of. What does he do? Laughs.

Reason #3: My house is a pit and my son still doesn't have any clean socks.

Thanks for letting me vent.

Another New Addition to the Blog!

Well, if I can ever get the freakin' thing to work. I have created a Flickr account and placed it in the sidebar to your right under "Bonus Pictures." I have wanted to create one for a long time because I wanted to be able to show off ALL of the Aaron photos that I take without having to post them all to Blogger, thus making Blogger very angry. I have only uploaded pictures from Aaron's First Month so far but I plan to upload the best pictures from all his months so you can see them. With Flickr, you can also sign up for an account and order prints directly from the website, if you happen to find a particular photo that you can't live without!

I hope to figure out why it isn't working properly very soon (it's supposed to look a lot cooler than this), but for now you can just click on "what is this?", then "Aaron's Mom" and it will take you to the photos I have uploaded so far. Enjoy!

My Heart is Bursting!

While I was cleaning up the kitchen tonight after dinner, I wondered where my son was because he wasn't underneath my feet "helping" me load the dishwasher like he normally does (such as in the post). I started looking for him, all ready to get my yell on, and found him behind the couch doing this:

Could I be raising a reader?

My Mega Blok Tower is Bigger Than Yours!

So when I started this Blog a little over a year ago, I swore to myself that I wouldn't be one of those parents who post pictures of EVERY LITTLE THING their kid does. "Look, he's bouncing a ball" or "Oh my goodness, would you look at that! He's jumping up and down! Good jumping, Son!" Well, I lied because now we're talking about my kid and I like to show him off, dangit! It's my party and I can be lame if I want to!

Keeping this is mind, take a look at my boy building with his Mega Bloks! His main objective is to build the tallest tower that he can. Unfortunately he really doesn't take architectural design and stability into consideration when developing his masterpieces, so Mommy helps him out by holding the bottom while he stands on his tippy toes to get one last block up there.

It is so awesome to watch the concentration in his eyes and how proud of himself he is when he gets one more block to stay. He literally shutters with excitement. I love it!

A Big Shout-Out from Beigeland...

...from one of the "Blog Chicks."

Oh, and TBPlayer, you were wondering where you could put your pigs? I think they'd do perfectly fine in my backyard. No cars up on blocks, though. They frown on that around here.

Check Out the Jedi-ness!

Yesterday was, of course, Halloween and it was a lot more fun this year due to the fact that Aaron was slightly more aware than last year of what was going on. I say "slightly" because I'm sure all he knew was that he was able to stay up later and play with his friends. Mommy had a great time, though, dressing him up and getting him ready. This year he was Yoda, with a lightsaber and everything. So cool!

We started things off on Monday by participating in the Halloween Parade at the YMCA. Aaron was able to march around the Y collecting candy (for Mommy to eat) and showing off his costume. After the parade, he played in the Toddler Gym with his best friends, Coley and Jalyn, who were cowgirls!

On Halloween night, Aaron and I went to a Halloween party at Lisa's house. We went trick-or-treating around their neighborhood, then came back and let the kids play until it was time to go home and go to bed! It was a great night.