All Things Andrew...

Andrew only likes the sheep because he's bumpy. And he gets stuck on fingers.
Part 1: Seemed like a good idea at the time...Part 2: Not as good as I thought.

The Decor

Justin and I have no Christmas traditions. The first year we were married, I had just had a miscarriage (sorry, can't think of a more delicate way to describe that) and last year I had just had a baby, so we have had pretty low-key Christmases. Or no-key...

Not this year. We both have LISTS of traditions we want to start with our family, so here's tradition #1. Putting up decorations the weekend BEFORE Thanksgiving. We don't want to diminish Thanksgiving at all, because we love it, but we are usually out of town. Thus, the early decorating.

Here are the results:

Our "mantle" (pretend that the TV is on fire and it totally works)

When we realized we had an extra garland, Justin rigged this up. It turned out fantastic, if I do say so myself. And I do.

This is an example of the phrase: "Necessity is the mother of invention." I was seriously pulling things out of cupboards I forgot I had to make this beauty.

Justin's job. Precision at its best.

Etc.

For those who've asked, I shopped at Smith's and combined sales with some coupons I already had...And I got lettuce, cilantro, green onions, oranges, pears, yams, strawberries, blackberries and an artichoke for $8 at Sunflowers. I didn't use grocerysmarts.com because I just figured it out on my own knowing what I already had in my coupon box. But I will next time. Believe you me. This was me yesterday, except imagine me much better looking.

New Loves...

~Saving money...Thanks to my awesome cousins and their training as well as an enrichment activity, I got a slammin' deal at the grocery store. Consider me the next couponing convert! And contrary to popular belief, it's not at all embarrassing to coupon. I felt so stealthy walking out of the grocery store with an extra $42 in my pocket and tons of free stuff. Or maybe svelte. It feels good, whatever adjective you choose.

~The lion imitation...Andrew has taken to crawling around with things in his mouth-particularly stuffed animals. It's so cute, it looks like he's carrying around his little lion cubs.

~Sunflowers Farmer's Market...Killer deals on produce if you have the blessing of having one nearby.

~New Christmas traditions...More on this later when the traditions have actually taken place and/or been documented.

~Gain laundry detergent...I've been waiting for our lifetime supply of Tide to run out so I could get back to my FAVORITE scent. And yesterday was the big day, so Andrew's clean clothes smell delicious.

Teeth are so awesome...

As you can see, Andrew's intelligence is skyrocketing. I have no idea how he figured this one out.

I've Made a Decision...

Please tell me you saw the game last night. The U was INfreakingCREDIBLE!! And the crowd was equally so. Which brings me to my next point...Justin and I have a bit of a predicament.

We grew up loving these guys....

But we've spent recent years seeing these guys around campus...

In my years at BYU, I've battled with this decision, and this season have ended up watching all the games for each team. But after watching highlights from the game last night, I've decided to commit.

So here it is...I love you, Cougs, but if you're playing the U, my blood runs red. Utah man am I, indeed.

Never Give Up...

Andrew's no quitter, I'll tell you that. If he's going to get sick, he's going to stick with it. For many, many, many days. And infect as many people as possible (namely, me and his Papa...and maybe Justin but he's faking health so he can work and get out of the house). He's been sick since Halloween. If that doesn't seem like a long time, you could calculate it by:

a) how many times we've cleaned up baby barf (8)

b) how many loads of laundry we've done (16)

c) how many rotten diapers are sitting on our porch (20) (we moved them)

d) how many consecutive hours I've been in the house without leaving (96)

Poor kid. He's taken to sitting on my lap lethargically watching movies or reading a book. The up-side, of course, because I'm such an optimist, is that I've gotten tons of studying done. Yesterday he was looking a little more alive, but wouldn't put any food in his mouth...Of course, he wasn't completely averse to putting things in his mouth...

Don't mind the crazy eyes...Trying to catch it before he took frog out of his mouth

This was totally impromptu...I came around the corner and he was playing with his music table with Monkey's tail in his mouth.