We're Gonna Party Like it's Your Birthday!

It was my birthday this week. I always feel a little bad for Eric since it's less than a week after Valentine's Day and so he has two big weeks back to back. He did an awesome job this week for my birthday and it was great. He took Monday off (even though it is a holiday - he's been swamped at work, so this was a real treat!) and we drove up to Park City to the outlets and to lunch. Although I didn't find anything for myself, I found A LOT of cute things for Megan for this Summer. My dad was in town and so he took us to dinner that night and Eric wrestled with Megan so I could enjoy dinner.

On Wednesday (my actual birthday) I went with a friend and her two little boys to the Children's Museum in Salt Lake. Even though a lot of it was for kids older than Megan, we had a really good time and it was nice to do something different. We wanted to go last week, but had to cut our plans in Salt Lake short because of the crazy storm we had last Wednesday. We were lucky enough to get caught in the beginning of the blizzard. It was quite a drive home in my car with my friend's 4 year old in the back opening the car door on the freeway and saying, "Do it again, Jen!" when we'd go by a big semi and it would cover the windshield in snow, giving us NO visibility. It did make for comic relief in an otherwise tense situation. Needless to say, the ride home this Wednesday was a lot more uneventful. For my birthday dinner, Eric arranged a babysitter for Megan and made reservations for us for dinner at Sundance. It was delicious - some of the best salmon I have ever had. To top it all off, Eric got me the camera I've been having my eye on, a Nikon D40x. It's an SLR camera with 10.2 mega pixels and 2 lenses. It wasn't in stock, so he had to order it and I'm anxiously awaiting it's arrival, as it's out for delivery right now! I did get a picture of it in my birthday card though. I felt even more loved when we returned from dinner and found that friends in the neighborhood had dropped off some things for me. I really feel blessed to have so many great friends and neighbors. It's a humbling feeling to know you are loved by so many!

The black hole that is Target

Target is a black hole because it always sucks my money right out of my wallet at amounts that are a mystery to me. Why is it that everytime I go to Target, I can't leave without spending at least $100?! I just went today and the total was over $150 and I really didn't buy anything big. Just a few odds and ends and a few groceries (we are lucky enough to have a Super Target). How can that add up to so much everytime? I guess a few dollars here and a few dollars there quickly add up. I try not to act shocked when the cashier gives me the total, but by then it's too late to do anything thanks to the little credit card machines that let you swipe it before everyting's rung up. By the time I get home though, my higher math skills finally kick in: Hello Jen!!!!! 10 items at $10 each is $100. I forget this simple math equation and am thus mistified at the checkout. I should really remind myself that before I go. Don't get me wrong, I love Target and think they have great deals. It's just a little crazy when I my trips to Target cost me more than my trips to Costco and my husband thinks his paycheck should just be given in a Target gift card to save us a step.

Movies

Last month I was able to go to a record of 4 different movies and sadly, not really impressed with any of them. I saw PS I Love You, Mad Money (which I actually enjoyed the best), 27 Dresses, and Juno. Eric and I would go to the movies A LOT before we had Megan because one of his best childhood friends is an assistant manager at a local theater, so we would bring him dinner in exchange for free movies. I don't know if it was because we saw so many of them that I wasn't that picky about them or had any expectations other than to be entertained for 90-130 minutes, but I thought most were pretty good. Well, my opinon has since changed. It might be because I don't go very often to the movies, or because now that we have to pay a babysitter the cost is double, but I expect a little more than what I am getting from the motion picture industry. It could also be the fact that I'm getting more sensitive in my "old age". Sex and vulgarity bother me more now too. I guess I just need to screen my movies a little more carefully and be a little more informed, but it might be a little while before I go again.

Sunday Struggles

Before I had Megan, when my friends with kids would complain about how hard church was for them, I used to think they were kind of wusses. How hard can church really be with a kid? Yeah, we are quickly finding that out with each passing week as Megan gets older. I swear she's the biggest wiggle worm on the planet. The girl can't sit still for more than 15 seconds and really loves to entertain the people sitting behind us, as her favorite thing to do now now during sacrament meeting is play peek-a-boo with the people sitting behind us, while standing on the pew. It's a full on battle between the three of us the whole time and it's not all that easy to wrestle a baby in a skirt or dress as I'm sure all you moms out there know. I feel like we are a total zoo at church. It's even worse now that our ward starts at 9 AM. Megan takes a morning nap from 10-12 everyday, which is right in the middle of our block. So, not only is she very wiggly, but also now very cranky. I try to rock her in the mother's lounge to get her to sleep, but that usually results in her screaming like I'm chopping off a limb. She's a stubborn little girl, but on the few occasions I have rocked her to sleep, she wakes up almost as soon as we leave the bathroom from all the noise in the hall. It's so tempting to leave after sacrament meeting so Megan can get her nap, but both Eric and I have to be at church for the third hour since he's in the Elder's Quarum presidency and I'm in the Young Women's. Then when we do get home, Megan's nap schedule is all thrown off. All in all, it's a hard day, but we keep doing it in the hopes that it will get better and someday we'll be blessed for it. I'm sure many of you have already experienced this, so please let me know that it will get better.

Bathroom Project

Before my sister came for Christmas, I told her to bring her creativity with her because I wanted her help to redo the "kids" bathroom upstairs. All of the creativity in my family went straight to my brother and sister and skipped me completely, so I rely heavily on them for ideas. All I knew was that I wanted to paint it blue and do some sort of underwater theme. Jill came up with the idea to use orange as an accent color for some fun contrast. So, we looked EVERYWHERE for a cute shower curtain that wasn't too cheesy. I'm finding that it's hard to find cute things for kids that aren't too kitchy. I'm not into characters or anything that's too cutesy and that's usually all kid stuff is. Thank goodness for Pottery Barn Kids and Land of Nod. They both do a great job with making kid stuff cute and tasteful without making me want to puke. Both my sister and I have this problem of knowing what we want and then not being able to find it. It's rather frustrating and it happens quite often. We went to Ikea and found a cute shower curtain with octopuses all over it, but of course it was out of stock and was on sale, so we assumed it was being clearanced out and not going to be restocked. So, we bought a solid blue one and decided to paint the octopus on ourselves. (We also stole the shadow box idea from Ikea as well.) We've found that sometimes you just have to make it yourself when your ideas are ahead of everyone else's. Jill is a pretty talented artist, so after we found a picture that we wanted she started to draw it on the shower curtain with one of those disappearing pens, but she wasn't too confident it was going to turn out well. Thank goodness Kinko's is open 24 hours, because we went down there and had the image blown up 800% at 10:45 PM on a Saturday night. We stayed up pretty late painting the first coat and came up with our plan to go into business making cute shower curtains for kids bathrooms. We have it all worked out - except for the fact that we don't live in the same state. Eric made fun of us and totally thought we were crazy for doing this, but it turned out really well and I'm really happy about it. It took me a few weeks to get the rest of it all put together, but it was worth it. Eric was also really pleased with the end product and thinks I should submit the pictures to Martha Stewart or something. It's cute when he's proud of something I've made, especially when he's not so sure about it to begin with. Special thanks to Jill and her great ideas as well as her sweet shadow box skills!

Megan's first Christmas

This was the first Christmas with our little Megan, so of course we took way too many pictures. Here are a few of her with the wrapping paper, which is a baby's favorite part of Christmas. I think it's the sound it makes that they really like.

It was fun to have my brother, Jef, my sister, Jill, and my dad here. Jef was so great with Megan. Her face would just light up when he'd come into the room with her. He played with her a ton and taught her to slam dunk the blow-up ball we have. Here's a picture of them "racing". I know - not the best quality picture, but for some reason my flash didn't go off and I had to lighten it in photoshop and it turned it really yellow. (I'm still a photoshop novice.)

I feel really fortunate to have been able to spend every Christmas since Eric and I have been married with our families. This year we decided not to travel for Thanksgiving or Christmas and both families come to Utah to be with us. It was really nice. Eric has a lot of family here in Utah, but my siblings are Californians through and through. Jef is a beach bum and I think his cells would start to deteriorate if he's too far from to beach for any long length of time. Jill lived here last year for about 8 months and it wasn't the right fit for her either. So, holidays are about the only time we see each other any more. Jef and Jill keep me somewhat young and hip and Jill and I revert to giggly 12 year old girls when we're together. I really appreciate them coming to Utah for the second year in a row for Christmas, especially since it's really the last state they like to be. We also have started this silly tradition of playing Monopoly every Christmas. Mostly, Jill, Jef, and I try to beat Eric. I think this was the 4th year in a row that he's won. There's always next year...

The Wailing Wall

We have a half wall that divides our kitchen area from the family room that is a few steps below it. Recently, Megan has realized when I'm in the kitchen and not in the family room with her. She can hear me in the kitchen, so she'll crawl over to the wall and pull herself up and whine until I either come get her or play with her in the family room. This happens a lot at dinner and when I'm on the computer. Sometimes she'll try to eat the carpet that's on the edge of the wall while she's whining, which really grosses me out. She's a smart little one and I'm finding it harder and harder to distract her. You'd think that she'd be happy in the family room playing with all her new toys from Christmas, but she wants someone to play with (or climb all over). I can usually get about 15 minutes before she starts at the "Wailing Wall". She would really love an older sibling to keep her company, but since that's not really possible, we love it when friends and cousins come over to visit. So, here are a few pic's of Megan in action in her jammies that are getting too small and I'm in serious denial that I need to start buying her 12 month clothes.