Whew!

Busy busy busy!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We went to my sister's house in eastern Oregon for a few days, which was a lot of fun but a LONG trip. It took us 7 hours to drive there, which wasn't so bad because we drove at night and Malcom slept the whole way. The way back however is a completely different story- we left about noon and the poor kid had some crazy cabin-fever. The manchild was not happy. We had to stop a lot and in the end, it took us nearly 4 hours longer on the trip back home. So tired. Currently I'm having to do some re-night-training as his sleep routine went out the window for the trip... not so fun. In fact, I have the privilege of hearing him scream himself to sleep right now. He is actually really good at getting himself to sleep normally, but wow... Let's hope he goes back to the old ways soon! I hate to hear him cry.

On another note, which may very well be related, the little man's FIRST TOOTH is finally beginning to show! Malcom's been teething for months, so we've been expecting one to pop up for a while now. It doesn't seem to be bothering him at all actually, so that's a neat surprise. I guess once it's erupted it's not as much pressure to deal with. Once it fully debuts I will definitely post lots of adorable toothy-grin pics!

Also while we were gone we found out that Ben's Grandma Matheson passed away. It was sad, but at least she had led a very long and full life. I was lucky enough to meet her a year and half ago on Memorial Day. Ben introduced me as his wife and she said, "Oh! I thought you were a boy!" Awkward way to meet anyone, so I tried to lessen the awkwardness and lightly chuckled, "Oh, it's okay... I guess my hair's tied back...It's kind of funny..." and I stammered off hoping that someone would change the subject or something. She just looked at me all confused and said, "No, it's not." And that was followed by silent smirks all around by the Mathesons, who as nice as they are, never pass up a moment to laugh at each other. Endearing, really.

But she was a very sweet lady. I loved watching Ben's Grandpa with her. He was so gentle and patient, he took care of all of her needs and never complained. It opened my eyes and made me contemplate really growing old with someone, what happens when one of you succumbs faster than the other to old age and senility. Years of caring for another human while not getting much in return... it's beautiful, inspiring, and even romantic in a way. I think that it's the ultimate show of loyalty and unconditional love.

And you know, I could see similarities between him and Ben. My Ben has had some wonderful examples growing up, for which I am so very grateful. One thing is for certain, and that is that all the people who helped raise him did a good job of it. I can tell that from the stories of his childhood that he was not always an "angel child"- or ever- so I'm thankful for all those who helped steer him in the right direction so that he could come find me. :)

Enough of that. On to other news- we're MOVING! It's official! We're moving across the parking lot to #120, so we will stay in the same ward and everything. Easiest move ever. The new apartment will have TWO BEDROOMS! 'Bout time for it too. I'm not sure which day yet, possibly Thursday or Saturday... so if anyone wants to help move stuff across the parking lot, or entertain a silly little man (Malcom, not Ben.. haha, couldn't resist), then your help would be appreciated! My manager Jessica (who is pretty much the most amazing manager you could ever hope to have) warned me that we're moving underneath a family with a few kids and that there has been some noise-level complaints going to and from the apartment. Hopefully things work out just fine.

Is that all? I can't think of anything else. Oh! We got Christmas cards to send out this year! Thanks to Lois for the free Christmas card tip. I'm lazy, so here's a link to her post about how to get the 50 free cards. (I hope you don't mind Lois!) I had to pay $3 in shipping, but that was all. It only took a week to get, they came with free envelopes and the cards look pretty good. So kids, if you want a card, I need an address! You can email/facebook/call me because we have a lot to give away. :)

And that is all. Whew! Happy December everyone! Now to get busy cleaning, organizing and packing! :D

Luckiest. Vicki. Ever.

Blessed? Lucky? What word is it that I can use to adequately describe my life right now? There are so many adjectives out there but I can't seem to find the right one. Wonderful? Amazing? Full? Stupendous? Lovely? Well what ever it is, I'm in love with it. Here are some pics of late:

Malcom fell asleep on the way home from a RS activity, and stayed asleep on the journey from the car to the couch.

Our friend across the parking lot from us, Julianne, had an extra Johnny Jump Up and gave it to us. This kid had so much fun in it he didn't need me to entertain him at all. It's like a puppy or sibling substitute, but better because it doesn't poo. :)

We do laundry together nearly every day, and we typically play a lot of peek-a-boo. Here he is hiding under one of Ben's shirts. It was super cute because his feet were kicking and thrashing around as he giggled below. I love this kid.

Here by request- a pic of my new hair cut today, courtesy of the amazing (and a dear old friend) Erin Liggett. She gave me a head message, hair washing, and definitely a kind of haircut I have never had before. It's taking some getting used to, but it's tons of fun and I really like it. It's good to try something completely new sometimes! (Plus, the manchild has a harder time reaching my hair now!) All credit goes to Erin- I never would have gotten bangs with out trusting the stylist first! Erin, you are wonderful!

I'm only including this pic so you can see how big the manchild has gotten in comparison! His head is almost as big as mine! There is nothing dainty about this boy.

In other news, we may be moving in to an new apartment soon... one with TWO BEDROOMS! I know, I know, it's almost too good to be true. Apparently, a couple across the parking lot from us is moving and needs someone to buy their contract. We're going to check it out tomorrow (we want to make sure it'll have enough room for us... our apartments have different layouts), but if all works out we might get to move on over soon. Yeah. I'm excited. This week we have discovered that the manchild only needs to eat about 1 or 2 times a night, instead of the 4 I used to think. He still wakes up and cries for a few minutes though, and sharing a room with that is not fun.

Also, Ben officially cut back to part-time at Melalueca, so that he can focus on school work more. Now he only goes in MWF from 4 to 10pm, instead of the old MTWTF 1 to 10pm. It's been a nice change for both of us. He is no longer as stressed as he used to be, and Malcom and I get to actually see him a few times a week. :) We love our Ben, and we especially love when we get to have time with him! We have also been blessed in the fact that they're letting him keep the same wages as he made as a supervisor. I don't think we would be able to make it if they didn't. It never ceases to amaze me how our prayers are answered, that things always seem to work out.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Travel safely if you are traveling! Love you all. :)

Fun with the Manchild

I am constantly amazed at the little man- how quickly he grows [insert chubby joke here], his developing personality and wacky sense of humor, his physical and cognitive skills... the list goes on. Really, he just amazes me in general. I feel perfectly lucky to be able to stay at home with him and be his mom. And seriously, we have more fun than should be allowed to a 7 1/2 month old and his half-crazy mother!

Malcom loves books. Not only do the pages have fun colors and shapes, but they taste yummy too.

We bought him a high chair last week, and got to enjoy the big box that it came in.

We decided to break in the high chair, so I stripped the boy down to his diaper, strapped him in, and let him "paint" with carrots on his white canvas of a tray. He REALLY enjoyed this one!

So life's still good here. Love to all!

Toll Paint

I never thought I'd be one of those women that would stay at home all day baking yummies, playing with babies and planning my next little crafty project. In my youth, I was a skilled avoider of the toll paint and needle point activities. "Useless waists of time and resources that I will undoubtedly trash", is how I also referred to such projects. Ironic, considering my love for drawing, painting, and general creativity.

Thus, you may see how I surprised myself earlier today as I woke up early, made some bread pudding, cleaned and grocery shopped, fed the kid a dozen times, got all atwitter about the crafty potential of a 12X12 sheet of magnetic paper, and then went to the relief society activity tonight where there were blocks of wood and- you guessed it- toll paint. TOLL PAINT. Annnnnnd, *whispers* I may have liked it.

Sh! Don't tell my young self, she would find me and flog me for sure.

I didn't actually do more than get supplies and chat, since the manchild decided to prevent me from doing anything besides trying to appease him (his bedtime does shoot really close to the activities), but it was so wonderful to get to meet and know other women around here. I didn't realize how much I cherish social interaction until I'd been away from it for a while. Today was definitely a good reminder of the greatness of adult conversation.

*sigh* It's been a fabulous day.

Halloween

It's November! Is this year speeding by to anyone else?! I love this time of year, there's always this excitement right before the snow comes.. well, excitement and dread, it's hard to describe adequately. If you've lived somewhere with a long white winter, you probably know what I'm talking about. One thing I love about the fall/winter is all the excuses you have to bake things. Seriously, during the rest of the year it's like you have to have a birthday, visitors, party, or some reason to bake goodies. But this time of year is all about yummy food! I'm excited because I finally have more time to bake and experiment with recipes... last year I was preggo and working 12 hour days, 5 days a week... so yeah, I'm not sure how I survived that, I don't remember it very well at all, and I obviously had no time/ambition to do anything besides working and sleeping, and sometimes mixing the two. I think I need to make cinnamon rolls sometime in the next few days, or orange rolls. I'm not sure but it's going to be tasty! :)

We had a great Halloween. Ben worked all day (curse you month end!!! Gah! 12 hour days suck!), but Malcom and I were able to have fun. We made little pizzas and "dirt 'n' worms" (something I haven't had since I was a kid), watched some silly old "scary" movies which ended up borderline comedy, danced around the apartment, and handed out candy to trick or treaters. We only had two groups of treaters, about 9 kids total... I confess I got so darn excited at the first group I gave them all huge handfulls of candy. I believe the word "jackpot" was whispered between them... :) Yeah, I'm that lady apparently. When the second group came I only had one piece left for each of them. I felt bad but I'm sure they got lots of candy anyway.

Malcom dressed up as the Monopoly, officially named Uncle Pennybags. He turned out looking a lot more like Mr. Peanut, or a capeless magician, or the villain from Rocky and Bowinkle, or an old-time gangster like Al Capone. I worked for weeks on that costume and he was barely fitting in it by the time I finished! He actually had outgrown the shoes I made. It's all good though, I think he was quite dashing anyway. :) Here are some pics from the cuteness:

Haha, I love how serious he looks in the picture. Priceless.

That's all for now. I'm off to bed. Happy November!