Ears

Last Sunday, B & B came over for dinner and football watching.  At one point in the afternoon, Biggie, Bird and I went outside to let the dogs out and Big just happened to bring along some Q-tips.  He has always loved to have his ears cleaned and has recently started trying to clean them himself!  He still needs a little practice, but he's pretty good at getting the Q-tips to stay in all by themselves.  Bird snapped this pic.  I think it's hilarious! His facial expression is priceless.  Silly little boy!    

Labor Day

Instead of staying home for Labor Day, we decided to head to Mammoth Creek to meet the fam.  Biggie LOVED running around and was perfectly happy to play outside and explore the yard.  Grammy was excited to show Big the fire trucks but he ended up not being too interested.  Maybe next year Grammy! We had a great weekend with the fam and hope to be able to use the cabin more next year! 

New Park

One afternoon while at the grocery store, we asked a lady where to find a good park.  She was so sweet and told us about a great park in Pleasant Grove.  It's called a Discovery Park and is really super cool!  It is completely made of wood and reminds me so much of a park we used to play at when we were kids.  Biggie is still a little young to really enjoy all of it, but he loved to run around and explore.  We've been there a few times since that first day.  I'm pretty positive that it will be one of our favorites!  

Biggie's hiding spots...

Biggie has great toys at Grammy's house.  I'm pretty positive that he likes his toys at Grammy's better than the ones he has here at home.  His new favorites are his match box cars and the track that Pop Pop ordered from e-bay.  He loves to put his cars down the track but he loves to hide his cars even more!  I just happened to find a bunch of his favorite spots as I was gathering our things to leave before we moved.  The funniest part about this situation was that after I cleaned up all of the cars, I caught Biggie looking in his spots to see if his cars were still there.  Funny little boy!

Old, but still good!

Back in June we decided to head up to the cooler weather in Brian Head.  The Shaw's were able to come with us and we had a super fun little trip.  We just relaxed and hung around the cabin and then took the kids for a ride in the Rhino the next morning.  The weather was beautiful and the kids absolutely loved their Rhino ride.  Both Drake and Scarlett thought they were pretty cool sitting in the back all by themselves!  

The little Dude!

This last month has been a month of "firsts" for everyone, this little dude included!  He has learned so many funny and adorable things over the course of the last few weeks.  I had to start a memo in my phone the other day so I wouldn't forget everything.  Not only have I slacked big time on the blog, but I have completely stopped writing in his journal and feel really horrible about that.  I need to get back into the journal writing asap, but for tonight, this will have to do!  

Things to remember about Drake from [18 to 19.5] months...

*  Two weeks ago we made our very first trip to the library.  He was not as impressed by the selection as I was, and was definitely more interested in pushing his stroller around than he was in the books, but we managed to grab a few before he threw a fit and have been back twice for more.  (the library here is huge and great!)  I am really looking forward to when he is old enough to go to story time and to be excited about picking out his own books!

*  Two weeks ago he also discovered a new found love for Buzz Lightyear and Toy Story.  He has been obsessed with Cars for a few months but all of a sudden one morning he realized that he could say "Buzz" and it has been game over (for me) since then!  He asks for Buzz at least twenty times a day and would honestly sit and watch Toy Story over and over all day long.  He still doesn't really sit and "watch" it for longer than a few minutes (which I'm grateful for.  He's way too young for long periods of tv watching!) but he always wants it on in the background.  I really try to limit it to once a day, but sometimes he gets lucky and has it on twice.

*  A few days after he figured out Buzz, we were at Target and he heard the movie playing in the toy section.  He immediately started saying, "ah Buzz, ah Buzz, ah Buzz," while pointing to the toys.  It's so dang cute to watch him recognize things that he likes and to hear him verbalize it.  Of course, at that point, we had to make the rounds of the toy department and Drake rode away with his very first Buzz Lightyear!  He was thrilled and so was I! 

*  Because we spend so much time at home here, I decided that it was time to buy a few things that we could play with together.  To date, Drake doesn't really like to play with other people.  I think he's still a little young.  He loves to have you sit by him and he thinks it's great to be able to hand you different things here and there but as far as actual play time goes, it doesn't happen yet.  Realizing this, I decided that I would try something other than playing with toys so I bought him some play dough.  I have to admit, I was pretty excited about it!  Oh how I loved play dough when I was a kid!  Opening the jars and smelling it brought back loads of memories!  Anyways... we started out making just balls and snakes and now all he wants to make is balls.  He even calls it balls.  It's pretty cute!

*  Last week, before we left for STG for Labor Day, I was packing him up to run some errands.  He had been playing with his Buzz and a Lightening McQueen car at his little table and when I told him we were ready to go and went to grab his hand, he insisted on bringing Buzz and Lightening in the car with us.  I had to make sure to put one on each side of his car seat.  I couldn't help but smile at the sight of my little boy with his action figures, knowing that they would be the first of many to ride along with him in the car.  

*  Recently, he has really increased his vocabulary.  He still will not exactly say things on demand and is not a parrot, but he rattles new words and phrases off all day long.  Some of the new favorites are:

- there he is (when Mater comes on for the first time during Cars)

-  ooce, ooce (juice)

-  hanies (handies/hands)

- Buzz (of course!)

- cars

-  Shaney (Shandon)

-  Gooie (Goodie/Tobie)

-  kk (he makes the k sound twice when he wants his bink and blank)

- nack (fruit snacks)

-  shookies (shoes)

-  my daddy

-  boogies

-  hi mom

-  awa (water)

-  pooh pooh

-  bum bum

- tum

* He now recognizes everyone in the family in pictures.  I bought a little photo album and put pictures of everyone in both families in it and we look at it all the time.  He loves to carry it around and point to different pictures.  (thanks to Kristen for the idea!)  He has also learned how to point to people if you ask him where they are.  He especially loves to point to Tobie and say, "gooie!"

*  He is completely fearless in the pool and around it.  He is a wild man with his wings on and loves to jump off the edge and go down the slide constantly.  I am so grateful that he loves the water and isn't afraid, but it makes me extremely nervous too.  I am hoping to find some swimming lessons for him asap!  He needs to learn how to doggie paddle quick!

*  Speaking of tantrums... my little man can let them rip when he wants to! He is naturally a pretty stubborn little guy (thanks to the Musso genes) and he definitely does not appreciate being told NO.  He's really not horrible, but the two of us do butt heads on occasion!  It's unfortunate for him that he has a momma that is even more stubborn than he is!  I have learned that sometimes its just not worth the fight and I end up giving him what he wants, but it doesn't happen very often.  It's just not okay to throw toys, eat 27 packs of fruit snacks or walk around the house with a bink and blank all the time!   Lately, I have started talking with him more about things and have been trying to reason with him more instead of just saying no.  I realize that he is still super young for reasoning, but surprisingly, he is picking it up really quickly.  He chooses to be a nice boy multiple times a day instead of going to time-out or to bed!  

*  He is the pickiest eater these days.  He actually has been for awhile but I think he may be getting worse.  He doesn't seem to care much at all about food other than cheese and fruit snacks and I absolutely refuse to give him those all day.  So, some days all he eats is cheese (cottage cheese and cheddar) and maybe some fruit.  The other day I think he may have eaten two pieces of cheese, a few crackers and a little bowl of cantaloupe and I was lucky to get him to eat that much.  I know it's probably just a phase and he'll most likely outgrow it, but it's kind of a pain right now!

*  My little man is the ultimate daddy's boy right now!  Oh my goodness, does that boy love his daddy!  He asks for "my daddy," all day long and as soon as Chris walks in the door Drake is all over him and won't leave his side.  Poor Chris can't even use the bathroom without Drake screaming at the door.  I love that he loves his daddy, but sometimes it becomes a bit a problem, like at night when it's time for bed and he won't go to sleep because he needs "my daddy."  It's heart breaking to hear him cry out for his daddy.   Hopefully that gets a little bit better.

*  He loves to walk up and down stairs now.  He still needs a hand to hold onto but he is getting pretty stable all by himself.  We usually play the counting game while taking the stairs and he is getting really good at that too.  He knows that two comes after one and he usually manages to say eight and nine at the right time.  He obviously is just repeating what he has heard me say, but it's still cute!

*  He loves to wash his hands and brush his teeth.  He is tall enough now to get into the top drawer in the bathroom and always hijacks our tooth brushes!  I found him on the deck the other day with my tooth brush down between the wood slats.  Nice!  Good thing I had a spare.  Whenever he sees someone at the sink, he comes running saying, "ah hanies, ah hanies."

*  My mom and Chris think that he sounds like he is either German or Jewish when he says certain things like hanies.  It's kind of our fault because we started calling his hands, handies and his shoes, shookies, but that's what Oma and Opa used to always say and it just kind of stuck.  So my son sounds like he's speaking Yiddish, big deal!

Well,  that's enough for now.  I know I am missing so many things, but this will have to do for tonight.  Oh how I love my sweet little boy!  We definitely have our good days and our maybe not so good days, but all in all, I am the luckiest momma alive to be able to spend all of my days with Drake.  

I'm horrible!

** Disclaimer... long and boring to be sure!  Don't feel obligated to read.

Yet again, I have seriously slacked with this silly blog and I am now hating myself for it.  So many "worth remembering" things have happened in the last little while and I have neglected to write about any of them.  Ahh!! I have got to get it together.  This is surely a sorry excuse for a journal.  I KNOW I am going to look back and be extremely sad if I just skip over this last month and move forward so here goes...

On August 18th, we picked up our U-Haul, parked it in our driveway, and packed it up as "tetris" like as possible (with the help of some amazing family and neighbors, of course!)  On August 19th, with Chris in the U-Haul and me in the truck pulling a 14 foot trailer that was also packed to the max, we made our way to our new home in Orem.  It was a momentous day.  After sixteen years of living in beautiful St. George, I finally moved away.  It was a bitter sweet day for me.  I had been anticipating this move for a few months and was actually excited for the opportunity to experience life somewhere new, but I was devastated and still am, to have to leave behind our incredible parents.  I cannot even begin to describe how blessed both Chris and I are to have the parents that we do.  They have been more help to us over the last little while than I ever could have imagined.  Not only did they help me pack my entire house and clean it better than any cleaning service could dream of, they all made the drive to Orem to help us unpack and get settled.  I'm pretty sure that we had our boxes unpacked, everything put away and incredibly organized and even had most of the decorations hung in record time!  By Saturday night when everyone left, I looked around and was completely amazed at how much we had accomplished in two short days.  And... only because our sweet parents were there to help with everything.  Even now, weeks later as I type this, I'm tearing up thinking about how grateful I am for their help and support.  Thank you, thank you, thank you parents.  We love you and appreciate you so very much!

On Tuesday, following our weekend of unpacking, Chris, Biggie and I headed back to STG to pick up the car and the dogs.  We decided to leave them behind on our first trip so they wouldn't be in the way while unpacking.  (And it was a good excuse to go back home for another few days!)  Because I really had nothing left to do in Orem, I decided to stay in STG until Friday when mom and dad were driving up to spend the weekend painting with Snipes.  We had a great few days just relaxing and even got to spend an evening with the Adams family swimming, and watching Biggie try to drown himself multiple times. (note to self... don't forget to write about that at some point.)  On Friday, Biggie, the boys and I packed up the car and headed back to Orem.  It was a rather long drive with Tobie panting uncontrollably in my ear the ENTIRE time, but we made it and I can honestly say that I was glad to be back to our little house.  Friday night and Saturday were spent at Snipes and Melissa's apartment painting with mom, dad, B & B and Snipes.  Even though we were working the whole time, it was fun to be with the fam and having mom and dad there definitely helped ease the initial pain of being away from home.

The following weekend (Labor Day) we decided to pack up, once again and head to Mammoth Creek to meet up with mom and dad at the cabin.  We debated about going, seeing as how we had already driven so much in the few weeks prior, but in the end, we decided to go.  We spent Friday night and all day Saturday at the cabin, enjoying the beautiful weather and fresh mountain air and then drove to STG for the remainder of our stay.  Again, it was so nice to be with the fam but by the time we arrived home on Wednesday morning at 2:30, I was really glad to be home and to know that we were staying there for more than a few days.

This last weekend was our very first full weekend at home here in Orem.  And honestly, I was kind of excited!  On Saturday the tree of us drove up north a little ways to shop, grabbed a bit to eat at JcW's and  relaxed for the remainder of the day.  Sunday we headed to Stake Conference and spent the rest of the day at home with B & B, Snipes, Tae, Nick and our friends Issac and Amberlee.  It was super fun to have a house full for dinner and football treats.  Having the siblings close by as definitely helped make the move way more fun!

All in all, I have to say that so far, even though it hasn't even been a month, I really do love it here!  Because I really don't have much to do during the day while Chris is at work, Biggie and I have started taking drives around Provo and Orem

Anyway... it really has been so fun to live in an area that has so much to offer shopping wise too!  I have only ever lived in STG while old enough to care about shopping, so to have everything I could ever want within five minutes of my house, is such a treat! I know it probably sounds so silly, but I really do get so excited every time I see a new place that I haven't been before.  I feel like I've been to every store in STG a hundred times so the possibility of new places is great!  Not to mention the fact that we have fruit and veggie stands on almost every corner! Ahh... love the fresh peaches and watermelon.  I feel like I should be writing about some super fab place because I think it's so great here, but nope... it's just Orem!  Who knew that little ol' funky Orem could be so cool!  Not me!  I have been sweetly surprised!

So, to end this extremely long post and to sum up these last few weeks, I have to say that I miss the parents and the Weavers terribly, there are a few funky things about our place (more on that later), I'm thrilled to be close to the siblings, I LOVE having a husband again, and I honestly feel like we made the right decision by moving.  Everything about our situation right now seems right.  We're kind of still in the "in-between" stage with few things, but I really do believe that we are supposed to be here until we get all the in-betweens sorted out!