Crashed

3/26/2010 morning

3/27/2010 morning

3/30/2010 afternoon

Apparently sleeping on the floor is the more comfortable than sleeping in his crib. I would try to put him to sleep and he would fight me, so I would let him down, he would cry, most of the time because I was going upstairs to get a shower and he didn't want me to leave and then I'd come back down to find him asleep on the floor. 3/30: I was trying to put him down for a nap and he kept fighting me, than put him down and he started crawling around with his pacie and playing then he crashed.

Songs

Shane made up this song for when Declan is crabby and now Corin sings it as well when Declan is crabby.

Can you guess the tune?

When Declan is upset sometimes a song does help to console him, especially when Corin sings to him. I think this one is his favorite. Most of the time Declan will calm down when Corin sings him a song.

If you were wondering what is up with Declan's legs in those jammies, the are size 18months. All the 12month jammies were dirty so we just used those.

Spring Snow

Oh, March in the Colorado; the snowiest month.

We seem to always have a spring snowstorm and it didn't fail us this year. We decided to go out and have a little fun in it today. Declan wasn't so sure about it. He's been sick all week and last weekend, but is progressively getting better so I thought I'd try and take him out for a bit to get some fresh air.

However, he wasn't too happy about sitting in the cold, wet snow. Shane and I have been calling him Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde since he goes from being happy to angry quickly this week.

And Mr. Hyde was starting to make his appearance as he sat in the snow. So held him for awhile than took him inside and let Corin say and play.

Corin had a great time in the snow. He kept talking about getting stuck. Since it is wet, heavy snow it was difficult to walk in. When I came inside with Declan Pippin went outside was was SO excited to have Corin outside to play. He kept jumping all over Corin and running around. Since the snow is so wet and heavy Corin kept falling over and wasn't too happy with Pippin being all crazy. He kept coming to the garage door yelling "Mama Pippin can't like me he needs to come inside." Of course Pippin couldn't come inside the house being wet. I didn't get a good picture, just one of Pippin's butt and that is SO not pretty so I deleted it of course. Corin played for awhile longer outside by himself, but he really doesn't like to be alone outside, so he came in. We still had some fun though.

ORGANIZATION: Garage

A friend in my ward talked about Organization on our Enrichment night that went along with the Relief Society Birthday Celebration. She used to be the Head Guru of an Organization magazine. (I know, not that that matters, many women are great at organizing without being this, but wanted to make note of it.). I really needed this lesson she gave and was glad I went. She was suppose to give it months ago, but was snowed out. Shane had Spring Break from school this past week and took a vacation week from UPS because we had already planned, prior to enrichment, to organize our garage (a GALLON size bag of a job. Yes, I know you're asking yourself what does she mean by that and I'll get to it, not to worry.) I was grateful that she talked about organization doesn't have to cost you money andshe was able to take the situations and concerns of the ladies in the ward and talk to us so we all could be able to use the lesson she taught us in our own homes and with our different circumstances. Everyone has to eat and containers that some food products containers can be washed and used for organization and storage. I really needed that, because I can't go purchase storage containers. Everything she talked about made complete sense and I could have figured out and realized on my own, but sometimes you just need a little kick in the pants by a loving friend who wants to help. She made an analogy. She brought in her TJ MAXX reuseable bag and it is filled with all sorts of different sized bags; snack, sandwich, quart, gallon. She related it to our homes, she LOVES her TJ MAXX bag, as we love our homes and there are many different sized projects in our homes that can be done, maybe we can't always get to a gallon sized bag project, but we can do a snack size project (the junk drawer) or a closet in the small amount of time we have. Hence, the garage, being a gallon sized bag project. She also gave us an acronym

SMART

S: specific, small projects

M: measure your progess

A: ask a friend

R: resources

T: time commitment

Some other points she gave was: DON'T GIVE UP, SMALL STEPS CREATE LASTING CHANGE and THINK ABOUT WHERE YOU ARE RIGHT NOW IN YOUR LIFE (ie: you can't spend money on storage containers so use what you have and think outside the box)

Some thought questions: What does my disorganization stop me from doing the most? Who does my disorganization affect?

IT'S NOT PERFECT, IT'S A PROCESS

So, in an effort to be better organized, which in my house I have MANY places that need to be organized and I need to be better at doing them and keeping them
organized I have decided to blog about them. I am embarassed to put the pictures of the messes in home on the blog, but thought it would be helpful for myself and to do M.

THANK YOU JOYCE!!

THE MESSY GARAGE IN ALL ITS GLORY

We cleared out the entire garage and put the stuff in the backyard. I'm embarassed about the mess in our garage so I didn't want it in the driveway and also with Corin and Declan we weren't sure if we could finish it all in one day, so if it was in the backyard than we could leave it there for a day.

As we started sorting, making piles, organized the things we wanted, trashed and recycled the things we didn't want or need anymore, the yard mess got less and less and the garage got cleaner and cleaner and ORGANIZED!! All of the shelves, cabinets were already in the garage (SCORE no money to spend!!) so now they are utilitized!! There were 2 of these shelves below, now we only used one in the garage and the other one is going to go in Declan's room, which also holds my scrapbooking supplies to be used (that is another GALLON size project to do)

We used sour cream containers and a formula can to organize all the workbench stuff (screws, nails, etc)

Now 2 cars can fit in the garage!!And its all nice and clean!! There is still some stuff in the garage in front of the work bench and cabinets that is in boxes. Its stuff to keep that needs to be put in its proper place inside, however those areas need to be an organization project, but one step at a time.

The shed in our backyard got organized too since things from the garage were going in there. Didn't get a picture, but I will later on.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

The Few, The Proud, The Marines

My parents and Austin went to San Diego to see Adam graduate from the Marines boot camp. He was home for a 10 day leave in which we saw him 3 times (dinner at our house on the Sunday they came back, Declan's birthday party and the Sunday before Adam left) so not too bad; 30%. He is now a Marine.

The brought back Corin a San Diego hoodie, which he was excited about. He loves saying San Diego and was excited they were going. I think he is fascinated with San Diego because they say it in the movie Madagascar.

Adam is teaching Corin how to do Marine push ups.

A Look Back: Declan

March 10, 2009...when it all started

April May June July

Aug. Sept. (for you Adam)

Oct. Nov.

Dec. Jan. Feb.

ONE

My little Declan turned 1 today!!I can't believe a whole year has gone by since he came to our family! He's a joy to have! He's such a happy baby and lights up the room with his smile. The first thing nurses said when they saw him after he was born was "look at those cheeks!" and its so true, he had the cutest, chunky cheeks. I joked at most of his weight was in his cheeks and people were surprised at how much he weighed, 7lb 8oz, thinking he was bigger by looking at his cheeks. He loves his brother Corin and his daddy. He gets SO excited to see Corin in the morning, or any time of day. When I tell Declan we are going to go get Corin from school he gets excited as well. When Shane walks in the door from work Declan races (he's become a speedy crawler) to see him and just lights up. If I'm holding him he'll reach out for Shane. He epitomizes the primary song I'm so glad when Daddy comes home. A pacie and blanket calms him when he is cranky, most of the time. He loves blankets and will pull his off the couch if he sees it. We tell him he is part puppy and part opossum. He loves to chew on EVERYTHING and puts everything in his mouth and loves to hang upside down. He also has "go-go Gadget" arms. I think I put something out of his reach, but he figures out a way to reach it. He thinks socks are an optional clothing accessory and will pull them off and chew on them instead. We have recently come to realize he is a human disposal of food. Anything I put on his tray he will eat, which is not what I expected from when we first tried baby food and solid food and he would be picky about what he liked and only eat the things he liked while the rest got spit out. He is ticklish in so many places and it helps to tickle him while changing a diaper, since he hates the process of getting changed and will wiggle around. Ever since he was tiny he has loved to sleep on a pillow.

3 months

4months

LOVE, LOVE this picture so I had to post it!!6months9months

Co-Conspirator

I'm not sure why its black, but when I tried it it did play.

Groovy Colored Shirts

WAY back last year the YW did tie-dye for a mutual activity. We have a lady in our ward that has all the professional stuff to do tie-dye and knows were to get the good stuff, not those kits that are sold in craft stores. So, I did a shirts for myself and my boys, Shane included. I don't have pictures of ours, but here are the boys. I kept forgetting to post them, so I'm doing it now since Corin wanted to wear his "colored shirt" today and remembered I hadn't posted about them so I put Declan in his as well to take pictures.

Now that Declan is a mover, he doesn't want to stay still for pictures, so this is the best I got, the rest he was crawling off or he would put his head down.

I had made Declan 2 onesies, since he would quickly grow out of one. So these next 2 pictures are from back on 11/5/09 when the smaller one fit.