our BIG weekend

Ok, so you know how you plan and you plan for something awesome when you have a big weekend, like lets say, Memorial Day? And then the universe throws a wrench in it and the whole thing blows up in your face? And you just are soo unhappy the whole time because of the expectation you had?

Do you get what I am trying to say? Well that was our Anniversary/Memorial Day weekend, and yeah I am going to say boo hoo, poor me for a minute, because we, ok so maybe I, REALLY needed it to be great. So thanks universe for NOT throwing us a bone...

Axel had Croup and was just miserable until Monday. I became his human pacifier all weekend long. And I say this because as much as I LOVE nursing and am so grateful that I was able to do so, last weekend was one of those times where all I wanted was for him to take a pacifier or a bottle. It was horrible, and really until you have that experience you really have no clue what I am talking about, nor can you sympathize. So don't judge me.

But we still tried to have fun... even with a sick baby. There was some fun sprinkled here and there. So in a way, I guess you could say our glass was half full, but in a lot of ways it was half empty as well. Despite our efforts to have lots of fun, it wasn't until about Monday, and then we really had fun. So here's to the glass being half full!

We went to the Zoo, and met up with Kassie, Jerome and Story. It was PACKED, and we packed way to much stuff, and I wish I would have left Axel's stroller in the car, because it really just got in the way and was only carrying stuff that we really didn't need anyway. We didn't need it because Kory carried Axel around the entire time anyway so he could impart all his animal wisdom on him. And believe me, this guy knows ALOT about animals. SO I basically just stood back and watched and lugged around all the luggage, as my husband and son spent the afternoon discussing animals.

Most of the animals were being lazy or they were gone. I was really disappointed that there were only 5 penguins, when last time there were like a bazillion, (yeah that's a number).

But Axel enjoyed all the Foliage ( I learned you pronounce it this way, go, HERE or HERE to hear the correct usage) He also really liked the animals that he could see, like the giraffes, the baby elephant and rhino.

Pretend that the big tiger is Celeste, and the little one is Zoe :)

Then after we went to the zoo, we took Axel swimming for the first time, which he loved! I wish I would have gotten a picture of him just chilling in the tube the entire time just watching all the kids swim. It was cute. If you were there you know what I am talking about.

Then we came home and finally watched AVATAR! I know most have you have already seen it, but we don't go to movies anymore because 1) people are WAY too loud at movies, and it drives us both crazy.(side note: The last time we went to a movie I was 7 1/2 months pregnant, and I got into a fight with a lady who would NOT be quiet, yeah I was THAT angry, and when I was pregnant I really didn't have a filter, if I was mad, I was not afraid to tell you so.) and 2) Despite my inability to control my rage when people ruin movies for me, its A LOT more fun watching movies on my big screen TV, in my skivvies while my husband rubs my feet, eating brownies and ice cream. My point, we finally watched Avatar, and it was really good. I liked it a lot and Axel went to bed peacefully that night. So good way to end our weekend. :)

Like the month of May, our weekend was "In like a lion and out like a lamb."

That although, at first it was really hard and really stressful, and it came with some major meltdowns on my part. (more on that another time) By the end of the weekend, everything was back on track and we had a good time.

Bum crawl

Today Axel learned that he can turn around in the shopping cart and it is a much more interesting view.

He also decided today that slithering on his belly, is not nearly as comfortable as it is on your bum. ( I am extra happy about this because I am tired of lint rolling his entire tummy)


I guess it's go go go from now on...

4 years!

4 years ago today, we got married. best decision I ever made.

Now, some of you might be saying, "wait a minute here, isn't being a mom the best decision you ever made?" and I would argue while it is a pretty fabulous thing, if it wasn't for the decision to marry Kory, I wouldn't have my baby the way my baby is, half Kory half me. And although marriage is not the only way of having a baby and off spring, it was the start of our family. If I didn't have Kory around to share in the joys of parenthood I don't think it would be as fun. Scratch that, it wouldn't be as fun.

Who else would want to listen day in and day out, hour after hour about everything that is Axel. Last night for example, Axel gagged a little on his food, and threw up a little on his tray, and before I had a chance to clean it up, he looked at it, looked at his tater tot in hand, and dipped his tot in the throw up, and continued to eat as if nothing happened. (are you dry heaving right now?) we were, and then laughing and then dry heaving. Kinda gross but kinda adorable too.

SO once again here is to today, the best decision I ever made!

splish splash!

This is just for kicks really. People always say how much Axel looks like Kory. I don't think that is a bad thing at all. It makes me happy actually. It makes Kory happy.

Like father...

Like son...

I don't really think these pictures show how much they look alike, but the other night when we were spraying Axel down after dinner (an every night thing now that he feeds himself, just FYI). he kept doing this and drinking the water! But it reminded me so much of one of my favorite pictures of Kory. But I think Axel is older in this picture then Kory was in the one above it. But aren't they both so cute! :)


But bathtime is really starting to be an everyday thing for us. Axel doesn't mind, he really loves the water. He is not cautious at all when he is in the water.

I don't know why I haven't done it before this, but I discovered that someone at my shower had given me bubble bath for him. So we put it in his bath and he LOVED it.

ah mothers day

Mother's day was very nice this year. Kory made sure I had a lot of time to relax, and made sure we did everything I wanted to do. He made it all about me. From the food we ate to the activities during the day. It was a great day.

The day started out with Axel saying another word! DA DA ( we have been trying to get him to say this word for a very long time) Don't worry he already says Ma Ma.

Kory is always really helpful with Axel anyway, he is busy, but still a very hands on dad, and very involved. But on this particular day he was even MORE helpful, and took on all the responsibility so I could relax. He got him ready for church, and got up early with him, and got him ready for our park trip, and just found a way to be more helpful so I could enjoy the day.

Church was really nice, our ward did a good job balancing the talks on Mother's. They had an older sister in the Ward give a talk, who has never been married, and never had children and it was really good. She had a really good perspective on it all. (I don't know if anyone remembers my post from a few years ago where I complained about church on Mother's Day, this talk would have been nice that day.) But I know there are a lot of ladies out there who feel that way on Mother's day, and it is a hard place to be in. I've been there I know. But she had a great attitude about it and I really enjoyed her talk. We also got flowers, which I already killed,

After church we went for a picnic in the park with Kassie, Jerome and Story. It was fun to hang out with them. Something we never get to do it seems because we are too busy all the time, and since both of our Mama's were out of town, it just didn't feel right to just do nothing, and I LOVE Picnics.

Axel and Story had fun playing together, or rather fighting over the ball, and Story's monkey backpack, Axel thought it was the funniest thing on her back, he would look at her and just laugh and laugh. Like "HEY, did you know you have a monkey on your back!"
After that we came home and took a LONG nap, all three of us. Something I love about Axel is that if we nap so will he as long as it is with us. He is truly Kory's kid.

Then Kory made me Steaks, and I helped with the sides (watermelon, potatoes, rolls) It was delicious. And even though he felt bad for not doing it all, having him do that Steak part and entertain Axel was super helpful and I really enjoyed spending the time together as a family. ( I am not really a sidelines do things for me type of gal, I am the go go go and do do do type, a trait I proudly inherited from my mother, who inherited it from her mother. (I think this is hard for Kory sometimes because I just like to know everything and be involved in everything.)

Anyway, back to the day, after dinner was followed by a family craft project (also something I totally loved) Which was totally Kory's idea, and it was fun. (even though most of the other members of our family were not cooperative. It was a hand print project. But it was still fun for me and it was really thoughtful of Kory, I thought.

Then it was present time! Kory and Axel wrote me a beautiful card and gave me a wonderful gift I get to go get myself pampered and have my hair done. Which I am doing today so I will post pictures a little later. I am not doing anything drastic, but it is MUCH over due.

We then played games and went to bed. All in all, a very good day. I am sure grateful that I have these boys in my life!

We had some very special visitors!

Last week my very good friend Chelsea and her cute son Kaden came to town all the way from Korea, we had so much fun while she was here, and are pretty sad to see her go. Axel loved meeting her and playing with Kaden. Kaden has gotten so big since we last saw them. Sob we will miss them for sure.

Here are some of the pictures of her visit with us. But you have to look at them on Facebook sorry... I am lazy

VIEW PICTURES HERE

Ba Ba BALLOON!

A while ago someone gave us a BALLOON, I think it was Macey's Grocery store. Ever since Axel has been OBSESSED with balloons and bouncy balls. I know, I know most kids love balloons, I am serious when I say obsessed tho, I am talking takes it with him everywhere he goes obsessed. So to prove my point I will have to show what I mean...
This balloon came home with Nicolas but soon Axel became obsessed. If you notice in this picture his cheeks are a little red well..

At the first of April, Axel caught a slight cold, nothing big, just a little congestion, well the cold then spread to his ears, and he got an ear infection, which had to be treated with antibiotics.

Which at first he was sooo good about taking the 7ml twice a day. (doesn't that seem like a lot for a small baby when the baby tylenol is not even 1 ml?) But day 4 hit and he was DONE! It was a battle every time we tried to give him some, and he ruined lots and lots of his clothes.

He was so stubborn about it, we tried all sorts of tricks, from putting it in a different container, to blowing a little air in his face to get him to swallow. But he quickley caught on and would learn our trick and retaliate the next time. One time he closed up his throat and then spit it all out and it got in his eye! It was horrible. And his poo was bright pink from the stuff, and lets just say it was a miserable 10 days for all.
But then when we got to day 9, a rash appeared, so we went from giving him antibiotics to Benedryll, which he didn't mind as bad but still not fun. And he had that for like 4 days, Then when his rash cleared up after a few days, he got a fever of 102, while we were visiting my grandmother because his two upper teeth decided to come through.

See those two little teeth on top?!

AND after all that he finally got what we thought was ringworm on his leg, (not an actual worm but a fungus) so we had to treat him with an anti fungal cream but it ended up being another reaction to the antibiotics. (Again sorry Kelli and Kyle for accusing your cat of giving it to him, the nurse on the phone was certain it came from a kitty, we were just being cautious...)

It was a crappy couple of weeks for us. Did I mention we were in Idaho visiting my grandmother for the end of all this? Traveling with a sick baby is NOT fun and I learned my lesson.

More on that trip another time.

Then at the end of the month we found out our good friends the Flygares were moving across the country to Georgia in a week! It was hard to find time to get together, because they were busy moving and we were busy on our basement, but we finally got together with our families the night before they left. (Notice the balloon in Axel's hand in every picture, he WOULD NOT share with Shane.)

Shane tried to play too, and Axel was ticked!After that he kept that balloon by his side.

The "babes"

The "boys"
Flygare and Anderson FamiliesHe even fell asleep with it on the way home and he had a firm grasp around it. No one was getting that balloon.

Then it was Mother's day week, and my mom wanted to get together for lunch a few days before. (She was going to be out of town visiting her mom) so we got together and had a really nice lunch in the park in honor of my mom and us mom's. It was last minute but I tried to make it look nice, but the decorations ended up being too light and kept knocking over. Again, everywhere that Axel went the balloon was sure to go

I meant to take more pictures, but I didn't. But it was fun and we had a really nice time.

After all of that the BEST part about his fascination with Balloons is that Axel says "BALL" now and he means ball or balloon. He has been saying Ba Ba for a long time, and it was just something to say, but now he says BALL whenever he sees a ball or a balloon and its out of his reach. And he will say it over and over again until he gets it. It is really cute, even at 6 in the morning and he sees it and decides he would rather get the "BA" then go back to sleep, it's really adorable, and I couldn't be more proud. His eyes light up whenever he sees one and it is pretty fantastic. We laugh every time, which I think just reinforces it.

Ever since we have been filling our house with balloons and all sorts of sports and bouncy balls (I had to be really careful how I phrased that because I didn't want to leave it open for ridicule........kyle)