The school my older sister teaches at is on Spring Break, so William spent the afternoon with Grandma and we took advantage of the time by made our way up to the outlets in Park City. They seem to be very hit or miss though, and we hit a miss day. We didn't find much for us at all. William, however, scored. Which is good, because he wasn't very prepared for the warm weather that's coming (hopefully sooner than later!). Osh'kosh and Old Navy both had some great sales and William got some dang cute outfits. I can't wait to put them on him. He also scored this cute little jacket. His arms were sticking out of his old one, and I know it's getting warmer, but when I saw this on the clearance rack (with an additional 40% off) I couldn't resist. There will still be plenty of cool nights and rainy afternoons! I was just sad that the galoshes were too big!
The warmer weather has been so nice. I can't get a picture of him looking at me when we are outside because he is too busy looking at everything else. He can't get enough of being outside!

Charlie and the Chickens

We had another fun, crazy, and busy week as we babysat another family of four kids. William once again amazed me. He had a blast and slept really well. He'll nap anywhere! He had a lot of fun with the kids, and was a champ in the carseat as we drove kids to and from soccer, dance, book fairs, and so on for what seemed like hours at a time! The family had a dog named Charlie that was really good with Will, especially because he didn't always remember to be soft with him. They would follow each other around a lot, just watching to see what the other did. William also loved the chickens. He'd stand at the back door and just watch. The funniest was when all 10 of them would gather around the door to stare back at him. William has also come a long way this week with signs. He now does please, more, juice, milk, sleep, bath, and occassionally does thank you, water, and even once did mom. It's pretty cute! Juice is his new favorite... he loves juice boxes. It amazes me to watch him eat and play, seeing a little boy rather than a baby! I love him to pieces!

Nice to be home... and a good book...

William amazed us last night be sleeping 10 hours and 40 minutes. He hasn't slept that long in a while... I almost couldn't believe it that the clock said 7:03 when he finally started making noise. It was so nice. And now he's taking a nap, so I thought I'd finish this post that I started almost a week ago. It is nice to be home, but we are off again on Monday to babysit another family for part of the week. I hope William does as well as he did last time! They are a fun family from our old ward, and bonus that it's across the street from Grandma's house! So now I'll backtrack a week:

For the last week and a half or so William, Danny and I have been house sitting/dog sitting and babysitting. It was quite the adventure. William went from an only child to the youngest of five. He was such a champ. He slept better in the pack n play than he had been in his crib. Unfortunately he is not a big sleeper. 9 1/2 hours (he rarely gives us an occassional treat of 10 hours) a night. But he's still taking 2 (usually) good naps. I can't complain. The youngest of the kids we were babysitting is four, and likes being the youngest, but she was great with William. While the other kids were at school the three of us would go to parks and to the zoo. William went on the carousel for the first time.

He loved it.

He just looked around ooooohing and aaaaaahhhhing the whole time. That will definitely be something we ride again! We can't wait for the warm weather...

He also loved being around the dogs, first with my parents German Shepherd. Sadie is so good around William, and tolerates all of his ear-pulling. We are working on being soft. He also enjoyed the kids' little dog Cookie, and even started making "coo" sounds whenever he heard cookies name. (he's been saying "say" sometimes when he sees Sadie, too). I think Cookie was very relieved when the week was over.

The other benefit of the time we were gone is that it gave me a chance to clean our carpets. My aunt let me borrow her carpet cleaner, and my little buddy was a big helper:

He is such a good kid. It amazes me how well he adapts to all of the changes we put him through. He has such a happy disposition, and although he's a momma's boy, he goes off exploring without looking back and with a strong sense of independence.

We finished our babysitting adventures just in time to have a nice relaxing conference weekend. We followed our tradition of listening to Saturday morning session on Temple Square. We took a blanket and some treats, and relaxed as William explored the grass, fountains, dirt, and flowers. It was a beautiful setting to be in as we listened to the words of the prophets and other leaders of the church. As we left the wind began to blow and we were glad we chose that session to go to on Temple Square. That afternoon, Danny's parents treated us to tickets to Pioneer Theater's The Diary of Anne Frank. They did a great job, with an emotional ending. It made me grateful to be able to have the freedoms that we have. I can't imagine living in such a small place with that many people for that long, not being able to go outside for 2 or so years, and then to be found when the end is so near. I definitely need to go back and read that.

Speaking of reading, I started a book called The Help. My mom recommended it to me, and I'm already sucked in after the first few chapters. I'll let you know, but so far I recommend it.

But back to conference...Saturday night Danny went to Priesthood with his dad and brother as William and I joined my mom, grandma, aunt, and sisters for dinner.

Sunday we stayed home all day, enjoying the peace of not having to do anything, but being able to enjoy conference. We feel so lucky to live downtown and so close to Temple Square. It's a perfect place for where we are in our lives right now.

Now we are back to the present: I finished reading The Help. I highly recommend it. Such an interesting read. It really makes you think about others and the position they are in and how they are treated. It was probably such an experience for the author to write it as she looked back on her childhood and how people treated each other.

And I love these three little birds on the cover and what they represent in the story! I haven't read much lately, but this was worth the time.

This is how we roll...

William's 1 year "photo shoot"

Instead of taking William to get his pictures taken, we decided to catch him in action. So for turning 1, I followed him around to see what pictures he'd give me. I warn you, there are a lot, and this isn't even all of them. But he sure is a fun boy to follow! Especially with a camera. We went to Temple Square on 2 different days, and then went with Spencer, Andrea, and Thomas to a super fun park out by their house. The pictures are in reverse order, so starting with the last picture:

William fell and face-planted it right on the dirty sidewalk. His forhead was bruised and his face was all red and dirty, but he still wanted to walk around on his own!

I love William's face in this one... his new thing is to make a big "O" with his mouth and say "ooooh". So cute.This is definitely one of my favorites!We couldn't keep him out of the dirt. He loves to explore

At the park

I love his face in this picture:

Spencer, Andrea, and Thomas

These two are such good buddies!

William was in heaven playing in the dirtAnother favorite:

Back to exploring at Temple Square...

And just for fun... playing at Grandma's. And I had to throw this one in. My parents found these awesome cowboy boots at A.A. Callisters. He loves them!

Just so you know...

Winco doesn't take credit cards. Saturday William and I ventured out to Winco (wouldn't it be so great if there was one closer than 7200 South?) because there were just enough things I needed to get that I prefer to get at Winco (bulk section...) so I opted to go there instead of Smith's. I hate walking around Smith's and thinking "I could be paying this much less if I were at Winco."
So we went.
William was great and I found everything on my list. We unloaded at the checkstand and swiped my card. My credit card. My debit card was MIA because William likes my wallet. I atleast knew it was in our apartment. Somewhere.
So the lady tells me to put in my pin, and I tell her it's credit. They take cash, debit, or checks. So I thought I'd see if I could remember the pin and ran to the ATM. William was still being a champ. I couldn't remember it, so we went back to find that the lady had accidently charged the guy after me in line for my groceries. Fortunately the checker noticed, because he hadn't and was almost done bagging.
Luckily he was a nice guy, and was very patient as we trecked over to Customer Service to work it out.
So they put my cart in the cooler while I took William home to help me find my debit card. Danny, my hero, went back out there for me. He said they had a stack of receipts when they went to find ours, so I think it happens a lot. Too bad that doesn't make me feel any less stupid.
Note to self: Don't go to Winco without that debit card...

The 1 Year Old: Part 2

My last post was titled "One Year Old part 1: the party". I called it "part 1" thinking that I would soon post part 2. My mistake. This is what the past chunk of our lives have felt like in the last few weeks:

With Danny recovering from surgery, and William fighting a killer cold, we have had a crazy couple of weeks! Poor guy can't even sleep. But he's getting better. Today was the first day in almost a week and a half that he napped in his crib. Twice. Hallelujah. And last night was the first night he spent the whole night in his crib (between his multiple wakings). But he's such a sweet little guy. It's pretty fun to have him cuddle so much. Sad to see him so uncomfortable, but I'll miss having him sleep in my arms so much. But I do look forward to normal nights (will they ever come) and being able to get things done during the day! It was heavenly to have 2 different breaks today while he napped rather then holding him with the TV turned down, watching episodes on Netflix of Monk, Drop Dead Diva, or Kyle XY.

Anyway, I'm putting off dishes and laundry to put some pictures up of my cute boy.

His 12 month stats are:

Weight: 20 lbs 8 ounces (15th percentile)
Height: 32 1/4 inches (87th percentile)

He's still my tall skinny boy! He's growing so fast and is so adventurous. He loves getting into everything, pulling out all the pots and pans (he is mastering the art of setting them out like drums and banging away. Good thing no one is living next door at the moment), and helping me with laundry (opening the dryer door while it's going and then help me "sort" the clothes I've already folded). Yesterday he started blowing kisses, and two weeks ago said his first "word". Whenever he drops things or falls down he says "uh oh!"
He LOVES the stroller and has started to point to it a lot so that we'll go out. I can't wait for it to warm up! He's also obsessed with the wheels (and anything else that spins) and loves pushing the stroller up and down the hall (which is hilarious to watch considering that he can't see where he's going!)

He loves giving me kisses and biting my leg, arm, and shoulder. I prefer the kisses. He loves the pool noodles and could carry them around all day. These pictures aren't in any order... but because he wasn't in the mood for cake at his party, we let him have some the next day...He loves chocolate and frosting! I wonder where he gets it from...I love catching him looking at books. He has 5 or 6 that he LOVES, and then a whole bunch that he won't have anything to do with. His top are 10 Friendly Fish, Brown Bear Brown Bear, The Very Busy Spider, Trains, and Trucks.I love these legs (you'd think it was summer around here)...And this face... He loves his binky and his elephant. I could watch him sleep all day.

He loves peanut butter. I don't know where he gets that from either. He went from this: To this: He loves this blanket. I'll put it on his head and he'll just wander in it. I think he's going to be a cape boy.

The other day I put Baby Signing Time on, and he watched for a minute but started to pull his toys out. I looked over to check on him and he'd fallen backwards right on to one of his toys. I guess it made a nice little seat... What a vegetable...

I can't believe he's 1. He has taken off, and it's so fun to watch him figure things out for himself. He is such an explorer! I couldn't ask for a cuter boy. Now we just can't wait for him to get feeling better!

One Year Old part 1: The Party

Despite Danny having surgery on Monday we decided to have William's party on his birthday that Saturday. Needless to say, it was an exhausting week, but a fun party! Our building has a fun Social Room, so we decided to take advantage. William's day started out at 5:15 (if anyone has any tips on how to make an EARLY riser sleep in a little, I'm all for (and desperate for) suggestions!), and he was due for a nap about the time the party started, but he was a trooper. Thank you Grandpa (my dad) for bringing your camera and taking such great pictures. My camera was in my pocket the whole time, and I only remembered to take 1 picture!

Cousins Lincoln and Jackson were pals and tried to help me keep William entertained in the exciting wrapping paper. His family and friends were sure nice to him! He got some fun toys and great books!
I would say this picture is pretty explanatory of the afternoon for William: lot's of yawns and a runny nose... Here is cute cousin Thomas exploring one of William's new toys.

One of William's favorite presents was a Fisher Price airplane. It was a hit! Leo and Adam always give the coolest presents!

Hanging out with Grandpa

The cake:

***Thank you familyfun.com for the idea! And thank you Andrea for the help!!***

This picture is a little embarrassing, but it was so funny. I wish they had caught Charlotte's facial expression rather than mine... I forgot to warn her to get her finger out of his mouth quick when she put frosting in his mouth... Those teeth are lethal!

William loves his two goofball uncles Tom and Ted...

They never fail to get him to laugh!

He was a little shy when everyone sang "Happy Birthday"

But he loved the attention!

Grandma giving him little snitches of frosting...

Thomas could hardly wait for a cupcake...

This is one of my favorite pictures...

Cousin Landon and Grandma

William did NOT want to sit in his chair, so his cake experience was rather calm and clean. I can't complain, because he was on my lap!

He sure loves frosting!

I love this boy!! Sorry for the sideways picture... After dinner people had to get to meetings or other things, while a few stayed to go swimming. As we were cleaning up before swimming, William put his head on my shoulder and was fast asleep! Poor guy was so tired!

We let him have a little snooze, and then we were off to the pool!

William still loves the pool! He loves to splash, be splashed, and put his face in the water. Thomas and William are such good buddies...it was fun to have them both in the water. Two little fishies! We were sad the other cousins couldn't make it to the pool!

Thanks to all our awesome family and friends for making it such a fun party! William is a lucky boy!