Jay's 1st Halloween!

Growing up, we went Trick or Treating every year until we were too old and it wasn't cool anymore (then we'd pass out candy). Not that we were celebrating Satan or anything like that, but just as a fun time to dress up with everyone as part of tradition. Every since my sister was too old to dress up for it, my mom has looked forward to making costumes for her grandkids and I admit, I looked forward to dressing my own kids up in cute, awesome little costumes too - especially after seeing friends and acquaintances showing off their kids in adorable little costumes!

While hubby's family never partook in Halloween traditions (his dad absolutely HATES Halloween) let alone any holiday kid traditions (ie: easter bunny, Santa), we had to come to a compromise. Basically, he got his way with us not doing Santa, the Easter Bunny or the tooth fairy, but my mom and I would get to dress our kids up all cute and take them to our church's Trunk or Treat outreach event if they wanted, so long as they weren't dressed as anything scary or evil.

Baby Wicket the Ewok!!

For Jay's first Halloween we dressed him up as the cute and cuddly Wicket the Ewok from Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. Originally I was thinking he'd make a cute little Yoda, but after watching Return of the Jedi once again over the summer I thought the Ewoks were just too darn cute and cuddly and decided Jay should definitely be an Ewok. Plus, since the costume is essentially a bear outfit, it would be nice and warm with the fur since it tends to always be cold on Halloween around here (I believe this year it was in the 40s!).

My mom's a seamstress so obviously she did the costume for us! And it turned out GREAT! And completely kept him warm too! While I didn't dress up too much, I did find a cream sweater and I did my hair in Princess Leia buns (cuz, ya know, Leia's hanging out with the Ewoks for the last half of Return of the Jedi) - a few people recognized Jay and I as Princess Leia and an Ewok and commented how awesome we were =)

Leia and baby Ewok

We took him over to my mom's for a visit, walked 3 houses over to my old neighbors who had requested we stop by with him and then down the street to my aunt's house to say hi before heading up to our church's Trunk or Treat outreach event (it's basically a safe alternative in town for trick or treating as hello - we've been in Forbes' top 10 most dangerous cities for 2 years in a row now and there's lots of areas in the town, especially on the west side and down near the river, that just aren't safe for anyone, let alone kids, to be walking around at night). He really seemed to enjoy it though, as there were so many people dressed up as fun characters.

He got some candy he can snack on too and for his piece tonight he selected a Reese's cup, which he devoured and then threw up 2 seconds later before bouncing around on the couch, lol...

Gotta say, my favorite part of Halloween is the cute, creative costumes people come up! I haven't seen too many people on Facebook post party-related ones (probably cuz most of us are married with kids now, lol...), but at Trunk or Treat I did see an adorable little Spongebob and Sandy the Squirrel!! Hubby also showed me a picture of one of his co-workers who dressed up with his son as UPS delivery men! Hubby said he'd like to do that with Jay one year, which I think would be cute!

Trick or Treating for our city started at 530 and went til 730. We were home til about 645, as hubby had to work til 6 and I wanted Jay to take a little bit of a nap before we went out for the evening, so I got to pass out candy for a bit. Unfortunately our doorbell only ran like 6 times - a few kids solo and a few groups of small kids with their parents (one very little girl - think it might have been our neighbors - was dressed in a cute Eeyore costume!). One kid, whom I would guess as being about 8 years old, was dressed as Michael Meyers - maybe I'm getting old, but doesn't it seem a bit inappropriate for young kids like that to be dressed as serial killers? One girl I know on Twitter posted that one kid reminded her of the infamous Dexter, as his response to her asking who he was was that he kills people! Oh well... we left the bowl out when we went up for Trunk or Treat (which was from 630-8ish) and sadly, when we got home around 9 it looked like no one had touched it! Oh well, guess I know not to get a huge bag for next year!

How was your Halloween? 

What cute/creative costumes did you see this year?

Long Weekend & Jay's 1st 4th of July

This past weekend has been a busy one for sure!

Ketchup bottles are yummy!

On Thursday we dropped Jay off with a suitcase of his own at my parent's house as had a mommy and daddy getaway for a few days up in the Twin Cities area as my childhood best friend was getting married on Friday. Gotta admit, waking up Friday morning without my snuggle buddy to snuggle with was a bit weird, not to mention my body's used to him as my alarm clock most days!

The wedding wasn't until the evening so we had the whole afternoon to kill and ventured out for a bit and made a stop at the Mall of America, where hubby had never been before! We need to make a trip up there when Jay's a little older as I recall the aquarium being really neat, he'd be in awe of the mini-Legoland and of course the indoor Nicktoons theme park (which by the way, I was disappointed to learn that it's no longer Camp Snoopy but now it's Nicktoons Universe! Booo!!).

The wedding was in downtown Minneapolis at the Mill City Museum and we drove right past the Metrodome - home of the Minnesota Vikings - in which its roof caved in last winter from so much snow! It looked still under-construction too. The wedding was really beautiful and her dress definitely looked like it was made for her as it looked so pretty on her! The ceremony was outside in the courtyard ruins, unfortunately it did rain a little bit for the last 5 minutes or so, but fortunately it didn't pour until later in the night when we were having the reception dinner inside. It was nice to get to see her family again too - her oldest brother I hadn't seen in nearly 20 years, when he left for college! Her parents still live just a few streets over from my parents, so I've occasionally seen her mom out walking but it was nice to get a chance to chat with them, even for a brief minute or so! I'm glad we went!

It was nice to get away with just hubby, but I did start missing Jay and was looking forward to picking him up. He had a big grin on his face when we went to get him and he 1st saw us though! Mom said he did fine, save for when his gums started hurting, but he was all happy to see us again and spent most of the evening snuggling with me.

Sunday night we had a cookout out just us 3. The neighbors next door were having people over too, including one of the neighbors that used to live behind our house (he stopped over to collect a ball that had gone over our fence, and commented how he was so used to the property being vacant for so long!). Hubby had purchased some fireworks stuff when he was up in Janesville for work last week and lit about half of them off. Jay did okay with the ones that just made lots of lights, but he didn't like the ones that made high-pitched screeching noises at all! The neighbors had stuff they were lighting off too so we were taking turns, lol... they had one they lit for the grand finale which lasted about 2 minutes, but including the screeching ones, which freaked Jay out so we had to take him inside, as he got too scared!

Little Mr. 4th of July!

Watching fireworks with daddy

Monday was the 4th of July and Jay's 5 month birthday! Hubby and I both got stuck working. Hubby and Jay had a cookout with my family while I joined up with them after work and ate what was left. We joined my mom and cousin and went downtown to the same spot we sat last year for the fireworks. Jay started fussing in the car for no apparent reason and daddy carried him while we walked downtown which seemed to keep him calm. For the most part he sat and actually watched the fireworks, only getting upset twice. The first time was when the stupid girls wheeling a cart of glow-in-the-dark stuff caused a pedestrian traffic jam right behind us and I think someone bumped Jay trying to get passed, as he started crying out of nowhere. He settled down a few minutes later though and continued to watch (and grab daddy's face as the lights were making his face light up, lol...) until the last 10 seconds when the grand finale occurred, with the fireworks shooting off constantly - it scared him and he started freaking out so I held him to me with my hand covering his outside ear as he buried his face into my chest. He was fine and all smiles after it stopped! LOL...

I'd say Jay's 1st 4th of July went pretty well!

Our 1st Official Father's Day

This past Sunday hubby got to celebrate his first official Father's Day as daddy! (Last year he sorta did, as we broke the news to our families that we were expecting).

It was also Baby Dedication day at our church too, so we were able to get Jay dedicated.

It was a very long day for all of us - we got up early as we had to be at church early. Then we went out for Father's Day lunch with hubby's dad, mom and younger sis (our treat). We took a bit of a nap in the afternoon before heading over to my parent's house for Father's Day cookout. Then we watched the Game of Thrones season finale, with Jay passing out for the night very early!

All in all, it was a fun day though!

We got hubby several gifts - from Jay he got a cute little card, a picture frame (that I let Jay pick out for daddy) with hubby's favorite photo of Jay so he can put it on his desk at one of his jobs, and the Adam Sandler movie "Big Daddy." From me I gave him a funny card, "Tron Legacy" on Blu-Ray and a Black&Decker cordless drill with a pack of drill bits.

I'd say he had a pretty good 1st Father's Day!

My 1st Mother's Day

This year was the 1st year I got to celebrate Mother's Day!

We found out on Thursday that we were doing Mother's Day brunch at 10am with my inlaws, so I ended up going to the Saturday evening service at church as they started this Generations series this weekend that I had been looking forward to and really didn't want to miss, however we'd have to miss our regular Sunday service at 1030am and hubby wasn't too thrilled at the idea of going to the 830am service and having to get up earlier than that.

So I took Jay with me (hubby works Saturday evenings) and dropped him off in the church nursery. They said he did really well - he snuggled with one of the ladies in a rocking chair and she said he took a little snooze too. They asked me to bring him back again sometime as I guess they don't get too many really little guys in the nursery much these days!

I also won a goodie bag during service - they had us fill out the comment and turn it in and they drew 4 names and mine was one of them! In my bag was a small candle, some chocolates, a journal/devotional, a pen, some "Thank You" notes, and a little manicure set. Pretty neat!

The sermon was pretty good too - this week's was on Mothers, next week's on Toddlers. Should be interesting!

Sunday, hubby told me happy mother's day when our alarm went off. Baby boy joined us in bed at 815am, after sleeping for 6hrs or so in his crib, and I passed him off to daddy at 9am so I could get ready to go. Kiddo was tired - we could barely wake him up to get him to eat! lol...

We met my inlaws at Stockholm Inn (this authentic Swedish pancake house that's ALWAYS packed when we go there as Rockford has a huge Swedish population) and had brunch with them. We got done around noon and they came over to the house for a little bit before we all went for a 2pm showing of Thor.

We put a blanket over his legs to keep him
warm - we took it off at the end & this is how
we found him curled up, snoozing! LOL

I was hesitant to take Jay with us, as I used to manage a theater in college and I really didn't want to be one of *those* parents that has the screaming little baby with them (and while Jay is usually pretty good, he is teething right now so there's no telling when his mouth will start bothering him!), but he did GREAT! We fed him before we left and then he fell asleep in the car and HE SLEPT THE ENTIRE 2 HOURS OF THE MOVIE! I was shocked! There was a few times he stirred a little in his carrier, but he just readjusted himself and fell back into sleep. He woke up as we were leaving and strapping him back in (we undid his straps just in case we needed to pick him up and take him out in a hurry and we did sit down near the front on an aisle). He seemed a little confused as to where he was though! lol...

We swung by the house to get my mom's gift and headed over to my parent's house, as it was already 430 and dad said to be there around 5. We had a cookout and hubby and I took a little snooze on one of the couches while Grammie played with and read books to Jay.

We came home and daddy took care of Jay for me for the night - feeding him, changing him (stuff I usually do), etc. We watched the new episode of HBO's Game of Thrones and Jay and I fell asleep on the couch snuggling together while daddy did stuff in the office.

Overall it was a nice day.

I'm still waiting to see what my actual gift is - I gave hubby some ideas earlier in the week as he really had no clue what to get me... so far I got a card from him and one from Jay though (both were really cute!). He said I'd get it today as we didn't have money til Friday and he didn't have a chance to get it on Saturday, but I haven't gotten it yet and I don't want to be a nag, asking, so I guess we'll wait and see! =D

We got my mother-in-law this tulip reed diffuser set with tulip scented oil from Yankee Candle and we got my mom this cute votive/tealight holder with a duckie in a raincoat and umbrella with a little froggie like they're sitting on the edge of a pond together (like Grammie and Jay) and a pack of tealights to go with it.

Jay's 1st Easter and a brief update

Oh wow... haven't updated in like a week! My bad!

Last Tuesday they brought *most* of our living room furniture as the loveseat was on backorder or something and didn't get shipped out with the rest of it. Anyways, that's coming this Wednesday then all we'll need is the china cabinet and bookshelves so I can unpack and make it kinda homey in there... We finally got the basement pretty much unpacked and since we can now do stuff in our office I started unpacking and organizing in there tonight since Jay was cooperative and is just chillin' in his bouncy seat for a bit.

Last Thursday I went into the suburbs with my mom and sis and sis's boyfriend to do some shopping at Woodfield Mall. We found a nice dress for me that I wore for Easter and can wear for other special occasions where I need to look dressy in warmer weather. We tried to find a cute little suit for Jay to wear for Easter but unfortunately the smallest we could find everywhere was 6months. We did find a cute little sweater vest though so we just got that and I paired with a collared onesie and his khaki cargo shorts I bought him at work. We also took him to Build A Bear and made him Jedi Bear from Star Wars! It's sooo awesome!

He was such a well-behaved baby too - he spent most of the day in his stroller playing with his stroller toys, including this new bar of toys my mom had bought for him to play with when he was with her, but he got kinda attached to it throughout the day so she let us keep it since she had bought another. So proud of him though! He didn't nap much at all either so he crashed when we got home after daddy left for work and slept well into the next morning.

We're making progress with the crib - longest he's gone in there is 5hrs straight, although we got him to go 7 once, having to go in a few times to stick binky back in his mouth. Gotta admit though, it's weird for me not falling asleep with him on or next to me!

Jay celebrated his 1st Easter this past weekend! We got him a basket, but since he's too young to dye eggs or eat candy we just filled it with the grass stuff and put a blue stuffed bunny in there and a "My First Bible" I bought at Barnes and Noble. We took him to church for the first time - he did really well! We missed most of the singing at the beginning and Jay fell asleep soon after we got there, with daddy holding him, waking up at the end of the service. He had plenty of people - friends of the family - cooing over him afterwards! We ended up joining my in-laws for Easter lunch at our usual spot, Texas Roadhouse, coming home for a couple hours so Jay and daddy could nap before going over to my parent's house for Easter dinner. We came home and took some pictures before our outfits got messed up!

 So all in all, things are coming along. It's been really rainy out the last week with a nice break of sunshine on Easter only to get rainy again today and for the rest of the week so we haven't done any work outside yet, nor have we had a chance to go meet our neighbors! (The first week when it was nice out my allergies kept me indoors and it's been rainy ever since!) We find out next week about the results of Jay's kidney tests in Madison, if there is anything more to tell from them that we didn't already know! We also bought him some rice cereal and bowls as we figured we'll start that up in a week or so when he hits 3 months since his regular doctor said we could if we wanted to, just so he can start getting used to eating from a spoon so we when start real solids in the upcoming months he'll be used to a spoon and bowl.

Happy (early) Easter!

This past weekend I took Jay to see the Easter Bunny for the first time ever!

He had the reaction we figured he would - a look on his face that was if he was saying "uh mommy... what IS this furry pink thing and WHY is it holding me???"

He did well though! The photo-op was hosted by The Rockford Kids Club which is a new local organization that hosts events like this one and offers discounts and deals to different places around town. An old friend of mine has a lot of involvement with it. But anyways, it was at Sapora Playworld which is an indoor playground type place inside the same building as one of the local ice rinks.

A friend of mine came with her 2 kids - her 1 year old started pulling on Jay's shoelaces, to which he gave her this dirty look, lol... it was pretty funny! Then he watched the kids running around and playing before dozing off.

Sunday was also a busy day for Jay as he got to meet his cousins for the first time ever! He has 2 - Noah, who will be 4 this summer, and Lucas who is about 4 months older than Jay. He didn't know what to make of Noah, who was a bit excited to see the baby and was playing with the toys on Jay's carrier. He was all wide-eyed meeting Lucas as he's never seen another baby that close in age to him - most the ones he's met before were nearly 1.

In other news, we're somewhat moved in now. Just tonight we got the rest of the boxes in the basement sorted and put away. We just have some boxes in the living room to put away, the office to put together and some stuff in our bedroom. Tomorrow most of our living room furniture is being delivered - for whatever reason Slumberland corporate didn't ship our loveseat with the rest of the set so that's been delivered when it arrives in a few weeks.

We've been working on getting Jay used to his crib. So far the longest he's gone in there is roughly 3hrs, which isn't too bad a start, considering the first time we tried he only made it an hour. We're really working on it this week though as it's important to get him used to sleeping by himself and in his own room.

My baby sis turned 18 today (Monday) and we celebrated with family on Friday by going to local pasta joint Lino's. We let Jay try some pasta sauce - he wasn't so crazy about it but boy did he love the little bit of vanilla ice cream daddy slipped him!

Christmas!!

Figured I'd make a quick post regarding how our holiday went!

I spent Christmas Eve Eve burning Christmas scented candles and watching several classic Christmas specials on DVD - the original animated How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and most of Frosty the Snowman. I also wanted to watch Santa Claus is Coming to Town and The Little Drummer Boy, but I fell asleep about halfway through Frosty!

Hubby's crazy 2 weeks of overtime ended Friday at 430am, but he still had to get up and go to his day job at 9am, so he was still a bit tired and worn out (last week he averaged 2 hours of sleep a day while the week before he was running on maybe 4 hours a day!).

We went to the annual Christmas Eve Candles and Carols service up at our church and hubby kept falling asleep throughout the service (which is only like 45 minutes long). Afterwards we went over to my parent's house for Christmas dinner and gifts. Dinner was yummy as usual - mom made her traditional Shepherd's Pie dish, which is basically a meat, carrots, mashed potatoes and cheese.

After dinner we opened gifts - my big gift was the Shark Vac then Steam vacuum and steam mop which was a combined gift from my parents and my mom's dad. I saw the infomercial a few months back and I *hate* sweeping and Swiffering our floors as they never seem to get all that clean and this new Shark steam/vac looked pretty neat and easy to use and actually seemed to get the floors clean! I figured it'd be a good item to have especially in a few months when Jay is playing around on the floor and starts crawling. Hubby got a few techie gifts he wanted, although he mainly wanted cash or Best Buy gift cards so he could get a new computer monitor since he's 2 flat screen LCD ones both crapped out last summer.

After gifts we had dessert - I was bad and had some cheesecake - and then some of us watched a showing of 24 hours of A Christmas Story while the rest of us sat around and talked. Hubby - poor guy - took a nap.

Christmas morning hubby and I woke up and watched the end of a showing of A Christmas Story in bed together and then got ready to head out to his parent's house, as they live over an hour away. Pulling into their driveway, we immediately got our car stuck. They live out in the country and their driveway is about a 1/4 mile long. Usually his brother's shovel it, but this time they just cleared a path... only our front-wheel drive car veered off it a bit and got stuck. It took a good 10-15 minutes to get the car parked near the house! lol...

We ate dinner out there and it too was good! My father-in-law's been sick with pneumonia the last few weeks - he's on antibiotics for it, but I still had to keep my distance. We did some gifts after dinner, although my mother-in-law is giving them later as she was just too preoccupied with my father-in-law being sick to get out to the stores. She did give me this really nice porcelain Party-Lite figurine of a mother and baby which you put scented oil in. She also asked if I got my Sketcher Shape-Up shoes I wanted and I told her I got a check from my grandparents I was going to put towards them and she told me she'd give me some money to cover the rest of the cost. I figured those shoes would be good to have once the weather is nice out as I plan on taking Jay for walks in his stroller regularly and they'll help me "shape up" and tone and tight stuff as I walk. She also told hubby she'd give him some money to contribute to his quest towards a new monitor.

We got hubby's 3 younger brothers the Call of Duty: Black Ops game for PS3 and while hubby wanted to play it with them afterwards, they had to get ready to head out to a friend's house, so me, hubby and hubby's little sister took turns playing together for a bit before we headed out when his brother's did, as we needed their assistance to help get the car out of the driveway and out to the road!

Hubby enjoyed playing Call of Duty on the PS3 a little too much as he decided that instead of getting a new monitor, he'd rather have a PS3. We found a decent bundle online and so he put his giftcards towards that and with the money he still has coming to him, as well as the money he's saved up, we put it on my Best Buy card and will pay it off on our next payment in mid-January. He had a few of the guys from Verizon over the other night and they were taking turns playing on it with our big TV too - he seemed to be having fun!

I took advantage of some post-Christmas sales too. Border's gave me some more free Borders Bucks for being a loyal Rewards member and so I was able to get this desk calendar we wanted for just $2! I also traded-in a few games at Gamestop and took advantage of their post-holiday buy 2 pre-owned, get a 3rd free. Today I went out and finally bought Christmas stockings as all places have Christmas stuff 50% off or more now. I figured we'll definitely be in a house next year and we'll need stockings to hang. I got Jay this cute one with a snowman on it while I got hubby and me matching ones with our first initials on them, all for $5 each. I also got Jay a "My First Christmas" bib for $2.50 that he can wear at our 2 Christmas dinners next year! They also had hats that said "Baby's First Christmas" on them, but considering he'll be around 10 months old next Christmas, they seemed a bit small - more like the size of a newborn's head - so I passed on that.

Sadly, I think I'm finally coming down with hubby's cold. Considering he was running on almost no sleep the last 2 weeks, him getting sick was almost inevitable - I knew it was most likely going to happen! I saw him Wednesday night at dinner and commented that he didn't look or sound too good - he told me he was getting sick. I tried to avoid getting it, but today I have a little bit of a sore throat and my nose is being all icky - he said that's what he had at first too. I know I can take Robitussin though so I'm planning on doing that, as I can't chug orange juice right now because it has too many carbs/sugars in it.

How was your holiday?