Copy Cat Creativity

A couple nights ago I got together with some girls in our ward and we made some cards. I was secretly dreading it because I hate doing anything creative in front of other people, it gives me major anxiety because I feel that it's really a competition to see whose the most creative and I always lose! But my awesome friend Jaime convinced me to go and I'm so glad she did because I had the best time!! It ended up that everyone was supposed to make the same card so all I had to do was copy the one that was done for us...hey, I can do that! I know they're not perfect, but it was fun to try! Anyway, mine turned out to look like this:

The one on the left is a congratulations card for a girl and the one on the right is for a boy. If you click on it I think you'll be able to see it closer up.














Then last night I hung with two of my girlfriends and we made gingerbread houses and watched elf, and then talked till midnight! I just love those girls!! However, I once again felt intimidated by the creative geniuses of my girlfriends so I just copied the design that was on the box for the gingerbread kit. Really, how awesome am I?! :)

But hey, to be able to copy the box exactly takes some skills right?!?!
Side view


Front view-Notice that my Christmas tree is bare-I think I may have used all my candy up when I decorated the roof?!?!


Other side view


Ariel view

OOPS!

Yesterday morning I made smoothies for breakfast (triple berry) and I took one over to Amanda who claims to have been sleeping on the couch. I say "claims" because we have an extremely loud blender that could have easily awoken the neighbors, but whatever! So I take her smoothie over and am holding it right above her face waiting for her to open her eyes and take it from me. (What, she couldn't "feel" my presence and know that I was there?!) After a couple seconds of no response I gently place the cold cup on her cheek, jokingly, because I thought for sure she was awake. Well, whether she was or was not awake, it must have startled her because her hands flew up and knocked the cup right out of my hand all over her! This is what it looked like AFTER we cleaned most of it up! :)


It was SOOO funny...at least I thought so!


It was all in her ear before she cleaned it out for the picture!




What, you don't think that would have been fun to wake up to?

Q. What is Santa Baby?

A. My favorite Christmas song!

It's officially Christmas time!! Yea!!! We've had our decorations up since last week, but I'm just now getting around to posting the pictures. (p.s. I apologize to those of you who have been trying to get ahold of me the past couple days, I have been CRAZY busy! Tyler has been a trial and a half-we think he might be teething, or just developing his "I need my mother every second of the day and if she's not right next to me I will scream until I turn purple and can't breathe (literally)" syndrome), but I promise I will get back to you!

My Christmas shrine-as Bobby calls it


I had decorations on the window sills too, but Bobby said it was way too much so I took them down and spread them out around the house


The tree-with no theme at all!


With the lights on


My buddy's first Christmas tree

Gobble Gobble!

For Thanksgiving we went down to St. George to spend it with my family and my friend Stacie who came up from Houston. We were only able to stay for a couple days but had lots of fun and ate way too much food! (Sorry, there are tons of pictures!)

Tyler's Thanksgiving outfit (that he got made fun of relentlessly for by his uncles, but whatever I think it's cute!)




Someone got caught red-handed playing with the cell phone charger!


Tyler and Stacie


So confused about what's on Ty's head


Mom and Grandma cooking in the kitchen


Bobby, Skyler and Alisa taking advantage of the appetizers


Taking family pictures for the Christmas card (we took thousands, but these are the ones from my camera.Don't worry we did take family pictures with Skyler, Bobby and Tyler but whoever was taking the pictures with my camera didn't get any of those)






Skyler showing Bobby the rims Alisa got him for his birthday


In the back of Ty's truck




Four generations: Grandma, Dad (who looks awefully confused), me and Tyler




The fine fellas


The lovely ladies






Thanksgiving feast-Turkey was being carved on the counter


Tyler enjoying Thanksgiving dinner


Tyler REALLY enjoying Thanksgiving dinner

9 mo. old

Tyler turned 9 mo. old on Sat and we went to his well-baby check up today so here is what we found out.

Height: 27 inch.
Weight: 17 lbs.
Head size: can't remember, but he's in the 25th percentile

As you can see he's still a "little" guy, but he has a steady and consistent growing pattern and is as healthy as can be so I could not ask for anything more! Thankfully he didn't have to have any immunization shots today but they did prick his foot to check his iron levels (which are right where they should be) and he didn't cry at all!

The doctor says he looks perfect and we couldn't agree more!

Just a couple pictures of my 9 mo. old babe (He wouldn't stand still for more than 1 second so I couldn't get very good pictures but I'm posting them anyway)


I love when he raises his eyebrow at me! (This is a recent development, if I raise my eyebrows at him he'll do it back with one eyebrow)


The cheese-ball grin

He also does this thing every once in awhile where he will close his eyes, scrunch his nose, and purse his lips together and it makes me laugh every time! I was finally able to catch a little bit of it on camera.

Birthday post

Just wanted to give a shout out (although a tad belated) to my darling husband who turned 29 on Friday Nov. 16! My family happened to be in town so we left Tyler and had a great night out eating dinner and seeing a movie. For his birthday I got him tickets to see the Glenn Beck Christmas show coming to Salt Lake December 8th. (He is a radio/tv talk show host for those of you who don't know who he is.) Bobby LOVES Glenn Beck and listens to him everyday on the radio so we're looking forward to seeing the show together in a couple weeks. Happy Birthday Bobby!

It's a BOY!!!

Just wanted to let everyone know that my sister, Alisa, had her ultrasound today and found out they're having a BOY! They are uber excited (especially Skyler) and had all the grandparents (except my dad who is in Houston until tomorrow) in attendance to hear the good news in person at the doctor's office. The baby is healthy and is due April 3! Congratulations Alisa and Skyler!!!

A child's prayer

Just thought I would explain the reason I have the song 'A Child's Prayer' playing on my blog.

One of the speakers in our ward a couple Sunday's ago was a mother of twin 8 mo. old boys. She mentioned that as part of their childrens' bedtime routine they read scriptures, sing a hymn and say a prayer together. I am amazed by this because having an 8 mo. old boy myself, I find that trying to do something as simple as putting his pajamas on before bed is enough of an ordeal that we barely even accomplish that before I frustratedly put him into his crib with a hurried kiss goodnight. With 2, I can't even imagine! However, the point of her talk was that they started with just a simple prayer and added things into their rountine slowly. She challenged us to begin making changes in our daily routines that would bring more peace into our home, while reminding us that it's not important how big our change is, only that we make one and start somewhere.

I always planned on saying nighttime prayers with Tyler, but thought it would be better to begin that when he was a little older and would understand what we were doing. However, I decided that now is as good as time as any to start this habit with him, so that by the time he does understand what praying is, it will already be a habit. And I have to say, as silly as it may sound, since we have made this simple, small change in our routine, bedtime does seem to go more smoothly and I look forward to that time I get to kneel down with my husband and son. I can't wait for the day that Tyler will be able to offer a sweet child's prayer on his own. There is just something so sweet and innocent about the faith of a child.

Me Amore-not really sure if that means 'my love', but that's what I was going for

Well, MaryBeth didn't tag me to do this, but I saw it on her blog and thought it was really cute so I'm doing it anyway! :) (hope that's okay MaryBeth) And for those of you who just know me, maybe this will help you get to know Bobby a little better!


What is your husbands name? James Robert Bricker...aka Bobby
How long have you been together? Well we've been married since July 2004
How long did you date? Hmmm...we still argue about when we "officially" started dating, but since I'm the one filling this out I get to put what I think and that was Dec. of 2003, so about 8mo. (engaged for 1.5 of those 8 mo.) We met the first weekend in Oct. 2003 at a meeting for work.
Who eats more? Well, more at one time-Bobby. More often-me.
Who said I love you first? I know this is really sad, but I can't remember. I'm almost positive it was me b/c I couldn't believe how fast I was falling in love with him.
Who is taller? Bobby
Who sings better? I think we're pretty equally bad
Who is smarter? Bobby; in almost every category. He knows more random facts than anybody I know and more about cars and computers than most mechanics and computer engineers. In a wierd way, it makes me feel very safe.
Whose temper is worse? Wow, mine! I don't think Bobby has a temper.
Who does the laundry? I do
Who does the dishes? Both of us. Bobby will always help unload and wash the dishes whenever he's home, we usually just do it together.
Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? I do-which has recently worked out for my benefit! When Amanda moved in we had to move our bedroom furniture around to fit more stuff in, so my side of the bed is pushed up against the wall so I have to crawl off the bed to get out, so Bobby gets up with Tyler during the night since he's closer to the door.
Who pays the bills? He does. I used to, but when I was pregnant with Tyler I was so sick I couldn't even get off the couch so thankfully he took over and has just kept doing it ever since.
Who mows the lawn? HOA
Who cooks dinner? I do. Except on the weekend when we get to go out!!
Who drives when you are together? Bobby
Who is more stubborn? I think Bobby. Usually he always gets his way b/c he makes me laugh about whatever it is that we're arguing about until I see that he's right or until I run out of things to argue back with-he could go forever because he's very clever. He's so funny!
Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? What?! Bobby can be wrong?!
Whose parents do you see the most? Well since my parents live in the same state and unfortunately his live far away in Missouri we see mine more often. (not unfortunately I see mine more, just unfortunate that his live far away!:)
Who kissed who first? This is probably the funniest story that we have! He DEFINATELY kissed me first. We were at my apartment in Provo and we'd been hanging out for about a month and he was getting ready to leave for the night (we had just finished watching a movie) and I could SO tell that he wanted to kiss me, but I SO did NOT want him to kiss me so I was purposefully avoiding his eyes as if to say,"DO NOT KISS ME". But Bobby was either to nervous to notice or didn't care (he claims he didn't care) because he leaned down and kissed me anyway! I thought the whole thing was hilarious because I was thinking, "who in the world would kiss someone who was so pointedly sending out the vibe-Don't Touch Me! Wow, this kid really has some balls!" So in the middle of the kiss I started to laugh. And not like little chuckles, like hearty, belly-hurting laughs! He was SO offended he turned around and walked out the door without saying anything to me and did not call me or answer my calls for a whole week! He didn't know this at the time, but I wasn't laughing at him, I was just laughing at the situation b/c it really was so funny! He still gets upset whenever we talk about this story!
Who asked who out? It was kind of a mutual thing. We were driving back from afore-mentioned work meeting and were talking about things we'd never done. He said he'd never eaten at Cafe Rio (honestly-who has never had cafe rio-well for those who live in UT. It's like #1 date spot to eat dinner) and I said I'd never seen some movie that I can't remember now, so we agreed to watch the movie and then go to Cafe Rio together. But he's the one that called me a couple days later to schedule the date, so I guess technically it was him, although I think I made it pretty easy for him.
Who proposed? Bobby-twice. Another funny, long story!
Who is more sensitive? So me! I've only seen Bobby cry once in the entire 4 years I've known him. (has to do with afore-mentioned proposal story)
Who has more friends? It's pretty equal since we have the same friends.
Who wears the pants in the family? Who wears pants when you can wear nothing?!

Hats off to ya

These are just some cute pictures that Amanda took of Tyler a couple days ago when she was watching Tyler for Bobby and I. I guess they were playing with his hat and he just wouldn't stop laughing!











Check out that flared nose...ha ha ha!

Halloween fun

Since dressing Tyler up on Sat. night was such a fiasco we opted out of the traditional Halloween activity of "trick-or-treating" and instead had some friends over to play games. Next year Tyler will almost be 2 and I think Halloween will be a much more pleasurable experience all around. However, since I did buy a costume I figured I'd dress him up during the day and just take some pictures for fun.

He played with this diaper box for 15 min!!! Why is it that kids always prefer the packaging of a toy, more than the toy itself?!








Crunching the leaves


My favorite part is his tail!!!




Kisses...


...and hugs!


Rolling down the hill together-I love that he's looking at me like-what are you doing?!