Faces of Blake

Three Reasons to not use your self timer when taking your Christmas card photo:

1. You will be sweating for the photo from running back and forth trying to get in the picture.

2. It takes forever.

See photos for reason number 3.

I realize it is an early Thursday Three but wanted to post these cute pictures.

Thursday Three - dedicated to Grandma Jan

Three things going on with us.

1. Blake's birthday. He loved his birthday this year and it was really fun to see him get into it.

2. Holiday Decorating. In our marriage I have never really done a ton of holiday decorating. Our last place was so small I didn't need one more thing taking up space. This year I did my best to make things look festive. Thanks Paiger for the wooden nativity. I love it!


3. I finally put a nail hole in our new walls. I am still no where close to really decorating but we have done two things that I am excited about. Our new clock for the living room. I think we could have gone even bigger but I am still happy with our choice. I would like to thank my friend AB for helping me make the tree wall hanging. I chose to hang it in my bathroom and couldn't be happier with my decision. My trips to the bathroom are much more cozy with the new decor.

On a side note, we are potty training the Blake Man. Going great!! Today he watched himself go pee all over the kitchen floor. He seriously just stood there and watched and had no idea what was going on. The best part was that when he was done he couldn't wait to help me clean it up. Not sure we are all on the same page.

Today during a church meeting at my house every time (seriously every time) I looked over at Blake he had no clothes on from the waist down from "going potty" on the toilet. He heads in to sit on the toilet about 30 times a day. I was not going to push the potty training stuff until after the holidays but he is so into it. Hopefully at some point his body catches up with his enthusiasm for the toilet paper going down the tunnel that goes under the house.

Thursday Three - House stuff

Blake is LOVING Halloween this year. Grandma Wendy sent him a fun dragon costume that has been attached to Blake's body since it arrived. We have had a lot of fun this Halloween and look forward to more fun this weekend.

Three projects we have done in our house.

1. Blinds. I am so excited to finally have them up. They look great and I don't feel so exposed. Matt did a great job installing them and I like to believe I was a fabulous assistant. Thanks to our friends for all the recommendations on how and where to buy our blinds.

2. Staining the fence. I was actually kind of excited about doing this one but the fun of the painting wore off after only a few minutes. We still managed to get it done and just in time because we have had rain ever since. As you can imagine, Blake was a HUGE help with this project.

3. Shelves in the garage. We are slowly working our way to fitting both cars in the garage. Matt worked for two Saturdays with our friend Kevin (who was a big help and who we hope still calls us friends after taking up two of his Saturdays. Thank you so much!). They busted these shelves out and we love them!

Thursday Three

I am back. Not sure why I was gone for so long. Here are three things Matt has bought from Amazon in the last six weeks. Not the only three but it is Thursday so I will limit myself.

1. garage door opener.

2. bungee cords (because seriously the number of times I have said if only I had one more bungee cord I could ___________. We are set for awhile.)

3. umbrella (where does he think we live?)

So what I am telling you is before you buy anything ask yourself this, "Could I find it cheaper on Amazon?" I am not saying you will but I sure get asked this question a lot!!

Tips

When we moved into our house we got lots of advice and tips from our realtor, inspector and people who worked with the builder. Since we have never owned a home before we were taking notes and trying to remember everything.

I think the most important advice we got was during our final walk through when we were told this,

"When you go number one, flush one. When you go number two, flush two."

I think that is something we can live by.

Thursday Three - Dinner

We are in the middle of packing to move to our new house this weekend and while the packing is going well our standard of living is going down. Here are the three things we ate for dinner last night.

1. Frozen burritos

2. Frozen pizza (are you seeing a trend?)

3. Instant mashed potatoes

I have packed our entire kitchen save a few bowls, cups and utensils. Blake got a vegetable with today's lunch so I have not totally given up. His lunch yesterday however was 90% hostess cupcake and 10% baked beans.

We'll survive two more days of this, no problem. I do have a feeling that at some point during dinner tonight we'll hear the phrase, "would you like fries with that?" You do what you have to do and we are loving it.

I hate posts with no pictures and that is all I have been doing lately. Here is a cute one of Blake until I have time to take more. If you would like to see the Troll in person, we have a guest room waiting for you!

Thursday Three

Three Thoughts

1. I had a birthday this week and it was great. I really love birthdays and I especially loved the carrot cake Matt made. So good!! I was sitting in Barnes and Noble on my birthday and Blake decided that would be a great time to take a large, stinky poop. (sorry for that description, but I call them like I see them, and smell them). I decided that the sales lady really should change it for me since it was my birthday. I waited and waited until I knew she could smell it, but I could tell she was not going to make a move so I just did it myself. I was explaining this to my new brother-in-law, Eric, and he made this clever observation,

"That's the bummer with birthdays and good haircuts. You walk around thinking everyone notices this new thing about you but nobody does except those who care."

I guess the Barnes and Noble lady and me are not as close as I thought.

2. I had a few requests for this recipe. You must make them now!! Matt's brother Todd always doubles the recipe and makes them in a cookie sheet and since he taught me how to make them, I go big. You won't regret the massive amounts of scoobs it makes. Don't bother with the fact that the recipe calls them Scotcheroos. Scooby Snacks sounds much more sophisticated.

3. Having pancake night once a week for dinner was a genius idea. They are from scratch so at least it shows some effort on my part.

Edited to add: I use milk chocolate chips in the scoobs. Much better choice.