So far this week......

Travis managed to hurt his ankle....

And I managed to turn 26.

Both are quite the accomplishments, we know.

Maybe I should start with feat #1 (no pun intended, haha)

On Monday, Trav headed off to play basketball with some guys at the church building. As he gave me a peck goodbye, I bit my tongue from hollering out "Be careful!" This is my trademark sendoff whenever he's headed to play sports, drive far away, work out, breath, blink, you get the picture. I guess this time I just figured, HE KNOWS ALREADY! But for some reason as he walked out the door I imagined him turning his ankle (as SOMEONE is always bound to do) and being on crutches as we take on the airport this weekend with luggage and baby in tow. So when my hubby hobbled in two hours later, I almost wasn't surprised. ALMOST. So what happened here? Does my farewell of caution actually make a difference? Did I "jinx" him by imagining injury? Sigh. I guess I'll never know. However, fate was pitted against two ball players this time, as Ryan hit the ground with a sprained ankle just minutes after Trav was dragged off the court. Unfortunately, his injury seems to be more serious. Luckily, Trav just sported a cankle for a couple days and seems to be no worse for it.

On to #2, my aging process.

I have to admit, I've felt like I was 26 ever since Trav's birthday in May. I figure... what's three months difference? So my b-day came and went without too much ado, and that's kind of how I like it. I loved all the calls, texts, and shoutouts on Facebook- it made me feel loved, but I'm not much for elaborate celebrations with big crowds. And, I'll be honest, one of my favorite parts was my breakfast... delicious, healthy DONUTS!! Trav discovered the most amazing donut shop, and as you can see, it's open 24/7. I think my hips grew an inch just acknowledging that. They are way better than Tim Hortons, Dunkin', what have you. I almost polished off three. My day was off to a good start :)

I thought the beach would be a good idea, but the rain had other plans. So, I exercised, did some sewing (by sewing, I mean hemming a rectangle to make a new hooter hider- and it actually turned out!) and then Rachel and Doug watched the Collinator while Trav and I went to Cheesecake Factory for an early dinner. So yummy!

This picture doesn't do Rach any justice... she said he was good the whole time we were gone. It was only when WE got there, that he decided to scream. Maybe he didn't want to go home.

Then, after we put him to bed, the Shaws came over and stayed with him while we went to see the sixth installment of HARRY POTTER!! Yes, I'm a Harry geek. For the last movie, I reread the book and watched all the movies again. However, it ended up ruining the movie because I spent the whole time being mad that they left this out and that out and changed this and screwed with that. So I did no preparing this time and absolutely LOVED the movie! (Minus the rating- I think it should have been PG -13 for scary-ness. Trav thinks I'm nuts)

For my 24th birthday, the very last Harry Potter book came out at midnight and so I was one of the first at Barnes and Noble to get my copy. No, I didn't dress up- and no, I didn't clap fanatically with the rest of the crowd for the very first girl who walked out with the first copy (some even took pics), but I'd still consider myself pretty hard core :) I think if I had done either of those two things, Trav would have considered it grounds for divorce. BUT, it did come with some awesome glasses and a keyring with the date 7-21-07 on it. Needless to say, I was in 7th heaven.

When we got back from the movie, Rachel and Doug surprised me with a cake. They are so sweet. And just in case you haven't had a good laugh yet today, I decided to include this pic.

Chilly Nights and Sunny Days

Tuesday night we drove to Palmyra with the Carters to watch the Hill Cumorah Pageant. As we crossed the street from the parking area to the pageant, we were enlightened by some bright minds who eagerly shouted all they knew about us evil Mormons. Including how we will burn in hell with all the "porno addicts", "homos" and "sports nuts". Watch out sports nuts. Here we come.

Can you believe how many people are in this thing? It's amazing to me.

We had a great time minus the unexpected chilliness. It wasn't too bad (we should just be grateful we didn't get rained out!) but it gave me an ominous reminder of what it will feel like in just a few more months. I had actually forgotten what it felt like to be cold. I didn't think that was possible!

We also enjoyed our pizza from "Marks". We realized that we have eaten more pizza from Marks than any other place out here, and yet it's in downtown Palmyra! So if you get a chance, go to Marks and tell them Stephanie sent you.

Just kidding, they'll just look at you weird.

On Wednesday we hit the beach with the Cardons, Houses, and Carters. This time we tried out the beach on Beaver Is. It's only 20 minutes away and you don't have to cross the border. I LOVED it! The boys had other opinions, but no matter. I would go there every time.

Don't judge Creed for punishing Maddie like that. She had been naughty. (OR, it was just a struggle to get her swim suit on, and men take a different approach :)

Here is Denyse, teaching Tiff how to properly do a "coffee grind"? Tiff was trying to brush up on her dancing skills so she could teach the YM/YW at mutual that night. I just had a great time being entertained.

And here are our men! Funny that they're all white guys but with varying shades of whiteness. Well, I guess Creed passed over to the "brown" side. I think Ryan wins for best farmer's tan and Trav takes the cake for having the best freckles.

Here's Collin protesting the carrier. He arches his back and keeps his bum in the air. His legs are going to get beefy if he keeps this up. I usually just watch him and laugh.

Here's the mom club.

On Thursday I had my last postpartum checkup. Dr. Constantine held Collin for a minute and I thought it was so cute I had to capture the moment. Such a good doctor! I get so attached to my doctors, especially my OBYN's. Seriously, they hold a special place in my heart. Trav thinks this is TOTALLY NORMAL.

Collin is rolling onto his sides now, but hasn't completed the roll to his stomach. He seems so close, but then I wonder what will happen when he finally succeeds because he HATES his stomach! I imagine he'll land on his tummy, realize what he did and never try again! We'll see.

You probably can't tell unless you enlarge it, but he's totally grinning at me (Collin, not Trav :) I just love when he spots me from across the room and lights up. It makes my day.

More of the oblique exercises. I'm such a bad mom letting him hang out like that!

And last but not least...... introducing the cutest widdle bum EVER! Look at those clenching skills! I get the giggles every time I see those bum dimples. This kid is so lean. No cottage cheese, just muscles. I guess he got lucky and took after his dad's behind and not his mom's saggy saddle bags. Lucky! :)

Crafts and Gardens

I don't typically toot my own horn, but I'll be honest, I was pretty excited about my latest crafting creation. I shouldn't say "latest", but first. I'm not a crafter, sewer, decorator, the list goes on... but I had an idea for a craft for the YW to make a couple weeks ago. I'm the Laurel advisor in our ward and therefore teach the Sunday lessons. I usually make a handout to go along with the lesson (and when I say make, I mean copy off of Sugardoodle :) but I never feel like they are all that useful. I know I am guilty of taking handouts and stuffing them in my scripture case or purse and they never see the light of day again. And even if they were to make it to the fridge, there's a bazillion other things that clutter up the view. SOOO, I thought it would be nice if they had a special place to hang their handouts. Maybe a magnetic board or crafty frame thing they could hang in their room that spotlighted the latest handout for the week. So off to Hobby Lobby I went (husband and baby in tow) and this is what came of it....!

The set up...

the crafting....

the creations!

Here is my final product. The best part was, it only cost about $5 a piece to make them!

So this is kind of random, but maybe you've noticed that my hair-do in the last few posts has been lacking some hair. It had gotten way too long (thanks to prenatals and my lack of originality) and it was time to do some cutting! I took a "before" pic just because I don't know if I'll ever go this long again.

I think the last time I let it get so long, was in eighth grade. I found an NJHS pic in the year book. I'm the second one in from the left on the front row. I remember being in the shower and tilting my head back and feeling is swish right above my bum! Gross! You would think I was Amish or something! So now I have bangs and style thanks to Rachel- the hair guru. :)

On to gardens! The first week that Trav was out of school, I didn't see him much because he was outside, getting his clothes so dirty that they needed their own load in the wash! :) Or in other words, he was creating a garden. He and Ryan rented a thingy from Home Depot that basically cuts the top layer of your grass off. It creates these sod rolls that apparently are heavy enough to induce a hernia. Not that Trav got one, just an observation.

He lined it with wood and mixed up the dirt....

And voila! We really have to thank Doug, aka green thumb man. He started a bunch of veggies from seed (his babies) and donated a few to our garden. We added some of our own and now have zucchini, squash, tomatoes, cilantro, bell pepper, and jalepeno growing.

Not much to show yet, we'll see if this little tomato will be our first pick!

And here's our totally awesome swimming pool! Eat your hearts out family! Haha, I begged Trav to let me buy a kiddie pool that I could sit in with Collin and try to get some rays, but there's only been a couple of days warm enough to actually get in. And one of those days, our neighbors from the back were swimming in their big "normal" pool and I was too embarrassed to take a dip in ours. Sigh. Dang my pride. No, dang these NY backyards without proper fencing! :) Just another week until we can do it right in Arizona!

CoLLiN RaY is 4 Months!

Did you catch the typo? Well congrats if you did because the church clerks sure didn't! We got his blessing certificate last week and are now the proud parents of Collin Ray. Good thing he's our first child because if he was the sixth, we might have just let it slide :)

I did a little impromptu photo shoot yesterday and liked his big eyes in this one. Someone at church lamented that he's getting too large and growing into those big blue eyes. :) Well, maybe they're hazel on their way to brown. Who knows!

More of the tongue antics. Other skills he is working on include kicking up a storm in his bouncer and pushing his legs so that his bum is elevated and his back is arched. This makes strapping him into his carrier much more fun!

Party of three please.

He had his four month check up today and everything looks good! He is 12 lbs 13.9 oz, which is 30th percentile. 24 in. long- 60th percentile. And the nogan is 75th percentile! I always worry that he is too skinny since that is a common comment, but according to the doc he is healthy and gaining weight normally. Hooray!

He got another shot and no crying this time!

I love giving him a little mohawk now that he has enough hair.

This kid is such a love! He is finally sleeping better at night after two nights of "crying it out". He'll typically go to sleep between 7:30 and 8:30pm and wake up around 4 or 5am, eat, then go back to sleep. He's much more content than when he was younger. And he's getting a lot more patient with me trying to suck out all his boogers! Haha. It has become quite the obsession of mine. If I can't get it with the sucker upper thing it drives me bananas! I've tried to teach him to pick his own nose since my fingers are too big, but he hasn't quite gotten the hang of it! Does anyone else suffer from this? I've all but gone batty over it. Newborns sure are cute but I think I'd like to just skip to this stage for the next one! :)

3 Cheers For 3 Years!

I totally stole that title from my cousin's wife-thanks Melissa! :) They got married 2 weeks before us, had their first kid about a month before us... so we're just used to copying everything they do!

So it was our three year anniversary yesterday and we actually decided to celebrate this year! For our first year we attempted some things, like temple sealings, but I guess it just wasn't my day because that certainly didn't go well! (long story involving a cranky old man- but ask if you want to hear) And last year, we had just moved in, our house was a disaster and the only thing I really remember doing is going to Target. The reason being, because that's when Travis got a call from a friend, inviting him to go play soccer that night. He hestitated, told the guy he probably shouldn't since it was his anniversay and the guy tells him that the girls are getting together to watch the Bachelor finale. Well I heard that, shrugged my shoulders, and decided that was a pretty fun way to spend the night, so we agreed!

Soooo, this year it was all romantical stuff for us!

The day started out with sleeping in and opening presents. Yep, I got the Magic Bullet! Hooray! Only, after writing that post several weeks ago, many assured me it wasn't worth it and their's had stopped working after a short amount of time, yada yada yada. Of course they were just trying to make me feel better about not having one myself... the problem was... it worked! So I need to get myself all hyped up about it again! He also got himself a DVD, by giving it to me. You know how that works? No, I kid, I kid! I was really excited about it- I love Jim Gaffagen.  My gift to him was kind of lame, but I realized a while back that we didn't have The Burbs. Well, that is Trav's all time favorite movie, so I ordered it for him. Those of you that haven't seen it, it's very strange, but he grew up with it, so he thinks it's hilarious. I think I will have to watch it a few more times to really get into it.

Then we were off to visit Niagra-on-the-Lake. (Are hyphens needed?) It's about a 30 min. drive into Canada and we heard from many that's it's a quaint little town that's fun to visit. Well here's Collin doing his latest and greatest, sticking out his tongue, on the car ride over.

We had the radio on and was seranaded by lots of Michael Jackson songs since his funeral was that day. Ok, so here's my one and only spout off about the whole MJ thing. I have his greatest hits CD and love it. I remember doing a Pommie dance to one his songs in 9th grade and loving it. I agree that he was probably the greatest entertainer of all time. He was legendary in his talent and how he transformed the music industry. BUT I just can't understand why masses of people all around the world are sobbing their eyes out because he died. I am in no way happy that he died. I feel that I'm more compassionate than your average person, and yet I have not shed one tear. I didn't cry when the prophet died, WHY would I cry when MJ died? I'm really just trying to understand it. I have to share a story. I was at Hobby Lobby last week and while one of the workers was cutting some fabric for me I listened to her talk to a fellow worker. She said, "Well, I guess I'm going to take a trip over to L.A. or Las Vegas, or wherever all that Michale Jackson stuff is going on. I guess I should pay my tribute.". SERIOUSLY??!! I am guessing this lady doesn't have all that much money. She is living all the way across the country and yet she's going to spend hard earned money to pay tribute to Michael Jackson!! I'm sorry, but that's insane! It didn't even sound like she cared that much about him, like she was a die hard fan. She just figured she better go do it. It seems Neverland is going to turn into some sort of Mecca and I just think that's wrong. Where are people's priorities?! And I'm not EVEN going to go into the whole "scary mask face" or child molestation charges. I DONT CARE that he wasn't convicted. You get a evil/manipulative lawyer and pay off the calloused parents millions of dollars and ANYBODY can get off of criminal charges. Cue OJ. Alright, that's all the time I'm going to waste on this! How did I get so off topic?! Back to my romantic anniversary, haha!

Well, on the drive over we passed the gigantic dam that Niagra River runs into. And of course we had to start the dam jokes. "Look at all that dam water!" "Stop taking so many dam pictures!" "Can you believe this dam road is so long?" Oops, I don't think that last one quite worked. Aren't Mormons the weirdest people ever?

And as we drove along the road that led into Niagra-on-the-Lake, we passed the most gorgeous mansions. Isn't this red amazing?

Not too shabby!

We parked by Queen's Royal Park and took in the beautiful scenery.

This is where the river meets Erie Lake. You can actually see the line where the current changes because the river meets the lake. Kind of cool.

 Fort Niagara is behind us.

You can see the skyscrapers of Toronto in the distance. At least we're pretty sure that's Toronto!

I guess they hold weddings here.

This is just a shot of "downtown". We walked along the street and peeked in the shops. Lot's of boutiques and art gallerys.

Not the cheapest place to get lunch... so we just got a pretzel and burger at this little shop. Collin was pretty content to eat his fingers and hang out in the Bjorn.

This is also where I found this bumper sticker! Haha! If you know me, you know why this is so hilarious. And if you don't know me, well, I think you just learned something new!

Before we left I really wanted to go on a carriage ride. What's more anniversaryish than that? So we walked up and asked how long the tours are and how much they cost. She said they do 15 min, 45 min. and hour long tours. "Oh, well we'd just like to do a 15 min. one". So she said, "That will be $45". My jaw literally dropped. She quickly assured me that is wasn't $45 a person, it was $45 for the whole carriage. OH, well that's WAY better! Not! I don't know what I was thinking! Alas, we will have to save the romantic carriage ride for a day that we're not thousands of dollars in debt. Sigh.

On the way home we stopped at a little Farmer's Market and sampled all of their exotic jams, dressings and sauces. Then I begged Trav to stop at one of the many winery's along the road. They offered tours and I've always been curious about vineyards and the whole process. So we went on a little tour and learned a couple of things about white vs. red wine, the maturation time, and how it's all harvested and pressed. Trav was sweet because he had absolutely zero interest in any of it, but went along with it because I wanted to. At the end they offered some wine tasting and we decided we probably shouldn't be rude, and tasted just a bit. Kidding! I know it was very strange of me to want to do all that when we don't drink, but I was just curious, OK! And I was perfectly content to buy some fudge from the gift shop and munch on that instead. I'll take chocolate over fermented grapes any day!

All those white boxes are just cartons of wine and the barrels hold the juice for about a year until it's bottled.

We got home in the early evening and got Collin to bed and then the Carters were nice enough to come over for a couple of hours while we went out to dinner. We've heard lots about the Melting Pot and there happens to be one just a few minutes from our house at the Galleria Mall, so we had to try it. When you walk in, it's so dark and quiet, I was a little thrown off. All the bottles of wine and leather couches made me think I was in a Mafia movie instead of a fondue restaurant. In relation to the previous debt mentioned we forwent the exotic meats and just ordered a cheese fondue, salads, and a dessert fondue. I guess wine was in the cards for today, because we didn't see much that didn't have sherry, beer, or *insert fancy wine name that I can't spell*. But it all burns off, right?

I'm actually glad we ordered what we did, because we were absolutely stuffed afterwards. I guess it was good, but definitely a place where you pay the big bucks for the atmostphere. I think I'd rather just invest in a $30 fondue pot and provide my own baby carrot sliced into three parts, 1/2 a chopped apple, and two smidgens of brownie.

I think I'd have to vote this anniversay as the best one yet and we thought it was funny that the universe was giving us little "love hints" throughout the day. For example, as we were getting ready to leave for the day, the T.V. had been left on and we suddenly realized that Rob Thomas was singing on The View. Our "song" is Ever the Same by Rob Thomas. Ironic? No, the universe was just wishing us a happy anniversay! And when we got to Queen's Park, I sat down to nurse Collin and this is what was on the back of the bench....

Now I don't know who the heck Sidney Smith is, but he was obviously a pretty romantic fellow.

And then last, but definitely my favorite, were the deer in the window that we passed while walking into the Melting Pot. Nothing like animals getting frisky to put you in the mood!

Have I mentioned lately how much I love my husband? Well, it's true, I do! He is my best friend and the love of my life. I can't imagine my life without him! Here's to another three years, then maybe three more, and probably three more after that..... just keep going! :)