What's going on

So, despite the lack of edited pictures and completed blog posts, we've been kept pretty busy lately.  First trimester was spent in survival mode as I slept as much as possible and wasn't up to much else (luckily I didn't get sick though!) so we've been spending second trimester trying to turn into real people, instead of just survivors.  You know, we don't need to be dirty and ragged anymore, we can actually maintain a clean house again and do all of those things that real people do.

We've been setting up finances and getting caught up on our budget.  Luckily our only debt is our mortgage, but we know that it's only that way because we've been so strict with our money.  It really helps when you are broke when you get married.  Seriously, those people who wait until they are financially stable lose out on living on faith when it comes to finances.  Because we don't want to lose all of those lessons we learned we still stick to a strict budget, which luckily isn't as small anymore.  However, kids and pregnancies (aka cravings) tend to cost a lot.  We love our new budget program YNAB.  It's like our little Excel spreadsheet with all of the bells and whistles that we dreamed of writing macros for, and we can even import all of our bank and credit card info.  I know, Dave Ramsey is totally against credit cards, but we're really good at using our credit like money and paying it off.  P.S. Is it just New England, or are food prices going up?  I've even been getting back into couponing, but between buying milk, bread, and produce our bills are going up up up, and those coupons aren't very prominent in those areas.

I've also started actually menu planning.  First of all, to help with the grocery shopping, so I know what to buy while I'm there (I seriously don't have much of a brain these days), and secondly so that I can hopefully have some kind of dinner on the table when Matthias comes home, so that we can actually enjoy our evenings as a family before Oliver goes to bed.  Check it out, I even made a menu planner:

Matthias is pretty excited about it.  So is Amaryllis.  And ignore the animal cracker crumbs on the top of the fridge.

I've finally got my scrapbooking mojo back.  I've been trying and trying to keep up with pictures and making pages, but something about pregnancy makes me hate everything I do, so I've started going back and finishing up pages that I once thought were hideous, or didn't even know where to start besides putting the pictures on the page, and finishing them up to find that I'm loving it again.  What a relief!  I mean, right after upgrading to CS5 I suddenly stopped scrapbooking...that would be such a waste!  But, I'm loving CS5 and how it processes things, and just really need to start learning more of the tricks that it can do.

Along with meal planning I've been enjoying cooking again because of great new recipes that I've found at Our Best Bites.  I'm seriously in love with their taste, so I got their brand new cook book using my free Amazon gift cards I've gotten through using Swagbucks to search the web (seriously, just use it like you would Google, or even more, and you earn points that you can redeem as $5 Amazon gift cards.  It's just over a penny a point!  And if you use my shameless referral link then I'll earn when you do.  Feel free to tell your friends.  I've gotten over $40 from referrals alone!  Plus if you sign up with the code “BirthdayFun,” you’ll earn 25 Swag Bucks on top of the 30 you already start out with).  The cook book is AMAZING.  Seriously.  It'll be nice to have the book in the kitchen instead of walking back and forth to the computer.  This week I'll be using their guiltless alfredo sauce on Monday, and then using it again on Wednesday to make the creamy pesto pasta, which is amazing (although I'm horrible at roasting tomatoes, and only like mushrooms when Jason makes them, so I'll just cut up some fresh tomatoes to put in it). 

Matthias is learning how to play the piano.  He's learning Rachmaninoff's Bells of Moscow.  After several months he can play the first 4-6 bars.  However, this morning he played "Now Let Us Rejoice" and it was just about singable.  Not bad for someone who stopped lessons at eight years old after learning the Hokey Pokey.  I realized that I haven't been playing the piano much because it was so out of tune.  Luckily the tuner called me and he came by this week.  Now it sounds so much better!

Oliver just pulled the marshmallows off of the counter and started going at them,  before he got caught he poured them all over the floor so he could beat us to them as we couldn't collect them all at once.  We enjoyed hot cocoa during his nap.  Today we woke up to about 5" of snow, but got ready for church anyway.  However, on Sundays they aren't as quick with the plows, so we heard the roads were pretty bad and we didn't venture out to church.  Instead we watched some Conference talks to try to teach Oliver about President Monson, and then we colored a picture.  Oliver loves to color (cuh-cuh), so we figured it would be like having him go to nursery again.  Short but sweet, and neither of us got to teach our planned lessons.  They always say you learn more in preparation than the kids do in presentation.  I do know that because of the lesson I planned, President Monson's talk in Priesthood Session was even more amazing. 

Random small talk about the weather:  January was the 4th snowiest on record for New Hampshire.  We got snowstorm after snowstorm, each pounding us with 8-24".  And we were the lucky ones in the northeast!  Schools were canceled at least once a week, but Matthias went to work all but one day.  I was scared of ice.  Luckily our snow tires are amazing, as well as our city is good at clearing the roads.  One particularly cold week I remember the low was just under 0 F, and the high was around 28 F.  That same day, our family and friends in Arizona were experiencing the same degree of coldness!  We were safe and warm, but many people there were left without water or gas.  Water pipes were frozen everywhere, and there was a shortage of gas because they assume that the northeast needs it more than the southwest.  We keep our thermostat at around 65 degrees, so I did laugh a little when people were complaining that their indoor temperature dropped to 60.  We'll probably keep it closer to that when the kids are older and can use hot rice packs and blankets.  I'm definitely grateful that our blood has thickened living here!

We've been loving the February snow though.  We've only had a couple storms, and they haven't been in blizzard conditions, so you actually get the pretty snow in the trees, and don't have to worry so much about trees knocking out the power (although we did have a bad wind storm that did just that.  Luckily damage wasn't too bad and most people were back up pretty quickly).  This morning on Facebook many Arizona friends were posting about the snow.  They were excited to get about a quarter of an inch.  We took some pictures of our light dusting.

This is me on our driveway, in front of the garage and next to our backyard.  Yes, the snow is that tall, even after the 2 warm weeks of melting. Granted, it is taller because of our wonderful neighbor Joe who comes and snowblows our driveway for us every storm.  Seriously...he's amazing!  However, you can see the collection on the roof of the garage, which Matthias shoveled in January and had mostly melted.  As well as the collection on the trees.  By the way, you can attempt to walk on top of the snow in the backyard, but you might end up thigh deep and possibly lose a shoe that you will then have to shovel out.  Just saying. It's not like Matthias tried that or anything.

And this is me across the street just a little while after the plow came by.  By the way, my coat can zip up still, just not very easily.  Amaryllis is really starting to get big.

And here's a random joke that I read, that is pretty funny.  Good thing I don't use shampoo anymore!

I figured out why I'm so fat. The shampoo I use in the shower that runs down my body says, "for extra volume and body." I decided to start using Dawn dishwashing soap. It says, "dissolves fat that is otherwise difficult to remove."
~ author unknown

Oliver - Almost 18 Months

Oliver has become such a little person lately.  He is way smarter than any kid as little and cute as him should be, and we love seeing how much he learns and grows.  Here are some of his traits that we love.

Words:

Bop-ayee (Belly Button.  Almost always accompanied with a total belly flash.)
Go-ko (Book)
Teek-uh (Sippy Cup)
Nana (banana, and now orange, kiwi, etc)
Ah-poh (Apple)
Mama/Momeeeeee with the eeee squealed (in a cute way)
Da-da
Hi! hi hi hi hi hi hi
he he he (like Ernie, when he sees or we say "duckie".  Too much Sesame Street?)
Cah! (Car, like a New Englander.  One of his favorite words and luckily we get school traffic twice a day and it keeps him occupied, and he's very good at making car noises, or any engine noises, like a drill)
Tih dih (Teddy.  Which then he snuggles with an "awwww". He has even done this to Teddy Grahams.)
Da-da-da (Dance, accompanied with a cute arm wave like a conductor or a cute knee bounce.  Sometimes even running around in circles, which is just how my sister and I would dance as kids)
Juh-juh-juh (Jump, accompanied with a cute knee bounce as he tries to jump.  He can only actually jump in the crib.)
Bee! (any letter of the alphabet, said very officially, like Darth Vader)
Chhheeeeessssee (Cheese, said with a huge grin. He loves string cheese!)
Jeeeeessssseeee (Jesus, sounds almost like cheese but with a J at the beginning)
Yeah
No
Wuh (What?)
Goggie (Dog)
Aye (eye, which he will point to)
Aye duh (eye brow, which he will point to)
Mah (mouth, which he will point to)
Ssss (nose, which he will point to)
eeeyah (ear, which he will point to)
Buh-pie (Bye-bye, which he says as he sends his Thomas the train rolling across the floor)
way-de-go (Where'd it go, which he says when Thomas goes under or behind something)
Too-too (Choo Choo, for train, if we remind him)
Baw (Ball)
Sshhh (Shoe/sock.  He knows which is which, but we can't discern the words yet.  Luckily he points)
Bay-Bee (which he says while pointing at Momma's belly, and sometimes his and Dada's too.)
Poppy (Snoopy - his stuffed Snoopy from Halloween)
Ch (Chair-when he wants to sit on a chair)
Num num (treat...he came up with the word, and now we use it, so he may never know the word treat.  oops!)
Ticka - Tickle
Goes - Legos

The other night he brought over one of his Baby's First Words books, and surprised us by "reading" shoe, sock, car, train (too-too), doggie, duck (he he he), and teddy.

Oliver usually wakes up from his naps grumpy (which he gets from his dad), so I usually just snuggle him while reading blogs until he's ready to be happy and play.  Today he woke up early from his nap, which was late because it's Sunday, and was pretty grumpy, so I just sat with him and snuggled.  He always gives such sweet snuggles and as long as I just hold him and don't try to interact with him, he is able to calm down and be happy within about 5-10 minutes.  Today he konked out during snuggles, so I went upstairs and we took a family Sunday nap.  Oliver seriously gives the best snuggles and I look forward to his grumpy after nap time because those snuggles just make the days a lot more worthwhile.

Oliver went through a phase of pretty bad head-banging/tantrum throwing, and after a week of sort of trying Love and Logic he is amazingly better.  Today he was a little angel during Sacrament Meeting.  Last week, not so much.  Aside from a couple of tantrums that had the whole ward looking at us, especially as he got carried out like a football.  We were feeding him a banana, and he decided to shove the whole thing into his mouth.  He was on Matthias's lap, who looked over to me and said "I'm just waiting for it all to come out", which then it did, onto Matthias's prepared hands.  Then, however, Oliver grabbed a huge handful of this mashed banana and threw it at me, and it got all over my sweater.  We were laughing soooo hard.  Luckily we'd had a really stress-free morning, so the whole situation was funny versus frustrating.

Oliver loves dancing, jumping and spinning.  Luckily he can now spin more than two rounds before falling down, but he still prefers to spin on the carpet.

Yesterday he kept bringing me a blanket to put over his head.  He walked around blind and thought it was the funniest thing ever.  It was even funnier when the blanket was still on his head and he could see us.

Oliver loves it when I put things on his head.  He just smiles and smiles trying to hold his head still until it falls off.

I was watching old home videos during snuggle time and found a video of 9 month old Oliver laughing.  Oliver thought it was the funniest thing in the world and laughed so hard his cheeks turned red and I was waiting for veins to pop out.  Needless to say, we watched it a couple more times.  I almost took a video his laughing was so cute, but it's kind of silly to take a video of a video...

Oliver loves accessories.  He loves having socks and shoes on, and today he even asked me to put on his hat at mittens.  He also loves his coat, especially because it means we are going outside.  He makes sure that Matthias and I are always wearing our shoes, and he loves to try on Matthias's beanies and wear them around.  One day he put on a beanie and then walked into the other room so that he could see himself in the mirror.

Oliver LOVES books.  We find him playing with them and looking at them all the time, and he loves to carry them around.  He loves it even more if we actually let him touch our books (which we do as long as he's gentle).

Our boy could live on fruit, dairy, and bread.  Mama's boy?  I think so.  Although he does like his beans as well, and hot sauce.

Oliver loves to play peek-a-boo, especially when we play "Where's Momma?!" and he covers my mouth and then I make a silly face at him.  I get even more giggles with tickles accompanying the silly faces.  Best crowd ever.

When Oliver wants a raspberry on his belly, he'll hold up his shirt with one hand, spit with his mouth, and use his other hand to try to direct your mouth to his belly.  How can you resist when asked so nicely?

Oliver will also ask to be tickled.

This weekend we went on a few shopping trips, and Oliver was really great at holding our hands.  We gave him some time that he could run around free, and then he understood that we wanted him to hold our hands and walk with us.  He was REALLY good, and it made shopping a lot more relaxing.  Plus his little hand-hold is adorable.  He's just such a little man now!

We could spend hours in a parking lot watching the cars, and Oliver would never tire of it.  Oliver can even hear cars coming down our street and immediately looks toward the windows, points, and says "Cah!"

Oliver is getting better at stairs.  He tries to use the rail as well as crawl up the stairs, but he's learning that using both hands on the stairs is faster than his awkward rail climbing.  The same for going down stairs, except he usually gets distracted and starts climbing up once he's made it half-way down.  The only time he is really good at climbing/descending the stairs is when he finagles the gate open and we aren't watching.  He'll leave the kitchen and the next thing we know our hearts are rushing as we hear the pitter patter of little feet upstairs.  We can probably start trusting him on the stairs more, but he still slips enough that I feel better if we're watching him.

Oliver generally loves throwing his diaper away after changes.  Sometimes he doesn't, but sometimes he gets mad if I do it instead of letting him.  He also loves to help sweep/swiffer.  He's getting better at helping pick up his toys too.

He's now finally a pro at his shape sorter.  For a long time he cared more about taking the lid on and off, but we showed him how the shapes worked again and now he loves playing with it.

Oliver loves his Thomas train and Legos, but they are kept in baskets with lids, so we get a little boy carrying around huge baskets to us when he wants to play with them.

Today in nursery they were coloring pages about how to pray.  One of the pictures was to be thankful for blessings, and had a picture of a bowl full of food.  Oliver and his friend Elle who is just a couple months older than him didn't really color their pages.  They mostly tried to eat the food.  Luckily they weren't eating the crayons.  Yes, having primary connections is amazing in that Oliver has been going to nursery since the beginning of the year.  He was having harder and harder times staying in the Primary room without running around and distracting the kids, and one day he just walked right to the nursery and tried to open the door.  He loves it in there, and we haven't had any separation issues.  Hoorah!  I just feel bad because he's always been an early napper, and as much as I try to move it later, he still wakes up by 1, so I'd rather just put him to bed at 10:30 or 11 and get the longer nap, but it does make him tired in nursery. 

And since no post is really a post without cute pictures, here's a picture of Oliver right before we cut his hair.  Why people kept saying "Never cut his hair!" whenever they saw him I don't know.  We kept it longer so that the curls are still cute, but now I don't find myself tempted to do hairdos on a little boy.  And it doesn't become so tangled and frizzy.  Unfortunately the only after pictures we have are of it wet, and we cut it a little over a week ago.  I like it a LOT better cut, and I wish I hadn't listened to other people for so long.  He's just a handsome little boy!

Before:

After:

And in other news, we saw Oliver's little sister again at our appointment on Friday.  They confirmed that she is still a girl, and she was a lot more awake this time.  At first she had her hand on a forward ala "woe is me".  Matthias saw her practicing breathing, and we all saw her yawn a couple of times, including her little tongue.  She yawns just like Oliver, going all out and opening as wide as possible.  We're really excited to see how Oliver likes her!

Random poll:  We have a drop-side crib, that we got second-hand.  I've known plenty of moms who have raised multiple kids, and cribs that have traveled family to family and housed plenty of babies who survived just fine.  The actual statistic for babies who have died from drop-side crib malfunctions is 1 in a million.  So after knowing all of this information, why is it that when I hear Oliver kicking at his crib while trying to go to sleep I start imagining him kicking it down and then I suddenly want to buy a brand new crib for our new baby.  Babies R Us is having a 25% discount for trade-ins right now, so we could get a new crib for under $200.  Would you?  I think we are going to trade in our play-pen, that is a hand-me down, to buy a new one that has the bassinet/changing table feature so that we don't have to move Oliver to a big-boy bed too early, but if we had the two cribs we would just let Oliver finish his crib out.  My frugal side wants to keep the crib, but my hormones keep telling me to buy a new one.  Any thoughts?