Here Comes Trouble

15 Months, 5 days old and she already has her first "Sugar Daddy". I had some Pampered Chef stuff to mail out so we went to the post office today. A man came in and stood behind us in line. Of course if you know Megan, you can't be the first to wave. She has to size you up to decide if you are wave worthy. If you wave first, she won't wave back. Anyway, this man waved at her and Megan did not wave back in fact she acted as if he was scary and tried to climb into my arms. He kept trying to no avail. Megan's attention then focused on the State of Pennsylvania teddy bears that they were selling and she began waving at THEM. Next thing we knew the man was getting one off the display and brought it to Megan. At first I was thinking, "Thanks buddy, now I have to be the one to take it away from her." Then he got another one and said to me, "I'll use this one to ring it up." Of course I told him he didn't have to do that but he insisted. Then I noticed that the bear says, "I love chocolate." and I knew it was meant to be.

Peek A Boo!

Not a great video, we'll try again.

Simple Pleasures

Daddy wanted a cake and Megan needed a bath.

So, a couple of days ago, Josh made a random request for a chocolate cake. Of course he did so at a time when normal people don't run out to the store but he knows that just the mentioning of chocolate will drive me out of the house in a heartbeat...usually. I tried to keep my wits about me though so I just laughed him off. I think if I really did run out to the store, he would have let me - but never let me live it down. Believe me, I know, there used to be a Dairy Queen nearby.
Anyway, again last night he cheered, "Kristie is great! Make Josh a chocolate cake!" I still fought the urge!!!

This morning being a holiday, Josh still had to go to work but go in at 11:30 instead of 8:00. It was nice to have him home in the morning. We made breakfast and ate together and then when Megan went down for her morning nap, we did too! It was great! After Josh went to work, I decided I should make him a cake and let Megan help. I'm looking forward to when she's old enough that we can make cookies and stuff together. After her lunch, I stripped her down and sat her on the counter next to the KitchenAid mixer. I knew it was going to be messy!



Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice!

Dipped her fingers in the sugar.....first taste!

Now the chocolate!!! Mmmmmmm!





Yes, that is chocolate drool!

Finished Product!

While the cake was in the oven, obviously it was time for a bath. I brought Megan into the shower with me and it's become a ritual that when we're all done washing, I'll pick her up and hold her. She will lay against my chest while the warm water hits her back. She'll lay there and cuddle as long as you'll let her. It's one of my favorite times! When we got wrapped in towels I guess she wasn't done cuddling because she continued to lay against my chest. It was all I could do to get her dressed!

It was a great day!

Pony Tail!

While we were at Skamania Lodge Tami and Grandma experimented with Megan's hair and sent a pix message to our phones. Since I'm not smart enough to put that on here, I thought the second pony tail of her life would suffice. Isn't she a cutie? Duh!

So smart!

Tonight after Megan's bath I told her to go get a book and bring it to Mommy. I've never said that to her before so I didn't know what she would do. She walked right out of the room, went to her bedroom and walked out with the biggest, heaviest, most favorite book she has! It was so cute! She loves this book, by far her favorite Christmas present. Well, next to the baby and the horsie and the quad, well, she likes just about everything.

Still more bonks

So I wasn't going to post this but now I'm going to to explain the bruise on Megan's forehead. Not even an hour back from our trip, we went to dinner with my parents and Megan bonked her head in the Applebees waiting area....on the tile floor. It immediately turned purple and swelled to a nice egg. The colors have gradually gone to green, then yellow. Now, as most of you know, Megan has quite the temper. If things are not going her way, she will let you know. Lately her method of madness has been to bang her head....on anything. The floor, the wall, the table, you - if you're in her way. Well, today was no different. I think she is teething more molars and she was fussy all day long and extra short tempered. We have very little carpet in the house so more often than not, she bangs her head on a hard floor. She must have hit that spot just right because it went right back to purple and swollen. It's going to take forever to heal! Here are a couple of bathtime pics that show off the bruise a little.

New things everyday

Megan continually amazes us. She really doesn't have to do much to impress us, we're pretty easily entertained by her. I think every night before we go to bed I tell Josh something that she did today that made me smile or laugh and he laughs as hard as I did even without seeing her because he can just picture it. Then if I've been at work he does the same with me. I think we say, "Yeah, she's pretty cute," at least 5 times a day.

About a week ago she started blinking. We were eating dinner one night and I blinked at her and she did it back to my amazement. It was like, wow, she can connect the facts that she has eyes like me and knows how to control them just like me. Silly I know but it makes you realize that babies are learning so much everyday and know more than you realize. I was still wondering if she knew the baby in the mirror is her.



We recently moved all of her toys into her bedroom. They were overwhelming my bookshelves in the family room and just cluttered everything. So now I can actually use them for books again.....someday.....when she won't pull them down and rip them apart. Things to look forward to! Anyway, now Megan will go into her room and play by herself and for some reason, prefers the door to be shut. We keep opening it and she keeps shutting it. There isn't anything in there for her to hurt herself on and nothing for her to destroy, well, that isn't put-back-together-able. (new word) So if she wants her independence, she can have it! We just check in on her every once in awhile and she lets us know when she wants out with a scream. That lovely scream. It's much easier for me now to get things done though, like this blog! Maybe some housework if I get really motivated!

Our Getaway!

After lots of planning, Josh and I finally got to get away by ourselves. It's been a surprise for me from Josh to celebrate both our anniversary and my 30th birthday. He's been giving me hints about where we were going but until Wednesday night I still had no clue. He was pretty bummed when I went to work and had my friends brainstorm with me as to where we were going. Skamania Lodge was suggested and I asked him if that was it. He said no but it really was. I was sorry to ruin the surprise for him but I still didn't know that WAS where we were headed until we were on the road on Thursday.

We woke up on Thursday, Josh took our dogs out to Jay and Alia's for their own getaway while I got myself and Megan packed up. After Megan's morning nap, we were on our way to Grandma's house for Megan's getaway. We dropped her off around 1:00 and started driving. We stopped at the Edgefield to do some wine tasting, one of the few perks of being an employee - free wine tasting. Anyway, after that we continued up the Gorge and reached a snow covered Skamania Lodge around 3:45. It was very beautiful.

We got settled in our room and decided to walk around and check the place out. It seemed as if we were the only ones there. We had dinner reservations at 6:30 so we decided to take the opportunity to relax until then and went back to our room to just hang out. At 6:30 we went to the dining room and had a great dinner. It was very peaceful and quiet. Afterwards, we went back to our room, relaxed and went to bed.

Friday morning we started with breakfast in the dining room and then coffee in the lobby by the fireplace. We had our massages at 2:00 so after some more relaxation in our room, we went down to the pool/spa and sat in the hot tub for awhile. We had our massages and then went into the outdoor hot tub which is the picture above. By then we were starving but it was too close to dinner for a full lunch. We decided to go into the town of Stevenson (where the Lodge is located) and see what they have there. We found 'Joe's Mexican Cafe'! We had a margarita and nachos to tie us over until dinner. It was a cute little place in a cute little town. We headed back to our room and went to the seafood buffet dinner at 7:00 that they have every Friday night. It was definitely the place to be because the dining room was now completely full, opposite of Thursday night.

Saturday morning we decided to check out a little early and start back into Portland. We stopped in Troutdale for breakfast and I dragged Josh to IKEA. He was a good sport. He shouldn't have said, "What do you want to do? It IS your birthday!" After that, we came back to our house and started warming the house up again. It was very cold! We decided to go to a movie before we picked Megan up. We saw 'The Bucket List'. It was a really good movie.

Around 5:00 we headed to Tualatin to pick Megan up. When she saw us, she smiled and started toddling over to us. She was an angel for Grandma and Grandpa so that is good. They asked us if we wanted to go to dinner so we headed to Applebees and ate and then headed home.

It was a great weekend! Very relaxing, but I already can't wait for the next time!

Happy Anniversary to us!

Today is our 2nd anniversary! Yeah for us! I just wanted everyone to know that I have the best husband in the world and that we (Megan and I) are the luckiest girls in the world!

We love you Daddy!

Bonks and more Bonks

On Christmas Eve Megan took a dive into the coffee table. Of course she immediately began screaming and I started crying too! She caught her left cheek bone pretty good on the edge of the table. After a binkie and some cuddle time with mom she recovered. She didn't get a bruise until a couple of days later which was wierd. Just a little greenish yellow one on her cheek.

Then last night a BIGGER bonk-a-bonk! She hit the table right on the corner with her right cheek. Josh and I thought for sure there would be blood but there wasn't. But she did immediately get a purple bruise showing how her cheek dragged down the corner of the table. This time she needed a binkie, cuddling AND milk. I tried to take some pictures of it but it didn't show as well in the pictures as it is in real life. But she's cute anyway, so I'll post them!





On a happier note Megan has become the smartest baby in the world! Just kidding but she did recently kick into high gear with her signing. All of the sudden she signs 'please' and 'eat' and 'more'. I haven't worked with her a whole lot on signing but when I started doing those signs she caught on right away. So now she tells us when she is hungry and when she tells us, there is no messing around, she is hungry NOW!

And following in Jace's footsteps, she now tells everyone she's 'SO BIG!'

Finally Christmas!

Sorry it took so long to put our Christmas pictures up but it's been hectic! We had a lot of people on vacation at work so I got the brunt and had to pick up the slack. So I've been busy and if I haven't been busy, I've been TIRED! Anyway, here's our Christmas!



Again, I have to apologize for the number of pictures I'm putting up. But I'm so bad at only picking a few. Christmas started on Christmas Eve. We had Josh's parents over for dinner and to exchange gifts. We got Megan a stroller and I think the excitement got to Josh and he wanted to give her something so it was the stroller that wasn't going to get wrapped anyway. She loved it right away. She pushed her puppy around in it all night. She was very proud of herself.

Christmas morning started around 8:00 so it wasn't as early as it will probably be in the years to come. As kids Santa always seemed to leave one present for us unwrapped so that when we got up on Christmas morning we would see it right away and be excited. It's a tradition that I hoped to continue with Megan. So Christmas morning we had Megan walk out into the family room and see all of her presents and yes there was one present unwrapped for her! It was pretty cute.

Her first quad!

She knew exactly what to do and climbed right on. The battery had to charge for awhile so she didn't actually know that it moved until later in the day. But she still thought it was pretty neat!

She decided she would open her stocking from her quad.

This Dog book turned out to be a great hit. She loves all things furry especially puppies! She flips through the book all the time.

Trendy baby with her very first cell phone. Since she always wants the real ones we decided to get her one of her own. I wasn't sure if she'd like it because it doesn't have pictures of her on it but it still talks and beeps so she's content.

Hello?

And of course the doggies get presents. Sampson knew right away that that stocking was for them.

Freestyling already!

After we opened all of our presents as a family and had breakfast, we put Megan down for her nap and then went to Grandma and Grandpa's house. It was there that Megan found out what the quad REALLY does. It took of bit of practice but she figured out the button and that it makes it move. Now if we could just get a hang of steering!

Megan got a baby from Aunt Tami and she loved it right away giving it kisses!

Hurry up Grandpa! Take it out!

Loving the baby!

Along with the quad, we brought her new stroller and she knew right away what to do with the baby. Amazing!

We thought we had opened our last presents and then Grandpa brought down one more for Megan, her own rocking horse!! She loved it! It makes a neighing sound too.

Aunt Tami and Megan

Our wonderful family!

We had a great Christmas and I know it will only get better from here!