Easter - 2009

Even though we were 2000 miles away from our family for Easter, it rocked. Sami has this wonderful cousin and her and her husband (who sadly are unable to have children) threw an Easter egg hunt for us and some other family's. Grant had toooo much fun. Surprisingly enough, he knew what to do with the eggs once he found them. He made out like a bandit... 7 eggs, while the other little kiddies got 4 and 5! I have noticed that he is not really a big fan of candy now, maybe its all the healthly food that mama has gotten him hooked on. :) He just likes holding it and throwing it at everyone. Grant and Lily looked too cute together... it is his girlfriend. I will tell you Lily is very agressive and she loves giving kisses, Grant did not know what to think of that! :) Thank you Kris and Dusty for inviting us, we had a blast!!!

Friday night... living it up AZ style!

After the long airplane ride Thursday night, going to bed late, getting up at the crack of dawn, we are talking 5AM... the Cromie's and the Suter's were ready for a night out for the adults. We decided to go out for dinner and then to Tempe Marketplace for drinks. Our friend Tracy, who had just moved to CA from Indy almost 2 years ago, drove out to see us. We tried to play a little matchmaker with one of Mike's friends, Dave. (Which they got along just nice :) The first place we went to was Bev Mo to get some shooters. We pulled up and I was thinking WTF is Bev Mo? Mike then explained it to me in the best of terms, it is like a Wal-Mart, but with all booze! hahaha

We initially were thinking this Mexican place and sit outside and enjoy the desert air, but there was some god awful band (with screaming music) and 1000+ followers that were in this courtyard everywhere!! I had never been to CA Pizza Kitchen, so we decided to grab a bite there. That place was the BOMB! Even with calorie counting, I didnt do too bad! At that point though, I didnt even care. :)

We finished up with dinner and headed to the Mexican place to grab some beers and do some dancing. The awful band left at 10 and they had some great dancing music going on. So we just drank and danced away the night. Now, mind you the woman were extremely smart... we drank until we felt a nice buzz and stopped (children dont care how late you are up or how much you drank the night before ;) The boys on the other hand, whom have been besties since they were 5, did not follow our pattern. They were too funny and we were snapping pics like crazy. They found PBR cans there for a 1.00 and thought that was awesome! :) Although I will not post the very last picture that night... someone got sick on his car and we teased him the rest of time we were there... hint: not my husband or Dave :) LOVE YOU CROMIE!

After a few hours there, we went to cadillac ranch, which was a ton of fun but we were getting very sleepy! We headed home a little after 1:30, way past my bedtime!

Here are just a few pics...

Tracy, Sami, Mike, Scotty and me

Mikey and Scott (after some nasty shots)

Dave, Mikey and Scotty drinking their favorite beer, which they have everywhere besides IN!

Oh I am sure their "Murtaugh" list got a little larger that night... :)

Yes, our kid was that kid!!! :)

Yesterday was our first plane ride with our little guy. Our hope was to get him suuuuuper tired so that he would just sleep a great majority of the travel time.

We arrived at the airport about an hour and a half early, he was already struggling with being tired, so we thought this would be cake walk... boy were we in for a big surprise. He was fine sitting outside the terminal, talking with people... flirting... you know, doing the Grant things he does. About 30 minutes before boarding I decided it was time to pull out the children's benedryl and allow him time to get relaxed. I reach in my bag only to see that, in mommy's rush, I grabbed the children's motrin. 1st hang-up. We then grabbed a hot dog for Grant to be able to eat on the plane, he wanted no part of that, outside and inside of the plane.

We were the first ones to board, the minute we got on to the plane, I didn't even recognize this little toddler. I have honestly never seen a child throw a bigger tantrum and get so hot and worked up so fast. As everyone was coming onto the plane, they were looking and staring and you know they were thinking f&%$, 1. I hope that I am not sitting next to these people and 2. OMG this kid better not be crying this entire flight. He was kicking and screaming and pushing the seat in front of us and we were trying with all of our might to calm him down and he just wouldn't. He was flipping around so much that he broke my bra... I mean snap the wire and then managed to brake the shade of the window... WOW, how does one do that. Once the plane backed out of the terminal he had completely crashed out on my chest for the whole take off and about the first 20 minutes!! His shirt was off, his face beyond flushed... he looked very very cute and peaceful. He was up after that 20 minutes, the entire time. It very much tested mommy and daddy's patience, which at that point was definitely out the door. We tried our hardest to keep him entertained. We watched Bolt twice, played with magazines and anything else we could find.

Once we got to PHX, we were beat up. All of us were cranky and tired yet none of us went to bed when we got there. Grant didn't end up going to bed until 12:15 AM our time...

Here are the pictures Scott took from his phone before take off... he looked darling!!

Talking Machine

I think Grant is at such a fun age. He amazes me everyday with the things that he learns and picks up or pays attention to. For instance, we watched Bolt for the first time on Sunday (which by the way we ended up watching 3 times that day and everyday since :) and at the beginning credits they showed Steamboat Willy (aka Mickey Mouse). Well I was pointing to it and said, "look bubba, there is Mickey Mouse." He started clapping his hands and ran down the hallway toward his room. He was in there for about 45 seconds and I was getting up to check on him when he came racing down the hall with this HUGE Mickey Mouse that 'Santa' got him for Christmas. I just laughed and thought that was the cutest thing!!

It seems like everyday that I get home from work he has learned a new word or he is saying things I have never heard him say before. I kind of get sad knowing that he is growing up so quickly, but I also get excited because I cant wait to watch him grow and see the person he becomes. Here is some of his vocabulary as of right now, almost 21 months!!

*Caillou (that has been a constant)

*Ball (favorite word at the moment, everything is ball!)

*Bolt

*Cracker

*No... yes, he has mastered this word, no troubles there :)

*Sticker

*Mamaw

*Papaw

*Momma

*Dadda

*Bo-Bo (our dog)

*Reggie (really it sounds like eggie!)

*Elmo

*Block

*Duck
*Hair
*Shoe

These are just to name a few.... here are some pictures from Sunday where he actually sat for a long period of time and watched Bolt!!!! He decided he didnt want any pants on too!

Friday night

Sooooooo I had a complete scary mom moment over the weekend. I have had them a few times within the past year and a half, one of them being the over cautious mom when my son rolled off the couch, but I digress. ;) Well, we had some good friends over and we were just chatting having a glass of wine. Usually when people come over at least by 9:00 PM I will go in and check on GMan. I went in there and was completely freaked out. My son's crib is against the wall off in the corner of his room. We had taken the bumper pad out as he was trying to climb out of his crib and using it as a step stool. So we have 2 plug in's that have his monitor, which we keep under the bed and the tall lamp to his room plugged in. This is well below the crib and it would take some major energy to get to these... oh, but guess what, he did!!! So he had gotten to the very bottom big plug in (the monitor plug) grabbed it up into the railings of his crib and completely wrapped it around the opposite side of crib stretching his entire crib.

So of course when I see this I automatically think, oh god, it is around his neck... so I am feeling for a pulse and signs of breathing... he was fine and was snug as a bug. I went and got my husband to show him just how honorary our son is. He did the same thing as me, feeling for signs of life. We immediately got to unplugging everything and was making quite a bit of noise, he didnt make a peep or even move. Normally you can walk by his room and he would hear the carpet crinkle and wake up instantly. Although I didnt take pics of the actual "art" that he had done, I did take a few pictures of him looking so precious...

Love

This is just randomness and it really touched my heart today.

I work out of multiple hospitals on a daily basis, today I happen to be at University Hospital running around like a mad woman. On my way back up to the Oral Surgery floor, I was behind an elderly couple, the woman probably in her early 60's and man in his late 60's early 70's. They were walking kind of slower, which I didnt mind. Like I always do... I eavesdrop and kind of pay attention to people, I am a definite people watcher. While I was walking down 1st Street (yes, all the hallways are named to help people find their way) behind this couple they were talking quietly to each, that conversation I couldnt hear, but as they were talking I could see the passion that was there. As we got midway down the hallway, they kind of slowed down and adjusted some things they were carrying. I saw the man look at her and grab all of her things in one of his hands and grabbed her other hand and held it tight. That almost put tears in my eyes... there they walked all the way down the hall and to the registration desk hand in hand. I can only hope that my husband and I are doing the same thing when I am their age... hopefully not in a hospital, but you know what I mean. True love is so rare, I believe, and I really think that is what I saw today. Of course, you never know, she could have been yelling at him in the car on the way there... :) but for that moment it touched someone's life that doesnt even know them!!

Weight Loss

You know, I have never been the type that had to worry about weight. My family used to tease me because no matter what I ate, I was always sooooo incredibly thin.... I mean I remember when I was dating an ex, I would go visit him every month and eat like a flipping champ; at the airport a Cinnabon there (which BTW is about 1200 calories for 1, count it, 1 roll!!) and the way back and going out to eat every night I was there... well that all changed about 5 years ago. When you get in a relationship you get very comfortable with the person you are with. You eat all the time, you just kind of hang out... and drinking beer is a downfall :) This is what happened with my husband and I. Then, of course, when you have the opportunity to bear a child you suddenly come to the conclusion... I gained 25 lbs but only had a 5 lb baby, WTF!? :)

I always harped on people who made New Year's resolutions to lose weight, I mean who doesnt say that. Well this year it happened to me and I was going to make it happen!! I started thinking about it after my husband said he needed to go on a diet and lose weight. I instantly was ready and I really think it has helped that we have done it together. Everyone that has seen me can tell a major difference, but I am happy to write that I am now 26 lbs lighter to date... 10 more lbs and I am at the point where I can wear my skinny, skinny jeans again!! WOO HOO!! My husband, being that men drop weight like a hat, has lost 30 lbs. I was thinking the other day... I probably should have done this before my wedding, but whatever. I am with the person I love and we are both fit and fabulous.

You may be wondering how I have done it... it's simple. I use this wonderful website, caloriecount.about.com to log all of my food and exercise so I know exactly how many calories I consume a day and how many I burn. You could say it has become an addiction, but hey, if the shoe fits wear it. ;)