Blessings

Sometimes Heavenly Father makes us look really hard for our blessings. Today is one of those days. Landon woke up crying at 4:45 am. Sometimes he will cry in the night but goes right back to sleep, this morning wasn't one of those times. I rocked him for a bit and put him back in bed once he fell asleep but he woke as soon as his head touched the pillow. Since it was far to early to be up and moving he came to bed with me. We snuggled real close for about an 1 hour before he decided enough was enough and it was time to get the day going. I felt like I had been hit by a bus. Sleep is something I NEED...especially when pregnant. I was not looking forward to the long day ahead.

Since my lesson on Sunday I have really been contemplating my blessings...blogging about them has also helped me to be more aware of them. Even with the dread of the super long day hanging over my head I couldn't help but be grateful for the opportunity to snuggle my little boy so close. I enjoyed listening to the rhythm of his stuffy nose breathing while he sucked his thumb. I loved his soft little hands stroking my arm and my face even though he occasionally got rough jamming a finger up my nose or pulling on my lips and hair. I love my little boy so much! I cherish the opportunities he gives me to snuggle even if it is at 5 am!!

{Thought a sleeping pic would appropriate for this post...and yes he is sleeping with the Grinch in October}

I am also very grateful for my Mom who lives so close and offered to watch Landon this morning so I could get some much needed rest. And a sweet hubby who got ready for work very quietly while I slept. I am also grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who sometimes makes us work a little harder to recognize blessings that might not seem so obvious at times.

WHEW....

That was a lot of blog postings!! Be sure to scroll down to see all of the Happenings of October!! I still have a lot things to post about like....what Landon has been up to at 14+ months, super funny videos, the pregnancy, and I even have some buried treasure share. Stay tuned!!

PuMpKiNs!!

The week before Halloween we carved pumpkins with Grandma and Grandpa Hoefferle. We enjoyed a listening to spooky music, including Michael Jackson's Thriller, and sippin on some spiced apple cider. It was TONS of fun!!

Landon wasn't too sure about putting his hands in the slimy pumpkin guts. His favorite thing was to put the top on and off. He even attempted to put the seeds back into the pumpkin. :)

Lando and I carved our perfect little pumpkin from our trip to Apple Annies.

More interested in taking the pumpkin top of than taking a picture. :)

The pumpkins in all their candle lit glory.

From left to right: Daddy pumpkin, Mommy/Landon pumpkin, Grandma pumpkin and Grandpa pumpkin!

Happy Halloween!

From the CUTEST Puppy there ever was!!!

Apple Annie's Pumpkin Patch

We had a blast a few weekends ago at the pumpkin patch. It was well worth the drive to Willcox to roam the great outdoors with Landon. And the weather was beautiful for once. :) Next time we might try early October to beat the crowds.

Landon can be quite the HAM!!

Landon thinks anything round is a ball and is meant to be thrown. You can tell from this video that he is the first and only son, grandson, and nephew in this family. Lol.

Our Month In Pictures

We have fallen off the blogging planet since Landon's birthday. Thought I would give a quick update with the few pictures that we have taken in the past month.

Landon has figured out how to climb.

We often find him sleeping in funny positions with his little bum in the air or his leg hanging out of the crib.

He loves to eat and we think he is too cute in nothing but his diaper and mix matched socks.

Landon enjoys making a mess whenever he can.

He is growing so big. Looking more and more like a toddler every day.

We took a trip to he zoo with some friends. He had a great time playing. His favorites were the tiger and the BIG fishes.

He loved to point out the animals and would usually say "daisy" which is the name of my parents dog. I guess he associates "daisy" as all animals.

We also enjoyed a day trip to Mt. Lemon with Aunt Cindy and Josh.

Stay tuned for many more posts as I try to get caught up in this blogging world.

Today I am Grateful for...

Bulk trash pick up! Thanks for saving us a few trips to the stinky dump! :)

AND

The right to VOTE!!

Count Your Many Blessings...

Name Them One by One!

In the spirit Thanksgiving (November already...Yikes!) and after teaching a lesson yesterday on gratitude, I decided I would post one of my many blessings daily until Thanksgiving.

Today I am thankful for:

The new baby who has been twisting and turning all day long. I feel like I have had nervous butterflies all day. :)

{16+ weeks prego...I think my belly has doubled in the 2 short weeks since this picture was taken.}

Count your blessings, see what God hath done!
Count your blessings, name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

UNO!! and DOS!!!

I can't believe my sweet baby boy turned ONE on August 20th. The day was filled with fun. We went shopping for a birthday outfit with Grandma Tidwell and then headed to Cup Cake for a yummy cupcake. Doesn't it look delicious!!

Landon was more interested in sharing than eating it himself. :) I think he had one bite of frosting and was done.

The next day we had a b-day bash. Landon got lots of fun toys and books. I feel like our house is exploding at the seems with singing baby toys.

We decided to try the cake thing again.....

He liked it much better this time. Ice cream must have made the difference. It looks super cute on his face!! At one point I went to take a bite of my piece and it was missing. Sneaky little boy stole my cake!!

We don't have any pictures but Landon even got to announce that he is going to be a big brother!! Dan and I gave him a book called "Big Brother" to open in front of everyone. We are really excited for the new addition to our little family. Landon has enriched our lives more that I could have expected and I can't wait to see what baby joys baby #2 will bring.

And for my memory some of the things our boy is up to at ONE:

Weight: 21bls 2oz
Height: 29 3/4 in
Head Circumference: 46.4 cm
Words: mama, dada, nana, baba, bye bye, no, dankey (blankey), hello, Jack, Daisy, der (water)
Favorite Food: pears and strawberries
Teeth: 2 on the top and 2 more coming in

*He loves his Blankey! Every morning when I walk into his room he holds his blanket up high and says "dankey"! His blankey also triggers a thumb in the moth reflex that is too cute.
*He loves bath time, swimming and playing in puddles.
*He LOVES to sneak a swig of soda from grandma.
*He enjoys going bye bye.....but doesn't like when mama or dada leave him behind.
*He loves talking on the phone!! Just about anything that is rectangle is a pretend phone for him.
*He has a bit of a temper and when something isn't working they way wants it he chucks it across the room.
*He has recently learned to pucker his lips when he kisses and even says "muah"!
*He gets his feelings hurt pretty easy and when he does his bottom lip puckers out. Hate to say that it is super cute!
*He loves my parents dog Jack!! Love love loves him. Whenever he sees a puppy he says Jack. When we pull into Grandmas house he usually says Jack. He really likes to play chase with Jack and is getting pretty good a running.
*He can open the toilet lid and has figured our how to flush the toilet. This is really a problem because we don't have a door on our master bathroom. It's quite a pain.
*He is quite the ham. He loves to put on a good performance for some attention.

Landon is the greatest little boy we could have asked for. We love him more than words can say!!!

Suckers + Swimming = Summer FUN!!

Love this SILLY boy!!

This boy LOVES to dance!

Landon just woke up and was so sad that I put him on the ground so I played some music and he did this. I thought it was soooo cute that I had to get it on camera, which meant I had to make him sad again. Still so cute the staged second time around.

{Sorry for the shaky camera hand....I was dancing too.}

Inspired!

Today I am felling inspired.....inspired to be a better friend, wife, and mother. To be a better me! Some things that have inspired me today are:

*Blogs of friends and family and people that I have never met. Although today it's mostly my sister-in-law Chanelle. She writes about striving to be better and it inspires me to be better.

*My awesome visiting teaching companion Julie. I want to grow up and be just like her. Love her!!

*My sweet baby boy who is constantly growing and learning new things....and always has a smile on his face or a kiss to give to his mommy.

*The restored gospel of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. A loving Heavenly Father and Savior. President Thomas S. Monson, his counselors and all the apostles who we are able to hear from on a regular basis. My testimony!

*My eternal companion.

*A very talented and creative friend.

*A family who is always willing to do anything big or small to help out with a moments notice (but mostly with no notice at all).

*A sister-in-law who has inspired a girl with hates to read to actually really really enjoy reading.

*My brother who is serving a mission in Australia with all of his heart, might and mind.

*My wonderful Behives! And the personal progress program.

Taking the time to list things that have inspired me today (or as it turns out.....listing my blessings) has really lifted my spirits and has motivated me to be better. Not only have I listed things that inspire me but I have created a list of personal goals to help me check in and keep track my progress of becoming a better friend, wife and mother. I think I would like to make this random list of inspirations a regular occurrence....maybe Wednesday's Inspirations? We shall see. Now I'm off to get started on my list of goals.

Happy Anniversary!

Dan and I recently celebrated our 3rd anniversary. We thought we had it good 3 years ago when life looked like this.....

Now it looks like this.....

And I couldn't be happier!!!

Yea Daddy!!

We started our busy month of May with Dan's graduation. He got his Bachelor's degree in Finance from the UofA or should I say Eller College of Business (they seem to think they are better than the plain old UofA).

We are so proud of him! It's nice to be done with school. No more late night papers or group meetings although I think we see him less now that he is working full time. Thanks for all that you do for our little family. We love you!!

9.5 months already!!!

Have 9 months already come and gone since we welcomed Landon into this world? It doesn't seem that long ago and yet it's so hard to imagine life without our little Turkey Lurkey. I know I have said that before but "time" really changes once you become a parent. Landon is such a good baby! He is so happy and full of personality. We are so blessed to have him in our family.

He is a big boy wearing 12-18 month clothing and a size 4 diaper. At his 9 month check up a few weeks ago he weighed 20lbs 1oz and is 28 1/8in long with 45.4cm head circumference. His eyes aren't quite as blue as they once were they are more of a blue/green. It will be interesting to see what color they end up being. We are thinking hazel. His hair keeps getting lighter and lighter. Might end up being a blondie like his Mommy. Poor little buddy still doesn't have any teeth, but that doesn't stoop him from eating lots of yummy foods like Chocolate Cheerios.

Landon has lots of fun tricks and it seems like he is adding new ones every week.

* When we ask for "kisses" he plants a big wet open mouth kiss right on our lips. It's so wonderful especially when we don't have to ask.
* When we say "YEA!!" he claps his hands.
* When any one (even strangers and the grocery store) say "Hi" he waves.
* He pulls himself up to stand on just about anything.
* He is getting faster and faster at crawling every day. Especially when he sees something he wants or a door opens to a room he shouldn't be in or when his diaper comes off.
* When we get him nice and balanced he can take 3 or 4 solid steps on his own.
* His latest trick is a hilarious scrunchy face (see video below).

Funny boy keeps us laughing all the time. We sure love our Little Boy Blue!!

Livin' BIG at the RITZ Carlton

So I guess Katie has been really busy, since the blog hasn't been updated for a while. She actually has been busy, with swimming lessons, Landon, and redoing our kitchen. So I guess it's my turn to step up and start doing some of this blogging.

A few weeks ago, we got to go with Katie's dad and volunteer at a fundraiser for the Arizona Children's Association. It was really a lot of fun, since it was a golf fundraiser held at the new Ritz Carlton here in Tucson at Dove Mountain. One of the cool parts, was that we got to spend the night prior to the fundraiser in a little (not really that little) casita.

So here is a day in the life of a Ritz baby.

These little glass bottles of ketchup are really funny! Leave it up to someone that doesn't need to worry about much else to want to their own individual glass bottle of ketchup.


Nothing beats cartoons in the morning on your very own HD TV!



And how about getting around the Ritz grounds? Travel around, in your BRAND NEW GOLF CART! (sounds like I'm on the Price-Is-Right!) Pretty cool that you can give a call at any time, and a guy with a golf cart will show up to chauffeur you to wherever you desire.


The bathroom was HUGE, big enough for a baby to enjoy

The views at the casita were pretty awesome. Landon during the last few weeks has perfected a few things, like standing up on his own with the support of an object, crawling, and walking with only one hand.



Unfortunately, when that picture was taken he still hadn't perfected the standing on his own, so he promptly fell over and got a big ol' welt on his head... So that's the family picture at the golf course, and you can't see it, but Landon has a big fat bruise on his head.




Nice big bed, but for some reason I slept HORRIBLY on it. Evidently, Landon slept just fine.



And then there was the TUB!


Can you see me?

A few more posts will be coming, since a lot has happened during the past few weeks - so STAY TUNED!