Love Day

Alright Blog, lets have a crack at it again.....

A few days before Valentines we had a little Valentine exchange with some of our neighbors. Charlie and Blakely made this adorable car valentine box and handed out cars valentines. 

Our Valentines Day started with an early morning heart pancake breakfast. Since we are currently eating gluten free trying to figure out Blakely's allergies, I thought I would be a good wife and make him almond meal pancakes. And oh what a good wife I was. 

Somehow between getting Charlie situated at the table while also preparing the pancake mix I inadvertently added TUMERIC instead of cinnamon! Yikes! Not willing to sacrifice an entire bowl of mix when almond flour is so stinking expensive, I added a bunch of sugar to the batter, smothered the pancakes with lots of syrup and strawberries and chose to not tell Blakely about my error until after he was done. Surprisingly, thankfully, they turned out okay! Not great but edible. The best part was that the little pancakes crumbs stained Charlie's hands and pajamas yellow. 

The rest of the day ran much more smoothly and was quite lovely. Blakely surprised me with these beautiful yellow and coral roses (my favorite colors!) and a fantastic homemade card with a hilariously thoughtful poem.

My favorite lines read:

"Without you, Chars and I'd be a mess,
we would cry a lot and be in a state of depress
Not to mention the state of our tummies
Which would wither and die like Egyptian mummies."

If I die I certainly hope someone will feed my family so they dont mummify!

For lunch, we met up with some of the other babies in the complex for a little picnic. Here, Charlie is sharing the love, leaning in to kiss his little buddy Sienna. This kid LOVES giving kisses. 

Charlie is telling me thank you for his valentines m&ms. Definitely no shortage of chocolate around here.

And the goofiest valentines smiles you ever did see.

We finished the night off with a romantic whole family dinner at Qdoba where they were offering a free meal if you kissed someone in line. Blakely kissed Charlie. Of course. Ha!  Then after quickly putting Charlie down to bed, our sweet neighbors watched Charlie so we could go watch Warm Bodies, the zombie love story which was actually very fun and entertaining.

 I loved sharing this day with the people I love most. 

January Happenings

Besides our great Utah trip, Charlie and I spent the rest of the month Sick, Sick, Sick. Charlie came down with a bad cold the last day we were in Utah and carried it back to Texas to share with the rest of us. After a couple of days of catering to a sick whiny baby, I began to lose my patience. I found myself thinking, "I know you're sick but c'mon! Pull yourself together!" I guess I totally asked for it when I got sick a day or two later and felt TERRIBLE! Probably the worst head cold and sinus congestion I have ever had. It knocked me out and we were both a pair of pathetic sickies confined to the couch for days. Blakely managed to escaped unscathed but Charlie and I were not out and about for about 10 days.

We did manage to peel ourselves from our beds and the couch a few times and find a few things to be happy about :)

Daily walks. This kid would spend every second outside if I let him. He gets this excited EVERY time I take him outdoors. 

We love the little path behind our apartment. 

Charlie has mastered the leg cling.

 Always a litte skinny baby, Charlie has started to put on some weight in the past couple of months and has developed the cutest little belly. Love those skinny legs stickin out from that gut.

And of course reading. Charlie is never far from his books. 

His favorite reading spot at the library.

Charlie with his buddy Sienna reading on the couch.

Good thing they make those grocery carts so comfortable to accomodate those sleep customers :) Poor little guy was still not feeling great and good barely keep his eyes open. 

Back in Sept, Blakely set a challenge for his Teachers quorum to read the New Testament by the end of the year. If they completed their reading, their reward was tickets to see the All American High School Football game in San Antonio where the best high school players from across the country gather for a game.  All 8 boys completed the challenge and they had an awesome time enjoying their 8th row seats.

Elder Cragun Homecoming!

Blakely's brother, Aaron, returned from his mission in Tokyo Japan January 1st. Awesome technology allowed us to be at the airport via Facetime when the family saw him for the first time. The excitement was so think we could feel it through the phone!

We were thrilled that we had the opportunity to fly back for 8 days to attend his homecoming and spend time with both the Ashtons and Craguns.

Aaron gave  a great talk and I was able to accompany Bailey, Addy and Aaron as they sang "Ill find you there my Friend" Aaron even sang a solo in Japanese! What a stud! We enjoyed lunch afterwards at the Craguns with all of the extended family.

We spent a day and night up at Matt and Nikis house (resort) in Eden Utah which truly is a little bit of Heaven on earth. Tommy and Erin's family joined us as well as the healthy half of Julies family. We worked on discovering our inner Katniss practicing on the new archery range Matt has set up in his backyard. Some families get bikes or games for Christmas. Matt's family gets bows and arrows.

After practicing for the next hunger games, we piled on the hockey gear and played a quick game on their frozen pond. We didn't last long before we collapsed of exhaustion. Skating is hard work!

When we were not busy playing the freezing outdoors, we were playing hundreds of games of Mario Chase, the new game on the Wii U. A blast. 

Other trip highlights included:

 Trip to the aquarium with all the Cragun cousins.

Awesome Jazz victory over the Heat

 

A visit to Scheels, the new mega sports store in Sandy, and a ride on the ferris wheel with Shelby. We were both a little wary of being stuck at the top :)

 

Lunch at The Garden on the top top floor of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and window shopping at the new City Creek Center.

Charlie loved spending quality time with Grandma.  And carrying that lil snack cup with him EVERYWHERE. He became quite possessive of it which was pretty funny.

And many game nights and snuggle time with cousins and grandparents.

Phoebe and Charlie, the cutest cousins and friends.

This is the face Charlie gives when when we tell him to smile. 

Poor sick snugly Charlie. He had a fever on and off again the first couple of days we were there and then came hold with a nasty cold. Can't say mom or grandma minded the extra snuggles though.

Twelve Months

Charlie,


Happy first birthday to my sweet, active, curious, little munchkin. It truly has been the greatest thrill of my life to watch you grow up from a tiny newborn into a little boy full of spunk and personality. A year ago you lay snuggled tight in my arms and I could only imagine what kind of little person God had sent me and now I can't imagine my life without your sweet presence.

A boy through and through, you are obsessed with anything with wheels. I don't know how little babies pick up on gender stereotypes, but without any prompting by your Dad and I, you discovered a little lego block with wheels and it has hardly left your hand since. Not long after you discovered this "car" I heard you say "vroom" as you pushed it along. Where do you learn this stuff?!

 You LOVE to be outside but I hate taking you outside because you get so dirty and either your pants get all worn out or your poor knees get all scraped up. Just yesterday, I took you outside and while you were enthusiastically crawling towards the dirt (yay!) your foot got caught on your pant leg and you face planted into the cement, scraping your poor little nose and upper lip. You cried for a moment but were more mad that I tried to keep you in my arms instead of continuing to play. The real tears came when I tried to take you inside.  I can't wait until we can explore outside together walking. No pressure though :)

Since you were such an early roller and crawler I was so certain you would be walking by now, but you still seem pretty content with crawling. Its actually hard to imagine you walking because you are so efficient and FAST at crawling. When you are not crawling, you are permanently attached to your walker flying around corners and navigating around furniture with reckless abandon but impressively managing to stay upright.  Walking on your own has little appeal when you can cruise around the house at high speeds behind your walker. The walker was loaned to us by a friend, continues to be the only toy you play with consistently every day since you were four months old. We may just never be able to give it back!

We had big plans for a combined birthday kickball game with your Dad but sadly we got rained out. We still had a great time moving the party indoors, eating and enjoying company with good friends. Of course I gave you your own cupcake to eat and as everyone anxiously watched, in true Charlie fashion, you threw the cupcake off your high chair. You've never been much for public performing.  Ah well. Happy Birthday anyway little boy!

Love Mama

Other Charlie Favorites: 
Cupboard DiscoveryWhile you are not racing around the house behind your walker or making car noises, you are busily emptying every cupboard and drawer in the kitchen and bathroom. It never gets old. You are especially excited to discover the kitchen aid and all its attachments.
Music: I sing songs with you all day and you like to bob your head along to the beat but you love when your Dad comes home and you two discovers songs on the computer together.
Blanket: You have slept with the same blanket since you were a new born but we don't bring it out of your crib so that it will remind you its bedtime. You have recently discovered how to pull it out of your crib though and you love to sneak in to grab it so you can snuggle on the ground with it. Too cute.

Obsessed with your walker

A friend passed on their old bouncer. You are a little big for it now but we had one afternoon of fun.

A future in modeling I think?

First Spaghetti dinner by yourself. Eating naked of course.

Birthday boys

I'm supposed to eat that?!

First nose scuff

Post nap happy baby

eleven months

 Little Boy

This month we spent 2 weeks in Utah where you could spend time with cousins, aunts, and grandparents.  Spending time with so many people, your talking exploded! You are now an endless string of babble, screams, yelps, and giggles. It may sound incoherent but your sincere enthusiasm shows that you are clearly trying to communicate. My favorite "word" you use? " Dog, "DA" which refers to all animals. The best part is that you always say it like a question and look up at me as if to say "Am I saying it right Mom?"

Your Cragun grandparents have a little Shih Tzu puppy, Sadie. You were a BIG fan of Sadie but I think she was less enthused. You loved to chase after her, giggling as you went along, while Sadie tried to find new hiding places to escape your chubby little baby hands. During the trip, we visited Hogle Zoo for the first time as well as the Thanksgiving Point Farm where your curiously took in all the animals. You are always such a quiet observer though as if it takes all your energy to soak in your new surroundings.

Although you are a very independent baby and have many little activities you enjoy doing by yourself, you are a snugly little guy. In between playing with your toys and reading your books, you will crawl into my lap where will stay 5 secs before leaving again. A few minutes later you will return for another moments snuggle. Bedtime of course is the snuggliest part of day. You still let us cradle you like a newborn as we sing Primary songs and hymns before you go to bed and you lay there sweetly gazing up at us with pure admiration. (We won't talk about the grouchy nights that you fight us every second until we stop short short of just tossing you bed to sleep off the grumps).

 Sometime in the past few months you have associated my hair with comfort. Whenever you are tired, hungry, hurt or sad you grab onto my hair. If my hair is pulled back into a ponytail or bun you will grab at it until you have pulled a few strands loose. Although I have probably lost a couple hundred hairs in the process, I find it very sweet. Also you only suck your thumb when you are holding onto my hair or your blanket. Hopefully that makes it easy to break the habit later on? We shall see.

Sure love you little man

Mama

Other Charlie Favorites:
Swimming In August, we frequent 100+ temps so we take many trips to the pool. You love to splash around in the pool. Its hard to take you though because you would love to crawl around in the baby splash area but you aren't very good about holding up your head so you keep dropping your head into the water dragging along until your choking.
Walker or Anything Else you can push:  You are obsessed with pushing around your walker. You hardly crawl anywhere but use your walker to get everywhere around the house. If your not using your walker you find anything else that you can push along; ie laundry basket, rolling chairs, strollers, to get around.

Finding some of moms hair to hold onto. 

"Da"?

Pushing the laundry basket around.

Skinny little baby belly