storms, couch forts, and a wedding oh my!

The first snow storm of the year came a few weeks ago and Dillan and Jeremy had to run out and build a snowman. The poor snowman is now drooping and has no head, but more snow keeps piling up on top of him anyway. Dillan was so proud of himself. This has been the first year that he has actually helped make the snowman. Other years he has been more of a hinderance than a help. He is growing up!

My mom came to spend Thanksgiving with us and since it was single digits or below zero the whole time she was here...we stayed inside a lot. Dillan decided one day to make a fort out of blankets. It was ever so convenient that our legs helped give support to the blankets. He did this all by himself.

Jeremy's little sister got married the week of Thanksgiving! Cassie and Ryan make such a sweet little couple and we are proud of them. Doing it over Thanksgiving made for some interesting situations of course...since holidays aren't stressful and busy enough right?? Plus, the forcast was announced for a huge blizzard. Thats right folks...a blizzard on her wedding day! This of course wouldn't have been too bad had the wedding and reception even been remotely close to one another. They were sealed here in Logan (in the same sealing room as Jeremy and me). The reception was in Murray at Wheeler Farm. All reports said that snow was going to hit hard by 3pm. The wedding was at noon. Hmmm, that was cutting it close. But we all got out of the valley on our way to Salt Lake by 2:30 so we missed the worst of it. But by the time we got to Salt Lake it was coming down! Jeremy ended up needing to get back to Logan Tuesday night so he could be to work at 8am Wednesday morning...long slow drive is all I have to say. He finally got home after midnight. The wedding was good and there were no major accidents...so all was well. Congrats to Ryan and Cassie.

The gator is alive and tearing up the neighborhood...

When we moved back into our house last October Dillan was fascinated with the temple gardeners and all their cool toys. The temple has 3 full sized Gators they drive around all over the place. Dillan decided that he wanted one....who doesn't right?? So last year Santa found a paractically new one online for less than half the cost! Woo Hoo! He loved it when he found it Christmas morning and drove it around my mom's house with his cousin for a long time. Only problem was that the Powerwheels gator is large and HEAVY for a 3 year old. He knew how it worked and could get it to go, but the entire thing was so heavy he couldn't turn the wheel to steel. Bummer! So you had to walk right next to him to turn it every so often.

Well, it sat for several months and finally made its reappearance this summer/fall. He drives it a lot now, now that he can finally turn it himself. He thinks it is great stuff. He will drive all over the yard, the Kerr's yard (the temple president), and around the corner house on the sidewalk and back. It has been loads of fun.

We learned last week that the gardeners think it is awesome! The were working on the temple gardens on the far end of the street and Dillan had "conveniently" left the gator parked on the grass at the Kerr's house. The gardeners admitted that they looked, did a double take, and even asked each other who left the gator parked all the way down there??? LOL Then another day when it was in our front yard one turned to the other and said, "When did we buy another gator?" This made us laugh hysterically. The drove over last week and compared the two side by side and were very impressed. They thought it was extremely lifelike. Thats the point right?? Awesome!

So Dillan rides it by himself, takes Izzy for rides in it, and carries tools around in the back..."just like the gardeners do!" Makes me wish I had one when I was little, but I survived.

Halloween!

So it has been a few weeks, but still...everyone wants to see Dillan's cute giraffe costume right?? Okay folks! I introduce for your viewing pleasure... Dillan the Giraffe!

He picked it out himself. When we did went to the store and picked one he told me, "I like the giraffe because it is big and tall...like me!" How cute is that?? An for sure people gave him way more candy than I noticed them giving to others. Good and bad if you ask me.

We celebrated Halloween on Friday morning with his preschool party, Friday day at Harris Research (Jeremy's office), Friday night at the ward Trunk or Treat, Saturday evening at the Donaldson home (the CEO of Jeremy's company), and Saturday evening trick or treating Quail Way up on Cliffside (full size candy to boot!).

We ended up with too much candy, but had a great time. Dillan loved it and is still taking rations from us on the candy. His favorite item collected was the bag of popcorn. The kid loves the stuff!

When Zombies Attack!

One of Dillan's favorite things to do is play computer games. It started with Mom...went to Grandma...and now to Dillan. Has anyone every heard of Plants vs. Zombies? We just can't get enough of that dang game! Such a time waster, but oh so much fun.

Well, the updated version allows you to create your own zombies. Dillan has a knack for it. It automatically saves a jpg image to the desktop any time someone creates one and saves it. Sometimes I come in and the whole desktop is full. I have to delete them frequently. His favorite happens to be a pirate zombie he created in the very beginning. But today I managed to find the picture below on the desktop when I sat down to check email. I think he might be a little excited for Christmas.

Not only did he do his very best at making the colors the way they should and doing the best with what stuff is loaded into the program (the baseball hat instead of a Santa hat), but he says all day long "Santa comes when it snows." or "I will ask for this for Christmas (showing a picture/ad/commercial)" or "I want this from Santa." It is never ending! Santa has some pretty big orders to fill this year. So, now we have a santa zombie in our game.

I probably should also mention that Dillan will randoming come at you walking like the zombies in the game all slow and stalkerish and say, "They're coming." or "Brains!" The kid is obsessed....but then we know where he gets that from.

Fun with Grandma Mary

Jeremy was out of town pretty much the whole week...so Dillan and I took a trip to Grandma's house to enjoy some time with her (really, to give myself another person to help with Dillan...I am really sick of the single parent thing). It was nice because my mom had time off of subbing because of UEA. We didn't really do a whole lot, but we tried to do one thing each day to get out of the house.

Tuesday we dropped Jeremy off at the airport in the morning. We hung out all afternoon and did nothing the rest of the day. Wednesday we headed to the mall and rode the escalators! This of course is the highlight of Dillan's mall trips. He loves them so much. He elected to ride the escalator instead of the carousel or the train. Okay by me...because the escalator is FREE!

Thursday we went and saw Toy Story 3...again. Dillan is in love with all things Toy Story and this was the 3rd time he had seen it. Dollar theaters are great for little ones. Give him a water bottle and a bag of popcorn and he is set! Thursday night I had a get together with some friends for a card club done by my wonderful friend, Laura Widdison (we went to high school together and were in the same ward).

Friday was spent hanging around the house again. We did meet Clint and Carrie for lunch. It was so nice to see them....it had been way too long! We ran a couple errands and spent the evening at home.

Saturday we decided to have a grand adventure. Grandma, Dillan, and I rode the Trax Train from Sandy to Gateway and trolled the mall, played in the fountain, had lunch, and went to the Planetarium. Dillan really wanted to go to the Children's Museum, but I didn't want to pay the price for just an hour of play. Another day my love, another day. We did that last time we stayed at my moms and it was a hit. We jumped on the train to head home and he requested that we stop at Temple Square to see the "really big temple." We toured the tabernacle and walked the grounds leisurely. It was nice. Then caught the train again home.

Jeremy's flight came in about 9pm and Dillan was so excited to see his daddy. Only problem is that he fell asleep half way to the airport. Ehh, what can you do. The drive home was uneventful and nice to chat with Jeremy without Dillan asking a million questions.

Overall, it was a good week, but I am so glad to have Jeremy home. I wears me out to watch Dillan all by myself day in and day out. I need that repreeve at 5pm each day! lol

Sheepishly posting...

I titled this post that because it has been so long since I have done anything. I keep up with my Stampin' Up! blog, Stampin' Martha, but I fall behind on personal stuff now. I get caught up in the hussle and bussle of life and then forget about the cute pictures I have taken and the great things we have done until it is well past time to share then and figure, "heck, it has been this long, it can wait a little longer." And then it never gets done of course. So here we go!

Dillan started preschool this year. He is LOVING it! He begs to go to school and if we could, we would let him go all day long. But, he is only 3 and since his birthday falls right after Christmas he will get 2 years of preschool before Kindergarten. Next year we are hoping to get him in preschool more frequently and he is so excited about it.

Jeremy is still busy working for Harris Research in the Chem-Dry training department. He is liking his job and we, of course, love living in Cache Valley still.

As for me... I am busy being a mom, Stampin' Up! demo, and a normal person (at least trying). I can't really ever be normal.

I watched my brother's kids this weekend... um, lets just leave it at I probably won't ever do that again and made a hasty decision on the drive home last night that I didn't want more kids. Jeremy just laughed at that. Dillan had fun when his older cousin wasn't chasing him around the house with a cork gun. I did get to see my mom for a few hours, so that was nice. No one should ever have to be subjected to 1pm church I have decided. I am so grateful that our branch will never change times and that as odd as it sounds, after having 1pm church for a week, 10:20 doesn't sound all that bad anymore.

We are getting ready to pack up again. Jeremy leaves for a business trip to Alabama on Tuesday morning and won't be back until Saturday. Since it is UEA, I am pulling Dillan out of school for Wednesday and we will take Jeremy to the airport and stay with my mom all week. I just can't do the single parent thing for more than a couple days. I don't know how people do it. I think I realize now, that watching Jeremy's Grandma for a year with hardly any help really broke my spirit and now I have far less patience than ever before. I don't think that I will ever fully be the person that I was before (which I rather enjoyed). I am working on my attitude towards life, but I am still bitter and cinical towards many things....and that bothers me. If I notice it in myself, I wonder what other people think??

Anywho... If you haven't noticed already, I am just randomly putting pictures in this post of the last month or so. Maybe the next post will actually have a story behind it. I am going to start fresh and move forward from here. I won't try to catch up...because that would just be over whelming.

I okay!

Seriously, where does he get his energy? He did this several times and I was only able to find my phone for this one before he gave up and went to basketball shooting again.

For those of you who don't know, I watch an 8mo old baby girl each afternoon. Isabella's (Izzy for short) parents both work and there is a few hours of overlap between when mom goes in and dad comes home. She is adorable! So no, we didn't have another baby but we do have baby stuff around because of her.

Fun times

We have had some good times in the last few weeks. Here is a snippet of what we have done that seems fun to us...though not necessarily for everyone.

Dillan LOVES to visit Grandma Mary! We headed to the mall to have Jay's phone fixed one morning and Grandma suggested he take a ride on the carousel. Complete enjoyment for sure.

"I want to play with marbles!" is a phrase that we hear every day. Dillan got a marble set for his birthday and really likes it. He will let you put it together, but the entire time he will continually drop marbles from the highest point you have so far. It isn't too bad because then I know if I have skipped something...because you have to have more than one track running at the same time.

Dillan is a problem solver for sure! I hate to admit that he got it from me. I know it shouldn't be a bad thing, but when he gets into everything and doesn't ask for help with anything...it is rough. This includes putting his own DVDs in, getting food out of the fridge, turning lights on and off, and much much more. Thank goodness he hasn't figured out the child locks on the exterior doors yet. I got out of the shower yesterday and he handed me an orange, already peeled by himself. I was impressed, but he left a mess.


Jeremy visited a lot of places on his last training trip for Chem-Dry. Columbus, Baltimore, Newark, and Boston. I was so jealous when he kept sending me pictures of New York City and all the places I really wanted to go. He visited the Empire State Building, Trump Tower, Central Park, Times Square, Rockafellar Center, Broadway, Macey's, and several more.

Of course Dillan can't have a day without playing basketball. He has resorted to using the JJCole storage boxes as ball hoops inside the house when I won't let him go outside. He plays constantly. Last friday the Aggies played Nevada and we never heard the end of "I want to go to the game!" The kid has a 6th sense when it comes to knowing there is an Aggie game in town. So after watching sports center highlights a few days earlier we decided to TIVO the friday game and just save it so he can watch "the game" anytime he wants. We watch it daily. Good thing the Aggies won or he wouldn't be watching anything. The child that requests to go to bed no later than 8pm every night said he had to stay up and watch the Aggie game. He played right along with them and finally asked to go to bed with about 1 minute left in the game. He is starting to do spin moves now!

Our new best friends

These are the new best friends that each one of us have. Lots of things have changed in the last 9 months and we will get to that, but for now.... these are the new time killers for each of us.

For Dillan, Woody and Buzz are his new play mates. He takes them almost everywhere and we watch the movie at least once per day. The problem is that Disney no longer sells the first or second in the store anymore and I am not going to pay a million dollars for it on amazon from someone who hoarded a bunch. The great news is that because the new one is coming out in June, they are re-releasing the first 2 in the next few months. In the mean time, we are checking them out at the library as many times as they will let us before we are forced to let someone else have a chance at them.

For me, my violin is my new best friend. I play at least an hour a day and I am loving it! I have had it about 10 days and I am already 40 pages into the book my teacher had me get. Another week and I should have all the notes in first position learned. She is surprised at how fast I am moving through things, but we are both excited things are going well.

For Jeremy, his new best friend is his training manuals....unfortunately. He loves his job to death, but he travels a lot in the first half of the year to train people all over North America. He is currently on a week long trip to the east coast right now. He and his boss, Jotham, take turns heading out to do the trainings. We miss him while he is gone, but it is for the best and it gives him lots of training himself for the future. Hopefully we can get me on a trip to somewhere exciting.