Happy BirSday!

Monday was Kyle's 26th birthday but we actually celebrated it on the previous Friday. We went to one of his favorite chinese restaurants with the whole fam. Now in these pictures below it looks like he's laughing hysterically... that's because he is... here's why:

Towards the end of the meal I tell our waiter that it's Kyle's birthday. He nods, "Oh okay" and walks away. About 5 minutes later the ambient music stops and we hear this crackling on the speaker. A loud blaring, speaker distorting, birthday song starts playing. It's not just any old birthday song mind you, although it was played to the same toon, it was the 'Happy Birsday" birthday song. Our waiter and another come out with the cake shown above and proceed to sing "Happy Birsday to youuuuu..." the whole song while clapping off beat the entire time in slow motion. Oh, it was priceless. It honestly was the Christmas Story birthday... you know... this part:

We were all laughing so hard we had tears in our eyes. Priceless. I happened to catch it on video on my phone. I'm so thankful I did.

Anyway, so after that my parents took the babies home and the the four of us went to the first pre-season cardinals game. We lost in the last 3 seconds. Yes you heard that right! But it was a good game.

Happy 26th birthday Kyle!!!

(How can he be 26 years old?! I feel like I'm 26 years old! Dang it.)

Sunday Funk

I am debating even posting this... but it's time to vent. Today was HARD. The hardest Sunday I've had so far with little Boonie Lefler. Whoa. Everything started off fine as we only made it in to sacrament meeting 5 minutes late and were actually able to find a side pew to contain the beast... I'm not sure that it's the fact that my son talks more than other babies... but the VOLUME. His little coos and calls (shrieks and screams) seem to just be amplified in the chapel totally disrupting everyone's peace.

*SIDE NOTE* Mason was with me today but he was busy planning a lesson that he had to give during the 3rd hour. So I was on my own.

I tried to stay in the chapel long enough to be able to take the sacrament, but Boonie wasn't having it. So after one block being thrown and lots of screams we left the room. I took him to the mother's room where, luckily no one was in there, (I forgot my cover) I tried to nurse him, but he wasn't having that either. So I decided to put him down and let him run wild in that room.... No... he didn't want me to put him down either. Anyway... long story short... I decided to go back in to the chapel after the rest hymn. After about 5 minutes ok, we'll say 7, he grabs hold of my mother's day necklace and throws himself backwards nearly falling out of my arms and screams, sending the charm flying. Mason gives me the death look (or so I interpreted) and so I haul him out - back to the mothers room.

It's interesting how sore your arms can be after just one hour of trying to contain an 11 month old. Finally sacrament ends and I take him back to pass off to Mason and head to my nursery calling.

I need some spiritual uplifting today, badly.

But then I feel guilty as people in the hall look at me and tell me, "This stage passes so quickly." And how they miss their little ones at this age. Now please don't get me wrong, I love every single thing about my baby, but today was just one of those hard days. During one of the mother's room melt downs I looked at that little blonde boy and imagined the man that he would one day be and was thankful for my time with him. I know I will look back at these days and miss them, but that doesn't make them any easier. It's almost as if I am viewing them from afar as they are happening - I'm being thankful and smiling to myself, but then I am frustrated at the same time.

I wonder at what age I am suppose to expect him to be able to sit through sacrament. I also wonder if there are things I could be doing to help him be calmer. But like I said, this week was just one of those weeks. Perhaps next week will be better.

Just Because I Saw It...

I mean come on... his name is Boone afterall...

Children's Museum of Phoenix

I have a love/hate relationship with digital cameras right now. I LOVE them because I can take so many pictures of my baby, but hate them because I can take so many pictures of my baby. I think I need to practice self control.

Anywho... Wednesday morning Amanda called us up asking if we had plans (nope!) and invited us to the Chilren's Museum of Phoenix. She had free passes so we went happily long. It was fun! They had things for all ages there, but pretty much every thing they had there was baby friendly. Boonie loved the baby room the most. He got to run free and he loved it!

Here is Boone and Ammon on the ballet bar:

Kade came with us too and being he's three he wanted to go to other rooms. So here is Boonie in the shopping area confined with a carrot. I would have LOVED that room when I was a kid. A full blown grocery store where the kids can shop and be the clerks. I'm excited to bring Boonie back when he's older. It was nice because everything that the babies put in their mouths went into a bucket to be sanitized. We sanitized many, many things - like carrots.

...and stuffed spiders...

He was cracking up as we went through the noodles. He loved them!

I fear he's developing a sense of road rage like his father. It starts young.

Outback

Outback is giving away free steak dinners in 24 hours! They have a count down and the first 100,000,000 people who visit the site get it free. SOooooOOoo... if you have nothing to do tomorrow evening around 6:00 AZ time, get on a get a free date night!!

Click on this link:

RIGHT HERE

And if you get one and I don't.... I'm blaming you. You can thank me later.

Happy clicking!

11 Months

Can you believe that he will be a year old in one month!? Here are some fun facts about little Boonie Lefler:

• He pushes around his little walker cart all over the place. He seriously takes it everywhere. He has just figured out how to go in reverse with it too.
• He's a vegetarian. He eats any fruit/veggie he can get his messy little hands on. He's getting pretty good at finger foods, although I still find a ton in his lap.
• He loves playing chase games and will laugh hysterically the whole time.
• He says 'mama' and 'that'. The 'that' he always whispers and points. So if you are getting out of the car he'll whisper, "That. That," and point to birds, or a tree, or a rock, or basically anything he sees.
• He loves to dance to all music. It's hilarious to see. He stands there and sways from side to side. He dances to music on the tv, he'll dance to you humming, he dances to hymns in church, he dances to the sound of your cell phone turning on, occasionally he will hum and dance to his own tune, but my all time favorite was when I was driving the other day and I had the radio on and looked back and saw his little head swaying back and forth.
• He walks back and forth between Mason and I. He has let go of the table and walked to me twice. I'm in no hurry, but I know it's coming soon!
• He's very busy and is all over the place.
• He needs to be in whatever room I am in. He's my little puppy dog. If I walk into a room he'll say 'mama, mama' and follow me wherever I go. If I'm in the kitchen washing dishes/making dinner he climbs on my legs and says, 'mama mama' until I pick him up or give him something to do.
• He is still pure mama's boy and I love every second of it.
• He gives hugs. They may only be 3 second hugs, but they are the best hugs ever.
• He signs: milk, bye, all done, and cereal.
• He has 4 teeth on top and 2 on the bottom.

Naughty things Boonie does:

• Slaps the spoon out of your hand. We mostly feed him through a straw... he's so good at slurping things up. It's so much less of a mess!! Is that weird??
• He throws grapes across the room.
• He pulls the grass out of our fake plant... that thing's days are numbered.
• He loves the toilet and anytime he notices the door open in the bathroom he heads straight toward it. No he's not interested in going... he's just a gross boy.
• He still likes to help change his diaper - and changing his diaper is like trying to hog tie a wild animal now-a-days.
• Giving him a bath is like trying to bathe that above mentioned wild animal. Don't get me wrong, he loves baths, but he runs laps in that tub. Yes he's outgrown the baby tub.
• He is obsessed with cords.
• But the naughtiest thing of all is the fact that he's not a baby anymore. He's my little boy.

Bless you!!

I love this little man. Happy 11 months!

Whoa baby - food!

Happy first day of school to all you Peoria folks! Mason's first day was last week so Boonie and I are already back in the swing of things. I love my days with this little guy. Anyway... so all last week I was on a making baby food kick! I'd make something new to freeze each morning. Here's what I made: apples & banana, necterine and banana, peach and banana, broccoli and rice, salad mix, sweet potato, carrots and potato, and cantelope and banana. I thought it was kinda fun and I feel so domesticated... not to mention I'm so excited to see how much we save this month! It's totally easy too! Click here for the website I used in case you are interested.

Honestly sometimes I miss teaching, but then I wouldn't get to spend my days cleaning up what he 'cleans up' after I've just cleaned up. I'm so blessed.

The last day...

Sunday we went to church at one of Mason's old wards, but the ward had been split so many times (that's a good thing!!) that there were only a couple of people that he recognized and knew. But it was still neat to see where he went to church.

The rest of the day we just spent at our hotel, the Mayan Palace.

They had an island in the middle of the pool that was the perfect height for Boonie to do his army crawl. He LOVED it!

The little Merboy.

And that's it! What an AWESOME vacation we had!!

Que hermoso!!!

Isla Mujeres

Saturday we went to Isla Mujeres. The boat ride over there was fun because it had seats on top and a live musician playing.

Being it was our day to go snorkeling we set up our excursion as soon as we got there. Tom and Laura took Boonie for us. Mason had heard about an underwater museum called Musa. Click on the word Musa for more information and videos. It's actually quite amazing and beautiful. In order to really see it you actually have to go Scuba Diving and we didn't have time to do the training so we just went snorkeling above one of the spots. It was eerily stunning. This picture below is the one we were over. But when we were there it was covered by a lot of coral so you couldn't really make out all the faces of the people in the mass. But occasionally there would be a face looking up at you. Kinda creepy but amazing at the same time!

Our boat guide reminded me of Rafeki off of the Lion King. He was this buff and wild old man. He thought my name was Alex. No matter how many times I tried to correct him he would just say, "Oh ok Alex!"

Meanwhile Tom and Laura rented a golf cart and drove around the island for a couple of hours while Boonie took a nap in Laura's arms. I had a major panic attack on the way back from snorkeling as I saw all the cars driving on the road and imagined my baby riding in an open golf cart with no car seat! Luckily I didn't think about that before or else we probably would have turned back. It's amazing how those mommy instincts go on high alert!

The ride back:

That night we had dinner at the pool grill. It was delicious (and beautiful)!

"Why the picture of a sign?" you are thinking... well that's not just ANY sign. That is a sign warning you that a TOPE (toe-peh) is near. They have these signs ALL over Cancun. On Wednesday when we were driving back from Chitzi Nitza we took a back road to avoid the 20 dollar toll and, I'm not kidding you, there were seriously about 500 tope's. Not only would there be a tope but then about 10 yards in the distance there would be a sign warning you of an upcoming tope and then the tope sign itself another 10 yards away. There were some sections on the road where all you could see were tope warning signs and tope signs themselves for miles (not even kidding).

Well as we were driving this back road and making our destination back home longer because of all the tope stops we started to make fun of the tope's and their warning signs. But I'll tell you what... don't disrespect the tope signs or they will get even. Some of the tope's aren't painted so you can't quite see them unless you see the sign. As we were driving about 50 mph in the dark Mason suddenly yells, "TOPE!!!!" and we all go flying up into the air (including the car) hitting our heads on the roof and landing with a thunk. Some tope signs are hidden behind trees. Respect the TOPE.