First Time Flyer

So...yesterday Albert, Johnathan and I woke up early and drove up to the airport (many thanks to Dad H. for going with us and taking care of our car while we are away) and boarded a plane.

  Johnathan slept maybe 30 minutes MAX the whole travel time.  I got a picture of one of the few moments he was asleep (don't let the slightly open eyes deceive you...he sometimes falls asleep with his eyes open):

Our first flight left at 9:35 we had a 1.25 hour layover in Chicago, and we finally arrived in Virginia at 4:10 Utah time...yeah he was not a happy camper.  neither were Albert and I.  Fortunately, because of the trip Albert has been very gracious with letting other people hold and play with our darling little boy. :) haha.

this last picture has nothing to do with anything above exempt that it's in VA...I just thought Beef looked super funny haha.  :)
What to be expecting:
-more updates on our adventures in the waterful land
-and (if I can find a way to make it so my mom can't see it (she's promised no more Christmas presents if she finds it here or on facebook)) a entertaining video of my mom (with curlers in her hair) playing the drums. :) maybe I'll just let you imagine it...

ttfn!

Dates and Christmas. :)

Merry Christmas!  I wasn't sure how this year would turn out, but it ended up being totally wonderful and completely amazing!

 john...I think I just took this picture cuz he looked cute and was gnawing on his blanket haha.

our Christmas tree this year. :)  videos to come of John batting at the lower ornaments. :P

Before we start on actual Christmas, I'll begin with Albert and I's extremely fun date. :)
So, the 22nd of December marked Albert and I's 2 year anniversary of married happiness.  yep!  hard to believe all that time has flown by.  Anyways, we convinced my older sister (Andrea/Ange) and her husband to babysit John for us.  Albert and I both took off work and we dropped John off at Ange's house and then rushed over to Olive Garden to make our reservation that Albert had set up (I know you don't HAVE to...but it meant we didn't have to wait 15-30 mins just to get a seat...plus it made the date feel all that more special) anyways, so we got our DELICIOUS food (fact, Italian food is probably my third favorite type of food...my first and second are American (I'm a hamburger girl haha) and junk (I also really like chips and dip and chocolate haha)) then we high-tailed it over to Nickle City (the arcade just down the road from Andrea's house).  We'd gone to Nickle City a bunch of times before and hadn't used our tickets on anything so we got to save them.  By the end of the night of fun (meaning by like 7:45 when we had reached the end of our budget haha), we had a total of 13,500 ish tickets (including the ones from before (we are REALLY lucky and do REALLY well in the wheel of fortune game)).  When we were there before, we couldn't really see anything that we particularly wanted to get (thus the reason we didn't use our tickets)  but this time, we saw some really cute/awesome kiddie games and toys.  we hadn't really gotten very much for Johnathan for Christmas :(  so we decided "Hey some of these would be perfect!" so we got him this ball game and a toy truck for Christmas...and some building blocks for his birthday (yeah, it's 6 months away, but we figured we might as well be on top of stuff)...then we got Monopoly (one of Albert's favorite games ever) and some candy. :)  we gave the rest of our points to a little girl who happened to be up at the desk at the time.
We then went to the Mexican store right by Ange and Thad's house to try to find panatone...only they didn't have "the right kind"...ah well.  and that was our date. :)  lots of fun and adventure and winning and joy and excitement. :)
So Christmas.  I wasn't sure what to "get" albert...soooooo I surfed the web for potential gifts for him...and found this pillow:

It was PERFECT!!  Practical AND something he'd use very often...and save a lot of frustration (he's ALWAYS losing the remotes haha)
and I WAS going to make it...then decided not to...instead I made this:

which ended up being much easier...I think.  Whether it was easy or not, I was quite proud of the fact that I was able to sew it myself and that it didn't turn out half bad and the pockets were good and Albert loved it. :)
Anyways, so Christmas Eve we went up to Albert's parents' house for dinner and ate yummy food.

Albert also slept haha.

Christmas morning (really...it was 3am... (john decided he wanted to eat in the middle of the night)) I took this picture of our simple stockings:

and our tree with presents:

In the "actual morning" (meaning after 6am) we took these pictures of our festivities:

 that's the truck we got him at Nickle City. :)  he loved it.

 opening the shiny present from my parents haha.

 chew toy!...only not.

he LOVED the shiny paper

After going to church, we went up to Albert's parents' house again for breakfast.

Albert and his 'accessory' as his family started calling Johnathan (Albert had a tendency to not let anyone hold our child)

 Happy boys.

Dad H.  haha!  whether his hand is there or not, it's still a picture of him...and he HATES me taking pictures of him...

After a bit, we went to Uncle Mark and Aunt Sonia's house for more opening of presents and food. :)
Albert opened one of presents from his aunt and uncle...and gave one of the best smiles I've seen in a while.

yes, that's a iPhone 4S...and unlike the previous touch screen apple products we have owned before, I have yet to been allowed to touch it for more than a minute haha!  Albert's family was quite thrilled at his reaction to his new toy...he fussed with it for 3 hours and didn't worry about Johnathan the whole time haha.  some pictures taken during the time of non-worry:

 mom and Sonia playing "baby Jesus" :) so cute!

All in all it was a WONDERFUL Christmas!  :)  yay!  can't wait until next year when John can understand a little bit more about the joys of Christmas time. :)

Growing....

...that's what our family is doing...not in the sense that another little one is on the way haha.  no.  albert would freak out too badly haha.  anyways.  we are each growing differently.
I am ATTEMPTING to grow smaller (aka loose the baby fat), but if Albert keeps agreeing to get me cake mixes then I'm not going to succeed...especially since I have been craving yellow cake like none other for the past...well...it's been a LONG time...I was a good girl tonight and only ate one piece...and it wasn't a big one (for those who may wonder or question my idea of "one piece" which admittedly can get PRETTY BIG sometimes)...though, I can't make any promises about tomorrow hahaha.
Albert is growing tired of school and is excited because he has ONLY one final left...he is also growing more reminiscent because Johnathan is growing up WAY fast (he wants to stand ALL the time...not us standing with him.  he wants us to hold his arms/hands/chest so that he can stand on his own legs AND he's rolling from tummy to back more)
Johnathan is just regular growing.  We found out that he was 18lbs 1oz  and 25 7/8 inches long the other day.  All but one of his pj outfits are too small for him.  I had to cut the feet out of most of them.  and his legs stuck out so badly I felt silly just sticking socks on his feet...so he's now wearing the 6-9 month pjs we have...and he fits them wonderfully...this means I will probably be recycling some of my less worn pj bottoms into pjs for him.  :)  but yep. Anyways, the other day, I was talking with a nutritionist and she asked "uh, has the Dr. talked to you about how small his head is?" and I replied that yes we knew his head was on the smaller side and that yes we regularly went to the dr. (regularly meaning just when the dr said "I need to see you all again in ____ weeks/months" )...I wasn't worried.  the Dr. had told me at John's last appointment that no brain-growth was being stunted.  anyways, I made the mistake of mentioning her comment to Albert....Albert has missed out on the past two dr. appointments (school stuff) and thus didn't have the Dr's reassurance that everything was ok.  Anyways.  to make a long story short, Albert is being the overprotective parent that he is and is worrying about Johnathan's head-size now...next time I probably won't say anything until we're about to go into the dr again (albert wanted me to call the dr's office and ask a bajillion questions about if John's head size was ok.)  so that's us!

Suspended?!

So, Albert and I have been in TWO wrecks since we've been...together.  both happened while we were engaged.  the first on Sept. 23, 2009 (I remember because it was the day after we got engaged) and the second on November 28th, 2009 (this I remember because we had to look it up today).
Today, Albert and I went in to get our new drivers licenses with our brand new names on them.  There, we found out that at the second wreck, we hadn't really had insurance (we thought we had) and so Albert's license has been suspended since January of 2010.  The department was supposed to have notified us, and apparently they tried, but it was in letter form...and Albert's address in the system said we were at 300 NORTH not south.  ugh.  anyways.  yeah.  we were quite surprised.  luckily we were able to get it all worked out and Albert will be getting his new license on Monday...in the meantime I have  "get" to drive him everywhere he needs to be.  luckily he's missing work on Monday because he has a exam at 7am.  Woot!  that means I wake up at 6 instead of 3 :)  Anyways, yep. 
We are VERY grateful that Albert wasn't ever pulled over during that time of...suspendedness. (that's now officially a word).

We also now officially have presents to put under our Christmas tree. :)  no, the Christmas tree isn't up yet, but when it does, the Christmas tree skirt won't be lonely as it sits under the tree. :)  YAY FOR CHRISTMAS!!! :)

Burning is apparently funny

Today I was reading to Johnathan from the little picture book-ish version of the Book of Mormon we have and he surprised me. (we're up to the king Noah and Abinadi story)
Me: "King Noah ordered his priests to kill Abinadi."
John: *big smile*
Me: what about this is funny? "They tied him up, whipped him, and burned him to death."
John: *BIG GIGGLE*!!

I wasn't even reading it differently lol!  strangely enough he didn't laugh when King Noah died. ah well. :)

It's beginning to look a lot like...

...we'll never have enough snow on the ground for me to make a proper snowman with Johnathan
...Christmas
...Johnathan has slightly reddish hair
...The average intelligence of the patrons at the library is going down.
...snacking on peanutbutter and cheese and/or apples is not something I should do often
...Johnathan spits up a TON when I drink Sprite.

So Christmas makes me very nostalgic and homesick.  This will be my first real Christmas where I won't be in VA. (ok so we were in Cali for the VERY first Christmas Albert and I had together, but that doesn't count because that was our honeymoon and I was too distracted being a happy newlywed and exploring Catalina Island and being relieved to only have to stress about the final reception in Utah to really feel like it was actually Christmas)

Anyways, a few things I'm going to miss:
-caroling

-a real, live, wonderful-smelling Christmas tree

 (that is NOT a real tree...that is Albert and I's fake tree...from last year...I haven't put it up yet this year)

-gingerbread men that I didn't have to make (or frost...mostly because my frosting NEVER turns out right)
-waking up WAY too early to run out and see what Santa brought us.

-waking up before it's time to go out and "going to the bathroom" just to see if I can squint out what was near my stocking. (just like you need to squint at this blurry picture of Eric! haha!)

-not having to cook breakfast after viewing what was in the stockings. (yeah, I'm feeling lazy...but I found this crockpot recipe where you prepare the breakfast before-hand and then it's ready in the morning...thinking of doing that...we'll see)

-telling Christmas morning memories with my siblings.

(ha! beef looks like a chicken!)

Of course, it is necessary to break off eventually and have my own Christmas traditions with my own little family.

some traditions I KNOW we're going to have:

-chocolate Santa, a dime, an orange, a bag of m&ms, a toothbrush, a toy car and possibly candy canes in the stocking

-presents under the tree

-chocolates

-the mother of the family wearing a bathrobe (over pjs of course) out to see the stockings (mom always did it, and it wouldn't feel the same without someone in a bathrobe haha)

-some kind of eggs with the breakfast

-lots of unwanted pictures. :)...or videos

-pictures with Santa

-cookies for 'Mrs. Santa' (Santa doesn't get any "because of his diabetes" hee hee hee hee hee)

-Christmas Tree!!!

-candy canes on Christmas tree

-happiness

-joy

-love

-eating lots of yummy good food

-and probably a lot more traditions that I can't think of right now...

Anyways, Life is still good.  Johnathan is OFFICIALLY in his own room (no separation anxiety from me!) and he's sleeping well (doesn't wake up until at LEAST 5:30 (and if he DOES wake up then, he sleeps in until 9 afterwards) but usually he's up between 7 and 8...which works just fine with me).  Albert is SOOOO ready to be done with school...and I'm ready for him to be done with school too...it will make for a much less stressed husband. :)

OH!  On Saturday, Zion's Bank had a little party-thingy where we watched Rio and had popcorn and treats and then took a picture with Santa (I know about these things cuz Albert's mom works at a Zion's bank in orem).  Anyways, so John and I met up with Mom H. and Dad H. and Kimmi and Sammi and Melissa and we laughed and took pictures (we even convinced Dad H. to get in the Santa picture haha!) and Melissa and Sammi decided they were scared of Santa (which was really funny to see) and Johnathan tried to suck on Santa's glove. :P

 something interesting over there.

 Sammi and Santa

 Kimmi wouldn't make a nice face. :P

Johnathan  :)

Who threw the clock out the window?

Wow, little Johnathan is 5 months already.  and he's not all that little anymore. haha.

He has learned to roll over. (crazy crazy)  here's video proof:

just the day before I had taken this movie:

one morning I found him like this in his bassinet (since we haven't moved him to his own bed due to the generally cold nature of his room temperature)  and I laughed...

anyways, yep.  he's growing, eating solids now, rolling over when I have my back turned and then sometimes getting mad about being on his stomach.  He hasn't rolled from tummy to back again since that very first time, but for now, that's ok. :)
we've discovered that he really likes the squash flavored baby food...and he's not quite sure how he feels about the pea stuff.  I quickly learned that I have to hold his hands while I'm feeding him so that the food doesn't end up everywhere haha.
yesterday I was sitting on the floor with him saying 'ma ma ma ma ma ma' trying to train him correctly when he kind of smiled at me and said "dada". When I called Albert and told him about it, he admitted to spending a lot of his time when I'm at work teaching Johnathan to say "dada"...ah well. haha.
So yeah.  Johnathan is sitting up much better and has learned that he doesn't want to throw his head back when I have him floating on his back in the tub (supported by me of course).
yep. :) he's still a very smiley baby...especially when he knows i'm just a tiny bit irked at him, which mostly only happens when I'm trying to put him to sleep his eyes are just wide and he's decided to just lay there and look at me. :P

Albert and I are doing well.  Albert turned in his last floral design projects this week

 fresh flowers. :)  ok, truth be told, I really was the one who did this one haha.  but he did say "oh put this there" every now and again. :)

 fake flower design.  he did most of this one...I just went and bought the flowers.

pretending he did all the work ha!

three days ago our furnace decided to basically stop working.  our house got as low as 60 when we had it set for 73...yeah it was really cold.  but we kept Johnathan bundled up.  The repair man came and "fixed" it yesterday...yeah.  apparently our furnace was about 15 years old and needed to be replaced.  and so our landlords replaced it. :)  while we were waiting for the furnace to be replaced, Albert's amazing parents brought us two electric heaters.   Honestly, I'm not sure what we'd do without them.  They do so much for us. :)  And now our house is twice as warm.

Also yesterday Christopher Paolini came to the library for a book signing.  it was quite hectic.  we had about 600 tickets that became available 2-3 weeks ago and they were gone within an hour and a half.  today we still had people asking if we had tickets.  we also had people getting mad because in order to get a sure seat in his seminar thingy you had to have a ticket and apparently the flyer didn't say you had to have a ticket (liars) anyways.  yeah. we also had random people all dressed up and stuff.
I also had a woman come up to the desk and ask "well, I know the orem library organizes their books by the author's last name...do you all do that too?"
I had the hardest time not laughing. :P

Albert was called as the Ward Mission President. :) happiness and business!