Our new home

Well, home away from home, I suppose.

Justin and I have been talking about buying a Springbar tent for about 3 years now. (Plus, I've wanted one for 5 or 6). If you're not from around Utah, you might not know what that is, but it's the most durable and easiest to set up tent you'll ever find. I love them! Yes, they're a bit bulky (and pricey) but if we take care of it, it should last our family a very, very long time.

A few months ago family and friends started planning a few camping trips, and we soon realized we'd be spending most of July at a camp ground. So, we went into Kirkhams (the luxury of being in Utah -we save ourselves about $50 in shipping) gave them a large sum of money, and in turn, they gave us a large tent (complete with poles and ground cloth!)

We're free in August -if anyone wants to plan a camping trip!

A game of hats

Another video. (Don't worry, I'm done for the night).

Hat Game from Melanie Lafeen on Vimeo.

What's so funny?

I finally got this on video for you all... (or at least those that are related and actually want to watch a video of the Little Man).

Laughing from Melanie Lafeen on Vimeo.

Back to "normal"?

I know there's no going back to normal after you have a baby. But today, has been as close as I've got (and it's not even 8:30 yet!)

The Little Man has been waking up earlier and earlier over the last couple of weeks. It was 5 am for a while, then 4, then 3 -just to eat and go back to bed. Well, Friday night I had had enough. He isn't really hungry, I think it's just a habit. So, when he woke up at 2:30 Saturday morning I didn't get up. He was back to sleep within 15 minutes. Sunday, I didn't get up with him at 4 am, and he ended up waking up around 5:30. Today? Today, he slept until 6 am. SIX AM??? That's heaven! I got up earlier than that before said child arrived.

So... I got up with him at 6, fed him a bottle and laid him back down. And. Went. To. The. GYM! That is HUGE for me! I love the gym early in the morning. It's not too crowded, people are usually there to actually work out, and I got to listen to my radio morning show for a change. Love it.

Let's just hope today wasn't a fluke, and it'll be the new 'norm'.

Kid update

I ususally put all of the Little Man's pictures on his own blog... but I've uploaded a bunch of photo's so here you go:

Reading a book in the car
Hanging out at the zoo this week.

I watch my niece every once in a while. I think I could do this -a 2 years old and a 6 month old. Although, I don't think I could handle an 18month old and a newborn. Plus... it's for 5 hours a day once or twice a week. We'll have to think about it some more.

We're going on a hike on our upcoming vacation, so here's Justin and the Little Man trying out a borrowed backpack.

Swinging -with a blanket. He's still not quite big enough to do it on his own yet.
We celebrated the Little Man's cousin's 2nd birthday last night. I decorated this Elmo cake yesterday. It turned out a lot better than I thought about it. Although, I think Elmo has an issue with his eyeballs -they look a little weird.

Proud by choice

The other day I saw a bumper sticker that has stuck with me. It said:
Gay by nature
Proud by choice.

Now, I don't mean to make this a political/religious discussion (for the record, I have a hard time believing anyone would 'choose' such a difficult life, at least in the traditional sense of the word. I sometimes kid myself and think it's not a 'choice' that I struggle with my weight, but at the end of the day, it's my choices that have got me here. Even if I feel it might be easier for some people to be skinny without as much effort as it would take me.)

Anyway...

It just made me think about the choices we have in our attitude regardless of situations in our life that happen beyond our control.

You can just be a stay-at-home-mom, or you can be happy that you get to stay home with your kids.

You can be burdened with a mortgage/rent, or you are lucky to have a safe place to sleep at night.

You can be tired/burned out because you have a lot of young, needy children, or you can be blessed because you were able to have children.

You can dislike your job, people you work with, or the hours, or you can be grateful to have a job.

You can dislike your body type and the extra weight that seems to be hanging around, or... or... I guess you can be glad that you have a working body that can handle most things I need/want to do.

Just something I've been thinking about for a few days.

Glad to know I'm not the only one

here

Opening night

Last night was opening night of Once Upon a Mattress that Justin directed at the Draper Historic Theatre.

It's a funny musical and everyone did very well. Plus, no one's head fell off. (When we went to see Peter Pan one of the puppet characters' -to represent when the kids were flying- head fell off).

I recommend it. In fact, we have a few discounted tickets available if you want to see it.