The Rodeo

We went to a rodeo on Friday night. It was my first rodeo ever and of course the kids' first rodeo too. Daniel was shocked I had never been to one. It was inside and right by our house and it sounded like a great idea. We were also able to get box seats which made it much easier with little kids. I have to admit it was a lot of fun minus the announcer ( he was a little backwards) We put on our pretend cowboy clothes. Alexander put his boots on and Eva had her riding boots. We got some good pictures too.

My favorite event was the bull riding.
It just looked so scary and it took a lot of practice I am guessing.

Daniel took this picture. That was an angry bull

This was the event where the little girls ride around the barrels.
They were sooo good and they looked like they were 8 years old

This was probably my least favorite event when they rope the calf's. It was just sad to see some of them go down, although less than half of the competitors were able to rope them. Either it was an off night or its just a really difficult event.

Here are the kids all wearing Alexander's cowboy hat.

Jamison did really well and fell asleep half way through it even though it was extremely loud from the announcer

Eva didn't pay much attention to what was going on.
She was too busy running around.

Here is Alexander the old cowboy.
He was looking forward to this all day and I think he really liked it.

It was a fun family Event and I would definitely go again. Oh and there were many cowboys from Canada and Utah I expected the one's from Utah but was surprised by the Canadians. There was even one from New Jersey!

The negative side to this was the Daniel kept blasting country music all day Saturday when we were cleaning the house. I am not a fan of the country music so yeah you get the picture.

Kitchen Lighting

Daniel put in under cabinet lighting in the kitchen and they really brighten the kitchen up


I even have a picture framed with a little spot light

I love them

We are not Ninjas

Our kids are not Ninjas as soon as Daniel took the treads off he put the new ones on. Sorry for the confusion :)

Our latest and Greatest project!! SO EXCITED

We have started the second to last project in the house. THE STAIRS. They are coming along very well and I love that Daniel is so handy. We are not done yet but I wanted to give a sneak peak at the work.

Checking how it will look
demolition
The first set of treads are down and the second set will go this weekend. Then we will do the risers then finish the landing and then put all the finishes and touch ups so we still have a few weeks until they are done. Yay for progress

My not so little Jamison

I took Jamison to his 4 month appointment and he is not slowing down on the growing.

He weighs 17lbs 10.5 ounces
Which means he has gained 9 lbs since birth! He is in the 95%
He is 25 1/2 inches tall. He is in the 75%
His head is 45% so he is in the above 95%

In New Mexico instead of immunize by two its immunize by one so he gets 3 shots every time we go in. He loved the nurse and couldn't stop smiling and giggling at her but then she gave him the shots and he was whimpering at the first one and then screaming his lungs out for the other two. However she started to talk to him and asked him if he hated her now and he just started smiling and giggling again. As you can see from these photos he would rather smile than cry. If I am in a bad mood I just need to hold Jamison for awhile and then I am happy again.
He has no interest at all in food. I hold him at the dinner table and he doesn't try to eat or even look at the food and the doctor said with his size he is fine to not get solids and we will check again at 6 months. He is growing so fast! I want him to stay little so I really need to enjoy his littleness while it lasts.

Crock pots

I got two crock pots for Christmas and I was SOOO excited to use them. A few days after Christmas Daniel asked me what I was going to make in the crock pot. Crickets were chirping. I have wanted a crock pot for 2 years now. I got 3 as wedding gifts years ago and I never used them NOT ONCE! So they were given away when we moved to Guam. That was when I started reading blogs and noticing that crock pots were supposed to make life easier when it came to dinner so I wanted one. I finally got two this year and I had no idea where to start! However I found this website and I am extremely excited to use some of these recipes! I start with Teriyaki chicken in the crock pot. It was DISGUSTING. Well the soy sauce was overwhelming and it needed to be sweeter. Then I made BBQ chicken shredded. ALSO DISGUSTING. The third time was the charm when I made baby back ribs and modified the recipe to where I thought it would be better and used rudy's bbq sauce and we finally got something yummy. Is this something that takes time?

I am reluctant to makes things in there because they might be yucky even though the recipe wasn't just made up. Any pointers from those who use crock pots? I liked the idea of it because I can make dinner while making breakfast and that is when Jamison is still sleeping so its easier than when I am all frazzled from the day at 5. I need help :( I need tips pointers and recipes and well anything. I don't want to make things that I can make in 40 minutes on the stove in the evening though. I would rather just make the thing in 40 minutes. I want to make things that are yummy while cooked slowly. I made a whole chicken on Sunday. It was good but my roast chicken tastes better when I do it in the oven. It was dry for some reason and it took 8 hours. When I do it in the oven it takes 15 minutes of prep and 1 hour to cook I guess I am looking for some magical deliciousness recipes. So HELP.

Relaxing

We have just been relaxing around here for the last few weeks. I have been trying to get the house in order. I like to reorganize every new year so that is what I have been doing. I redid all the kitchen drawers and organized and labeled everything. I also purge the monthly filing cabinet of all the last years things that can be put in a more permanent file. I must say I really enjoy organizing.
Its one of those stress relievers for me. The kids have been playing a lot of kitchen. For some reason they really enjoy it. Especially when I let them make food out of play doe. They set it up upstairs and downstairs and are using their imagination so its fun to watch.
Jamison has been growing and smiling and figuring out how to play with hanging toys. He can sit in his chair for 15 minutes without making a sound just trying to knock the elephants and giraffe off the string. He is usually calm until he gets them all off and then he starts to yelp. Thats right he doesn't cry or scream he just calls for help. Daniel has been working hard. He also installed some under lighting in the kitchen! I love it its so much brighter now. I haven't taken a picture yet because I still hate the color I chose to paint the kitchen. Its almost been a year so I know its never going to grow on me.

I have also been in a mad rush to put things on the walls because a home feels empty to me without wall coverings. I have been changing things too. I like to put things up and wait for 2 weeks or longer and then see if they bug me. If they do I change them. So I changed my sea scape wall from this:to this and there are still parts that bug me.
I painted all the frames and mattes white. It just looks calmer and more crisp. But the two photos to the right are bugging me because the one is too high but Daniel wants me to switch the large one all the way to the left with the two because the light reflects off the two. I have taken many frames down and I am redoing them. Either painting them, moving them or switching frames. This is my dinning/front room in its current state:

I hope to get this done soon but the walls will be a work in progress thats for sure.

Resolutions

My Father used to make us write out resolutions every New Years. Maybe he didn't every year but I feel like he did. He didn't want to see them he just wanted to make sure we were making some. I like it now. It gives me the opportunity to look back on the last year and see the things I disliked about my habits or whatever and its a good cleansing practice. Our main family resolution is to do family home evening consistently. We used to do it really well in the Ivory house but as soon as I got pregnant everything went to crazy land. That tends to happen with me. Anyway I am so excited for this new year and the opportunity to do Family Home evening better. The actual goal is to do it every week. Consistency is key for us. So we have been having family home evening and we always make sure to play a game with the kids because they love board games. Here was our first one. We played this curious george game they got for christmas and its fun they incorporate hiding go seek into the game so it even keeps Eva's attention. I am hoping to use the Nursey or primary lesson manual for short lessons because repetition is good for learning and you have a year of lessons.

I want to get a family home evening filing box filled with pictures and mini games and treat ideas and all those things but I think I am about 4 years away from accomplishing that. In our old ward we had an enrichment activity where some ladies brought their big filing cabinets filled with family home evening lessons for a YEAR so they didn't have to second guess what they were going to do. It was very inspiring and INTIMIDATING but I hope to build one up so that I can be more prepared. I am not sure how well it will go but I want to get the FHE down.

Our bishop gave a talk and he said its good to get one or two things that you want to change or add to yourself in the New year because if your list is too long then you get overwhelmed and give up so we are sticking to FHE this year as our one.

Some people think resolutions are overrated and superficial (like the editor of vogue random factoid I know but I was just reading vogue) I think they can be. Especially if you make a resolution and a week later you are already on the slacker wagon but I like them because it gives me a time frame to change and look back and make sure I am making progress. If you write them down its just like a goal and you are more accountable. I make sure to do it every year so I know I am on the right path.

Here's to the New Year and getting rid of crappy habits!