Our Life of Crandallness

A Word of Advice

2012-03-02T09:46:00.001-08:00

Urban and I were looking through some old pics on Facebook this morning and when we came across this one he said, "I wike it! I wike it! Mema hold Urban ALL tozy (cozy). hey...where da binky go?" and then we laughed and laughed.

Then he looked at it again, and said in his saddest little voice with the saddest look on his face, "Mommy...you have a new baby?" and it was heart breaking. Like he just realized his Mema might be holding another baby instead of him soon.

So you all better keep loving him just as much as you do now or else!

Snow Day

2012-02-29T09:43:00.006-08:00

While I was super busy laying on the couch Monday night thinking about how sick I was (as usual), and Landon was busy doing whatever on the computer (as usual), Urban came running into the living room saying, "is snowing is snowing!"

And I was like, "What?" because it was dark and all the windows were closed. But Urban took us to his room where the blinds were still open and the lights were off so all we could see was the beautiful snow fall. Count on a sweety pie 2-year-old to make you enjoy the little things in life.

Fast forward to Tuesday morning: it was still snowing when we opened the blinds to eat our breakfast by the sliding doors in the kitchen! And I thought, "I don't feel too sick right now. We don't have any plans for today. We do have all that snow stuff for Urban that he's never worn."

So we geared up...

...and headed into our humongous, snow-filled back yard for a morning of fun fun fun.

It was awesome. The fresh air made me feel much better - enough so I was able to finally go through the last few boxes in the garage while Urban pushed his trucks through the snow. However, he hated the lack of mobility in his mittens, so we eventually had to go inside because "mine hands are fweezeen."

and here is a picture of me to remind you how cute I am in my short hair :)

Urban's First Prayer

2012-02-24T11:44:00.002-08:00

Whenever we ask Urban if he wants to say the prayer he says, "no you say it." But he has said it twice this past month with me telling him every word to say. Then today at lunch I asked him if he wanted to say it. He folded his arms, closed his eyes, and said...

"Heavenly Father. Bless Mema at work. Andy's back hurts. Thank you for noodles and Calvin. Mommy is sick. Daddy's at work. Amen."

Oh my adorable. I was blown away. I couldn't believe that, A) he did it all by himself, and B) that he remembered that Andy's back hurt from 2 days ago. What a feakin' sweety pie. He kills me.

I promise someday I'll try to post about something bad he did or how he is driving me crazy, but for now I just had to share another story of how he makes everyday so much better. I'm so blessed to stay at home with him and never have to miss a thing. I definitely don't deserve the wonderful life I have.

Next week I'm going to start potty training. So I bet I'll have less happy things to say then :) Oh! And we are now only 3 weeks away from finding out if Pandall baby #2 is a boy! Holy cow this pregnancy could not go any slower or be any more miserable.

Mysterious

2012-02-23T08:23:00.000-08:00

Life is always interesting with a 2 year old. And since Urban has yet to do anything wrong, it's always pretty funny also.

Mystery #1: This was a few days after Christmas. I had made myself a BLT (which would have been a dead giveaway that I was pregnant if I had posted this sooner) and didn't make Urban one because we were on our way to eat lunch with grandma and Bryson. I put it on the table and then had to take a phone call in the bedroom. When I got back there was no sandwich...

Hey where's my sandwich?

I see.

Mystery #2: This was a few weeks after moving into our house. Urban wasn't super fond of his new room and kept coming out at night. So we put one of those kiddy gates in his door so he could see out but couldn't come out. It seemed to work well the first night. But when I went to check on him around 11pm, he wasn't in his crib...

Hey where's Urban?

Oh of course.

On the floor.

Why wouldn't he be?

Mystery #3: It has snowed maybe 3 times since we've moved here. The first time it snowed in our new house I got Urban all bundled up to go check it out. (He's wearing my pink hat because I hadn't unpacked his yet). I went outside after a while to check on him, and was like, "wow! did you shovel all of that by yourself?"

Nope. It was Daddy!

P.S. Urban has a real snow shovel now instead of his dirt shovel from Phoenix :)

A Question for Landon

2012-02-10T09:30:00.000-08:00

Dear Landon,

Hey, so I was thinking. Is it okay if we tell everyone we're pregnant now? We're almost 14 weeks along, which is a few weeks past the "normal" time to tell. And I'm dying to tell everyone we know (plus a handful of strangers) that we are due August 15th and we're having a boy!

Okay, I won't tell them we are having a boy since we don't know yet. But hopefully in the future we can tell them that :)

I promise I won't post a picture of the pregnancy test, or a picture of Urban wearing a big brother shirt, or a picture of our last 2 ultrasounds. But I can't promise I won't complain a little about how miserably sick I've been. And how the 2nd trimester isn't helping at all.

And I will probably have to mention something about how we've been understandably paranoid this time around from miscarrying twice this year. But most of all I'll let them know that everything is looking great and going well!

I was going to post a video of Urban telling everyone that "mommy has baby in tummy" and "he's sleeping" but you took the camera to Washington with you last week and forgot to take it out of your work bag. No worries. We can always show that adorableness later.

Let me know what you think. My goal is to get in the shower today before you get home, so I should be easily reachable whenever you decide.

Thanks!
Love, Your ever-grateful-for-all-you-do Wife

P.S. Can you please bring me home something good to eat? Nothing sounds good so good luck with that. But don't you dare come home empty handed :) I love you!

I Am So Happy!

2012-02-06T15:46:00.000-08:00

Hurray!!! I finally did it! I did it I did it! I knew someday this would happen for me. I knew I could find a hair stylist who would tell me I should cut my hair short! I could not have done it without her. I always chicken out and go for shoulder length, which really is hideous on me.

I just had to put all of my family and friend's protest out of my mind and jump. It felt amazing. It still feels amazing! I love it.

Sorry all of you people who only know me as "the tall skinny long blond hair girl" or "girl from Mama Mia." (You wouldn't believe how many people over the past few years have called me those things to my face). Guess you'll have to learn my name now. Starting with the elderly ladies in my ward who aren't very good at whispering and thought Landon had brought a new wife to church yesterday.

Woo Hoo! 12 inches gone. And they even let me donate it to locks of love because it was so super healthy despite that I had colored it. So that was another great add to the day.

(I'm totally guessing on the 12 inches. They never told me. So I hurried and held the hair next to the bottom of my purse before I left. It was a smidgen longer. Then after measuring the bottom of my purse just now I found out it was 12 inches exactly. I watch too many 48 Hour Mysteries.)

I wish Landon had filmed the reactions of the other people in the salon. We had the attention of just about everyone. This lady right behind me was gasping and grabbing her mouth.

Going to show Urban at my mom's house. He went to the bathroom and brought me a hair brush. Not sure what that means.

Better picture of me in my pajamas that night.

Just as a fun note for you Crandalls. Larry and Linda did not notice. When Landon finally told them, they said they could tell it was different, but it still wasn't short. Man we love them!

Flashback

2012-02-02T20:51:00.000-08:00

I was in the shower a few days ago...when all of the sudden a crazy, undocumented memory came flying back to my mind: "My teeth hurt."

It was the morning of December 17th, 2009. The morning after Urban was born. The nurse came in at 5am or some other insanely early time like that to ask me if I'd fed my baby and how i was feeling this morning. "My teeth hurt" was what I said to which I thought she was going to call me crazy.

But she put her chart down, sat on my bed, and asked, "Does your neck and cheeks hurt also?" Well hey. Yes. Yes they did. What in the heck is going on here?

She asked me how long I was in active labor for. 6 hours.
She asked me how much of that time was spent pushing. About 4 1/2 hours.
Did you have an epidural? No. (Not after the first 30-ish minutes anyway).

"Ya. Every muscle in your body is probably going to feel sore for the next few days. You were basically trying to move a building without any help or any pain relief for 6 hours. So ya. Your teeth hurt."

Good times. I love all of those memories. But I only wrote down the boring parts. Like the time we arrived at the hospital and how I was shaking like a salt shaker the entire time and how massively freaked out I was when they said the epidural was not going to work and it wasn't worth trying again, but how excited I was that I didn't have to have a catheter since I could feel everything.

Sometimes I tell myself that the next time can't possibly be any worse than the first time. But all pain aside the first time was pretty magical. So I changed my mind a few days ago when I was thinking about how my teeth hurt: The next time has a lot to live up to from the first time.

And everyday has been magical ever since.

Singing in the Shower

2012-01-31T08:21:00.000-08:00

I was saving this for his birthday post, and then forgot all about it. We were finally able to capture this at the end of November when I snuck my phone into the bathroom :) Urban said it was okay to share it. He's so stinkin' cute!

He Went and Turned 2

2012-01-28T16:28:00.000-08:00

My little Urban man went and turned 2 on us. It happened just before Christmas and now we can never take it back. Pretty sure it's the best thing that ever happened to him, and a very sad thing that keeps happening to me.

I guess I have a thing about taking his picture right when he wakes up on his birthdays. Turns out he has never once woken up in his own bed. Hospital. California hotel. Downtown apartment. Makes you wonder where we'll be next year! Good thing that's forever away.

He sleeps in a toddler bed. Eats with grown-up plates, cups, utensils, etc...and not just because I can't find where in the heck they are in our boxes. Is still considered long and lean by doctor standards. Still has many allergies. (We visited our beloved allergist in Phoenix before we left...most of those are types of nuts. Yup. not just peanuts as I had suspected.)

He is still alarmingly smart, in my opinion. We've instituted an afternoon chat - just after story time and right before nap time - wherein we lay on my bed talk about life. I'm always blown away by the things he has to say. Sometimes he asks about "peenix" and how his friends are doing there without him. The conversation usually steers toward "mema" (my mom) who has "pez, cars, and yucky charms (lucky charms)" or "gama" (Landon's mom) who has "coocumbers (cucumbers), suckos (suckers), and tent."

He has to do everything by himself. "NO I do it!" and is very proud of everything he does by himself. "Wook! I did it!" and he loves the word "use". He brings me things and says "use it mommy". haha. and he has the entire holiday set of Charlie Brown movies memorized. ALSO he's a Dr. Seuss fan! He can tell you all about "the sneetches on a beaches" and "geen eggs and am". That's my boy.

Balloons. He loves balloons. We still have a few from his party and he has become obsessively good at throwing it in the air and bumping it around without letting it touch the floor. Or Landon will set it to him and he spikes it.

His throwing skills are also getting better. He can throw it almost all the way across the living room now and right to your hand every time! Landon's dad gets a real kick out of it, so they practice alot. So I guess the debate between soccer or basketball is over. Looking like baseball. bluh.

Anyway, here are some party pics. We had one huge party with both of our families at Landon's parent's house. Elmo cake and decor. Urban's pick.

Birthday Cake

Presents

Kaylene's Family

Landon's Family

Not sure what else I wanted to say. He's amazing. He's mine all mine. I have to share him alot more now, but our relationship is still hanging strong. I love him to death.

Event-ually

2012-01-26T15:46:00.000-08:00

Our holiday season also comes complete with a birthday and an anniversary...pretty significant events. so you knew I would event-ually get to talking about them :)

First came Urban's birthday. Actually...I need to make this it's own post.

Then came Christmas...which was pretty much your typical Christmas: wonderful, family-filled, freezing, etc. And it felt like we were just visiting like every year since we were living out of suit cases.

There was no snow...awesome, and Urban really got into the spirit of things. He would open a present, shriek with happiness (no matter what it was, even pajamas), and then set it aside and ask for more. People are so generous when it comes to kids. Man he got ALOT of stuff. We didn't even need to take any of his toys out of storage.

Twix in his pocket :)

He didn't have any favorites. He loved them all equally. But here is one I happened to catch on video. I don't even think Andy knew how badly Urban has been wanting one of these. Pretty sure he peed his pants a little...but what's new.

I don't even think Andy knew how much Urban has been wanting one of these. Pretty sure he peed his pants, but what's new.

New Year's Eve was completely uneventful, besides me getting hideously sick from the sparkling apple cider. BLUH! My stomach was just too empty and it was just too late in the evening. But it's safe to say I'm never drinking that again and have therefore ruined New Years for the rest of forever.

Lastly, Landon and I celebrated our 4th Wedding Anniversary! Went to Red Robin, and we took Urban with us because we miss spending time together just the 3 of us. I hate to sound like a broken record, but Landon is the best. I owe all of my happiness to him.

We saw a preview for that new Channing Tatum/Rachel McAdams movie where she loses her memory and doesn't remember her husband. so Landon was like, "Do you think you would still be happy with me if that happened to you?" and I was like, "Umm..YA! I'd be thinking I don't have any clue how I got this guy so I'm just going to shut-up and hope nothing changes." and he was like, "What if I lost my memory?" Then I was like, "Man I'd be screwed. You'd wake up and wonder what the heck is going on and who is this total loser you are supposedly married to." and it's true.

Ketchup

2012-01-23T17:16:00.000-08:00

You know I'm not one to post date my posts, so let's just play a game of ketchup for the past few months. We are currently renting a house in Sandy...so we have all of our stuff back, but not really because unpacking is kicking my butt. However, for blogging purposes I do have those pics I was talking about over a month ago. So let's just dive right in.

Thanksgiving!

We weren't planning anything special for Thanksgiving. Afterall, we just had the big farewell bash, and my brother and his wife were coming the next day. But at playgroup the day prior we all gave in and decided we wanted to do a big thanksgiving dinner together. One of my friends even canceled on her grandma to be there. haha. Great friends. And here are some pics Alyse sent me a few days ago to make me want to cry my eyes out for a few hours:

Our last playgroup the day before Thanksgiving:

Dinner outside!

The Day After Thanksgiving!

Josh and Jessica came to Phoenix! It was awesome. We all ate Thanksgiving leftovers, went shopping, hiking, and sort of ran around with our heads cut off getting Landon packed and out the door to start his new job in Salt Lake the following night.

Luckily for me (but unlucky for them) Josh and Jessica could not get on a flight home and had to spend 2 extra days with me! It was GREAT! I didn't have to spend my last days in Phoenix alone, and they even ended up driving Landon's car back to Salt Lake so I got to send some extra stuff that I thought I was going to have to leave behind. (Both of our cars were going to be shipped so it was also nice to have our car waiting for us instead of a rental...although Landon did love his 2011 Mazda 3 rental he drove for a few weeks while waiting for my car.)

Packing Day & Moving Day!

Man these were 2 great days. All I had to do was get up and open the door. The first day one guy came and boxed out entire house in 6 hours! He was so fast and amazing! I had to keep calling my friend to bring spoons for our yogurt and treats for Urban, etc... because I couldn't stay ahead of him. haha. so wonderful.

The next morning the moving van shows up...the LARGEST truck allowed to drive on U.S. Highways...and had all of our boxes and furniture loaded in about 6 hours also. CRAZY!

This time it was 3 guys. One of them was the "moving manager" who was there purely to make sure Urban and I were taken care of. So we sat in the garage and talked to him most of the time:

Moving manager: "So why is your husband important?"
Me: "...um...because I love him?"
Moving manager: LOL. "good answer. no. but I mean why am I here? I'm usually only called in for VIP moves and I rarely pack houses less than a million dollars."
Me: "so you're saying we're the least important people you've ever moved."
Him: "NO way. You are just as important as everyone else. Just wondering if I can add your husband to my list of famous clients."
Me: "Nope. He's just an amazing guy who used to work for the DOD and is now working for Energy Solutions in Utah. Sorry."
Him: "Well he sounds great. Congrats to you for getting me! You'll never want to move without me again...but I'm very expensive so you'll probably have to."

haha. so much fun. and he's right. It will probably never happen again.

After they drove away we were kinda stranded since our car had been picked up earlier that day. Luckily for me (again...I know I'm always lucky) a few friends showed up out of the blue to help me clean the empty house, feed us dinner, and brought urban presents for the airplane. It was a real tear jerker.

So that was that. We got on a plane at 9:30pm that night and flew back to Salt Lake...never to return. It was wonderful to be with Landon again, even though we were all pretty grumpy and exhausted and went straight to bed in our furnished downtown apartment.

Welcome to Salt Lake!

Urban made the adjustment quite well. He found the broom and vacuum closet first thing in the morning...so it was basically love at first sight.

We had to put him in a toddler bed sooner than we had hoped due to his crib being in storage. My mom gave us the one she has at her house for my nephew. But he did great.

At first bed still equalled prison to him. So he never left even though he could. But then one night he did. It was adorable! He just opened the door and came walking out into the living room with a huge smile on his face. It was very tempting for us to be like, "hey! wanna come watch TV with us?" but instead we were like, "hi. go back to bed. love you!" and he turned his cute little bottom around said, "night night I love you" and went back to bed.

Once we moved into our new house 6 weeks later and converted his crib into a toddler bed...that was another story. Man oh man. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Landon LOVES his new job. He LOVED working 5 minutes away from our apartment. We LOVED eating out 3 meals a day for free. But I did not really LOVE any of it. It was so hard to live on the 3rd floor of a huge apartment building and have to park 10 miles away underground. It was hard not knowing how to get anywhere or have anyone to play with. It was very lonely and cold. and I had to try really hard to stop thinking about the warm, perfect life we left behind. Being with Family was the only good part, but that didn't seem to happen that often as everyone works and was busy with holiday stuff.

It's a good thing I'm married to the most positive person alive or I think I probably would have killed everyone during that first month. We did have one really fun night...at a free Jazz game!! We only had to drive 10 seconds down the street to our free parking, had a free dinner in the sponsor's room before, had great seats at a game where THEY WON, and had free refreshments at half time. Thank you Energy Solutions! And THANK YOU to my Mom and Andy for babysitting (also another good thing about living in Utah).

I'll save Christmas, Urban's birthday, and some other important stuff for another day. I'm beat, and you probably want to beat me for too long of a post. It's good to be back!

Missing Resources

2011-12-12T10:26:00.000-08:00

I bet you're sick of coming here and seeing that I haven't said a thing since November 20th. Me too. Clearly alot has happened since then, but I don't have the resources to write about it as our computer is in storage with all of the pics I want to share, and the internet at our apartment is rather unreliable. Also, Urban has been defeated by the cold weather and is rather sick. He has just wanted to be held these past few days which makes for difficult typing.

But right now I've got a few precious seconds while he's eating a hostess donut I bribed him with :)

So here are a few pics I found on my flash drive:

Landon's last soccer game in Phoenix

Urban dreaming of the day he can play basketball

Our farwell party

(or at least what was left of it by the time I got the camera out)

Most of our playgroup...uh huhuhu...how we miss them.

So ya. That was then. Now we are living in Utah and have been here for about 2 weeks! Crazy. I don't really want to say a whole lot more than that right now. Like I said, waiting for pics to go with the posts :) I will say that Landon is loving his new job with Energy Solutions. It's fun to go to family stuff, but hard to live in an apartment.

Hopefully we find a house soon so I can tell you all about the move, etc. And Urban is turning 2 on Friday!!! AHHHH!!!!!!! sooo much going on. I am trying to send out a Christmas card this year. Again...won't be the greatest due to lack of computer, but at least you can have our cute faces to hang in your homes!

Changing the Subject

2011-11-20T19:23:00.001-08:00

Enough about moving already...let's talk about something else for a while. What's that? You wanna talk about Urban? Sure! I can talk about that for hours :)

Urban is only one month away from the big 2! And he really is a genius of a child. I've always thought so, starting when he knew all of his shapes by 11 months old and could stick them into their corresponding shape holes on the first try every time. But I just kept telling myself that every mother thinks that way about their child.

Then he got all preoccupied with walking and talking and vacuuming and forgot all about his love of the ABC's and counting and all of that smart kid stuff. And I felt like all of my teaching time had gone in the garbage and was thrown out with the diapers.

Then driving home from stake conference last Sunday I randomly turned around and asked Urban if he could count, to which he responded, "one, tew, fwee, foe, fie, six!" and it's a good thing Landon was driving or I would have crashed the car. Crazy! Then a few days ago he went all the way to 10! "...six, sen, eight, nie, ten!" you go boy.

He has also started singing the entire song of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star: "tinko tinko witto stah how I wuno what you ah" etc. And it blows me away! He also sings Head Shoulders Knees and Toes, Row Row Row Your Boat, and a variety of songs from that same genre. We might have to record an album here soon. In fact, here's a sneak peak of his first single we recorded last month:

I love how he always says "duck" for what's on the farm.

His sentences are getting better and better. OH! and now I'm just "mom" in front of his friends and "mommy" when nobody is around. So sad. Oh well. It had to happen someday.

He has also really come out of his shell this month. He now loves going to nursery. He wanted us to go away when we picked him up from his friends house yesterday. And he will finally play with his friends without me having to be in the same room. Yay for that! But I'm already starting to miss him :(

Here's a fun picture of him with one of his best friends, Jack

This poor guy is really going to miss his friends:

Nanany (Natalie), ee-ruh (Hyrum), Jack (Jack)

Gee (Gray) and Ky-yo (Kyle)

Be Thankful

2011-11-18T15:00:00.001-08:00

...for the ones you love!

In a few hours our home is going to be filled with our Phoenix friends! But I'm more excited to be closer to our families in a few weeks! Yay!

Preparations

2011-11-15T14:03:00.001-08:00

Not gonna lie. I was sorta shocked that our last post only got 3 comments and 1 phone call. Guess facebook was really the way to go with that one.

Anyway...been having a hard time sleeping at night. I feel ok during the day, even a little excited sometimes. But for some reason I get moving anxiety after Urban goes to bed and I'm left alone with my thoughts and my too-good-to-me husband.

Last night all I could think about was, "I need to buy socks. I'm not used to wearing socks anymore. The socks I bought Urban are too tight around his leg. Landon has a TON of socks." Yup. I've lost my mind.

Then today I determined it's all because we aren't able to prepare for this move. Landon's new job will be doing all of the packing, shipping, transport of our cars, unloading, etc. So we are literally just sitting around for the next few weeks. Life as we know it is not changing and won't change a crumb until moving day.

So we're sort of stuck in the denial phase because we can't do anything to make it feel real. We can't start gathering boxes. We can't start filling the boxes. We aren't looking for a moving van or asking for people to help. It's hard in a very not-hard-at-all way. If you know what I mean.

However - and this is a very fun however for me - we've been doing a bunch of shopping! And I'm a huge freak about getting wicked good deals on stuff so I've super enjoyed getting our closets winterfied. We went to the Phoenix Savvy Sale last month and got all of the following for $35.62! and most of it has never been worn or only worn a few times.

his new winter slipper that he wouldn't take off :)

Here are some of the coats Urban tried on. If you want to see the one he picked you'll have to wait til we get there!

And I have gone a little crazy buying jeans that fit (and that will fit into my boots). Landon claims he doesn't need anything. And he's impossible to shop for, so so-be-it for him for the time being. But here is a pic of Landon opening our celebration Sparkling Apple Cider the day he accepted one of the job offers:

And here is Urban putting himself up for sale to any Phoenix family who is willing to let him stay here :)

JK! Urban is probably the most excited of all of us to move back and see Grandma Linda everyday! (both of his grandma's are Grandma Linda...so we're not playing favortism here)

Honestly, the hardest part of this ordeal will be getting Urban to put away his flip-flops for the winter. The first thing he asks for every morning (besides Elmo and an Eggo waffle) are his "fi-fops!" But he is pretty excited about his new Nike shocks, and as long as he can be like daddy that usually does the trick.

Ah...I think I feel better already. Maybe I'll even stop calling it Ew-tah :)

It's the Phoenix Things

2011-11-12T14:50:00.001-08:00

It's being able to wear flip-flops in November

It's swinging in the backyard while others are shoveling snow

It's NEVER having snow

It's having friends who will drop everything to meet us at the park or pool whenever we want

(the green shirt thing was a total fluke)

It's wearing your swimsuit more than your normal clothes

It's Landon getting home at 4pm everyday and loving Urban and I to death

It's taking all of 15 minutes to reach the top of the "mountain" (South Mountain)

It's inviting everybody over when there's a deadly tanker crash nearby

(true story...happened on Wednesday)

It's not having to share the 3 of us with anybody else

All in all: It's living in fairy-tale happiness for the past 3 years & 8 months

In this month of gratitude I wanted to remember how blessed I am to have the life I have. Recently I've been especially focused on all the great Phoenix things I have in my daily life...probably because the time has come for us to say farewell to Phoenix.

To say our life out here has been perfect would be an understatement. We have loved love loved it here, and though we never expected to be leaving this soon, a new opportunity (several actually) has arisen which we have chosen to take!

I think back to a few months ago when I said, "If I had the choice to move to Utah tomorrow or stay in Phoenix I honestly don't know which one I'd take." Little did I know it was going to come true and we would have to decide! We are excited for a new chapter in our lives, but will always hold a very special place in our hearts for Phoenix.

Washington DC

2011-11-06T21:33:00.000-08:00

To make a long story short...or, better yet...to avoid a long story altogether: we went to Washington DC last week! This trip came about a few weeks ago, and for the time being we'll just say it was "business related" for Landon. So basically, free trip to Washington DC? Sure!

Landon had to be on his usual government flight, so Urban and I had to take a separate flight, but if we're sticking to the theme of skipping long stories I'll just say we all made it there eventually :)

Landon also had a packed agenda for the duration of the trip, so we got up super early our first morning there (6:30am DC time, which was 3:30am phoenix time) and ran around downtown in the FREEZING cold. Amazingly, we were able to see just about everything in about an hour and a half. Plus we had the places all to ourselves besides all of the joggers.

The rest of the time Urban and I mastered the Metro system and explored the Smithsonian by ourselves. He loved all of the steps into the museums, and I loved that it warmed up during the day.

We ended up with 140 pictures, so I'm pretty proud of myself for narrowing them down. If the layout looks all too familiar, it's because I'm too lazy to come up with something else right now. OR we can just call it our "Coast to Coast in 1 month" album. Ooooh, I like it! Let's go with that :)

Fun huh!

This has also got me to thinking that we seem to travel alot...and I couldn't do it with any other kid but Urban. He is such a great traveler. I was laughing my head off this time at airport security when he jumped out of his stroller and willingly threw his puppy and blanky onto the security scanner. haha. And he did WAY better than me on the 5 hour and 20 minute flight home. Man was I sick and irritated, and he was calm and collected the entire time. My little Angel.

Halloween Part 2

2011-11-01T14:16:00.000-07:00

Don't worry...we don't bite!

Didn't get a great family picture, but I totally made these costumes myself! Crazy huh! Who knew I had it in me? I was SO happy that Urban actually wore his (and didn't overheat in it).

We went to our ward's trunk-or-treat as usual but decided not to decorate our car this year. We just had fun walking around with Urban. He was a little shy at first - as usual - but once he figured out that people were giving candy away he was all about it. His little fist didn't let go of his pumpkin bucket the entire night. Even when people would come up to us just to chat he would quickly hold up his bucket! haha. LOVE HIM. and LOVE LANDON also!

Halloween Part 1

2011-10-31T09:19:00.000-07:00

It's still a little too warm for long sleeves...but how cute is he! (That's candy corn in his mouth)

Happy Crandallness Halloween

2011-10-21T15:02:00.000-07:00

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Sleepover in Seattle!

2011-10-17T22:21:00.000-07:00

Remeber our friends the A-team? (Names have been changed to protect privacy). You know...the ones we used to hang out with when it was just the 4 of us...

And then the ones who ventured into parenthood with us...

And then the ones who left Ahwatukee and moved back to Washington?

Well we took the first weekend of October to go visit them is Seattle!!! It was 3 fun-filled days of catching up & hitting the town, and 3 wonderful nights of relaxing and enjoying the cooler weather. Such a super great time that went by too fast.

They are currently plowing ahead of us in the child-rearing department as we got to meet their second little boy, D-Dawg, who is already almost 5 months old!

Isn't he adorable! It was one of those things that makes you totally jelous on one hand, yet on the other hand really happy to have so much time with just Urban. I'm sure that doesn't make sense or didn't come out right, but I hope you catch my drift.

ANYWAY...here are the pics, so I'll let you take it from here:

Urban Ads

2011-10-12T13:52:00.000-07:00

Guess what? Urban's first public interview gave him such great media exposure that he sat down last week and scribbled out contracts with both Nike and Adidas.

Agent Mommy didn't want all of the fame going to his head at such a young age, so the above ads will only be featured here and in the December issue of Crandallness magazine. But he wanted to give a special shout out to his fans! We couldn't do it without you :)

Binky Relapse?

2011-10-07T13:28:00.000-07:00

While searching desperately for some photos I could not find for the life of me, I ended up emptying out my nightstand and discovered a long-lost old binky of Urban's. As Urban was my right hand man during the entire search, he too caught sight of the binky...and I was a little nervous to see what was going to happen. Was he going to plop it in his mouth and rejoice that his once broken binky was now whole again? Or would he think nothing of it. Lucky for me our camera was also in the nightstand so I caught his entire reaction.

What do you think? Is he strong enough to resist the life-long habit he recently gave up? Or will he relapse.

Check it out...

That's my boy!!

Bike Rides & Bye Bye Binky

2011-09-26T16:25:00.000-07:00

We want bikes! So we decided to wait out the blazing hot summer researching which ones to get, then hopefully purchase them in time to enjoy the gorgeous and very rideable fall/winter/spring here in Phoenix.

Well, I don't know if I've mentioned this enough, but we have been blessed with the most INCREDIBLE friends here! Not only do I have 3 or 4 people researching and keeping their eyes open for me, but I have the most generous friend who is always letting me borrow her stuff...and since she is very pregnant and sick she brought over their bikes for us to borrow and try out! SUPER FUN!

The weather cooled down to below 100 degrees for a few days last week, so we geared up and hopped on Saturday morning/afternoonish. Turns out it was back to over 100 degrees that day. So it wasn't the most pleasant bike ride ever, but it sure was great exercise!

Moving on to the Binky portion of our life...

Urban has been going through a rough sleep phase (again) for the past several weeks. It seems like he'll go for months of being perfect, then a while of rough, then back to perfect. But this phase was probably the hardest yet. He would scream and scream and refused to nap and wanted to sleep with us...etc, etc. We had been planning on taking his Binky away soon anyway. He hasn't had it during the day since he was about 13 months. So we figured..."What the heck! None of us are sleeping right now anyway! Let's do this thing!"

I followed the advice of my visiting teacher and started by cutting the very tippy tip off. (Without him seeing of course). Then we were going to cut a little more off each night until it wasn't worth Urban's time to hold in his mouth anymore.

Man I wish I had caught this moment on camera because it blew me away!

Urban walked over to get his Binky (or "Binks" as he calls it) for the night and stopped dead in his tracks when he saw what had happened. Then he walked a little closer, picked it up, showed it to us, and simply said "uh-oh." He turned it around in his hands a few times, stuck his little finger in the new hole, tried putting it in his mouth a few times, then just put it down and walked away.

He hasn't wanted it since!! What!? He has had that thing his entire life! He has never fallen asleep without it! He begs and cries for it all the time! And now it's just gone? Zip? Zero? Zilch? Yup. Seriously wants nothing to do with it now. He falls asleep without it, and I think he even behaves better during the day. Especially in the car. He used to think we were constantly hiding his Binks from him and were out to get him. Now life is easy breezy. Phew. Glad that's over. I was dreading that to be the second worst thing after child birth.

I took the following pictures as a momentum. uh huhuhu I can't believe we don't have a Binky baby anymore :( I think I'll have them printed on canvas and hung above our bed :)

They are clear...so made for kinda cool art don't you think?

Urban's First Public Interview

2011-09-16T15:41:00.000-07:00

It’s been hard to get Urban talking on video. He just goes mute when the camera comes out…or when we’re trying to get him to talk to someone on the phone. (Not a fake phone of course. He could talk on one of those all day.) So yesterday I finally got in touch with his agent and offered to pay him 5 m&ms for answering a few questions on camera.

Here is exclusive coverage of Urban’s first interview. Find out what makes him laugh and who he loves the most!

Too fun. We have never been able to get him to say “I love you.” He just walks around the house saying “I uh me!” I forgot to ask him to say some of my other favorites. I love when he gets tired of walking, raises both hands in the air and says “help me.” Or when I put him in his car seat and he says “ow” because it’s hot. Or when he spills anything he says “uh oh” and runs and grabs a towel to clean it up.

He is officially 21 months old today, which means he can drink, gamble, and get into the good clubs. And by that I mean: drink from cups without sippy lids on them, gamble that he won’t have to go to bed as long as he’s being really good, and he finally stayed in nursery the entire time last Sunday (which I think is a really good club).

His newest thing is eating at the big table with us. No more highchair. Except at breakfast. I don’t know why he’ll eat there at breakfast, but for lunch and dinner he climbs into a big chair and actually seems to spill less. So no complaints here.

He also prefers sleeping on the guest bed. He hates his crib now with a fiery passion (unless he’s playing launch the soccer ball with Dad) so we’ve given up a few nights and let him sleep in the guest bed. I actually really like it because he gets himself out in the morning and sits by my bed or just plays around the house til I get up. But we can’t turn his crib into a toddler bed just yet because we have to get him to sleep without a binky first…and that’s going to be a whole lota hard.

Hmmm...what else. He loves having his friends over to play and is even willing to share his vacuum and puppy now. He enjoys eating out and pushing the cart around the grocery store. He’s working hard on his jumping skills and loves a good climbing challenge.

He finally outgrew his size 4 shoes and seems to be quickly outgrowing size 5. He could also probably be in size 4 diapers, but size 3 still works and we’ve got a lot left.

On a sad note, we lost his super cool Chopper sunglasses :( but his new ones are pretty cool too.

He’s getting better and better at singing his ABC's and has to pick what we listen to on the car radio. Oh…and he’s started to pick what he wears. He says “no” over and over again until I pull something out of the closet that he says “yes” to. So most days he ends up in green plaid shorts and a shirt that doesn’t match at all. And his old navy flip flops :)

Basically…WE LOVE HIM! He’s always giving us big hugs and kisses and loves doing whatever we do as long as we are together.

The Fam Fam

2011-09-13T15:04:00.000-07:00

My Mom and younger brother Andrew came to see us over Labor Day weekend! It was great great great.

We started things off at the Oasis Water Park on Saturday. It was 109 that day and my mom was still cold. We played lots games and bbq'd on Sunday, after going to church of course. Then Monday we each did our own canvas painting to put up in our Kitchen (or guest bedroom...depending how good they turned out :)And we ended their trip eating at Joe's Farm Grill. Fun fun fun.

We didn't take a single picture, so it's a good thing Andrew left his camera here! hehehe. (not sure how to spell an evil laugh so I'll just tell you that laugh was evil). Enjoy the trip from Andrew's point of view (and some of Landon's):

You'll have to click on this one to see the amazing detail.

Andy totally won the painting game with his blue splatter painting. Mom did the amazing abstract movement with Urban's hand prints. And I did the shockingly not horrible red flower one. (Landon did a pink flag, which he says was for 9-11 but it was really because Andy accidentally made ALOT of pink paint and he felt obligated to use it.)

Oh, and we had Dunkin Donuts for breakfast Saturday and Monday, and ate plenty of m&ms. Can't wait for our next visitors! Whoever they may be :)

The After Party

2011-09-13T14:41:00.000-07:00

I'm going to do the most annoying thing in the world and post more than one post today. Forgive me, but Urban is napping and I finally have some free time.

Here are the pics from when Landon came home on his birthday! He was so surprised and loved opening his presents. (We don't do presents in our relationship so his unwrapping skills were rusty and Urban had the honor instead).

Sham Wow's from my mom...super cool!

Printer Paper!!

I framed his Undergrad, Grad, and CFE diplomas!

Blowing out his 6 candles. So I guess each candle represented 4.67 years :)

We enjoyed never ending pasta at Olive Garden and played balloon badminton :) Yay Landon! Until next year...

Today Matters

2011-09-02T14:50:00.000-07:00

A few of my family members are coming to visit today! They are coming tonight and I am soooo excited! I've been waiting for this day what feels like forever. It's crazy how having a baby makes you crave your family so much.

But I think I've gotten way (way) too carried away with (unnecessary) preparations.

Too much cleaning that will be uncleaned very quickly.
Too much reorganizing that didn't need to be organized in the first place.
Too much attention to detail that nobody will notice but me.
Too much worrying about what we will do when they are here.

So this was a great little video for me to stumble upon today:

No more obsessing for me today! I'm just gonna relax and enjoy the time I have with them! And I suggest you all do the same with your holiday weekend :)

Right Now

2011-08-23T15:36:00.000-07:00

Right now we have

to wish Landon a very

We have

for the whole family (all 3 of us),

homemade from the bakery,

...some that he already know about like his

and some that he'll have to open and find out!

We also have a very excited little boy who can't wait to see

which restaurant Daddy picks to eat at.

Now all we need is

to come home from work!

Yipee!!!

Family Photos 2011

2011-08-19T14:13:00.000-07:00

While in Utah this summer both of our families decided to take new family photos. It worked out awesome, not only because the photographers were great, but because ALL of Landon's siblings and their families were in town! I know it's starting to look like we have professional pictures taken everyday, but Landon and I have just been fortunate to be friends with (and related to) some really fantastic (and super generous) photographers!

Landon's sister-in-law, Stephanie, took the Pace photos and we just can't ever thank her enough! We are still in awe at how gorgeous they are! My family hasn't even seen these yet because I've been hogging the CD, so enjoy:

Cousin Cuties!

This next one turned out to be our very favorite because we stood in order instead of me always having to be in the middle. We surprised my mom with a giant canvas print of this one, and she LOVES it:

My older brother and his gorgeous wife. Their 1-year anniversary is coming up in a few weeks. Crazy!

My younger brother and his super-duper adorable little boy. Dallon is one of the reasons living in Phoenix is so hard sometimes. I wish Urban and him could have more time together!

Momma and Me. I know it's hard to believe since we don't look anything alike.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Another one of Landon's sister-in-laws (Karyn) very kindly asked her mom, Trudy, to take the Crandall photos, and they also turned out INCREDIBLE! I can't believe how many nice people we had helping us out with this.

Oh ya...forgot to mention that Jeff wasn't there. After a few failed attempts on my part to convincingly add him into the pic, our friend Tim took over the reigns and did an awesome job! (See? Didn't I tell you we have really talented friends?)

Grandma & Grandpa Crandall with all the grandkids!

Bubbles!

Here we are again. Same rock, different clothes :)

Landon's wonderful Mom and Dad

Now I'm totally missing Utah again. Boo. I hope Christmas comes fast this year.

My Favorite Kind of Light

2011-08-17T11:02:00.000-07:00

Urban doesn't watch TV. Zip. Zero. None. Landon and I originally decided we wouldn't let him before he was even born after reading so much about how kids under 2 years old should never watch TV. We thought it would be hard, but turns out Urban has no interest in the thing whatsoever anyway. Zip. Zero. None. Once in a while I wish he would watch some television...like when he's sick, or when he doesn't want to sleep at night, or when I'm sick. But overall I love how creative and imaginative he is instead.

Sorry. I don't know how I got caught up on that. My original intent was to say that Urban doesn't watch TV, but I certainly do. Mostly it will be on for a little background noise or dance soundtrack for Urban. He LOVES the "I'm looking for my friends" song from Sid the Science Kid. He runs around the living room jumping and clapping his hands, then begs me to play it again, which, sadly, I obviosly have no power to do.

I don't know if you've ever seen that show, but you might say I'm sort of a fan myself now. A few days ago they were investigating light, and they asked all of the kids "What's your favorite kind of light?" So Urban and I went around the house learning about all the different kinds of light. We closed and opened the blinds in our dark bedroom, flicked the light switch on and off 10 trillion times, turned the backlight of my cell phone on and off again and again, and eventually ended up with a flashlight, which was Urban's clear winner since it now needs new batteries.

So what's my favorite light you ask? The kind of light where I can turn off the flash on our camera and end up with treasured moments for a lifetime:

P.S. This little cutey pants is now 20 months old as of yesterday! But we can talk about that later.

I Didn't Get to Say Goodbye July

2011-08-05T14:20:00.000-07:00

So it's really August? How did that happen? I still had so much to say about July! Guess we'll have to do one of those quick photo catch-ups:

Urban's 1st Day of Nursery!

(we're still working on the him-actually-going part)

Urban running toward the splash pad!

...Urban running right back. You could say he's not a fan.

Our grass is surviving the heat like a champ, but our tree is getting weighed down.

We like to play in the mud after the sprinklers go off in the morning :)

"Can you please put the camera down and clean me up?"

And basically just trying to make it through this summer with our sanity intact:

Alright July, goodbye for now! We'll see you next year...hopefully with less of our friends out of town and cooler temperatures.

Puppy Love

2011-08-02T14:26:00.000-07:00

While learning how to cope with life without his Binky, Urban has become even more attached to puppy. They are always together. He feeds puppy (making the chewing sounds and everything), brushes puppy, puts chapstick on puppy, puts sunscreen on puppy, puts puppy down for naps, throws the ball at puppy, puts eye drops in puppy's eyes, pushes puppy around on his push toys, and kisses puppy's nose so many times that puppy has a wet nose just like a real puppy.

But there are some rules:

No puppy at the table...we don't want him covered in food
No puppy in the bathroom...we don't want him covered in any more germs
No puppy outside...we don't want him any more dirty
No puppy at church...we don't want him stolen or left at nursery
And in general we don't take puppy out of the house (except on vacation of course)

However, Urban continues to get smarter and smarter with every passing day (and sometimes every passing hour it seems) as happens with toddlers. So he is conjuring up ways to get around these rules...as follows:

During my daily morning (ok, afternoon) routine of getting ready for the day, Urban typically entertains himself in the bathroom with me. You know...pulling out all the q-tips, sorting through the clothes hanging in the closet, taking all of Landon's shoes out of the closet, using the lint roller to sweep the bathroom floor, etc. Well, he thought he'd pull a fast one on me last week and snuck puppy in while I was trying to not blind myself with the eyelash curler. Upon spotting his little spotted friend heaped on the nasty bathroom rug I said, "Urban, no puppy in the bathroom. The floor is yucky." That's when that clever little fox pulled the hand towel of the rack, spread it out neatly on the floor, and then put puppy on the towel. After a few long seconds of eye contact with my son, I had to admit that he had won.

Then today it was the CUTEST thing ever. Whenever Urban starts getting antsy - begging to go into the garage for a car ride or out the front door - we'll remind him that he needs to put on his shoes first if he wants to go somewhere. That's when he'll adorably toddle around the house in search of his shoes. He usually only comes back with one, but that's close enough. Well today he wanted to play in the backyard (which requires no shoes) and he wanted puppy to come also. I caught him at the door and said, "Puppy can't go outside, do you remember why?" at which point he dropped puppy, ran to his room, and came back with shoes that he proceeded to try and shove on puppy's feet. Granted, there was no way he was winning this one, it was an awfully genius attempt!

Told you my kid was brilliant.

To Joshua

2011-08-01T14:43:00.000-07:00

From Your Birth Day...

...To Today

Happy Birthday!

Sorry we can't be there to celebrate. And sorry we probably haven't even sent a card yet (please see previous post). But we're not sorry we know you because you are amazing! Best wishes for the best older brother ever.

Love,

Landon, Kaylene, and Urban

And since it's my blog, I get to show a bunch of pictures of us together :)

A Little Self Bashing

2011-07-28T15:18:00.000-07:00

I was going to write a post about how I suck at everything. I figured most of you wouldn't need much convincing on the matter so I could keep it short and sweet. But then the list of things in my head got SO long.

You know, like how every cookie I attempt comes out a flat burnt offering. Or how I used to spend hours trying to make our blog look breath-taking, but it always turned out flashy and disgusting. Or how I can't cook and Landon doesn't even allow me to try anymore. Or how I don't read for leisure. Or how the word I'm looking for to contribute to an intelligent conversation never comes to me until I'm laying in bed that night. Or how I pray every day to help those who need me, then complain and complain and complain when I'm asked to sub in primary last Sunday. Or how everyone is always waiting for a late birthday card from me that inevitably never comes. Or how my never-ending goal to change up my appearance has landed me with long, straight, parted-down-the-side hair for the last 18 years. Or how Landon's wedding ring is a size too small causing him to suffer endlessly in proving he loves it anyway.

Today I was squeezing Urban on my lap while watching a super-must-see video of Jon Schmidt's online, and I looked at him and thought, "I made you, and you are perfect beyond perfection. There. I did something right." and soon thereafter realized that Heavenly Father created him and I'm just doing my best not to mess him up.

Ya. That's what I was going to post about. But then I worried you'd get the wrong impression about my current state of self-worth. So instead I've decided to tell you how I really feel about life: It's HOT. Please tune in next week for the 10 times longer list of things I'm pretty darn good at!

Experiments in Napping

2011-07-18T14:55:00.000-07:00

A certain person in our family has been having a heck of a time sleeping lately. The poor little guy is outgrowing his tried-and-true napping routine, but we can't seem to find another way to make it work. For the past forever he's been taking a solid 3 hour nap everyday from 12-3pm. Solid. As in...dead to the world, don't even think about waking him, sheets covered in drool & sweat, heavenly for him and I both.

Then he'd have a happy 5 hour evening with Daddy, dinner, and lots of playtime before going back to bed at 8pm. And that's still not the best part. The best part is that we wouldn't hear a sound from him from the time he touched down in the crib 'til 7:30 or 8:00 the next morning. Did I already use the word heavenly?

Here's the situation now: He's not tired by noon anymore. He'll roll around in his crib playing with his puppies and singing to himself until 1:00 or 1:30ish, then finally fall asleep and proceeds with his 3-hour dead time, which puts him awake at around 4:30, which means he's definitely NOT tired at 8pm...or 9pm...or 10pm...or one night even 12pm!

The real kicker here is: no matter how late we are up with him, he gets up irritatingly even earlier the next morning. Try 5am on Monday, and 6am the rest of the days. And not just awake as in we can hear that he's moving, but awake as in crying and we can tell his binky is in his hand instead of his mouth.

So, what to do?

First I tried pushing his nap back til 1:30ish so he could go be good and tired instead of lounging around so long before hand. That worked, except it didn't help the going to be at 8 thing because he would still sleep until 4:30.

Second, I tried opening his door, throwing open the curtains, and making lots of noise in the kitchen around 3:00 so he'd wake up earlier. Didn't work. (Like I said...dead). And if it did work he was a major pain in my life for the rest of the day...and he still didn't got to bed on time.

Third, I threw away his nap altogether. Not a surprise how that ended up:

...pulling a pillow off the bed and sneaking a nap

...falling asleep the second he hit Landon's lap after dinner

Fourth, I decided he could take all the naps he wanted, but he was still going to his crib at 8pm whether he was tired or not.

Screaming.

Oh so much screaming. The kind where you can tell he is standing up, hanging his blankey over the edge, huge teardrops falling, heart breaking, feels like his parents don't love him anymore screaming. Since he's only ever cried himself to sleep 2 or 3 times in his 19-month life, Landon or I will cave every time.

Lastly, I had the brilliant idea that he was getting up so early in the morning because the blasted sun was daring to show it's rays by 5am. I went to Kholes and scouted out their light-blocking curtains. Did you know those things cost $50 a panel!?! However, I took it as a sign from heaven that they were on sale that day for $15, purchased them, hung them, and waited eagerly for the next morning.

To my complete surprise...he woke up at 5:45am after having stayed up 'til 9:30 the night before. Booooooo!

I sorta think Landon has been enjoying all of this. This way he gets to see Urban and I every morning before heading to work, instead of kissing my lifeless body goodbye and being forbidden to even think about walking anywhere within a mile of Urban's room with his loud dress shoes. But I guarantee he does not love my attitude or facial expressions.

We need help. It's a good thing I love my Urban so much! At least we have joyous days in prelude to our terror nights :)

Summa Vacation 2011

2011-07-11T14:32:00.000-07:00

Ahhh...our yearly summer vacation to Utah. If you can keep a secret, Landon and I don't usually refer to our Utah trips as "vacations" but this one was a 100% vacation. BEST. TRIP. EVER.

Somehow we only got a few pics of our 2nd day on the road (riding in the tow truck an hour after our tire exploded outside of Mesquite, NV just after eating a luxurious buffet at the Wynn hotel) and our last 2 days before returning home (enjoying our brains out at the Overly family campout). But I assure you the 6 days inbetween were just as magical.

Landon's ENTIRE family heard we were coming and came also: His brother from Oklahoma (and wife and 2 kids) and his sister from Philly, whom we had the honor of picking up in Vegas and driving with us. Then of course his other sister and brother who live in Utah were there also. Fun Fun Fun.

My entire family all live in Utah (like, seriously...everybody: aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.) so we had a super duper time with all of them as well. I even got to see the movie "17 Miracles" with my dad, which was great, but as the owner of an adorable little boy who I love more than life itself it was a little too sad to watch at times.

At this point I don't know when we'll make it back to Utah again, so I'm beyond happy that the 3 of us were able to have the time of our life while there. Thanks everybody!! Miss you!!

Go ahead & click on each of the sections to get a closer look. If you don't think the pictures are adorable, I'll give you your money back.

In the Thick of It

2011-07-07T15:44:00.000-07:00

We were sitting at home Tuesday night, minding our own business (possibly watching a little Wipe Out on television), when we heard loud wind gusts, looked outside, and we could not see past the end of our driveway.

It lasted for about an hour. We quickly turned off the AC, but somehow dust was still getting in because we could taste it. I've been picking random toys and shoes up from off the floor today (2 days later) and they are nicely coated in a layer of dirt. Good think Urban loves to vacuum. And there was definitely NO swimming for us yesterday. Our friend's pool looked like a new habitat for alligators.

I've sure got my work cut out for me the next few days. Try cleaning up this in 115 degrees:

Yup. That's our backyard. It may look like the beach right now, but it's far from it.

Let Freedom Ring

2011-07-04T11:49:00.000-07:00

Happy 4th of July!

Guess What

2011-07-01T18:29:00.000-07:00

What's that!?

No Way!!

Urban is 18 months old!

I couldn't get him too smile...too many distractions outside

...and we can't believe how much he has grown up :( He turned 18 months a few weeks ago, then we spent the next 10 days in Utah...during which he grew up even more and came home a man. Seriously. It's wacko how fast he keeps changing.

He weighs exactly the same as he did at his 15 month appointment: 23 lbs 6 oz, which puts him back to skinny town at 25th percent. And he's still tall at 33 1/2 inches, 80th percent. He has the CUTEST little smile and giggle that can get him out of any trouble, eats with a fork and spoon, still hates television, and has to be peeled from the back yard everyday when his cheeks turn too red from the 115 degree temperatures.

He has outgrown his hate of other children and can't get enough play time with his friends. He especially loved all of his cousins in Utah (which breaks my heart even more that we don't live there). He says hi, puppy, peaches, "roar", happy, pop pop (bubbles), and in Utah learned to say "ruff ruff" and tent. But mostly you can catch him on his cell speaking pure gibberish.

On a typical day he can be found sitting in chairs, vacuuming the entire house, brushing his hair, NOT brushing his teeth (he hate it like the devil), begging for treats, watering the grass, playing ball tag, and looking surprised. He always looks surprised. It's so funny.

The only thing better than watching his little feet walk around the house is watching him run! Too cute. And he does this thing now that we call "quick little feet" where he stands in one place and moves his feet as fast as he can. Hilarious. And he'll be going to NURSERY this Sunday! Crazy sauce. Make it stop.

The DJ's Got Him Fallin in Love Again...Again

2011-06-10T14:24:00.000-07:00

Remember 7 months ago when Urban became the world's youngest Usher fan? (You can watch the video here again if you want)

Check him out now! Same Song...Older Urban...New Moves!

Ya. Life is awesome over here.

And We're Back

2011-06-02T15:23:00.000-07:00

...to a back-facing car seat that is. I had a few extra minutes before Urban woke up today, so I turned on the TV just in time to see this:

New Car Seat Safety.

(that dumb link won't go directly to the video, so you have to scroll down to where it says "Category" at the bottom, click "Safety" and then watch the "Car Seat Safety" video. sorry)

I walked immediately into the garage and put his car seat back to rear-facing. I've been fighting it all along, thinking "that guideline came out after we faced him forward" or "he's way more safe now than kids were in the old days" or "he's tall so he's ok" etc etc. But I wanted to cry watching that video picturing Urban as the little kid in the car crash. Hope Urban doesn't mind. He only has 6 months til he can face forward again!

Part 2 of My Confessions

2011-06-02T14:31:00.000-07:00

All of my Usher music is on my laptop, so sadly you can’t enjoy the song along with the post.

Urban has started throwing major tantrums…so I have to confess that’s he’s not 100 % perfect anymore. Total sadness
Urban is still the bestest, smartest, and 96% perfect boy a person could hope for
I just found a gift card to Bed Bath and Beyond from our wedding, looked it up online, and it has $4.70 left! Jackpot!
I worry about losing my wedding ring. I’ve lost rings before and I find it hard to believe it will never happen again
My hair is always 2 colors: the top and the bottom, because I’m too cheap to get my hair colored more often than once a year
I go to great lengths to make sure Urban has the best, healthiest foods no matter the price, but I just ate a donut for breakfast, lunch, and before bed last night
Taylor Swift and Usher need to do a song together
We slaved to plant grass in the backyard for Urban, and he still prefers the rocks
Cub Scouts is over until the end of August!!!
I should be using this time to work on the logo and flyer my brother asked for my help on. But here’s the thing: If I don’t do something right away, I probably won’t do it at all and he asked me months and months ago. I think my cousin Adam figured that out when he would have me edit his papers back in college. He would email me and say “I need this tonight” or “I need this really soon” so I would do it right then. To sum up: I really do love to help when I can, but make sure you give me a fast deadline.
Of course I was lying about having no more Pandall babies. But I had a miscarriage back in March after getting pregnant in January and I kinda lost faith in the whole process
Without naming names, someone I’m married to likes the songs from Glee
I HATE “The Voice” with a burning fiery passion
Being thinner really has made me happier
After experiencing natural childbirth I’m still more afraid of getting shots
Lettuce is disgusting. Probably more so than bananas
I have yet to mail my Mother’s Day card to my Mother. But she called it even after helping her write something for work
I cannot remember the last time I exercised. I mean, I’m on my feet day & night, and I walk in a walking group on Fridays – but true, honest exercising…can’t remember. Except wait. I did do the spin bike for 20 minutes yesterday. But before that I can’t remember.
We read the Book of Mormon every single night with Urban, and it has blessed our life more than we could ever express.
If you gave me the choice to move back to Utah tomorrow or stay in Phoenix, I honest-to-goodness could not give you an answer.
There is a baby show on tv at 6:30am called “Find Boo” that is pure, unbearable torture for Adults, but is the first and only tv show Urban has ever watched. He even laughed through most of it while he was hanging out sick on the couch.

Now I really do need to do that stuff for my brother, so I'm done.

Mini Me

2011-05-25T13:25:00.000-07:00

When I comb my hair, Urban combs his hair
When I brush my teeth, Urban will run across the house and beg for his toothbrush
When I put chapstick on, Urban puts chapstick on
When I use a Q-tip to remove my eye makeup, Urban stabs a Q-tip in his eye
When I lay down on the living room carpet, Urban will give me a kiss on the cheek and join me
When I talk on my cell phone, Urban will grab his and jabber along

He's even a great little shopper. I've had several comments from strangers about how funny it is. He sifts through the clothes racks looking at the price tags. haha.

...makes me feel like I should be doing more manly things though. So luckily, we got to watch Urban's little friend over the past month while his mommy (my awesome friend) packed to move away and abandon us in Phoenix like others before them. I've made a vow to myself that from now on I am only going to be friends with people who live in houses. Those apartment dwellers have broken my heart too many times.

But back to what I was saying...

Urban and his little friend got to hang out 3 days a week for the past 5-ish weeks, and it was so fun to watch them play together. I'm glad he got to do way more little boy things instead of so many mommy things :)

But now it's back to Urban and I most days (especially since it's too hot to have play group at the park anymore). And I love that also! Plus, Daddy comes home early enough everyday that Urban can copy him...and give me a break to secretly eat m&ms.

Nothing Official. Just so you know

2011-05-16T15:53:00.000-07:00

My little wonder is 17-months old today. I have to say that walking has been the greatest thing. Boo all of you who warned us against the evils of walking because I love it. Even after a month it still makes me smile my brains out everyday. I never get tired of watching this tiny walking person...and my arms never get tired of it either!

I hope you enjoyed the poem that I wrote for the occasion. Also please note the length compared to
his 4-month-old poem. Clearly I had more time on my hands back then.

As our blog has turned into more of an online photo album, here are the highlights of this past month:

He really is the best boy ever! which has made me go from baby-hungry to baby-done. I just can't risk having any more. The odds of them being even half as good as him are very slim. Plus he loves all of the love and attention of being an only child. Sorry world. No more pandall babies for you.

P.S. If you think we are like you and only post once every month or so, then you have missed out on some great posts below. Please check them out also!

Biblical Plague/Mother's Day

2011-05-10T18:59:00.000-07:00

Kaylene had a stressful day today due to a Biblical Plague hitting the Crandall home. We had noticed since being outside in our backyard more with the nice weather that we have had an occasional fly enter into our home. Around 1:00 PM today Kaylene arrived home from Walmart to a home of flies. I got a call at work from a crying Kaylene saying our home was riddled with flies.

I luckily got a fly treatment guy to come out within that hour. I came home and next to every window in our home there are the remains of a least 10 flies. Kaylene had every right to call with hundreds of flies in our home. The fly guy "haha" said he had never seen this before and could not locate the source because our house is so clean inside. I was curious why Kaylene likes to watch Dateline and 48 Hour Mysteries, but now I understand and might have to check the attic for a dead body Kaylene has been hiding up there. Currently we are fly free.

On to the more important post: Mother's Day. As you can see I only get a crying Kaylene on freak situations as shown above which I am lucky to have. (Kaylene's blog fans can give me an amen that girls aren't made like her.) Kaylene loves Urban so much that he is happy probably 80 percent of the time. The other 20 percent he has teeth coming in...no one can be happy then.

I love talking to Kaylene. My biggest fear of getting married was that I would run out of material to talk about and then I would become dull. Kaylene always has something intelligent to say, can make me laugh alot, and luckily my fear has not been realized yet.

She is audacious and always ready for an adventure. I can't believe we came down to Phoenix. I love her 10 cedar chests and she has created an amazing life for Urban and I. I am so glad I looked a gift horse in the mouth while dating Kaylene to find perfection!

Good, Bad, and Old News

2011-05-09T14:43:00.000-07:00

Last week was a humdinger! Busy busy busy. Let's start with the bad news:

Normally Urban looks like this...

But he was sick Sunday, and then Monday he started to look like this...

Landon is the hero of this story because he was holding the poor little guy late one night when all of a sudden he said to me, "Can you take Urban to the doctor tomorrow? He has croup." and I was like, "What? What's croup and how do you know he has it?"

Sure enough...took him to the doctor who confirmed he had croup. This brave little boy had to have a shot and sleep with a humidifier (and me) in his room for the next 4 days.

Now back to the old news so we can move on to the good news...The old news: Landon completed his MBA back in December. The good news: His parent's came down to Phoenix last week for both of his Graduation Ceremonies!

Wednesday - The Convocation Ceremony at GCU where he received his Master's Hood

Friday - Commencement Ceremony at Chase Field

We all had a TON of fun, except for poor little Urban. He was miserable: skipping naps...loud, dark rooms surrounded by thousands of strangers...long, hot days in and out of the car. To be honest, Urban and I didn't even see Landon receive his diploma at Chase Field. We were outside: Urban screaming his brains out trying to thrash his way out of the stroller...me wondering why in the heck I wore heels and a dress I could barely move around in. THANK GOODNESS Landon was a hero again and left right after his name was called. Otherwise, they would have been there for at least 2 more hours and I would have been on the next bus home.

CONGRATS AGAIN LANDON! Your ducks are still in a row :)

Oh, and here's the winning picture from the week:

Urban thought it was sooo funny to see Dad walk out dressed like this :)

Choo Choo!

2011-05-02T11:48:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago for playgroup we went to the train park in Scottsdale. It was SO FUN! Urban loved riding the train around and waving to all the dogs. And while his hat sorta looks like a conductor hat...it's not. That just his normal hat.

Over the River & Through the Woods

2011-04-28T14:59:00.000-07:00

...To Grandmother's House We Flew!

We're going to Utah to see Grandma!!

He can't come :( He has to work

Even though we were sad without Landon...It was A.MAZ.ING! Everything I wanted it to be: sitting at home so Urban could play with my mom and brothers. Short and sweet and uncomplicated. Not to mention an ENTIRE DAY with Angela and Alisha! woot woot! And a few visits from wonderful friends. (And an unexpected day with Landon's sister's family and his mom as our plane was delayed 3 hours).

Urban's initial strategy was pretending he couldn't walk to get lots of hugs and free rides around the house. This continued for the first 3 days. Then on the last day, at the last minute, he was like, "Fooled you!" and showed off his walking skills as much as possible before boarding our plane home. What a cute little trickster.

I read Urban's diary while he was napping in order to share his favorite moments from the trip:

His puppy making it through security
Opening and closing (and opening and closing) the window shade on the airplane window
Seeing Grandma and showing her where her nose is
Sleeping in Mommy's bed and waking the whole house up with his stuffy-nose sobbing
PLAYING T-BALL!!
Enjoying the beautiful spring weather that Grandma lied about and said it was snowing so he was way too overdressed the entire time
Playing T-ball
Skipping naps and staying up late
Driving around Grandpa's farm in Park City with Grandpa
Playing Mancala with Aunt Jessica

(There was actually much more...but being a technical writer I know that people tend to stop reading numbered lists somewhere around #6 and they hardly ever read past #10. So if you want to know more you'll have to call and ask him).

Since he made it a point to put T-ball twice, I thought I'd better share a few pics and short video:

Urban had so much fun he even tried to send himself back after we got home!

One Step at a Time

2011-04-12T14:56:00.000-07:00

We weren't able to road trip to Utah this past weekend since the Federal Government came to a budget agreement seconds before the deadline...which was a good thing...so I decided at 11:30pm Friday night that I was going to walk off my disappointment.

I woke up at 5:00am Saturday morning, my friend Sonia picked me up a little after 6:00am, and we headed downtown to participate in a 5 mile walk for the March of Dimes. Easy enough, right? Well it would have been a whole lot easier if it wasn't freezing and raining! Ya. Probably the coldest I've ever been in the 3 years we've lived in Phoenix.

But Rain or Shine, We Marched for Babies! and it was a TON of fun. My fingers finally regained feeling after being back home for a while, and I would do it all over again in a heartbeat.

Speaking of getting home: every time I leave Landon and Urban alone together Urban does something amazing. So while I was out walking for babies, Urban became the pro walking baby. At least Landon is great about getting things on video, so I sat down yesterday and put all the pieces together for myself:

Oh, and Landon is flying me to Utah Saturday to spend some much needed time with my family. Just another reason for me to feel completely spoiled and undeserving, but I'm so excited!

Daddy's Team

2011-04-08T13:47:00.000-07:00

I love Landon ALOT. But most of the time I figure Urban loves me way too much to love Landon ALOT. But he does. ALOT.

(I know "alot" is not a word. who do you think you are talking to here?)

Urban is only away from me an average of 1 hour each week. That's while I'm at cub scouts every Thursday. (Did you know I'm in cub scouts? I am. I'm the den leader for the Wolves. Yes. I was literally thrown to the Wolves last August. They are vicious and I barely make it out alive every week.) And during that 1 hour Landon has managed to secretly gain Urban's trust. That's when he got Urban to walk for him first, and that's when he feeds him all of his favorite things.

So this morning Urban decided to get up an hour early in hopes of going to work with Daddy. He sat on the floor begging and weeping with his arms outstretched. Daddy couldn't resist, scooped him up, and Urban promptly smiled back at me waving bye-bye triumphantly.

Here's where you are going to need a tissue:

When Daddy put him back down I thought his little heart was going to fall out of his chest. He crawled after him as fast as he could only making it to the hallway outside his room in time to see Daddy disappear into the garage. (Of course this was all the more heartbreaking because he was in his adorable blue-striped footy pajamas). He heard the garage door open and knew it was over.

BUT

Landon entered the house again moments later to retrieve something he had left. Urban's hope was renewed! He was elated thinking "I knew Daddy loved me!" and swiftly stampered back to his crib to grab his blankie for the car ride to work. Sadly (oh so sadly) by the time he got back to the hallway Daddy once again disappear into the garage without him and this time he heard the car drive away.

Heart breaking.

What could I do? Well, I did what anyone would do. I scooped him up, wiped his tears, and told him, "It's better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all." At which point he laughed! haha. And we will both be waiting to jump into his arms when he gets home from work, because we are on Daddy's Team!

I'm thinking of making this same sweatshirt in my size. Except, I should probably make it a swimming suite since it's so hot here these days. Anyone else want one? I have 3 sheets of t-shirt transfer paper left.

Recent Developments

2011-04-05T15:45:00.000-07:00

Urban is now 15 and 1/2 months. Instead of writing a 3 page essay on how much I love and adore him (which I already wrote, just not going to post) I am going to list 15 and 1/2 recent developments that have taken place in his life.

1) He walks now! Well...he CAN walk but still prefers crawling if you ask him.

2) He loves exploring small spaces that have been uninhabited thus far.

3) He goes nuts for blueberries, dried apples, garden veggie noodles, and especially Happy Tots organic baby tubes...which is what he's eating below. They cost a small fortune but are worth every penny! Landon and I want to live on them also. (and I can't believe I used the word "nuts" to describe a baby with nut allergies. Forgive me son.)

4) He LOVES books. Loves them. Can't stress this enough.

5) He knows his alphabet, shapes, and every household object possible. (No joke)

6) He talks alot...but still nothing we can decipher.

7) He loves giving kisses, big hugs, and waving...and both come with a big smile!

(this is an example of his big hugs)

8) He has 12 teeth which include 2 molars on top and 2 molars on bottom. Those suckers really hurt this little guy but he's a solider.

9) He folded his arms all by himself when we were about to say dinner prayer the other night!

10) He's getting pretty good at eating with utensils.

11) He doesn't and won't wear shoes (this is partially because of him and partially because of me)

12) He has shockingly good aim (shockingly) when throwing a ball and loves to play ball for hours. He even knows the difference between a soccer ball, basketball, and tennis ball. Such a boy.

13) He now sits on his little potty once or twice a day. Nothing happens. But it's a start.

14) He loves playing with kids 6 months younger or 6 months older. Anything between is too annoying to him.

15) He's super helpful unloading the dishwasher, loading the dryer, throwing things in the garbage, and shredding paper (he hands me the paper to be shredded...don't know what you were thinking).

15 and 1/2) He has a ne

Because I Can't Help Myself

2011-03-26T14:37:00.000-07:00

Another Saturday afternoon hunched on the couch in the fetal position thanks to Costco hotdogs and a getting-sicker-just-thinking-about-it array of Costco samples. Ugh. Shark Tank of the television. First time I've seen it and it makes me really nervous for those poor people.

Then a commercial: Help save the endangered wild tigers!

How?

Send money to symbolically adopt a wild tiger. Symbolically.

Landon and I of course had a hayday with this little gem of a phrase:

"You guys want to symbolically come over for dinner tonight?"

"Sure I'll babysit for you this weekend. Symbolically that is."

"Ya, we'll be there tonight...symbolically."

"These symbolical workouts sure leave me feeling rested and less sore."

I could go on forever but I really need to get back to the couch. Lots of March Madness for Landon to watch literally and me to watch symbolically. Oh, and I should probably start packing for my symbolical trip to Utah next week. I mean, I didn't donate all that money to save the endangered airlines for nothing.

Z is for Zoo

2011-03-22T15:38:00.000-07:00

Urban and I went to the Zoo on St. Patrick's Day. Not on purpose. But there is alot of green there! haha. Anyway...I only took 1 picture because it got up to 92 degrees and my focus turned to keeping Urban alive:

Urban and the Antelope

Urban and his new water bottle that he thankfully drank continuously

Overall he had the time of his life, which I figured he would given how excited he gets to see birds in our backyard. And he LOVED being squirted in the face with the squirt bottle. He was soaking wet the entire time and happy as could be. Talk about a sweaty sunscreen dirt mess when we got home...but it was totally worth it.

In fact, it was so worth it that we went again today! (yay for my friend having a membership that includes a guest :)

This time it was perfect weather! A little windy at first, but never got above 70. The animals must have loved the weather also because I have never seen so many animals out and about. I tried to take more pictures this time, but the live ones are too far away to see.

Here is a picture of my hair 6 inches shorter

Urban's impression of a lion

Urban's impression of an alligator

"nice non-moving alligator"

The sad part of the story was when my friend's little girl lost her shoe to the turtle water. She was so sad that this random stranger guy jumped over the gate, climbed down the wall, and missed the floating shoe by a centimeter! Apparently his daughter had just lost her shoe to the lion cage!

So next time you're at the zoo...hang on to your shoe!

A Naptime Production

2011-03-09T14:15:00.000-08:00

To play or not to play with the outlet...that is the battle!

He is usually pretty obedient when we tell him something is "no no". But he had a really hard time with this one. What a funny pants.

Blogging Killed the Journal Writer

2011-02-28T13:45:00.000-08:00

Here we are again. If I'm not talking about Urban I must be talking about my inability to sleep. And while the two used to be related, it's definitely not Urban's fault anymore (most of the time). In fact, when Urban was born it actually helped me sleep because I was so exhausted beyond exhausted that I could fall asleep before my head even hit the pillow.

But now we're back to crazy ol' me not being able to sleep for no logical explanation other than my mind going a million miles an hour 24 hours a day...going on 6 months now. (I say "we" because poor Landon suffers just as much as I. Misery likes company and I make sure it has plenty of it). I've read EVERYTHING on tricks to falling asleep, things not to do before bed, what to eat to sleep better, how to avoid crappy sleep, etc etc etc. Tried it all. Nothing worked. Big surprise.

Through it all I always tend to find my way back to Landon's advice to "clear the mechanism". However, recently this has done little less than magnify the problem since I think about it while tossing back and forth at 2am and then start composing my next blog post in my head because it would just be crazy to get out of bed, turn on the computer, and blog at 2am. Then in the morning I'm too tired and cranky to bother with it.

This past week my mind-racing-insanity became much worse due to a slightly sad event that occurred. So I told myself this was something I would definitely have to blog about or I would never sleep again. But I really didn't want to because I just didn't.

Here's where I get to the point:

I USED TO WRITE IN A JOURNAL!! Every day. About everything. My ratio of journals to years lived was 2:1. And even though I have never been a great sleeper I'm certain that my mind was less cluttered and more efficient. So even though I've lied to myself that this blog is basically the same thing as a journal, it's not even close. And even though Landon let's me talk his face off every day it just doesn't have the same effect as scratching it out in a cute, super awesome journal.

Since Borders is going out of business I think I'll even go buy another one and you all should also! But please don't stop updating your blogs because it's much harder for me to get ahold of your journal :)

A Walk in the Park

2011-02-22T15:03:00.000-08:00

Literally...

15 minutes later...

Didn't it sound like he said "a week and a day" when I asked him how long he'd been walking?

Now if he can just let go of the walker. Let go son! Let go.

Sharks & Diplomas

2011-02-09T13:54:00.000-08:00

I obviously have nothing to say anymore. My life has been reduced to photos. But I will say that I'm glad it's finally February. Freakin January lasted forever. I cleaned everything I could clean. Organized everything I could organize. Threw away everything I could throw away. Now there's plenty of room for the rest of 2011!

Sleeping Shark

Shark tears

And on an unrelated note, it seems like Urban is turning blond.

Man he's cute!

What Little Boys are Made of

2011-02-02T15:19:00.000-08:00

Okay so I changed the poem to fit my purpose, but I had no idea what a "snip" was and who cares about snails. My mom would be proud. She hates insects. Also, there are nails holding the chair together. That's how that works.

I am so excited to finally post these! Our way-too-nice friend Mike took Urban's 1-year pictures for us, and I thought I had better hurry and put them up before I continue spending my days in my pajamas Photoshopping them. They turned out amazing, just like Urban's newborn pics which Mike also did. We can never thank him enough!

A display of his excellent non-verbal communication. He's a pointer.

We didn't do this on purpose, but this is his favorite dog and there just happens to be a firetruck on his shirt :)

A Piece of Advice

2011-01-28T12:50:00.000-08:00

Oh man. These things get me everytime! Too funny.

I Forgot to Mention

2011-01-22T08:36:00.000-08:00

At Urban's 1-year appointment he was still 30th for weight and 80th for height. Woot Woot! He currently weighs 21 pounds 10 ounces, and is 30 1/2 inches long. (I always think he's pretty chub chub, but don't let his double chin fool you. It's only there to be adorable!)

Landon decided having so much time with me was way too much fun, so he is back to studying! This time he is going for his CFE (Certified Fraud Examiner). However, this one is not nearly as intense as his MBA so we are still enjoying lot of family fun in the sun!

Since Landon has been hogging all of the studentness fun I am thinking about going back to school and fulfilling my dream to be a dermatologist. It's just that right now I am loving my dream job of being a stay-a-home mom too much! So I'll probably look into that more seriously in 20 - 30 years :)

My hair has gotten way too long. What should I do?

We finally put in hours and hours of work to plant grass in our backyard just before Thanksgiving and nothing grew! Geez Louise. (It was probably too cold, but I still blame Landon...I mean...myself).

On that same note, one of new years resolutions is to learn how to make chocolate chip cookies that aren't either flat and crispy or all dry and cakey. Help me!

I lost the charger for our camera battery. If you see it anywhere (especially you Utah people) please give it back ASAP! Precious moments of our son's life are dwindling before my eyes. Uh huhuhu.

Oh...and we really are NOT pregnant. And I vow to stop crying wolf (maybe) so you will believe me when/if it actually happens. So carry on and wipe that suspicion off of your face.

Good News!! We Are Pr...

2011-01-10T12:43:00.000-08:00

As many of you know I have been wanting this since Urban was about 3 months old. Landon kept telling me I had to be patient and it's been hard to wait, but the day is finally here! We confirmed it at our doctor's appointment this morning and I'm totally ready for all the changes it's going to bring.

You guessed it! We are proud parents of a toddler who has outgrown his dairy allergy!!!

No more soy. No more sneaking olive oil into his food. No more bearing the sad look on his face when he really wants to eat what we're eating. Yay!!! (But he is really allergic to peanuts and eggs...so please don't give him any).

Today is also our 3rd wedding anniversary!! Woot Woot! Some days it feels like longer, some days it feels like it's been shorter, but all days it feels incredible to be married to the best person ever! (and I'm speaking for both of us :)

Holiday Wrap Up

2011-01-05T20:52:00.000-08:00

Now that all the presents are unwrapped I should probably share some pictures so we can call it a wrap until next year. And I usually prefer to wrap things up by rapping, but unfortunately there is no way to convey that through type...too bad so sad for you.

We ~~forced~~ gave Urban the opportunity to sit on Santa's lap this year! And he hated it, but you would never know because I snapped this picture so fast that the weeping and whaling and face-turning-red-ing hadn't started yet.

And this year was a bit confusing to alot of you out there because you kept thinking it was Urban's 1st Christmas. But in actuality it was his second. Remember? December 25th 2009 looked like this:

And you can tell it's his 2nd Christmas because he practiced all year so he could play the Shepard in the nativity

...instead of the chocolate orange thief like last year.

Also, he had been dreaming of a white Christmas this year, but looked out the window everyday to find nothing but dry dirt in the backyard.

So we gave in and took him to Utah where he quickly realized he was a tried and true Phoenix baby who hated being cold and hated being bundled up even more.

Christmas morning he was shocked to learn that there are kids in the world who get up earlier than he does

...but soon got into the Christmas spirit and loved all of the (way too many to give to a baby that was flying home Delta) new toys that he got.

(Sorry there are no pics from Christmas with my side of the family because we kept forgetting the camera with all the moving back and forth from house to house. So we're keeping our fingers crossed that my brother Bryson will actually email us the pics we took on his camera.)

____________________________________________

Now to tell the side of the story that doesn't necessarily revolve around a super cute and impossible to resist baby...

Landon and I originally decided to journey to Utah for the holidays this year because my older brother Andrew and my favorite cousin Alisha (Angela, you are also my favorite) went through the Salt Lake Temple together for the first time!

(This was Andy and Alisha when they were little. They are only a month apart and were even baptized on the same day)

We were a little nervous because our flight landed at 4:45 and we were supposed to be there by 5:30 but it all worked out and it was incredible to be in the temple with so many of my relatives. It was the perfect way to spend Christmas Eve Eve (aka Dec 23rd).

However Christmas Eve didn't turn out so wonderful. My Grandpa Pace passed away unexpectedly Dec 24th around 2pm. He had been in the hospital for some minor kidney problems, and we were all on our way to visit him right before it happened. While it was a really sad thing (and we all cried til we thought we couldn't cry anymore) I just felt so blessed to have been there surrounded by my family instead of back in Phoenix. And Landon and I were able to switch our flight and extend our stay until Jan 4th to be there for the funeral on Jan 3rd.

Uhem...but back to a happier note...we were also in Utah because Alisha got married on Dec 30th!! Which was another super fun day I had to spend with my family in the temple. I will admit I pansied out during the outside pictures. I have never been so freakin cold in my life!! (and I went to college in Logan). However the reception was beautiful and super fun and she definitly wins for the best bridesmaid dresses ever! (I have already worn mine again :)

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!! Yay for 2011!!

Won Year - Part 2

2010-12-22T08:29:00.000-08:00

For those of you just interested in the pictures who were bored by my previous ranting post, here is a pictureloge of his birthday/birthweek:

He did great on the 6 hour car ride to LA and was so excited to stretch his legs and watch the hotel fountain while dad parked

It was so fun to explore new territory for a week

He had a hard time deciding what to order at Olive Garden
(seeing how he's allergic to dairy and all)

He woke up birthday morning super excited!

Then got sick shortly after breakfast

(we suspect he's allergic to eggs also since he was totally fine after waking up and barfing them all over our hotel bed)

He did not like the place we picked for dinner and HATED his birthday hat

They only had ice-cream and nut brownies for desert
so he settled for a nice family picture instead

He did not want to sit still for this picture, but I finally got it

All he wanted to do was rip the sign down

So we let him

Then for the smashing of the 1st bday cake
click here if you want to see what actually happened

Then presents

He got toddler formula, his favorite puff treats, a new toothbrush, a cute outfit from Gma C, and a Christmas CD (which he is holding in the pic and very excited about)

Then he wanted to remind me that he still loves me even though he is a toddler now by climbing into my lap

After checking out the next morning we looked at the hotel fish while waiting for dad's class to be over

My little baby is all grown up :(

Then Gma P sent him a super cool present when we got home

...a Lion Ride & Walk Toy! ROAR!!!!

(Man this thing has been VERY helpful. He plays with it so much I've actually had some time during the day to work on Alisha's wedding video. yay!!)

The End (For real this time. Promise.)

Won Year - Part 1

2010-12-19T22:31:00.000-08:00

This post is a little bit late since we’ve been in California all week, but our little guy turned 1 year old on Thursday! Uh huhuhu. One. Year. Old.

Okay, let’s see…what am I supposed to say again? Oh ya: “I can’t believe he’s one year already! The time has gone by so fast! It seems like yesterday he was born!”

Except that’s actually not how I feel at all.

I CAN believe he is one year old because I have been with him every single living second of that year minus a few hours (which I literally tried to add up and the grand total was about 19 hours that we were apart all year). And the time has NOT always gone fast, especially the 5 times he had a cold and this past month while his molars have been coming in. And it does NOT feel like he was born yesterday. Trust me. I think about that day ALOT and it seems very far in the past, particularly now that Christmas is rolling around again and there’s no excitement of waiting for labor to start.

Here’s what I actually think about Urban turning 1:

1) I need a new calendar

Last year on Urban’s literal birth day my mom gave us “Baby’s First Calendar” which we have spent filling with “Baby’s First…” stickers. You know…1st smile, 1st food, 1st word, 1st sit-up, 1st crawl, etc. It was an awesome and easy way to document his life. Well, easy for the most part.

Some things were so ish-y that it was a challenge to pick which day it should go on. Should we count “dadadada” as his first word-ish? Or do we keep waiting for an actual word like “table”. Should I have counted the rice cereal (aka thicker milk) as his first food-ish? Because I waited until we gave him true baby food. And there were many times last month that he got up on his hands and knees and managed to fall forward a few-ish inches. But that’s not technically a crawl. So I waited until December 1st when he finally covered some ground.

2) He won’t stop growing

He already has 8 teeth and molars on the way. His hair is coming in thicker and still looks strawberry blondish. His feet finally outgrew his 3-6 month shoes that he never wore anyway. I’ve packed away 2 huge bins of baby clothes (sniff sniff). His crib is now lowered to the floor, so I have to settle for a pat on the head instead of kissing his face off every night (sadness). He hasn’t worn a onsie in forever. He’s down to one nap a day (blast). He drinks from a sippy cup using only one hand, which he has actually done forever (the one hand thing, not the sippy cup thing). If he wasn’t still allergic to dairy he could be on regular old whole milk right now (blast again). He’s six-feet tall and waiting to hear back on college applications.

3) He’s trained

He may not say a whole let, but he definitely understands what we’re saying. Here’s a list of tricks he does on command just from hearing the words:

Take his socks off
Wave (if he feels like it)
Sit up from lying down
Point to his stuffed dogie
Cover his face when you say “where’s urban?”
Spit his Binky out
Put his arms up
Smile for the camera
Clap his hands

And here’s some things he does whether you want him to or not:

Wake up at 7am no matter how late he stayed up
Drop his food on the floor (while maintaining eye contact so he thinks you can’t see what he’s doing)
Pull all the DVDs and books off the shelf
Pick all the hairs out of the carpet
Turn pens into weapons by taking the lids off
Shakes his head 'no'

4) Gravity is a bummer

And it's an extra bummer when you are figuring it out on tile. And it's an extra extra bummer when your mom laughs at you for sliding around in your pajamas trying to get a good grip. haha. He is crawling faster and faster, pulling himself up on things, has taken a few steps on his own, and can almost stand from sitting in the middle of the floor. But every time he loses his balance or can't get up where he wants he looks at me with blame in his eyes...like it's my fault or something. But the worst is when he's on the bed, sees something on the floor he wants and just goes for it. Ya. That's not the way it works son. (Don't worry we never leave him unattended on the bed.)

5) He’s one of us

Landon and Urban both like getting up early, going through 5 pairs of socks a day, leaving their stuff all over the floor, going grocery shopping, being allergic to everything, putting things back in the wrong place, making me happy, playing in the kitchen, being dreadfully happy even if everyone around them isn’t, and being avid people watchers.

Urban and I both like going to bed late, getting sweet deals on our clothes, avoiding bananas at all costs, going places just for the sake of going, reading the same book over and over again, giving people cold stares, not doing what we were asked even if we were going to do it anyway because we wanted it to be our idea, eating brussel sprouts, falafel and hummus.

6) I'll spare you the rest

As I have proven, I could go on forever. I just get so paranoid that his life is going unnoticed because we have no family here and our friends have spread out across the state and country this past year. I’m so grateful for the new friends we have made in our current ward who care about Urban and can – mom, close your eyes for this part – act as our make-shift family while we are here. He is incredible. One of a kind. The best. And I am so blessed to be able to stay at home with him and enjoy every little moment.

We definitely won this year. Urban, happy one year!

Master Landon

2010-12-09T15:49:00.000-08:00

Landon finished his Master's program last night at around 10:30pm! Hurraaaayyyyy for him! We of course celebrated with sparkling apple cranberry juice, but it didn't taste half as good as we felt. Yay Landon!!! He is already so smart and now has an MBA to throw into the mix.

Urban and I are super excited to have him back in our life, instead of having his back in our life from being at the computer all the time :)

The One Where Urban Crawls

2010-12-07T13:50:00.000-08:00

On December 1st Urban finally decided he was ready to venture out on his own. It was so exciting. Frankly I was surprised he didn't wait for Landon to come home first. Landon has been luck enough all year to be there for almost all of Urban's firsts. So I quickly grabbed the camera and when I got back he was doing this instead:

(He's been doing this forever, I just never got around to filming it before.)

Then the memory card on our camera was full so I had to wait til the next day to get the crawling part:

He goes from 0 to across the room in 20 seconds!

He's such a non-baby now :(

Caught

2010-12-06T13:38:00.000-08:00

Haha! Priceless. He was so surprised when he actually pulled the ornament off the tree. (Don't worry, I'm amazing and purposely put a few on the bottom for him to play with).

We Cancelled Cable AND...

2010-11-29T21:21:00.000-08:00

- I’m so NOT good at Wheel of Fortune
- Landon has double the channels since he speaks Spanish
- There actually are shows worse than Rachel Ray
- Arthur still rules!
- I’ve no other choice but to Love Raymond
- News is depressing
- I betcha Elf will still be on a gagillion times…and that’s exactly how many times I will watch it
- Apparently there is a ‘dash’ button on the remote
- Our unreturned (on accident…but Cox didn’t notice) cable remote is a great baby toy
- There are more weather channels than not
- Every weather channel has a different forcast
- I have a sneaking suspision that Landon cancelled it so when he watches football and I ask “Isn’t there anything better on?” he can finally truthfully say “No”
- It's shocking how little we've noticed it’s absence
- You should try it and hang out with us instead :)

The DJ's Got Urban Fallin in Love Again

2010-11-19T12:45:00.000-08:00

You might have to turn the volume up on this one. Don't give up right away, the good stuff is in the middle :)

We first noticed this during our drive to Utah, except he would actually put his hands up when Usher told him too. Priceless. Turns out he loves all Usher songs, including those with Justin Beiber, but this one remains his favorite. He is definitly our child.

11 Months

2010-11-16T12:12:00.000-08:00

The seasons must be changing because we went into the backyard to sit on our regular monthly spot...but it was all shady.

So we tried the front yard...but the sun was in my eyes.

After flipping me around I discovered a bug

...then somebody in the yard next door

...then it was just funny to avoid eye contact with mom so she would look foolish even longer lying down in our driveway while the cars and runners past.

...then the whole thing got kinda boring

...then she got me!

Pajama-rama

2010-11-14T17:23:00.000-08:00

Just when you think they can't get any cuter...out come the pajamas!

He Speaks

2010-11-08T09:44:00.000-08:00

Urban says mom and dad now. But it’s more like…

“MAMAMAMAMAMAMAMA!!!!!!” screeched at dog-whistle level each and every time he’s not 100% satisfied with life at that exact moment.

Or

“dadadadadada” [insert heart-melting baby smile] “dadadadada” sung with love abounding as dad walks through the door or even just turns his head to look at him for 5 fleeting seconds.

Guess I should just get used to it. Just a little bummed that it started as soon as humanly possible.

No matter how angrily he uses my name, I still can’t “stand” how cute he is!

Halloween 2010 Style

2010-11-01T12:52:00.000-07:00

or...

Attention Please

2010-10-27T13:46:00.000-07:00

If I could have everyone's attention for just one moment. I have something very important to say. The last post entitled "Yes, Him Again" was NOT about Urban. I feel horrible that a bunch of you ended up thinking that. Maybe you just gave up and didn't read all the way to the bottom. Or maybe I just didn't make myself clear.

The post was actually about Dr Seuss. Sure, I wanted you to think it was about Urban so you would think I was a horrible person for saying all those bad things about Landon...but then you were supposed to read the last few lines and laugh hysterically for being misled. Apparently I'm not as good of a writer as I thought I was. (Or you guys aren't as good of readers as I thought you were :)

This is Urban saying "Come on people!"

To sum it all up: Landon LOVES Urban and we still fight over who gets to play with him. Just the other night, Landon finished his homework then went and got Urban out of his crib so he could play with him some more. haha. I could have been mad that he messed up our entire bedtime routine, but I was secretly happy to have that extra time with him as well.

Now if you want to read the post again and leave a funny comment about how clever and funny I am, go ahead. Or just tell me I'm full of it. Either way is fine with me :)

P.S. Anjela, you are amazing. And that's why you are my cousin.

Yes, Him Again

2010-10-22T11:52:00.000-07:00

Maybe you are sick of hearing about him, or then again, maybe you are not! All I have to say is I never get sick of talking about him. Who can blame me? If you loved him half as much as I did you would want to talk about him all the time too. So buck up, and here we go again…

He makes me laugh on a daily basis

He never gets sick of me

He has taught me so much about life

He never ceases to amaze me

He has his own funny words for things

I can pick him up whenever I want

I can take him anywhere

I can share him with other people

But I have sadly discovered that Landon doesn’t love him as much as I do. In fact, he is probably the most sick of hearing about him than anyone else. Sure, he enjoys him once in a while, but then he wants to move on to more “important” things like homework, fulfilling his calling, or watching football. It pains me to air our dirty laundry in public like this, but I just wanted you all to know what I am dealing with.

So if there is anyone else out there who loves Dr. Seuss as much as I do, don’t forget…Halloween is Grinch Night!

(And you should be ashamed of yourself if you thought I was talking about Urban)

Ooooooklahoma!!!!

2010-10-13T11:39:00.000-07:00

Oklahoma was OK!!! haha. But seriously, our trip to visit Landon's brother and his family in Oklahoma was a.ma.zing! Urban has now met all of his extended family members and was very entertained by his two cousins the entire time. Stephanie not only drove us around, fed us, and entertained us the entire 5 days, but she also took all of the pictures. We owe her big time!

Buying soda at "Pops"

Science Museum

Bowling!

Just being cute!

Hanging at the park

First Official Family Photos

by Stephanie Crandall Photography

Its been awhile

2010-09-30T19:24:00.000-07:00

Kaylene is very good at reminding me that I have not let our readers know how life is from my view point. I want to let everyone know that I like the view I see. Urban cannot be any more fun other than the times he just stares at me like what are you doing Dad. If you have met Urban then you know what I am talking about. Kaylene is at her prime being 25 years old and letting me know that prime babymaking time is passing. She is incredible to urban and makes me want to be a baby sometimes.

The trip to Utah Kaylene and my boy went on alone last week was so beneficial to Urban. Clara, who we will refer to as Baby Clara, taught him so much about life and experiences he can have rolling from his front to his back. But Urban showed he has something to offer the world too. A lady that Kaylene knew (who just had something tragic happen in her life) came and sat next to Kaylene to talk and Kaylene let her hold Urban. He immediately wrapped both his arms around her neck and just held her for 15 minutes. Then she commented to Kaylene, "When he put his head on my heart it finally stopped hurting." He really is great.

I have to run. My brownie bites might be burning in the oven. I need to get those delivered before the strike of 12 hits.

Still Fine at Nine

2010-09-16T22:43:00.000-07:00

It's that time again! Another milestone birthday for Urban! Today he turns 9 months, and I have to say the time between 8 and 9 months has been the most fun. He weighs 19 lbs 5 oz (30th percent) and is 29 1/2 inches long (85th percent). He has 6 teeth and 2 more on the way (which I can't ever get a picture of!!). He's still allergic to dairy but the doc is hopeful that he will grow out of it soon.

He is getting smarter and smarter every second. He LOVES to ~~read~~ eat books, and gets so excited every time you turn the page.

His hilarious sense of humor keeps getting more and more entertaining. Now when he recognizes that something he does makes me laugh, he will keep doing it again and again. He also thinks shopping is one long game of "where's Urban?" I look at the shelf, bend down to look closer, pick stuff up & put it back, then finally look back at him...only to find him in hysterical laughter. And so this continues until we get back to the car.

When I tried to take the usual milestone pics in our backyard today, he was way too distracted by all the cool things around him, and way too hot to even think about smiling:

And his hair is growing longer...but keeps going straight up!

Since I've been in physical therapy for my neck twice a week this past month, Urban has had the chance to hang out with many different people from the ward. I think it has helped him work through the major "stranger danger" phase he has entered, and it' been really fun for me because they send pics after! Here are a few:

I could go on about this kid for days, but I just want to say how grateful I am to have him in my life. It's impossible to have a bad day or feel sad for very long when you have someone like him around smiling at you 24/7.

He really does help us put all the bad stuff BEHIND us!!

Home Again Home Again Jiggity Jig

2010-09-13T20:48:00.000-07:00

Landon and I once again took a trip back to our roots and spent 12 days in Utah. We also took Urban with us even though we knew everybody really only wanted to see us and not him. Ya right! We know how it is.

Aside from enjoying the super lovely and fantastically fun wedding of my older brother Joshua and his long-time love Jessica, I'd have to say the highlight of our stay involved the following conversation with my mother:

Mom [while watching wedding video I made of Josh & Jess]: Man, those two are going to have really ugly babies.
Landon & I [understandably confused and intrigued]: Why?
Mom [calm at first and then sweating toward the end]: You know, because pretty people have ugly babies and ugly people have...(awkward pause)
Me [now onto her game]: ...pretty babies?.. like Urban!!!???
Mom [biting upper lip while closing eyes in true Overly fashion]: Never mind.
Landon [exchanging dissed faces with me]: Nice.

It's okay. The truth hurts, but we can handle it.

Seriously though, we had a really really great time. Catching up with old friends and laughing into the night with family is always a welcome break from our isolation here in Phoenix (which we actually also really love - yes, we can have our cake and eat it too!).

One last note: our camera just flat out rocks! So enjoy the pics since nobody would read this post without them!

Urban was such a trooper! It was so cute/sad to watch him totally pass out in Andy's lap :)

I had to share this picture because I literally have nightmares about packing, but usually I do pretty well. This trip however, I totally forgot pajamas. My mom was kind enough to let me borrow these pj pants, which she doesn't wear herself (for obvious reasons...haha).

Urban's first experience with grass!!

Let's see...it was Friday and we were in Utah. So guess where we ate lunch! Cafe Rio woot woot!

Urban's first swing!!

(Man, we really need to fix up our backyard when the weather cools down because we LOVED our time outside).

Congratulations Josh and Jessica!!! And thanks again to our families for taking care of us while we were there! We would LOVE to return the favor anytime :)

Dun Du Du Dun!

2010-08-23T07:46:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Landon!!!

L - is for the way you look at me...oh wait...I mean, L is for Lottery because that's what I won when he was born and decided to marry me 25 years later!!
A- is or Anger because I don't think it's an emotion he is aware of or has ever experience, and I want him to know that it exists.
N - is for Nothing because there is nothing I can say that will adequately describe what an amazing dad and husband he is to Urban and I
D - is for Dare. I dare you to find someone who makes me happier or who helps out more people than Landon does.
O - is for Ohhhh man does this guy work hard! He is currently working full time, going to school for his Master's Degree, and serving as the executive secretary in our ward. Yet he still finds more than enough time to indulge my selfish need to be with him all the time :)
N - I thought we already covered this one, but I guess I can come up with another "N" word. Hmmm...this "N" is for Nausea because it makes me sick trying to keep up with his perfection.

One C Battery

2010-08-16T14:38:00.000-07:00

So Urban absolutely loves his bouncer.

We've had it for over 2 months now, but have never put batteries in the little musical piano part. So last week we finally headed off to the store to grab the 1 C battery we needed.

Here's what grabbing one C battery ended up to be:

But Urban loved every minute of it!

ALSO...

Urban is 8 months old today! He still rolls his ankles non-stop...and the more excited he is the faster they go (as you can tell from his little blurred feet above). He has 3 teeth fully in, and 2 that will probably poke through in the next few days. He has finally given up his stubborn refusal to roll, and it's now hard to keep him on his back..and we love it!

But laughing is still his number one favorite thing to do! Observe:

Sometimes Urban has a little too much to drink

Two is Better Than One

2010-08-09T12:17:00.000-07:00

Laughter: The Best Medicine

2010-07-27T18:10:00.000-07:00

...even for a teething baby :)

How I am supposed to get anything done when I hear this coming from Urban's room?

Seven Never Looked So Good

2010-07-16T14:53:00.000-07:00

Just when I think I’ve got Urban all figured out, he throws something else into the mix. This week it was standing. He figured out how to grab my hands and pull himself into a standing position, and now he refuses to sit. He transforms into a 27.5 inch, 17.5 lb block of wood that can’t be bent. It’s hilarious and yet another reminder of how fast he is growing up.

And I'm not lion

4th of July

2010-07-08T09:26:00.000-07:00

Our 4th of July (3rd of July) was spent playing at the pool, barbecuing in the backyard, and watching fireworks at the Ahwatukee Country Club. We had perfect seats right on the golf course, and the weather was also surprisingly perfect! It felt like it was about 85 degrees, which was way better than the 110 we'd been braving the rest of the day.

Urban didn't seem to mind the fireworks at all. They were probably a welcome break from the camera flashing in his face. haha.

Home Wreckers

2010-06-29T11:38:00.000-07:00

That last post was a bad idea. It has torn Landon and I apart. And I'm not sure exactly what happened because I posted it thinking, "Poor Landon. He is going to feel so bad when nobody votes for him." Then a bunch of crazy people crawled out of the woodworks and voted for him way too many times.

Of course I'm kidding about Landon and I being torn apart, but I am harboring some serious resentment toward those who voted against me. (Man, I'm getting all fired up again just thinking about it). So I am using my motherhood authority to veto everyones vote except those who actually know Landon and I personally and are not related in any way. That leaves 2 people:

Hilary and Liz.

Hilary is my dearest bff college roommate. We lived together for the last semester of my Junior year and both semesters of my Senior year, which is when I met and fell madly in love with Landon. So she has known us both from the very beginning, and has only met each of our families a handful of times. She is also one of the most honest people I know...and she voted for me! Thanks Hil! ("I saw you on the corna!" haha)

Liz and her husband Brad are our bestest friends from Phoenix, and are basically a clone couple of us. We met them 2 years ago when we first moved down here and have been through many highs and lows together. Liz is my hero for always telling it like it is while still being nice about it...and she voted for me also! Thanks Liz!

Dare to Compare

2010-06-22T12:47:00.000-07:00

The first few weeks of Urban's life everyone thought he looked like me. Then he grew into a mini Landon over the next few weeks. And ever since he's kind of gone back and forth. If Landon holds him he looks like Landon. If I hold him he looks like me. Etc. And of course both the Crandalls and Paces want to claim him as theirs.

I don't have a pic of Landon at 4 months, but I had to show how Urban and I were practically twinners. So feel free to look at the 6 month photos and decide who he looks more like. (Another slight problem: we don't actually know how old Landon is in that picture, but when I was doing our wedding video his mom guessed 6 months.)

A Very Merry UnBirthday

2010-06-17T09:51:00.000-07:00

Confession. I’ve never actually seen Alice In Wonderland in any way, shape, or form (or version, I guess I should say) but I’m under the impression that an “unbirthday” is your half birthday. Right? However, the English Major inside of me has a hard time accepting that because the word itself – unbirthday – suggests that it’s “not your birthday” which would really make 364 days of the year your unbirthday.

But for the sake of celebration, yesterday was Urban’s very first unbirthday!

He got some new toys…

Some ~~Christmas~~ UnBirthday Eve pajamas…

And since he’s not quite at cake-eating age yet, we let him enjoy his first week of Rice Cereal. If you want to watch the video of his first bite, go to http://vimeo.com/crandallness

(P.S. I tasted the stuff out of curiosity last night, and I can see why curiosity killed the cat. It was DEEsgusting! And when I told Landon it smelled like baby throw-up he said, “Well that’s what he eats, so that’s what he throws up, and that’s why it smells like baby throw-up.” So practical that husband of mine.)

So. 6 months. Holy Moly. What to say.

He grew his very first tooth last Wednesday and has been sleeping about 10-12 hours through the night ever since. He sits up like a champ, laughs rambunctiously at everything, loves to be held and included in whatever is going on, and is always rolling his ankles – just like his mom.

If he sees you drinking from a water bottle he will excitedly wave his arms in the air, throw his head back, open his mouth wide, and wait for you to pour a few drops on his tongue. (It’s so blasted hot here that we usually just pour water on his face, legs, and arms to keep him cool on walks and while we play tennis. Yes, he loves it. No, it’s not child abuse.)

He’s also making more clear babbling sounds. He’ll get the cutest little smile on his face, look you dead in the eye, and say, “ga ba da ga goo boo,” which means “I could roll onto my tummy if I wanted to, but I’m not doing it to prove a point that I still hate being on my tummy.” He even looked at Landon once and said, “Blah Blah Blah.” Haha!

We took him to JCPenney for his 6 month milestone pictures yesterday, and they turned out better than we could have imagined. The real pics won’t be ready until next week, but here is a little sneak peek from the proofs they emailed me: