weekend at the wahlen house....

This past weekend we made a trip to Idaho so that I could do hair for a couple days. Luckily, Shannon had a couple extra vacation days so we got to go together as a family. We had a fun weekend, we attended my little brother's basketball game on Friday night where he scored 9 points, was 100% on 3, 3-pointers...in only 8 minutes of play! We are so proud, he is quite the little basketball player! I worked most of the time, but we got to spend a relaxing Sunday afternoon with my family and got to see the cute Daw cousins (and their parents of course!) I always love spending time with the fam....

Halle giving cousin Easton loves...
Halle just loves Easton...Easton used to be quite the little flirt, now he acts like he couldn't be less interested...maybe he realized she is his cousin!

cute McKinley with her 'my little pony'

Garrett fell asleep while his highlights were processing, my dad and I figured it was a perfect opportunity for an embarrasing photo

boys in da hoods....

whitney helping easton

she made him a graham cracker 'E'...it was ruined quickly after this picture

whitney wants to be a photographer, so she took quite a few "pro pho" (what she calls it) of Easton with my camera....so get ready for easton overload

After months of me trying and giving up Easton learned his first sign gesture this weekend "big papi" (grandpa)...he is supposed to do it from his forehead but does it from the side of his head. Grandpa was in heaven for days.

Easton with his morning sippy

Again, whitney loves to take pictures of her and Easton...my camera is usually filled to capacity after hanging with her....

Easton walking!

So about a week or so ago Easton started to get pretty good at walking around...so we are proud to finally annouce he is walking! Here he is walking to mom and then faceplanting it right in front of the camera...ENJOY!

Eastin jammin out

this is video of Easton jammin to Uncle Sean's i-pod on Thanksgiving day....

Before and After photos

YAY! We finally finished some of our home projects!!! We knew when we bought our house some improvements would need to be done. We immediately painted everything, but put off the flooring for a while. So when it was decided that Thanksgiving would be at our house this year we got our butts in gear and decided to get it all done. We paid someone to tile the bathrooms for us (didn't want to rip out the nasty old carpet and pull out the toilet), but we took on the kitchen floor & the entry-way ourselves. The only thing we still have to do is put a sealant over our tile on the kitchen floor. Shannon and I were first time tilers, so it is definitely not perfect but made us more confident to do future home improvement projects! We still have to do some exterior work come summertime and would like to replace some of the appliances, but the flooring was the biggest part so it is a relief to have it done! We also had the carpet replaced in the living room and I also did a little home decor shopping and got my wall decorations put up (it only took 6 months)! Thanks to all those who helped show us how to tile, and watched Easton while we worked on it!! We couldn't have done it without all the help we received! here are some of the before and afters, and some of the work in between....

the kitchen floor- after we ripped out carpet and linoleum, putting down backer board

Living room- before

Living room- after

Kitchen-before

Kitchen dining room- after

kitchen after

new floor

Bathroom before

after

Tis the season to be tagged....

Whitney gave me a little christmas tag so here it goes...

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper
2. Real tree or Artificial? Artificial, grew up having Real and loved em', but too much of a mess and a better investment to do artificial.
3. When do you put up the tree? Right after thanksgiving
4. When do you take the tree down? Sometime after New Years, I try to postpone it as long as possible!!
5. Do you like eggnog? Love it
6. Favorite gift received as a child? A hamster...I know, kinda weird.
7. Hardest person to buy for? Without a doubt, my dad. We spend hours each year trying to figure out a present he doesn't already have or would like. He has gotten the same gift for the past 10 years or something....a pro-clean car wash gift card for 10 ultimate washes.
8. Easiest person to buy for? Easton :-)
9. Do you have a nativity scene? NO, I need one.
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? I know my answer should be there is no such thing....but it is a family joke about the presents my brother gave to me for christmas. one year he gave me a broom (i was like 12), another year he gave me the same exact shoes I already had!
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Can't narrow down to one...love The Holiday and Elf, favorite classic ones are probably home alone or miracle on 34th street.
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? I would like to start really early, but Shannon won't give me a list until after Thanksgiving and teases me if I do any of it before then!
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? I don't think so...
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? sugar cookies, fudge, sweet treats
16. Lights on the tree? Yes!
17. Favorite Christmas song? Too hard to narrow down, O Holy Night, Carol of the Bells, The Christmas Song,....the list goes on and on....
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? One day when we have more kids I'm sure we'll stay home but for now we travel....gotta go where family is...
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen, Rudolph
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Star
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? We open presents from each other Christmas Eve and Santa presents come Christmas morning
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Black Friday, I don't go so I'm really not that annoyed, but the fact that a couple people died this year from it....cmon people....! I love it all though really!
23. Favorite ornament theme or color? not really!
24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Ham
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? clothes & gift cards....i'm boring.
I tag: anyone that wants to participate!!

Happy Birthday Garrett!!

Yesterday was my little brother Garrett's birthday. We love Garrett so much, he is one of those kids who is usually pretty quiet but when he decides to talk he says some hilarious things! In going back to Aberdeen to do hair every three weeks we have gotten to be really close. He loves sports and we always say he is going to be an announcer on ESPN or something because he is constantly glued to Sportscenter! He is such a great uncle to Easton, and I think Garrett loves having atleast one nephew! We love you Garrett, happy birthday!

Crazy 8 tag

• 8 favorite TV shows:

1. The Office

2. Kath & Kim

3. Survivor

4. Jon & Kate plus 8

5. Biggest Loser: Families

6. Law & Order:SVU

7. Grey's Anatomy

8. Watching BYU football and Jazz basketball

• 8 favorite Restaurants:

1. Cafe Rio

2. Rodizio Grill

3. Maddox

4. Cheesecake Factory

5. Benihana

6. Texas Roadhouse

Two new favorites since moving to Utah are

7. The Pie pizzeria

8. Windy's Sukyaki

• 8 things that happened yesterday:

1. Went shopping for home decor at Hobby Lobby

2. Looked at dining room tables at Ashley Furniture

3. Cuddled with Easton when fever came back for a bit

4. Gave Easton a bath

5. took before pictures of the nasty old carpet in our bathrooms that is being ripped out RIGHT now and tile is being put in!

6. prepared leftover dinners.

7. Made banana nut bread with old bananas.

8. Watched Jazz game with hubby and easty.

• 8 things I look forward to:

1. NEW tile in kitchen and bathrooms!! NEW carpet in living room!!

2. Easton walking...he's taken a couple steps so I'm crossing my fingers and hoping it happens soon!

3. going to Idaho to see family and do hair, shopping with my sisters

4. seeing the TWILIGHT movie!

5. getting a new dining room table (ours is falling apart)

6. my little brother returning from his mission (a year away, but hey I can still look forward to it right?)

7. putting up home decor recently purchased

8. HAWAII in March with family!

• 8 things I love about Fall:

1. smell of the air

2. color of the leaves

3. holidays!

4. going to BYU football games

5. cooler air

6. feeling like you have new clothes, but really just bringing the old winter clothes out of the closet.

7. hot chocolate

8. daylight savings time (one hour more of sleep)

• 8 things on my wishlist:

1. LOSE WEIGHT! (of course that's number one, probably always will be)

2. go to disneyland with shannon (he's never been)

3. get my house fully decorated sometime soon!

4. finish landscaping and exterior work on our house eventually (lots of work has been done to inside, need to move to outside now...since it's cold it will be postponed till summer)

5. to see BYU dissapoint Utah in football again!

6. for my little brother's team to win the State championship in football

7. to get pregnant quicker the next time around (probably TMI, sorry)

8......can't really think, I really feel pretty blessed so I couldn't ask for much more out of life, I'm a lucky girl!

• I now tag Angie Daw, Hailey Bradshaw, Whitney Wahlen, Stef Collins, Jen Lucas, Erin Fanello, Katie Anderson, & Brittany Baker...and whoever else wants to....

Batman got sick this week....

So I know halloween was OVER a week ago but I had a couple computer errors and Easton came down with some sort of bacterial infection and had a fever of over 100 so it's sorta been a rough week. We decided to stay with the superhero theme this year and go with Batman. Halloween night we were all prepared to go to the ward trunk-or-treat...had Easton all decked out in the costume and when we pull up to the church..no cars, we then try the stake center...no cars. So we spent the rest of the night handing candy to trick-or-treaters (which I thoroughly enjoyed after growing up out in the country and NEVER having trick-or-treaters) and watching scary classic halloween movies. We trick-or-treated to a couple houses but since Easton is only 1 it pretty much came off like we were trying to score candy. On Sunday we found out we had the wrong time and wrong place. Go figure. atleast we got the right night? Easton is now finally getting over being sick....I hated seeing him be so miserable but kinda enjoyed the couple of days of just cuddling with him in my bed since he never lets me do it anymore. Here's hoping halloween is a little more eventful next year....I told my husband I was sad we spent the money on the costume and didn't get to display it, he reminded me I could blog about it and flash his little picture all over the world wide web and I instantly felt a little better about the purchase!

We were so happy to get atleast ONE pic of him with mask...he HATED the thing. Let's just say it was a quick pic, he was two seconds from ripping the mask off!

Standing on his own enjoying his sucker he got trick-or-treating

Where's all the candy?

Excited to go...this year as BATMAN

last year as SUPERMAN! what a difference a year makes...

how could you not love this face?

Happy Birthday MOM!

Today is my beautiful mother's birthday! She is the best mom ever. Anyone that knows her always talks about how nice she is. She is always serving those around her & is a very unselfish woman. After spending time with her I'm always motivated to be a better person. She is a wonderful nana to Easton, we all love spending time with her! Love you mom, happy birthday!

Happy Birthday Whitney!

Yesterday, my youngest sibling and sister Whitney turned 14! We love Whitney lots, she always makes us laugh with the quirky things she says, has such a fun personality, is friendly to everyone, and is such a great babysitter to Easton! She came and stayed with me for a couple days in Utah during the summertime and it was heavenly having her around because she is such a great little aunt! A funny thing about Whitney is she OBSESSED with David Archuleta and believes one day she is going to marry him! We are sorry we won't be there for your party but we love you Whitney and hope you had a great birthday!

funny story....

So the other day I was feeling ambitious (and fat) and decided I didn't need to sign up for a gym, I would just save money by working out at home. In our last house I couldn't really do that because of limited living room space, but this house has a good amount of living room space so I figured there was no reason why I couldn't do a little aerobics video and get myself into shape.

Well I put my really 80's workout DVD in and started the warm-up. Right away Easton busted into laughter- something I thought would go away but no....an ENTIRE 30 minutes he laughed at me...gut busting laughter the entire time. Even more funny than that the women on TV had on leopard leotards, bright pink lipstick and huge 80's bangs (I got it on e-bay-a definite case of false advertising) However, when he turned to look at the TV was probably the only time he DIDN'T laugh in that whole time! The video was a 45 minute video but after being laughed at for 30 minutes non-stop I couldn't take the humiliation and ended my workout for the day......I think I'm going to have to join a gym....let's just hope the people there don't laugh at me the whole time! :-)

time for an update

So since Easton is now one years old and I haven't updated in a while I figured it was time to give a little update on the things Easton is doing .......

*He is almost 24 lbs (60%), is 32 inches (95%+), and I can remember his head circumference but it was way above 100%. what can I say the kid has a really large head. i'm hoping it's because he has a really big brain. :-) Atleast he is a tall and big so it doesn't seem like he has a huge head and small body.....Because of his height people are always guessing that he is 2 years old!

*Easton is saying mama, dada, Hi, and Hida (Hi dad)...has said mama & dada for a long time, just now saying Hi and HiDa...and quite a bit of jibberish I really can't understand....also, at eight months while watching baby signing time he said "doggie" clear as day but has never repeated it...I thought I was losing my mind but Shannon confirmed it happened too, so I'm not crazy!

*He is quite the friendly little kid- he will smile at anyone and everyone. It is really TOO cute! At church he cruises the chairs and holds on to people as he goes, even taking their kids toys. In relief society he cuddled with a complete stranger. I feel like I'm always having to be the mom who's asking people 'is it ok that my child is loving on you?' I think most people love it, but I guess I'm paranoid some people are bothered by it. I love that he's so friendly, but I guess we'll have to incorporate 'stranger danger' a little sooner than planned.....

*He's not walking yet, but is pulling himself up on everything and cruising all the furniture....and yep he never crawled. Somehow, I knew he'd go straight from scooting his bum to walking. I hope it won't be long until he starts walking, and to anyone who says "don't wish that, he'll get into everything when he does" My response...you don't have to carry him everywhere, it's exhausting. and since he's been out of his baby car seat since six months old, I've been carrying him for far too long!! Not to mention he still get into everything because he can bum scoot to it then pull himself up on everything. So the answer is YES I am ready for him to walk!! I don't think it is too far away though...

*He's not much of a TV watcher, and I must be a bad mom because I can't wait for the day I can distract him with some TV. Yet, that's one I know I'll regret someday because I'll never get to watch my shows again....the only thing he does watch is 'baby signing time' in his car seat. The kid has watched that show a million times and hasn't done one bit of sign language yet......it will come! (can you tell I lack patience, it's my worse quality)

*He was such a calm, happy baby and ever since turning one is throwing all sorts of fits and tantrums if he doesn't get his way. I hope my next baby is crazy so that maybe he/she will be an easygoing toddler. He cries if he has to share his toys, doesn't get food fast enough, etc, etc...If this is how life at one is...I don't want to see the terrible two's come.....Shannon always comes home and says 'man, he is on one today' to which I reply...'uh, no, this is everyday'..Although on the good side he is especially happy and hyper at night.

*He still has an appetite like an adult, especially at night...he'll eat his own dinner then still eat half off of my plate, then still be hungry a little later. He's such a little begger, he'll get up on my legs, whine at me and open his mouth. He's not too picky of an eater which is great!

*He has a cute little tongue trick he does, he rolls his tongue from side to side.

*He does a lot of really high pitched squeals, all day long he squeals. sounds like a little girl.

*He is quite a daddy's boy lately...he cries whenever Shannon leaves, and squeals with excitement when he gets home. even when i'm around he wants dad. shannon even talked about it when asked the highlight of his week in church.

*I just gave him his 5th haircut and cut it way short, I learned after the 1st haircut it's what I had to do because it grows SO FAST!

I'll try to post more videos of all the fun things he is doing, we love him lots (tantrums and all!) and it's so fun to see him grow and do new things!

Easton's birthday pics

So...this is me going a little overboard with the birthday videos and pictures I know. I'm sorry everyone, this is my first and only child at the moment! So forgive me about all the birthday craziness, all this for a child who won't even remember it. Last weekend we went to Idaho and celebrated Easton's birthday with both our families. We had a party for him in Idaho Falls with the Lucas side and in Aberdeen with my side. He wasn't feeling so good in Idaho Falls so he wasn't really in the partying mood, but was feeling a little more festive in Aberdeen and enjoyed the cake (as the video would indicate) and presents! Thanks again to our families who gave him some awesome presents! He was definitely spoiled for sure, Christmas might be kind of a bore with all the stuff this kid got!

Licking the plate clean

After Easton already had a couple slices, he decided it wasn't enough and had to lick the plate! I think for sure the favorite part of his first birthday was the cake!

I like cake....

Sorry for the many videos...this is a video of Easton going after more cake after already devouring two slices! It is too funny, I swear I don't starve the boy he just has an appetite like I've never seen before..(ok, except for from his father)!

Happy 1st birthday Easty!

Here is a little slideshow of Easton's first year!

Our little man turned 1 today! I cannot believe my baby is already one years old! Time flies too fast! He is such a sweetheart and we love him so much! He keeps us laughing all the time for sure...It took some time to get him here so we feel so blessed to have him as part of our family! All day today I kept saying...."last year at this time"....., but most of the time I was saying rthat I was in labor that time last year, so I didn't wish I was there again...although this day last year was definitely one of the best day of our lives! We sure love you Beasty! Soon to come- party pics & video

Garrett's senior night!

Last weekend we traveled home to Idaho and luckily enough we got to be there for my little brother's last home football game (senior night) We are so proud of him! Congrats Garrett! It was kind of a boring game because they beat the other team 70-16 and still remain undefeated!

McKinley was pretty proud of her Uncle Garrett

eatin and sleepin at the same time....

So since the first couple videos seemed to be a big hit, I was going through my videos and totally forgot to post this one from a couple months ago! This video definitely showcases how rare it is for my child to turn down food. This was taken on a Sunday and he hadn't really napped and was way tired, but even though he is falling asleep he still is opening his mouth for more food!!

Easton's room

So I've convinced myself I am the world's worst decorator....

which I still am but I'm pretty proud of myself on this one

Easton's room! YEA, I think it turned out really cute! I have wanted to do this to Easton's room for quite some time but didn't want to do it in our townhouse, seeing as how we going to leave it soon enough. I finished it a couple of weeks ago, it was my last painting project in my house! YEA! Thanks to my sis Angie for doing the stripe measurements! I'll post more pics of my house when the rooms are fully decorated!
I ordered some Mary Kay and kept the box for Easton to play in, everything was all fun and games until he kept taking out his binky and eating the curly Q styrofoam things (don't know what they are called) more proof that my child will eat anything and everything!

(he's looking a little mischevious in this pic, don't ya think?)