A Visit From Aunt Karla

We had a really fun weekend with Aunt Karla February 16-20th. We went to the movies, ate at some yummy restaurants, took a nap pretty much everyday, went on a bike ride, and of course visited the Alamo and the Riverwalk. We also went to the big San Antonio rodeo which was followed by a Daughtry concert. Can you see why we love having visitors? It's always a fun little stay-cation for us when people come. 

I'm sad I didn't take more pictures of all the fun things we did, but here are the three pictures I did take that weekend. 

Boston had fun hanging out with his Great Aunt Karla and he referred to her as his friend. It was cute. Whenever he didn't know where Karla was he would say, "Where's my friend?" And whenever we went somewhere he had to hold Karla's hand. 

Thanks for visiting us Aunt Karla! Come again anytime. 

Working on Patience

I'm working on my patience this year as one of my New Year's Resoultions, and as of February, I've had plenty of opportunities to practice. Some being successful, and some not so much. I guess that serves me right. We all know what happens when we pray for patience right? 

Boston must know I'm working on my patience because he sure is giving me plenty of opportunities to practice, especially this past week. 

Remember my pretty Valentine flowers that I posted about a few days ago? Boston thought it would be fun to see if they could fly. Do you see his guilty little chubby toes in the background? He was at the table eating breakfast yesterday morning and I was about two feet away loading the dishwasher. My head was down trying to figure out how to get as many dishes as possible in before I started the dishwasher, so I didn't notice Boston climb on top of the table and spin the lazy susan that the flowers were on as fast as he could. 

I heard a loud crash and looked up to see glass, flowers, and water everywhere. I gasped and stood there with my mouth open and huge eyes. My first reaction was to yell at Boston, but luckily the shock of the whole thing made me pause long enough to see the look of guilt and fear on his face. He knew he had done something wrong, but it was an accident. He didn't know spinning the lazy susan would make the flowers fly. I did tell him that what he did was a big no no, and I knew he understood that.  (Looking back I wish I would have still put him in time out, but I was distracted by getting the mess cleaned up.) It's hard to find a balance between not being patient enough, and being too lenient! Anyway, after I cleaned up the mess I noticed that my blood wasn't boiling on the inside like it usually does when Boston does stuff like this. It felt good to realize that I am making a little bit of progress in the patience area, especially since the day before this happened wasn't quite as successful in the patience arena. (That story is next.)

Here's what's left of my Valentine flowers. When I told Scott that Boston broke the vase later that night, he just said, "It's ok. It was the wrong size vase anyway. It was too short." If I can learn patience from anyone, It's Scott. I swear nothing ever irks him to the point of losing it. It's not fair, and it makes me look extra un-patient. I guess I'll just keep practicing.

This was the text I sent Scott the day before the flower incident. I was having a really hard time that day keeping my calm on the inside. Boston was doing so well with potty training, but he had to go on antibiotics last week for an ear infection, and now he's having a major relapse. Anyone with kids knows what those dang antibiotics do to the digestive system. I'm giving him acidophilis to help, but he still has to "go" a lot more frequently. Nothing makes my blood boil more than cleaning poop out of underwear. By the third time that day around 3:30PM, I wanted to cry (or dry heave). My blood was definitely boiling. I shut myself in my room and sent Scott this text. I stayed in my room for about an hour and let Boston play in his room with the door closed since he was supposed to be taking a nap. Later that night Boston pulled out the last straw of my patience practice for the day. Scott was home now, thank goodness, and Boston used the toilet, thank goodness again, but he ran out and sat on Scott's leg and then our bed before he had been wiped. Not only was I not calm on the inside, but I wasn't calm on the outside anymore either. I yelled at Boston, and then I felt bad. Scott didn't even yell at Boston, and he was the one that Boston sat on. Anyway, I know this was way too much information than any of you wanted to hear, but it's my journal. Gotta write about the good times and the bad because life isn't always flowers, celebrations, and laughing. 

I will end on a good note though and say that I was so happy Boston didn't have any accidents yesterday. He must have figured breaking the flower vase was enough for one day. :) 

Valentine's Celebrations

We celebrated Valentine's Day this year by going to a play group Valentine's party in our ward. Boston had fun decorating a Valentine bag, eating yummy food, and passing out Valentines to his friends. We also rented a Charlie Brown Valentine movie from the library and watched it that night before bedtime. 

The library also had a Valentine's party that we went to the Thursday following Valentine's Day. Boston made some Valentine crafts there, and had fun doing the other activities they prepared as well. I've been lazy about picture taking lately, so I don't have any pictures from the parties to post. :( 

Scott and I celebrated Valentine's Day the day after Valentine's this year. Although he did surprise me with this cute display on Valentine's morning. 

I love lilies. He put the bouquet together himself and it smelled really good. Every time I walked past the kitchen table for the next few days I caught myself wondering what the good smell was, and then I realized it was the flowers. 

I gave Scott a giant bag of ghirardelli chocolates and a Shutterfly Valentine book that had pictures of us throughout the years in it. I would show you a picture of it, but like I said, I've been lazy about picture taking lately. 

The day after Valentine's Scott and I enjoyed a nice un-crowded dinner at Outback Steakhouse. Then we rented Breaking Dawn from the Redbox on the way home. Scott hadn't seen it yet, so I figured Valentine's Day was a good day to force him to watch it with me. :) We were happy that there was no wait at the restaurant, and we joked about making February 15th our new official Valentine's Day. Maybe we really will. We'll see. 

Boston Makes us Laugh

Boston was cracking me and Scott up last night, and I wanted to write down some of the things he said so I can remember them years from now. 3-year-olds are so fun.  

I think it's hilarious when kids act like the parent and say things that come directly from your mouth right back to you when you're least expecting it. 

 #1-We were all hanging out on the couch and I had some gum in my mouth and blew a bubble. Boston looks at me with a very serious look on his face and says in his 3-year-old accent, "No more bubbles mom! Too youd. (loud) You do it again and I take it away. Okaaaay?" Ha ha! Me and Scott both started laughing. Then about 20 minutes later I blew another bubble and he walked up to me and put his hand right under my mouth and said, "Spit it out." 

 #2-Scott and I laid down on the couch last night and pretended like we were going to sleep, (except I don't think Scott was pretending. I think he really wanted to go to bed at 8:00. Ha ha.). Anyway, I was just having fun watching Boston mimic me to the T. I was doing everything he does when I put him to bed, and he was doing everything I do. The role reversal was pretty fun because I didin't realize how much every little thing I do is absorbed into this little guy's head. He went and got a blanket for me and "tucked me in." Then he got me a teddy bear, sang me a song because I asked for one, and gave me a hug and a kiss. He did the same for Scott, minus the teddy bear. This one was more cute than funny, but you should have seen how grown-up this kid thought he was. That was the cutest part. 

#3-We were watching The Other Side of Heaven as a family last night and right in the middle of the movie Boston said, "Turn the movie off. It's Book of Mormon time." Then he went and got his Book of Mormon Reader and turned the light on. (Oh, I guess he's serious about this.) So Scott paused the movie and Boston opened the Book of Mormon Reader and pretended to read to us. Then he put the Book of Mormon away and we proceeded with our movie. Really random, but really cute and funny. 

 #4-When I put Boston to bed that night and told him to say his prayers, he said he wanted me to say them. I started saying his prayer for him, but then he started acting like the parent again and "helping" me know what to say. He insisted that I include Sea World in my prayer, along with the sharks, dolphins, and Shamu. I said whales the first time, but I had to correct myself and specifically say Shamu. Then he told me to say, "Thank you for Boston. He's a big boy." (I had to try really hard right there not to laugh.) The tone of voice he was using when he was telling me what to say in my prayer was the exact same tone of voice adults use with kids when they help them say prayers. 

I'm sure there's a lot more laughter that's going to come from this kid's mouth, but last night was a really fun night with him and I wanted to remember some of it. We feel so lucky to have Boston. We are loving our new 8:30AM church schedule because it's been nice to come home and relax as a family the rest of the day. 

Peeweebees and Mini Town

Boston had a couple of fun play dates last week with his friends.

There's a new play place that just opened by our house called Peeweebees, so last Thursday we met up with Boston's friend Mia and her mom to try it out. 

I don't think we'll go very often because it cost $10, but it was fun for a day. We had a coupon for our first visit, so maybe we'll go again if we get another good coupon someday. 

We walked there in the morning because it's just a mile away from us. We went home for lunch and a nap and then went back for the rest of the afternoon until it closed. (Gotta get our money's worth!) I think we definitely did because Boston went down for his nap so easy that day. That doesn't happen very often.)

I got a little reading in while we were there. They have comfy couches for the parents to sit on, and it was nice that everything was brand new and clean. 

The next day Boston's friend Kennedy invited him to go to Mini Town with her and some other friends. We didn't even know this place existed until they invited us, so we were grateful for the invite. 

 Mini grocery store. 

 Mini kitchen.

 Mini bank.

 Mini disco dance room. 

 Mini firefighter.

 Mini movie theater. 

Hey look, they even had a mini Scott at Mini Town!

Boston has more energy than I know what to do with in our apartment, so I'm grateful for the kid places around here that help him use up some of his endless energy. (Check out his dance moves. This kid can dance!)

It's Here!

Our 2011 blog book came today! I look forward to this day every year now. It's so fun to see the hours and hours of work all put together in a pretty book. Flipping through this just made my day. 

Here's a few pictures of 2011's book:

This is the front cover. I wish I had designed it a little differently because I don't love it, but oh well. It's good enough, and now I know for next year a few things I want to do differently. 

This is one of my favorite pages. The all picture pages are always fun. 

Back cover. Sorry for the glare. Now that I've accomplished one of my New Year's Resolutions (getting this book done), I need to get some motivation to work on another one (learning to use my camera manually!). 

How to Feel One Year Younger on Your Birthday

We had a nice dinner at Kona Grill last Wednesday to celebrate Scott's 28th birthday. I asked him if 28 felt old and he said, "No because I've been telling people all month that I was turning 29, so I actually feel a year younger now." Ha ha. He really thought he was turning 29 this year. So, if you want to feel one year younger on your birthday, just tell people you're turning one year older than you really are all month until you believe it, and then you'll be pleasantly surprised when you see one less candle on your cake. 

We really enjoyed being on a date with just the two of us. It had been awhile since we'd gone out alone together besides our monthly temple date. 

We enjoyed our yummy, un-interrupted, quiet, and relaxing dinner. They even gave us a free cupcake for Scott's birthday. 

After dinner we went to a place that had go-cart driving and mini golf. 

It was a gorgeous night to be outside and it reminded us of our first date when we went mini golfing on a pretty night. I was beating Scott for a little while and then he got a hole in one and things just went downhill for me from there. 

After we were done go-carting and mini golfing, we picked Boston up from his friend's house and put him to bed. Then Scott got to open a couple presents. 

He's wanted this picture for awhile now, and I finally got around to ordering it. It's a really pretty picture that reminds him of his mission to Africa. The money for this picture benefits Mother's Without Borders, an organization that helps kids in Africa. 

He also got a fun game from his parents just in time for our game night with friends this weekend. We tried it out last  night and everyone had a good time.  

We ended the night with Scott's favorite cake, which is becoming one of my favorites as well. Not many things taste better than warm Crazy cake with ice-cream on top!

Happy 29th Birthday Scott! No wait, 28th. :) 

Working Another College Football Game

This was from early December, but we needed to write it now so it could go in our 2011 blog book before we order it later today. Andrea does an awesome job with our blog books!

I worked a college football game again, but this time I didn't have to film it. This was a very lucky opportunity that I had to go to the Army vs Navy football game. It was played in Washington DC, in the Redskins stadium. USAA is the presenting sponsor. It's a really big deal. At USAA, it's often referred to as our Super Bowl event. I even got to actually watch the end of the game. That was a nice change.

But this was much more than a football game. It was an incredible event to be able to participate in seeing two major branches of the military battle on the field and celebrate the common goal of serving our country.

I spent most of the day in our USAA tent where I personally was showing off our mobile capabilities. That meant I held an iPad all day and demonstrated the USAA App and how our long list of services available on mobile are there to simply make life easier for our members.

Our tent was really big. One side was catered to Navy fans and the other side for Army. We gave away free hot chocolate and coffee, had free pictures taken for the fans with a nice football background to remember the big day, displayed some cool memorabilia from this storied rivalry, and had a football throwing contest out front. Everyone had a good time.

NFL Hall of Famer, Roger Staubach, even stopped in our tent to do a live radio show. Now that is pretty cool if I may say. He's the one looking towards us in the middle. Forgive me if I am wrong, but I believe he is speaking to the Secretary of the Navy. So there were a lot of important people in attendance, including President Obama, who spent time on both sides of the stadium to cheer each team.

It was a really fun weekend, but there wasn't time to do much anything besides work the event. We were able to eat at two nice restaurants for dinner though, thank you USAA, and we walked past the White House on the way one night to take this quick picture.

Washington DC is a really neat place. I've always wanted to go, and I can't wait to go back as a family and really see everything there.

I was just so honored to be able to go, represent USAA, participate in such an incredible event for the military and families and to interact with the members of USAA - putting some faces to the very people I go to work for each day.

Our Lazy-cation to Boston

**Ok, we didn't go to Boston again just in case you're confused. This post got deleted by blogger and I need it for my blog book that I'm working on, so I had to re-blog about our trip to Boston last year.**

We had a really nice and relaxing family vacation to Boston this year. I blogged about it earlier, but the post got deleted by blogger when they had a glitch in their system, so I get to blog about it again and try to remember what we did almost a year later.  

As you can see, Boston was pretty excited to ride on the airplane! 

He was also really good on the airplane, thanks to some help from modern technology. However, even with the ipod and lap top to keep him busy, we were still a little shocked at how good he was being.



 He even fell asleep! We should have known from that right there that something wasn't right. He didn't even fall asleep during our flight to Utah that lasted until 4 in the morning. We found out the real reason he was being so calm when he threw up all over our hotel bed later that night. Poor guy was sick. 

Between me and Boston getting over an illness, and Scott needing a break from working, we made sure to get lots of sleep while we were in Boston. It was so fun to sleep until 9:00 every morning and then head downstairs for a nice, big, free breakfast. 

My first purchase in Boston was a Boston hat for little Boston. I found it at one of the stands in the T station. 

We relied on our hotel shuttle and the T for transportation the entire time we were there and it worked out great. After we had a nice slow morning and enjoyed our breakfast, the first thing I wanted to do was visit the race expo. Boston was still a little sick, but it just made the hours of walking around the expo a little easier since he was more mellow than his usual rambunctious self. 

After wandering around the expo for most of the day on Friday, we went to a nearby mall for some dinner, and then headed back to our hotel to relax the rest of the night. 

Saturday we went to Quincy Market where Boston had a gigantic meltdown right in the middle of the walkway. Traveling with a two-year-old is really hard! He was just overly tired and off his nap schedule. Luckily he was able to take a little nap in Scott's arms before we went to dinner.

We found a yummy place for dinner that night called Anthem. I was excited to get a picture of us in Boston all wearing our Boston hats, so I had my friend Aubrey, who we had met up with at Quincy Market, take our Boston-hat picture while we waited for our dinner at Anthem. 

After dinner we took a walk to Mike's Pastry Shop to try one of their famous pastries. The line was out the door, but it went quickly. 

Then it was back to our hotel for the nightly free popcorn and movies. 

Sunday was a gorgeous day. It was perfect for walking around the Boston Commons Park. 

After we walked around the park for awhile, we met up with my friend Aubrey to go back to her house and make Sunday dinner. We had sweet potatoes, chicken, and green beans. It was yummy! We were so grateful to Aubrey for letting us have dinner at her house that night. (I knew Aubrey from both high school and college. We both ran track in high school, and we had a couple classes together in college. She goes to P.A. School in Boston now.)

On the way home from Aubrey's house we made a quick stop at Harvard and took a family picture there. 

Monday after the race we went to Legal Sea Foods for dinner. It was really busy, so we had fun taking pictures while we waited to be seated. It was a really pretty night and we enjoyed sitting outside. 

The food was delicious too! 

We were really sad to leave the next morning and head back to reality. No more sleeping in until 9:00, being fed big, free breakfasts, room service, or eating free nightly popcorn and watching movies while we lazy around the hotel room. It was such a nice and relaxing vacation! We usually try to cram too much in every time we go on vacation, but since we had already been to Boston we didn't feel like we had to do that. We discovered that relaxing vacations are the best kind! We'll have to take it easy more often when we go on vacations!