May

is a crazy month for us. First my birthday on the 5th, then Mother's Day on the 9th, our anniversary on the 19th, Paul's birthday on the 25th and my sister's high school graduation on the 27th! Throw the move in there on the 21st and Memorial Day and it's just one hectic month!
For my birthday I went dumpster diving for moving boxes with Kim in the morning and went home and made myself a double layer chocolate cake. Paul came home with flowers and...a double layer chocolate cake. We had a lot of chocolate cake! It was probably the most laid back (aka boring) birthday I've ever had, but I didn't mind.

On Mother's Day Paul woke up and took care of James and cleaned before I even woke up. I love that man. Of course there were flowers  and these cute placemats from Williams and Sonoma :)

I made chocolate dipped strawberries for my mother. I wrapped a shoebox lid in nice wrapping paper, put the strawberries on parchment paper and then covered the whole thing in plastic wrap. I think it turned out well.

For our anniversary we went to Tucanos. We took James with us. We don't often get alone dates anymore. Finding a sitter is difficult, and we don't mind dragging him along.

Anniversary Flowers

Then there was moving day/days. Paul and I loaded up both cars with the fragile stuff and headed to the new place. It took much longer than I would have liked to pick up the keys and get the cars unloaded. We had a slight scare when we walked in that perhaps it was going to be too small for all of our furniture, but it all fits. Then we went to a few places looking for a U-Haul. By then we had to stop off for lunch, so we didn't start loading the U-Haul until probably 1 or 2. Luckily we have some great friends who came along to help us. It was still a very long and tedious process. Can I just say that moving with a little boy is NOT fun. Naps were missed, feedings were constant, screaming ensued from all the commotion and when we finally had the beds set up little James wouldn't sleep. He ended up in our bed, so none of us were well rested. The next morning we went over to pick up the last few things and clean. It turns out that there were a lot of last few things!

My dad brought his truck over and we were able to move everything but the fish. Being quite sick of going back and forth and still not being unpacked, we waited until Sunday to go get the fish. The landlord had said that he would pick up the key from us at our new place, but Sunday night he called and asked that I put them on the counter!! Soooo, Monday I had to go all the way back to Springville to leave the keys. It was so good to be out of there after all of that.

Helping me clean the fridge.

He "Helped" a little too much so we sat him in his stroller while we finished cleaning.

James has gone right back to his normal sleeping schedule and isn't afraid of the new place at all. In fact, I think he likes it better since it has proven difficult to baby-proof. I've finally unpacked everything and we even have our pictures on the wall. I admit that I'm quite homesick for the other place though. Not because there is anything wrong with this one at all, it's just that we lived there for a year and half. That is the longest I have been in one spot for nearly 5 years and we really made that place home. Now to make this place feel the same way!

For Paul's birthday I made chicken pot pie (his favorite) and a carrot cake. It was fairly low-key since James was already asleep.

My sister Rosilynn graduated from high school. She's the 6th child of 7, but the first to actually graduate. We were "homeschooled" as kids so she's the first to actually attend all four years and graduate. I'm so proud of her! It was way past James' bedtime by the time she finally walked, so he was unusually grumpy.

He kept going back for more and then would get super dizzy and laugh hysterically. He's a funny kid.

Then there was Memorial Day weekend!

Paul doesn't have school on Fridays so he got off early and we went to the park.  We've recently discovered an awesome park in Orem and I have been spending a lot of time there. After church on Sunday we packed up a lunch and went to the park again. Homework kept Paul pretty busy for most of the weekend, but it was nice to have him home.

He loves bananas.

In the midst of all this I forgot to get the car registration done!  So now I have to hope that I don't get pulled over for expired tags on my way to Jiffy Lube. Did I mention that May is crazy for us?
And then there were all the other random adventures of the month:

Christian's Massive BBQ

It snowed the first weekend in the new place.

 I went to IKEA with my sister and we found this fun toy rat. Kind of freaky if you ask me.

Playing at the new place.

Paul decided that we needed an ice cream break. He bought 2 Kong Cones. I have been eating Kong cone for days.

I'm not one to typically feed my kid a bunch of junk, but everyone has their first oreo at some point!

Being Silly.

...and it doesn't take much imagination to know what's going on in this one.

Again.

We're moving again. It'll be the 7th move. I'd be lying if I said that I was really excited about packing everything we own (that is fortunate enough to not end up in the ever-growing DI pile) and piling it into a moving truck. I hate that part. It's the worst.
However, after thinking about it and praying about it, we both feel that this is what we need to do. When we first moved to where we live now we both had jobs. Then the baby came with his endless expenses and a new car was inevitable. We've been doing ok, but just staying afloat. We want to be able to buy a house when we're done with school in 2 years, so we're downsizing to a 2 bedroom in Orem. It's a really nice complex still. Has a pool and a gym, and a little park where James can play, AND we'll be saving a considerable amount of money. I wish it were over with already. Luckily I have a month to go through and throw things out and pack so that this move will be a bit more organized than the last.

James is on his 4th cold of the year. He has spent most of the year sick. I just got over a horrible sinus infection last week that I had for almost a month! I hope I don't get it! He recently turned 10 months old. I can not believe how fast the time is flying by! He's standing on his own, although he fights it. He's so fast crawling that he gets frustrated when we try to push him towards walking. I know he'll get it soon enough. He's saying "Dada", "Mamamamamama" :), and the other day he started saying "Yeah."  He's such a joy. I'm so grateful to be his mom.
I'm starting to practice with cakes for his birthday. He's allergic to milk so I've been experimenting with dairy free cakes. I have had a few interesting outcomes so far. I found a water and vinegar cake that tasted really good and had good texture, but just looked awful. Hopefully I'll find a super recipe before June.  I've tried giving him soy formula and toddler drink, but he hates it. I'm kind of at a loss of what I can do so that I can wean him. Any thoughts or ideas would be welcome!!

Paul is doing well at work. He's really enjoying his job and is preparing for finals next week. He will be taking classes during the first block of summer, so he won't have much of a break until June. But we're looking forward to going to California for a few days and a long-awaited visit from Paul's uncle (and James' honorary Grandpa) for a whole month!

I've been trying to keep up with some projects. I started getting back into family history and look forward to James' naps every day so I can search for more of our ancestors.  With the move happening I probably won't get much done until after we're settled in.
Here is the bib and burp cloth set I made for my new niece, Charlotte!

Some recent cooking creations:

If you've never made Strawberry Chiffon pie you need to go make it!! It's so good.

Paul's favorite meal: Chicken Pot Pie.

And I didn't make these, but they make me happy! I can't wait until another month or so when the strawberries start to get sweet!

While I was cooking dinner last night James decided to get into the pots...litterally! He's such a funny boy.

Moving, Christmas and stuff

We started our move on the 18th. We had the car and several snow storms that made the move take 4 whole days. It was long and horrible and cold and once again, I never want to move again! I'll upload pictures of the new place after we're unpacked.

But then it was Christmas came on full force! We set up the tree and bought our new Hallmark ornament (Willardson tradition is to buy a new one every Christmas). Paul surprised me the first night of our move and set up the tree while I was in the shower because he knew how much I was looking forward to Christmas. He's so sweet :)

Then Rosi and Reanna came over on the 23rd for a cookie baking party/sleepover. We spent most of the day running from store to store trying desperately to find a gingerbread man cookie cutter. After 5 stores, we finally found one at Bed, Bath and Beyond. May I add that it was was a freezing cold day. The divinity came out just like Grandma Willardson's despite being cooked a little too hot and the gingerbread men were a lot of fun, not to mention tasty (and scary thanks to Reanna's fabulous cookie-decorating skills)!

On Christmas Eve our family went out to Chuck-a-Rama. I will say that our tradition of going to Home Town Buffet tasted sweeter, but there isn't one in Utah, so Chuck-a-Rama has to do. Rosi and I slipped things in Paul's drink while he wasn't looking. Salt, pepper, sugar...the usual available stuff on the table. He drank it though and didn't notice a difference, which makes me wonder if there's something wrong with his taste buds. Later on the family all went sledding. It sounds like they had fun. I stayed home with Muffin and Figaro. Last year I sprained my wrist sledding so badly that I couldn't use it until August, so I decided being pregnant and all I'd make cocoa for when everyone came home. Meanwhile,

Figaro decided to play with the baby Jesus. We've determined that the cloth Jesus must have some sort of stuffing in it that's related to cat nip, because every year Figaro destroys the cradle. Every year.

Here's Paul shedding his sledding overalls in my parents' living room. Nice.

Figaro and his Christmas mouse.

The back yard at my parents house

My Gift to Paul. It took him a while to put it together, but he's really excited about it. Now if we could get a clear night that wasn't so cold!

Paul's gift to me. He definitely gets a gold star!

Our Christmas Tree :)

Well, that was pretty much our Christmas. We had a great time and we're looking forward to everything the New Year will bring!