Crazy

This refers to my state of mind as well as the events of the past few weeks. And there is much more still to come. Last week along with Thanksgiving came a huge Price reunion (my mom's fam). All of my siblings were here along with almost all of my cousins. It was a blast but left me exhausted. On Thanksgiving we had our first white trash Thanksgiving dinner at Village Inn. There were 74 of us so we really couldn't do it at someone's house. It really wasn't bad though. There were maybe a couple hundred relatives at the reunion as well. The earliest I think I went to bed was 1:30am because we were up late playing games each night and either stayed with Em at Orange Tree Resort or had to drive back to Mesa. Hopefully I will find some time to blog more about that because there are lots of cute pics.

Yesterday (Thursday) I had my 4th and final wisdom tooth removed which was such a treat (can you sense the sarcasm?) That puppy had the longest root with a little hook on the end and did not want to come out and did not want to get numb. Then last night we went to the temple lights where my mom's bells group was performing with the ASU Institute choir. It was very good and Ty was super cute all bundled up.

Tonight (Friday) our friends Sam and Ashley and their son Parker are coming to visit and stay with us for the weekend. We are excited to see them and hopefully we can find some fun things to do. I spent today cleaning because with being gone all last week for the reunion it has not been done in a couple weeks.

I just realized earlier this week that we are supposed to close on our house next Friday! Holy cow! This has crept up on me so fast and we are not ready! We have to clean the inside and then hopefully do a lot of painting and I wanted new carpet installed all before we move in. Well we have been so busy that we have not even looked into getting carpet and have not picked out paint colors! Somebody asked if we are all packed and of course I laughed since we have not even thought about packing and don't have a single box. So this weekend is out for getting anything done and next weekend I have to work! PLUS, somebody had the horrible idea to have us speak in church next week. Some mean joke. So since I have no time to write a talk I was hoping to just read a story straight from the Ensign. What!? Some teenagers do it, why can't I? I guess I will be up late Saturday night writing that after working all day. Joy. So I am starting to really freak out with everything that I need to get done not to mention Christmas is coming and at some point I have to go Christmas shopping and mail several people gifts ahead of time.

I am sure I have missed half of the things I need to do...I seriously need to make a list. I guess moving during Christmas is not the brightest idea.

First Halloween

So I waited until the last minute to get Ty a costume thinking everything would be cheaper. Well that was a bad idea because the 2 stores I went to the night before did not have one single infant costume left. Luckily for us we were able to borrow the little costume Gabe had worn when he was a babe. He was a little builder/construction dude. We went to our ward's carnival for a little while then over to my parent's house.

Sorry, this was the best pic I could get. Milly as Tink, Ty as builder, Mom as colonial woman, Corinne as princess and Gabe...well that's obvious.

Ty is still such a joy. The closest thing he got to candy were some peaches, yum!

Date Nights

Well we typically don't get to go on such incredible dates...well we really just don't go on many dates at all since having the babe. But the past 2 weeks we were spoiled. Brandon and I had the amazing privilege (finally) of seeing U2. It was absolutely amazing! I have been waiting my whole life to see them, and they did not disappoint! I am even more in love with Bono now...he is seriously the epitome of a rock star.

We both agree this was the best concert we have ever been to, and I hope one day to have the opportunity to go again. Oh, the Black Eyed Peas were really good too.

Look, our seats weren't too bad. We were close to the stage, just on the side.

Then on Thursday Brandon and I got to go on another date together. I took him to Phantom of the Opera for his birthday present. He used to tell me he would like to see it, and I hadn't been in years...so we thought we should take the opportunity. It was fabulous! We were on the 6th row! Much better than the other times I went. Christine and the Phantom were incredible. I cannot even believe it but Brandon told me that night that it was his first musical ever! Of his whole life! I still can't believe it. We have been married 5 1/2 years and he has never been! We definitely need to take a trip to New York! But that won't be happening anytime soon since we are buying another house. Yeah! I will share more about that later.

Now Brandon just left on another business trip, and Ty and I miss him already. It is too quiet here!

Hacked

Ggggrrrrrrr! As many of you probably noticed, my email was hacked into today. Let's just say that today was not a good day. Work was a zoo, and no people, you probably don't have the swine flu. And then to top it all off some jerk hacked into my email and sent everyone an email saying I was in Malaysia and needed some money. Well, I am here to let you know that unfortunately I am not in Malaysia. But if you so feel inclined you can still send me money. Just call me and I'll tell you where to send it. :) The worst part of it all is they changed my password so I cannot even access my emails which is a nightmare in and of itself. There is so much stuff in there that I need! So bottom line, do not email me until I get a new email address. Of course I won't be able to email most of you to tell you my new address since I didn't memorize your addresses. So that will be quite a chore. Hopefully tomorrow will bring better things...like an incredible view of Bono!

6 months!

I just love, love, love this little guy!

I cannot even believe that our little Ty is already over 6 months old! All parents say that time flies, and now I know what they mean. I want time to stand still so I can enjoy our Ty as a baby as long as possible. I want to always be able to carry him around and kiss his fabulous cheeks over and over again. Well Ty is now 19lbs 14oz and 27.5 inches long. He has dropped down to the 75-90th percentile. This is just fine by me, but his pediatrician said we are not feeding our little chunk enough calories! We had been feeding him solids twice a day but we have to bump it up to 3 times a day. Anyone who has seen Ty's rolls would be shocked to know that I have been starving him! These pictures are from his 6 month birthday (in Snowflake).

Don't mind the rash on his arm...he has the MOST sensitive skin and his eczema is hard to control sometimes.

He is just such a sweet boy. He is still a great sleeper. He already has his first 2 bottom teeth! These are sharp I might add. He can kind of sit on his own but still falls over...all those rolls get in the way. He loves to blow raspberries or spit bubbles now and loves to drink from his mom and dad's cups. He thinks he is just such a big boy now.

I just think this picture is so funny. Brandon loves it when he bites the spoon.

We feel so lucky to be Ty's parents and hope we will do a good job!

House Shopping

So through the years of living in various houses and apartments, I have come to realize that most of these living spaces have been designed by men. This has been further driven home while shopping for houses this past month. You women out there all know what I am talking about. Who designs a kitchen with one drawer? ONE DRAWER! That is what we have in our current townhouse. Where the heck are you supposed to keep all of your utensils, hand towels, washcloths, measuring cups/cooking gadgets, place mats, potholders/trivets, etc?! Same goes for pantries, small or nonexistent. So many houses don't even have pantries! Obviously these places were designed for men like my brother (before Myhoa came along) who had used his kitchen only one time...and all he needed was one drawer for his takeout menus.

Many houses are also lacking in the bathroom department...tiny bathrooms with one sink and no storage. Where are we supposed to keep all of our hair items, makeup, lotions, etc. But my number one pet peeve is all of the 4 bedroom houses that don't even have decent master closets! This is no small problem and has kept me from wanting to make offers on houses. Do you feel me? And no, the solution is not to get rid of all of my clothes and shoes as Brandon suggests (and he is dead serious).We need some more female architects out there who will think about these important things while designing the places that we live!

Little Talker

So Ty just loves talking on the phone...or at least listening to someone talk to him on the phone. He usually will get really quiet when Brandon is on the phone and listen. He gets big eyes and and reaches for the phone. The other day Brandon was getting home late (surprise, surprise). Ty was needing some attention but I was busy trying to get dinner ready and he was just not happy. So Brandon said he would talk to Ty while he drove home so I could work on dinner. Well it kept Ty happy for quite a while. Here are some pics from when I went to check on him.

So Cal

So fortunately we were able to go on a little family trip to Southern California last week. Brandon and I have been dying to get to the beach. It has been far too long! We wanted to see our friends Sam and Ashley who live in San Diego, so we planned to stay with them. Well then they got tickets to go to Texas to see Ashley's family and go to the BYU vs Oklahoma game (which they ended up not going to) so they weren't even there! But they were SOOOOO wonderful to let us stay at there cute apartment while they were gone anyway. We did get to see them briefly Wednesday morning before they left which was nice. So anywho, we got there Wednesday morning and were just exhausted from lack of sleep from the 3 previous nights and looooong days of work for me. So after Brandon took Sam and Ashley to the airport we all took a little nap. Then late that afternoon we headed to Seaport Village and walked around and enjoyed the wonderful ocean air. It was actually a heatwave for them, but NOTHING compared to AZ.

Then we went to stroll on Mission Beach as the sun set. So gorgeous! I just love the beach! Then we didn't think Ty would be able to make it through dinner too so we picked up some yummy bar-b-q to go and got a few essential groceries for the week.

On Thursday we hit up the beach at Del Mar. Love it! SO many memories of that beach from growing up. The water was incredible! The warmest I can ever recall. We got some boogie boarding in which was super fun even though the waves were breaking too close to the shore. I'm not sure how Ty felt about all of this. He got really tired but for some reason didn't realize how nice it is to sleep on the beach! :) After much work he finally gave in and snoozed for a good 2hrs. Yeah! That night we went to Horton Plaza - love this outdoor mall in San Diego. I was so good, promise, mostly just window shopped and got some dinner.

Friday we packed up the car and headed for LA. Took us longer than we thought due to the traffic...we should have left earlier. We walked around Hollywood Blvd and went to Madame Tussauds wax museum. It was actually super hot there! Me in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater.

Breakfast at Tiffany's

Our cutie in his stroller

We really wanted to go to Rodeo Drive and to drive around the incredible houses in Beverly Hills. We shouldn't have, because we were already running late, but ended going there briefly anyways. Then we had to hurry off to get to Camarillo (about an hour north of LA) where we were meeting up with our friends Debra and Patrick. I swear that traffic is ridiculous! I can't handle it! We were always at least an hour late for everything because of the dang traffic. Our poor Ty was just being dragged all around the place with no real naps and meals very spaced out. He would be hungry and we would just say...oh he can wait 30 more minutes until we get to wherever...and then it would be like 2hrs until we ended up getting there! I felt like such a bad mom! If only it were possible to breastfeed while driving! It would have saved lots of time and hunger for Ty.

Well we finally made it to Deb's house and she and Patrick had a wonderful dinner waiting for us! Delicious fajitas and the best lemon cheesecake dessert! They are so wonderful. Well as soon as we finished eating we had to rush off again to go back to LA! We went to the Hollywood Bowl to see John Williams and The Music of the Movies. He's the one that composes the music for tons of movies and he conducted the Philharmonic orchestra. It was very good. The best part is when they play Star Wars and all of the dorks bust out there light sabers (is that how you spell that?) and wave them around. :)

Ty looks possessed by the water bottle.

Once again we kept Ty out very late. Poor kid! When he finally fell asleep in Brandon's arms he was attracting a lot of attention which Brandon quickly grew tired of. That's what happens when your babe is a cutie I guess! :) When we left the Hollywood Bowl we got a special treat. We went to Dunder Mufflin! That's right...the real deal where the Office is filmed. Patrick figured out where it was. We saw the office park with a sign that says Scranton Office Park...and there cars were in the parking lot too! We are such dorks but it was cool to see. It was too dark for the pictures to turn out. Well it was after 2am by the time we got Ty in bed...and he was not too happy with us.

On Saturday we slept in a little then Debra and Patrick came and got us and we went to the beach. It was another fun day. The water was much colder than in San Diego, but we still braved the cold and got some boogie boarding in.

Late that afternoon we went back to Deb's house and started watching the fab BYU game on their huge projector screen. Brandon was in heaven. Unfortunately we had to leave halfway through the game and had to listen to the rest in the car. It was so good to see Debra (my old roommate), we miss her! We drove to Anaheim and met up with my cousin JD and his wife Katie for dinner. They are so cute and it was great to see them. We had never even met Katie yet. Sad I didn't get any pictures. It was another very late night when we made it back to San Diego.

Sunday we slept in, then drove to Mission Viejo to the baby blessing of cute Remi (our friends Aimee and Rich's baby). They recently moved to Cali and we miss them. Our friends Matt and Jennae were there too so it was fun to be together briefly. I still hadn't had any fresh seafood so we had to head to Newport Beach to go to the Crab Cooker. It was impossible to get a parking spot (I guess for the holiday weekend) but the food was well worth the wait. Crab cakes, shrimp and scallops...yum! Then we strolled along the pier and the boardwalk. Have I mentioned yet that I LOVE the beach? The breezy ocean air, the smell of the salty water, the sunshine, the gorgeous views. How could you not be happy being there? Went over to Balboa Island for a short walk around and for a yummy frozen banana.

I was so sad to have to say bye to the ocean. We drove back on the Pacific Coast Highway which was beautiful. That night at Sam and Ashley's I got to play Guitar Hero for the first time and love it! (although I am terrible at it). On Monday we had to pack up and drive home and get back to work on Tuesday :( but we had a wonderful little trip. AND I got to read the Last Lecture which was so good and I never get time to read books for fun. Again, Ty was so good for being stuck in his car seat for soooooooo many hours and being starved sometimes (although you can't tell). We hope he grows up to love the beach as much as we do! Hopefully next summer he can go boogie boarding too!

Four Months

Our little baby turned 4 months old on August 3rd. We went to the doctor for his shots and found out he is 18lbs 5oz and 27 inches long! He is about 98th percentile for height and weight. Where did he come from? He is growing too fast! Here he is in a bumbo that we borrowed from a friend. We wanted to see if his thunder thighs would fit in it before we bought one. Well he barely squeezed into it...so we will wait for the next kid before buying one I think.
Here he is during one of his favorite pastimes, taking a bath.His new trick is that he can turn all the way over and now finally pushes himself up on his arms to lift his head. Now if only he could turn back over, because now he is stuck on his belly.He is such a happy boy and we are so glad to have him in our family!

Thumb Sucker

Well we officially have a little thumb sucker on our hands. Of course Ty has been sucking on his hands and fingers for a while now, but around 3 months he really found his thumb. He definitely favors his left thumb but will use the right on occasion. It is absolutely adorable!

Right now that is...I am sure when he is a couple of years old I will not find it so cute. What do you think...should I try to stop this habit now before it is too late? Although it might already be too late. He has also been turning onto his left side a lot to chase his thumb since the left thumb tastes so much better. Like Zoolander, he is not an ambiturner.

Did you check out the rolls on that last picture? Pretty impressive right? This last picture is of him contemplating over Baby Einstein.
He is growing too fast!

4th of July, etc.

Well I went back to work last week and it was super hard. I cried the first day that I had to leave Ty, but at least my mom was watching him that day so I knew he was well cared for. Otherwise I'm not sure I could have done it. I know I missed him more than he missed me...my mom said he was a wonderful baby (as always). So I survived my first week back and then Friday morning we went up to my parent's house in Snowflake to celebrate the 4th of July. It was a busy house with the 3 of us, my parents, Em and Missy's family (3 rambunctious kids). Friday we just hung out at the house. Brandon, Ty and I all fell asleep together on the bed for an afternoon nap...LOVE naps! That night we ate dinner outside on the picnic table (actually we ate all of our meals there), went for a walk in the cool weather, made smores in the backyard and watched a movie.On Saturday we slept in. Brandon and I took a bike ride and when we got back this is what we found... Emily is always being smothered by children it seems. The Carpenter family

That afternoon the girls did a little outing to my fave chabby chic store "The White Chair" and then to the Dollar Store to get me some socks since I left those at home along with my PJs. Oops...I was too worried about what the baby needed that I forgot what I needed. :) Then my favorite part was going to the rodeo that night with fireworks to follow. Being a city girl, I love the rodeo because it is a novelty to me I guess. Ty was quite the trouper and made it through the whole thing.

I'm such a dork...but I think it's funny to wear a cowboy hat because it is so NOT me. Well we had most of Sunday up there as well and enjoyed being outside a lot with cool breezes since we are stuck inside most of the summer at home. The next picture is from Father's Day. Brandon is such a fabulous father (I know, no surprise for those who know him). Ty is a lucky little boy.

He loves sitting up now (with help of course) because he wants to be involved in what is going on. He loves to talk when he is spoken to as well. We just love him to pieces!