Merry Christmas!

Warning...boring to everyone except grandma and grandpa :)

What a way to start the Christmas season!

We had Grandma Ann come out and visit...MERRY CHRISTMAS to us! Max was thrilled to see Grandma walk in the door but he really wanted to know where the dog was? He saw Grandma, gave her a hug and said 'Sadie'?? We all cracked up. Max would not let her out of his sight. He wanted grandma for everything naptime, bedtime, bath time. It was a great break for me!

Ben and I got an early Christmas present from G&G Tyler. An overnight babysitter! We hopped on a plane went to Knoxville, TN. I know, random, but it was a lot of fun. A new adventure. We went to dinner, walked around the historic Marysville town, went to a used bookstore (Ben's favorite), and went into a couple galleries. It was a lot of fun walking everywhere and just being able to spend time together, alone. We took a break and went to see a movie and then hopped back on the plane and flew home. Next time we go we are going to Dolly Land...as in Dolly Parton. They have a whole theme park dedicated to her! Weird, but we really wanted to see the smokey mountains so next time I guess.

Max and Grandma had lots of fun while we were gone. They went to the downtown festival here in Sanford, the zoo and Toys r'us and got airplanes. That is Max's only word right now, airplane, airplane, airplane! Everything is an airplane. In a book about elephants there is a picture of a teter-toter and it is a airplane. Birds are airplanes. He wants to watch the airplane part in signing time over and over. It is cute. The only books he wants to read are airplane books and he has been sleeping with at least one airplane in his hand for nap time and bed time.

We went to Blue Springs National Park and saw Manatee's. They are so neat! There was one right under us so we got a really good look at her. It came up to breath and look around a couple times. They are so cute and big. We walked up and down the bridges/walkway in the rain and Max just wanted grandma to hold him the whole time. Another day we drove out to New Smyrna beach. We walked around the little beach town and then went and chased birds on the beach. It is weird to go to the beach wearing coats! But it was lots of fun to walk around and pick up shells and stuff. Then the night before it was time to say goodbye we went to dinner and had some soul food. We ate Ox tail (kinda like roast beef with bone in the middle), Chitterlings (intestine, not my favorite), Collard Greens, BBQ Ribs, fried Talpia (fish, yumm), cornbread, mac and cheese it was yummy. We loved having Grandma out here and can't wait for her to come back. She left us with lots of rest, airplanes and cookies. Thanks Grandma Ann!

HappyLittleArtist

So my friend Annie and I have found a new obsession. Making super-duper cute headbands! Fabric is so addicting...and we are addicted. It is so fun to mix and match fabric patterns and textures and make one of a kind headbands . Every one we make I want to keep for myself. Since I never do my hair anymore I love using this as my do. It makes me feel sort of put together.

Annie took it one step further and made matching skirts for little girls. (She has a cute little girly girl that she can dress up.) They are so cute! We put a shop up on Etsy.com for your viewing and buying pleasure. I LOVE Etsy!!!! Also since it tis' the season we are participating in some local boutiques. There will be a booth at the Art Market (1602 East 2100 South) at the Garden Center (at the north-east side of sugarhouse park). The hours are this Thursday 2-7, Friday 10-7 and Saturday 10-5. Also Annie's talented friend is doing a 'give-away' on her blog if you make a comment. You could win a free headband/skirt combo!

And thanks to Jenny for doing all our awesome photography. She took pictures of Max and I in Memory Grove and they turned out so good!! She says she is just practing but they look professional to me. I am so excited to frame them. Her little girl Savanah is so cute in this pic.

It's a Small World After All ride ROCKS!!

We finally did it! The Magical Kingdom at Disney World that is. We have been here for more then eight months and have yet been to a theme park. It was fun and it brought back all those childhood memories. Ben could not stop going on the Small World ride, he just want to go again and again. There was SO much to do. I feel like we got to see a tenth of what there is to see. For the record though we rode the Disney choo-choo train (after we changed Max's explosion of a diaper), Aladdin's flying carpets, Peter Pan, It's a Small World after all (our personal fav), Dumbo. We took a swamp safari boat ride and climbed in the Swiss Family Robinson's tree house. Then Ben and I took turns watching our 34" tall son while we individually rode Space Mountain, Splash Mountain and the other one. We decided that next time we will take Max he needs to be 44" tall.

Max got to the end of the ride and very intensely signed more, more, more! Luckily no one was in line for It's a Small World and we got to go three times in a row!

Novembuuuurrrrrrrr!

When we came back from Utah about a week ago I thought I was leaving the cold weather behind. We got back and I felt like I hadn't left, I even came down with a cold! Today is really nice but it is going to start raining tomorrow according to the forecast.

It was so nice to get to experience the seasons in Utah. We even got to see snow while we were there! I went with Mike and Miken to see Warren Miller and I got all excited for the winter and thought that I wouldn't get to see any snow while I was there. But we got enough in the mountains that Snowbird even opened that weekend! It of course melted the next day in the valley but Max and I had fun playing in it.

I love the leaves and all the colors! It was nice to spend some time outdoors even though it was cold. Max did not like the winter coat he had to put on. The snow distracted him enough that he forgot about it. He just wanted to be outside all the time, cold or not.

We walked down to tracks a few times and went for a rides. We rode downtown to see all the big cranes and machines working. We rode up to the hospital to see the mountains but then the best part was walking home. Max picked up every leaf, chestnut and stick he could find. He would 'haa-yaa' with the sticks and throw the rocks. It took a long time to walk four blocks but he did it all himself and loved it. He was such a good walker (and napper after all that walking).

He really started talking while we were in Utah. He totally jabbers but is really good at saying NO and EAT. He says 'mam-ma' for grandma and ''pam-pa' for grandpa. Of course mama and dada. 'Dink'= drink, juice, ''cak-cak' = pancakes, 'um-me' = oatmeal, meat, moon, 'side' for outside, and a few more but I can't think of them, oh 'pease'= please.

We're going on a witch hunt, We're going to find a big one!

The last couple of days have been tons of fun! Halloween is the start of the holiday season and what a way to start. First of all the weather in Utah has been so nice the past week. Low 70's during the day and 50's at night (my favorite). The leaves are all sorts of beautiful colors and the sky is a perfect blue contrast. I love Utah! The day before Halloween I met up with my beautiful friend Loni and her two kids at Gardner Village. There were witches everywhere! We walked around and looked at the shops, tried to take pictures of three kids and then had dinner at Archibald's. Yumm. Max has been such a good little walker lately that I decided not to bring a stroller. The consequence to that decision was that he tried to steal every stroller that was empty. He did a good job keeping up and Devon was so nice and gave Max a few rides in Tessa's stroller. Then after we left we headed to G & G Tyler's to carve pumpkins. Max loved this!! I put him right up on the counter to help Grandpa T spoon out the guts. He got his own spoon to scoop with and even confiscated grandpas spoon. He would reach in and feel around and dig a little. He really like dropping his spoon inside and fishing it out. He was so excited that he kept saying 'HI' to everyone that was gathered around. I think everyone got a hi from Max.

The next day was Halloween and I really didn't know how I was going to a) get the costume on Max and b) keep it on without him hating me for the rest of his life. He did not like it. I tried it on him a few times before and he just cried and screamed. I decided that bribery was my best bet. I got a cookie for each hand and put him in a fast as I could. He was soooo cute!! I took him to the mirror so he could look at himself. I guess he decided that it was ok because he kept it on for the next half hour so I could take pictures. I wanted to get as many pictures as I could just in case I wasn't able to get the costume back on him later for trick-or-treating. After his nap grandma T came over a bribed Max into his costume with a pumpkin Pez dispenser. Then we headed down to Grandpa T's office for the Halloween party. He trick-or-treated at all the different offices and got some black balloons (so much better than the candy). Max was so good! He kept the costume on ALL night! My favorite part was watching him from behind because he had a major elephant wedgie all night. It was so cute. We went to the circle party and had root beer and grapes. He got lots of candy and had fun looking at all the different costumes that the kids wore. What a trooper!

Grandpa T even dressed up as Santa for Halloween...they also turned on the lights for the full effect.

leafs, sticks and rocks

Blogging is so many different things for so many different people. There are all kinds of blogs out there from political blogs to mommy blogs to decorating blogs and my favorite rants and rave blogs (no, not really...I would rather read something uplifting). Anyway, blogging for me has been a good way to keep in touch with family since we have been moving around so much. I have always been terrible at keeping a journal, but my wish for this blog is that it can be a journal. I want to be able to write down the good things in life that happen because sometimes those are the hardest to remember. I want to be able to recall those perfect still moments in life when I am absolutely in love with Max. My days go by and sometimes I have a hard time remembering what we did the other day and even what day it actually is! I want to remember. This is how I am going to do it. My goal for this blog is to remember all the small simple things in my days. So if your looking for excitement and a really entertaining blog, sorry, cause I will be writing about leafs, sticks and rocks from now on.

Uncle Mike and Max...deffinatly a strong Derrick gene

Still a squirt bottle addict.

I finished The Host about a month ago and am now just finishing my half done post. So for all you Stephanie Meyer fans out there have you finished her non-Twilight book? What did you think? Have you seen the trailer yet?? I was surprised that she had a trailer. It took me a few hundred pages to get into this book. I didn't get totally into it until about page 400 and then I couldn't put it down. I stayed up one night until 2 am reading it. Arrgh.
The hardest thing for me was the beginning. I could not separate Melanie from Wanda. It really bugged me and I could only read a few pages at a time. That and the whole conflict within herself thing going on and on and on started to get on my nerves. The whole 'that's not my nature' bit. S.M. has a tendency to drawl things out for a long time (like with Bella and her 'I'm-the-victim').

I would recommend it. On a scale from 1 to 10 I would rate it a 6.5 (It needs a half in there). Did anyone else read it??

Play me some blues...

Grandma Derrick is always looking for new ways to be entertained by Max. Yesterday she pulled out a harmonica for Max to play. Man he took off. He loved it and that is all we have been listening to. Here is a little clip of the song and Max telling all about it...

Just watch Max not me....

So we have had a web cam for a while and I wanted to test out the video feature...Max was so nice to cooperate with me. He was pretty funny when I was replaying these little clips he would follow the signs in the video. So these are mostly for the gradparents/family but feel free to watch them.

dough·nut: a small cake of sweetened or, sometimes, unsweetened dough fried in deep fat, typically shaped like a ring or a ball.

I miss the mountains!!!! I miss the sounds. The smells. The flowers. The dirt. You never realize what you have until its gone. Florida is so flat. I think the highest elevation point is like 80 feet. The only hill close by is the landfill. It is my goal to make it to the mountains at least once during our visits to SLC.

The three of us went to doughnut falls. It was short and sweet but worth it. When I was younger this was the hike that the YW did every girls camp. I even had a b-day camp party and hiked up there once. Oh the memories. It looks a lot different know after the side of the mountain slid off and covered the doughnut. That was the best part of the whole hike, being able to hike up into the cave and watch the water thunder down into the carved out dome. We would eat our lunches up in the cave.

We crossed the river and then waded out onto a little island to throw rocks. Max had fun watching Ben make huge splashes with the big rocks. Max went for the big ones too but then opted for the pebbles because he could actually pick those up.

Nothing going on

The reason for my few and far between posts is because we went to Salt Lake again. It was lots of fun as usual I get to see friends, have babysitters and see family. Max loved being with Grandma and Grandpa Tyler. He got really good at saying 'Sadie', the family German Shepard. He would say it over and over and he even started telling her to sit. Grandpa Derrick took him to the zoo a couple of times to see the 'Li-La's' a.k.a. gorillas. Max got lots of trips to Emo for ice cream and ate just about every last blackberry on the bush in the backyard. I would let him go outside to play in the backyard with Sadie and when I would check on him he would be standing at the blackberry bush with blackberries all over his mouth. He would stand there saying 'cucka' as he was eating because the only berries left were the red unripe berries. He loved jumping on the tramp with anyone who would take him. It was one of the first things he wanted to do in the morning and it didn't matter if the sprinklers were on or not.

Before we left Florida it was still up in the air about where Ike was going(no pun intended). So being kinda paranoid about the rising lake level out our front door we put our piano up on blocks just in case. Well thankfully nothing happened while we were gone and the water is starting to go down. But man is it stinky! There are lots of dead fish and crap all along the walkway and the road. I guess that is better than having stinky crap in your house so I won't complain! So pretty much there is nothing going on.

Day Tripper

On Saturday we decided to go and visit the oldest continuously occupied settelment in the nation, St. Augustine. It was founded in 1565 by the Spanish. 1565! We walked down St. George street and looked at all the old buildings and tourist traps. We also visited Castillo de San Marcos the fort of St. Augustine. The city had pirate attacks! I love the feeling you get when you visit somewhere old and historical. All the building were so neat to look at. Aside from it being a BILLION degrees, paying to do anything and swarming with people it was a fun day. My favorite was the fort. All the walls of the fort were made from crushed sea shells. Did you know that Florida doesn't have any rocks?? It is one big sand box. We got there just in time to see the voluteers, dressed up in costume, fire the cannons from the wall just as they would have in battle. It was really loud. After the cannons fired Max looked at Ben and signed 'hurt' because it was to loud! What a funny guy!




The walls are made out of Shells! Can you tell??