Sincerely,
Thanks to Picnik, I got to show my love and appreciation for The Hubs by making him the star of our screensaver :). Tonight was so much fun! Monkey and I met the Hubs at my new favorite place, Red Robin (it's very kid friendly & the Bruschetta Chicken Burger is beyond wonderful!). Afterward we headed over to Great Mall and Foozles, a huge discount bookstore, to look for AudioBooks for our Indy trip (we got Marley & Me). Finally we stopped by their glorious indoor playground to let Monkey run around. I just took him last week when he was mainly crawling and he pretty much hung out wherever you set him. Now that he is walking, he is all over the place! I am in awe at the change in him in just a week, but walking is a pretty life changing skill :). All that walking made for a tired Monkey, he was aslepp before we left the parking lot:
Oh how I love Picnik! It is the most amazing website, it's like a free, very user friendly photoshop. My sister has become quite the picnik whiz and last night she showed me how to make a picture in black and white or sepia and make the focal point in color. I am hooked! I got The Hubs a "Daddy & Me" frame for Christmas and put the below picture in it... inexpensive gift idea but with sentimental value :).
Big snow hit tonight while I was at work, luckily it was one of the rare nights to carpool with my friend Shleby (try typing Shelby fast and inevitably you wind up with Shleby). If you have to go 35 miles an hour on the highway and it takes you an hour to get home, it helps to have great company :).
I am currently loving the site www.failblog.org. It is something you have to see to understand but the above picture is a great example of a fail...obviously what is attached to cardboard piece advertising "Holiday red velvet bow" is not velvet nor is it red. This would make it a Bow Fail. Check out more fun (and much more interesting fails) here.
All that hair must have been what was keeping Monkey from walking because after his haircut he has been walking all over the place. He went from 6-7 steps in a row to walking, crouching down, and picking himself back up. It's like a little lightbulb went off :). Our Monkey is officially mobile!
Yesterday we took Monkey for his first haircut... trust me, it didn't always look as wonderful as the above picture (where it is spritzed and combed) would lead you to believe. The sides were getting very long and food kept finding its way there :). His stylist was great with him (when we left she mentioned she had 6 kids, that might be why!) and he didn't cry at all. He just kept trying to look at her and see what she was doing. Plus The Hubs did a great job of entertaining and I was there for the occasional head hold.
The overall result is great but he looks so grown up! I kept several chunks of hair for his baby book since that was the fuzz that was on his noggin when he was born. 
Yea for technology! I took Monkey's picture at 5, ordered cards by six, and had our Christmas cards by 7...overall a very productive evening!
Michaels sells colored card in a box of 50 that you can send out plain or dress up with scrapbooking stuff, a very affordable and fun little gift project :).
So of course in true Kansas style, yesterday was a 60 degree day at the park and today is snow. I would love to be a weather forecaster, all night and morning I heard to expect snow between 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. As I am running some errands after work at 9 a.m., the snow starts ahead of schedule :). The Hubs insists I pack a snow bag since I drive to work at night (with warm pants since scrubs aren't too toasty warm, a coat, bottled water, etc) and when he came in he said "Well, you're packing about 90 pounds in your back seat." It took me a minute to realize he so chivalrously loaded sand bags in my truck and was not making am insensitive comment about my tush :). 
Just when I think that winter is here and that our time at the playground is over for a few months, I walk outside to pick up Monkey before work and it is 60 degrees! It should never be HUMID in December! So of course we had to stop off for a quick swing and slide on the way home. After misjudging the height of the tornado slide, I think I am standing a few inches shorter now, ouch!
In between shots, Monkey showed his grandpa how he can walk:
And after an hour of getting 6 adults and 3 antsy children to smile and say "cheese" and a fun lunch at Red Robin, it was time for a nap on the way home: 
My Hubs is wonderful and I adore him, but he is not the the "flowers just because" kind of person. I used to think it was funny that for special occasions, I got the sensible plant instead of the dozen roses (however it's something I've come to love about The Hubs!). I can look around my house and see the plant I got when I passed my nursing boards and one I got for our first Valentines Day as a married couple. Today out of nowhere Hubs surprised me with both flowers (I love daisies) and a plant. I am one lucky, loved lady
they are in to another :):
The doctor narrowed down the cause to a couple of issues, one of which being an allergy to an antibiotic that doesn't show up until the 7th or 8th day of the 10 day course. Monkey was on his 8th day of antibiotics for an ear infection. Then I remembered when Monkey got "viral hives," the rash looked just the same only worse and it was on his 8th day of antibiotic. Conclusion: Monkey is allergic to amoxicillin!
I have a bad habit of finding wall art for the house and buying it...and hanging it like 6 months later. Today I was on a cleaning spree and decided to hang up a bunch of stuff I'd been putting off. My big motivation was that I got the 11x14 print I'd ordered in the mail of Monkey playing with the fall leaves in the park. It is amazing the difference getting everything put up makes...and I love seeing this picture when I get up every day :).
I love that as parents, The Hubs and I can take some of our favorite family traditions and pass them along, as well as coming up with some of our own. This year we decided to adopt angels from an Angel Tree for the holidays. We decided on a baby girl, a 5 year old girl, and 2 teenage boys. Monkey and I went out the day after Thanksgiving (after all the craziness had worn down by evening) and were able to get most of our gifts. I love knowing that we were in a small way able to make someone's holiday a little better and I am excited to make this a yearly tradition!
