Why didn't I think of this before?

Ever since Jacob began to crawl he has been fascinated with the piano in our living room. It began with him crawling under the piano bench and inspecting the pedals.

Now that he has figured out how to pull himself up to a standing position he will crawl over to the piano bench, pull himself up and then try to play the piano keys. He will cry until I come over and put him on my lap so he can play. He loves to hit the keys and try to sing along. He gets very upset if you try to cut him short. I am surprised at how long he wants to continue playing, this is the kid that will only play with a toy for a minute or two.

Anyhow, this morning I needed to get a few things done and all Jacob wanted to do was play the piano.

Yep, he is in his highchair!

Love those adjustable height settings...

Lobsta'

Last night we had a lobster feast in celebration of my brother-in-law, Mark, finishing at BYU and Dave's Birthday. Our 4 live Maine Lobster's arrived early Friday morning. Dave had fun taking them out of the box and checking them out. We even had some of the neighbor kids come over and take a look.

Dave was also the brave soul who dropped them in the pot of boiling water. Contrary to popular belief, they did not scream. Apparently lobster's do not have any vocal chords.

Dave, Mark, Mark L., and Dave's mom, Virginia, were the 4 brave souls who decided to tackle an entire lobster. The rest of us were slightly less adventureous and had grilled chicken.

We had lobster, grilled chicken, baked potatoes, corn on the cob, asparagus, pina colada juice, and a lot of fun. Here's a picture of the spread.



After dinner, Cherisse had to leave, but the rest of us had some fun hanging out and eating Dave's birthday cake. I tried out a new recipe and had fun making it from scratch - it was an orange cake with orange flavored icing... general consesus: delicious.

We loving hanging out with our family! Thanks for the delicious meal and fun times, fam!

Watch out for that flying...

Today while Jacob and I were exiting the post-office a bird flew right at us. Well, actually, just above us.  I noticed that something smaller flying just below the bird.  I didn't notice it pass us as the bird flew over so I looked down to see if whatever it was hit Jacob.  

Yep, it did.

Whatever it was turned out to be POOP.....

 on Jacob's FACE.

The poor kid didn't even defend himself.  In reality, he was hardly fazed.  However, I was horrified.  Bird poop all over my sweet baby's face!

I really wanted to take a picture, but I was alone and struggling to make it to the car while carrying my jumbo diaper bag and Jacob, now complete with poop on his face. Plus, I couldn't just leave it on his face while selfish mommy took a picture for her blog. ;) 

Anyway, we made it too the car and I was able to clean off his face before he smeared it around. :)  It was a small miracle as Jacob is normally a very squirmy boy! 

Lesson Learned:  If you see a bird swooping down towards you, don't duck, 

RUN!

The CRAWL!!!

Jacob has been working on "THE CRAWL" for a while now.  A couple weeks ago he discovered he could back up into a sitting position.  While that was an accomplishment, it was in entirely the wrong direction.  So the past few weeks have been filled with rolling around to what he wants, getting up on all fours, and backing up into a seated position ending several feet from the object he intended to arrive at.  Last Sunday he got the forward not backward thing figured out and has been scampering toward whatever catches his interest ever since.

Our latest home improvement project...

I have received several requests for pictures of our latest home improvement project. I was definitely a process, and I have the pictures to prove it! It all started with an innocent trip to Ikea to look at some bookshelves for the family room and snowballed into a partial room redo.





 New paint, newly wired electrical outlets and a light switch complete with dimmer and of course, custom built-in cabinet and bookshelves (unfortunately(?) not from Ikea). 




Thanks so much to a wonderful brother-in-law and sister who watched Jacob so that we could paint! I love all the storage space and feeling more organized.

Jacob attacks the Rhino

Jacob has been exploring the lower ranges of his voice.  Here is a clip of his cute growl! (You may have to listen carefully, I shot this on my digital camera.)

Trip to Grandma's House

A few weeks ago Jacob and I went on our first solo trip to Grandma's house.  I was a little bit nervous about the plane ride, but he did great and slept through most of it.  It was neat to also spend time with my sister and her 4 year old daughter who came along with us.  Jacob had a great time swimming for the first time. There is a really neat rec center near my parent's home.  Jacob loved splashing, floating in the lazy river and his first dunks underwater.  I am excited to take him swimming again this summer.

My family has always been all about the factory tours.  Over the  years we have gone on tours of Hostess, Jelly Belly, Blue Diamond Almonds, 

Hershey's to name a few.  My mom actually located a local company that we had never been to, so,

 in the  middle of a blizzarding storm we headed over to Hammond's Candies.  It was cool to see first hand how they make all of their hard candies.  They start with a huge (70-90 lb. log of hard candy and  them stretch it out and make the various shapes.  One of my favorites was the Mitchell's Sweet, a marshmallow log surrounded in caramel.  Yummy!

Other highlights included playing with Grandma and Grandpa, baking both new (5 min. Artisan Bread) and old (Superman Cookies), dinner at my brother, Brent and his wife Lelia's house, lunch with everyone at Hibachi Japanese Steakhouse, making coffee filter butterflies and dragonflies with Grandma, Brent and Samantha's Marble Magic creation, Brent assisting on the messiest poopy diaper change of all time, (thanks Brent!  I bet you can't wait to have kids ;) ) Samantha feeling sick and getting the royal treatment at the airport on the ride home, (she rode in a wheelchair and we got to skip the long security line an go through the disabled lane instead) and Lelia's Peanut Butter Bomb Cupcakes, they are the best!