I'm Back!!!

I have returned from the land of the undead (can you tell I've been reading Twilight?). Or, in other words, the land of the internet-less. I have considered posting a long, detailed harangue of the trials and tribulations we have suffered the last month without internet service, but I think I will keep it short. (Some of you have already heard my complaints anyway.) Let me just say that I have missed you all and I am WAAAAY too dependent on technology. (I bet we can all remember when we didn't even have answering machines, let alone computers.) I greatly look forward to catching up on all your blogs and will be posting Christmas pictures and more soon. See ya tomorrow!

The Snow Shuffle

Waking up to this begets breakfasts with this. It also begins the season of a little something I like to call "The Snow Shuffle." Those of you who have lived in wintery, icy conditions (which is probably all of you) know what I'm talking about. In case there's one person out there who has never tried to walk across the grocery store parking lot when it's snowing or hurried to get to class on time over a three inch layer of ice, let me explain. We all try to avoid this stupid-looking walk the first time we encounter the conditions that make it necessary every year. We all then humiliate ourselves by slipping and falling in front of a full size pickup and busload of school children in said parking lot, or we come close to it, which is almost equally as humiliating. (Imagine yourself slipping in midstep, throwing your arms out to the side and stopping your downward decent just in time to look like a tight-rope walker practicing without a rope.) After that, we succumb to The Shuffle. What is this shuffle, you ask? Basically, you walk very carefully, trying to look as normal as possible but not go too slowly so people don't notice. Instead of walking heal-toe, you just put your whole foot down at once, like Frankenstein. You all know what I'm talking about, right? Well, I caught myself doing this last night as we left the ward Christmas party and went out the car which was covered in about 1/2 inch of snow and was perfectly snow-free when we went inside. It took me what seems to be quite a bit longer than everyone else to perfect this shuffle. I fell quite a few times my first winter in Rexburg, ID. That was my first real encounter with enough snow and ice on a regular basis to necessitate The Shuffle. There are those out there who seemed to be blessed with Sticky Feet. They don't seem to need The Shuffle, they walk quicker than everyone else, and they never seem to fall. My old roommate, Heidi, was one of these. Maybe she did use The Shuffle, but had grown up in a place where the only mode of transportation in the winter was a snow mobile (snow machine, sorry) and had gotten so used to using The Shuffle that she just naturally used it all the time. Or maybe she has another secret that she never shared with the rest of us (half gecko?). So to all of you snowbunnies out there, be safe and don't be afraid to use The Shuffle and run the risk of looking Frankensteinish...it's better than falling flat on your bum, or face, or hip, and having to try to laugh it off as you wince in pain so as to not make others around feel bad for holding back their laughs but can't seem to manage from keeping that smirk off their faces.

Guess what!!

Here's what Craig's been working on and doing now for a few days.

Waiting for some new stuff

I have been trying to get a new video of Craig posted, but have had some trouble. So, in the meantime, here are a couple pictures I don't think I ever posted but are among my favorites.

This one was taken a while ago. I just thought it was so cute. I think he fell over after this was shot.I put rag curlers in my hair one night and it turned out REALLY curly. I was trying to take a picture of it, but Craig was more interested in the camera than I thought anyone would be in my hair, so I decided the keep this picture instead. He was really fighting me to get at that camera.

P.S. I invite all to go to my weatherbug thing on the upper right and click on "forecast". Take a gander at what we'll be looking forward to starting Sunday. Yikes, is all I have to say.

Another silly kitty moment

I was washing the bedding the other day and there was a cat laying on the sheet-less bed. I put the fitted sheet on anyway. (She loves to play under the covers.) I came back an hour later to finish making the bed, and saw this:

That last one is her laying on her side, sound asleep. (She's laying on her right side--that's her left ear sticking out on top.) I wanted to see how long she would stay there so I didn't make the bed and just left her there. I think it was over three hours.

Let it snow, let it snow (pleeeease)

I have been dying to get pictures of Craig in his snowsuit but I wanted to wait until there was some snow (call me crazy). We FINALLY got enough snow for me to justify it. In other words, we finally got some snow that decided to stick, at least for now. We may get more this weekend. We'll see. I live in Montana, for pete's sake. One of the things I really looked forward to when we moved here was that I could finally count on snow every winter and every Christmas. Wrong! (At least about the Christmas part.) Oh well, I guess I should be grateful that we can still navigate our driveway safely. As soon as the snow does come, that becomes a challenge. In the meantime, here's the cute boy looking like a little blue grub.

Check this out

Ever wonder what the number one song was the day you were born? (Or any other day for the last 100 years, for that matter.) Go to www.joshhosler.biz. This guy's got it all. The hit song on the day I was born is "I Love Rock 'n Roll." I guess you could say that's true, but rock 'n roll has changed so much since then. One of my favorite bands from that era is Journey. Another is The Eagles. Do those count as rock 'n roll? Let me know what your songs are!

And the award goes to...

This year, the Golden Pacifier award goes to Mr. Robert S. Leal Jr. for his fantastic work in the daddying department. For the last three months he has been willing to take over the putting-Craig-to-bed routine while I went to stake choir practice every Sunday night for an hour and a half. This may not sound like much to some people, but Mr. Craig is not a happy camper when someone other than Mommy is trying to put him to bed or down for a nap. Despite this obstacle, Robert still took over and let me have this time to participate in our stake Christmas concert without complaint. During this time, there were also numerous occasions (Enrichment night, Pampered Chef party, etc.) when I needed to go somewhere in the evening and leave Craig with Daddy. Robert would continuously accept the responsibility of the fussy evening baby--alone. The real icing on the cake was the night of the Christmas concert. Robert and Craig came that night (even though it was past Craig's bedtime) to support me. The entire time, Robert had to stand up and/or walk to halls with a crying, fussy baby. However, Robert persisted and spent the last 45 minutes of the concert driving Craig around in the car with him wailing in the backseat. To that I say, "Bless your heart, Sweetie." To show my appreciation, I am awarding him with the prestigious Golden Pacifier. Congratulations Robert!

I love this time of year

Here are some things I love about this time of year.

1. Getting up in the middle of the night and seeing the lights of the Christmas tree glowing in the living room.
2. Getting into my robe, having my cup of hot chocolate, and sitting in front of the fire.
   
3. Dressing Craig in all his cute winter clothes. (Still waiting to put him into his awesome snow suit!)
4. The snow, when it gets here.
5. Cold weather and walks in the crisp air.
6. Ice lining the edge of the river banks.
7. Sweaters.
8. The holiday decorations on all the businesses downtown and along main street.
9. The ward Christmas party.
10. Visiting people and seeing their Christmas decorations.
11. Putting up our nativity set.
12. The Christmas Ensign.
13. Planning Christmas gifts (especially stocking stuffers!)
14. Pulling a warm blanket out of the dryer and wrapping myself up.
    
15. Making Christmas cookies.
    

UMT vs. Texas State

We've been trying to get to a UMT game all season and fnally, last week, someone had tickets and couldn't go so they gave them to us!! We were so excited, especially since UMT has been a pretty good team this year. So, off we went, despite the temperature and cloudy skies. Craig was such a trooper. Even when it started to rain, he was happy and awed by all the noise and commotion. We made him a little poncho from a souvenir shop bag. :) He even slept for a little while in the sling. He was all bundled and cozy and snoozing away when it started to snow!! But we hung in there. I just covered his face with the loose end of the sling and he was all toasty warm in there. Despite a rocky start, UMT did end up winning. It was a lot of fun and a great game.

Grandma and Craig

We said goodbye to Grandma Cassie on Friday. We had a fun visit and it was especially nice to have more than just the three of us for the holiday. (Now what are we going to do for Christmas?)

Happy Thanksgiving!

This Thanksgiving Robert's mom came out from Arizona to visit and meet Craig for the first time. I will add another post later with more information on that, but for now I wanted to get some pictures on of the feast we had! It was only the three of us, but Robert's (and mine) favorite part of Thanksgiving is the left overs, so we made sure we would have plenty. Now I'm afraid we will have too much. :) Robert made the turkey, green bean casserole, stuffing, and gravy. I made the pies (pecan and apple), sweet potato casserole, and the mashed potatoes. We also had croissants (from the grocery store--it's a tradition in my family) and Martinellis sparkling cider (another tradition). It was all sooo good. Here are all the pictures. Oh yeah, the kitty had her own feast as well. She still hasn't eaten it though, the snob. The rest of us enjoyed the feast and definitely feel very grateful to have each other and to be so blessed.

Here's the Christmas suit that Grandma Cassie brought for Craig. He is so cute in it. Well, he's cute all the time. :)

Awww, the smell of a new car

This is our new car.

This is Robert with a new car (he's smiling!)

Any questions?

It's a 2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo. If you're in the market for a new car, now is the time to buy. Thanks to Dad for that tip. A year ago this baby was about $30,000 brand new, but we got in it for a whole lot less than that. Just be sure you have someone with great credit on your side. :) I will try to get pictures of our old lemon of a trade in, the money-pit '96 Isuzu Trooper.

Silly Kitty

We have this cat named Lucy Liu, but we usually just call her Kitty or Meows or Kitty-Meows. She's named Lucy Liu because she runs around here Matrix/Ninja style and she's black and sleek, like a ninja, and the actress Lucy Liu is a kung fu chick, in case you didn't know who she was. However, sometimes even a ninja needs to get warm on chilly winter morning. Sometimes even ninjas like to crawl up onto Mommy's lap covered in a nice warm robe, and sometimes, when they're kitties, they crawl under Mommy's nice warm robe. Silly Kitty. (Just mind those claws, Kitty.)

I DO live in Montana, you know

WARNING: Some content may be disturbing to some viewers. (Now that I've gotten you're attention, I'll just tell you that if you don't want to see a picture of a dead deer, don't scroll all the way down. See title for rebuttal.) :)

Anywho, to start with, I wanted everyone to see how pitiful my little baby looks with his watery eyes and red little nose. Yes, the poor little guy has another cold. Let's just hope THIS one doesn't turn into an ear infection. But despite his troubles, the angel slept great last night and took a great nap this morning. I guess his body is needing the sleep. By the way, thank you to all of you who offered advice on helping teach him to sleep better. I've taken bits and pieces of everyone's suggestions and it's worked! He did GREAT last night and for the first time in a LOOOOONG time I woke up this morning not because a baby was ready to wake up, but because I was done sleeping!!! It felt great. Thanks again. This is his cute little rosy-cheeked, red-eyed face:

And here's the picture of what was going on in our garage this morning:

That's Josh, a guy in the ward on break from BYU-I and he's done some work with Robert at the Springs. He's been stomping around the property all week trying to get this buck. He have a whole herd of deer that put up residence outside our bedroom window this time of year. This guy was new this year. And, boy, have there been some people REALLY wanting him. Well, Josh got him this morning and wanted to use our garage (since it's not really OUR garage and the owner let him hunt in exchange for some meat) to clean him up and then take him off to the butcher. It's interesting to me that elk and deer are a large part of peoples' diets here in the winter. For example, we went to a chili feed last night as a fund raiser for the school and one of the pots was elk chili. It's just so normal, and I actually like it, too!

30 minute crafts with Sherry Leal

Today, while Craig was watching this, I made this

It's a plastic bag holder. You put new ones in the top and take the old ones out of the bottom. Now Robert can't complain about too many plastic bags under the sink. (Yeah, yeah, I know, why don't I just use the cloth bags instead...but these have a vast many other uses to me!)
And this is Himself the whole time.
I think he likes it! I've just discovered another 30 minutes I can have to get some stuff done.

Counting wake ups, not sheep

I am putting myself out there and asking for help or advice, or preferably helpful advice. The ever elusive nighttime hope for all parents called Sleep evades our family. Our little Disturber (Craig) seems to have forgotten how to fall asleep, stay asleep, and put himself back to sleep. I am wondering what other people out there do to help teach (and reteach) their babies how to fall back asleep when going through the natural sleep cycles. To give you some examples, some nights he sleeps for the first 5-6 hours, then wakes up and I feed him. He then wakes up every 1 1/2 to 2 hours after that point. Other nights he's up every 1 1/2 hours all night. Then he'll sleep for the first 5-6 hours, eat, sleep 2-3 hours, and be ready to go for the day. But with a 7:00 bedtime, that's too dang early for Mommy and Daddy. Other times, he wakes up every 1 1/2 to 2 hours, I put him back to sleep (rocking or nursing) and then he wakes up 15 minutes later. I rock/nurse him again, he wakes up 15 minutes later. This has gone on most of the night sometimes. The other problem is he is only taking 30 minute naps during the day and I've been having a heck of a time getting him to sleep for the third nap, so therefore he's exhausted by 6:00 at night and by trying to keep him up until 7:00 he becomes over tired and ruins his night sleep. But if I put him down early (at 6:00) that also affects the rest of his evening. See, he used to go to bed at 8:00, sleep until 2:00, eat, go back to sleep, and not make a sound until 7:00. Then I would bring him to bed with us and he'd nurse and snooze off and on while Mommy got another 30-45 minutes of sleep. But that all went away and I have no idea why or how to fix it. I've tried a few things, but anything is helpful. I want to know what has worked for you. Leave a comment or feel free to email me with any suggestions at rsleal05@gmail.com. Thanks!

Things I'm thankful for

I love the blog posts where people put pictures and links of their favorite things and things they're thankful for. So, I decided to do it, too. First of, let's all take a moment to rejoice in this:

YAY! I truly never thought I would ever see gas below two dollars a gallon again. However, I still remember when $1.98 was outrageous, but let's not let that spoil our joy.

(A conversation I distinctly remember having from about 9 years ago:
ME: "Look at that--gas is at $1.50!"
GIRL: "My parents say that at home, in Portland, it's over $2.00!"
ME: "NO! I can't imagine ever paying THAT much for gas!"
GIRL: "I don't know how people could afford it!")
Oh the innocence of youth. :)

And I'm thankful for this:

This is the latest culinary masterpiece which I was so fortunate to partake of. On the left we have the best squash/zucchini combo I have ever tasted and I don't like squash and zucchini as a side dish (more proof that if you add enough butter, garlic, and salt, you can make anything palatable), then we have the pork tenderloin with a very yummy rub, then there's a cranberry glaze, cranberry polenta, the orange sauce in front is a roasted red pepper sauce and the green one in back is a spring onion and olive oil blend. When Robert explained to me this dish and while we were shopping for it I said, "That sounds good sweetie, whatever you want to do," but thought, "Well, I guess we'll see how this turns out." Let me just say that this was possibly the best thing he has made that I have tasted in the three and a half years we've been married, and he made me some pretty awesome halibut once. The combination of the flavors was surprising and...well...just awesome. Anyway, enough about that, because I could on and on.

I'm also thankful for Eskimo kisses that make Craig laugh when he's trying to cry, having a garage when it's icy in the mornings, and getting to go stake choir practice on Sunday evenings and getting some time do something for myself. Oh yeah, and McDonald's breakfast. This is my new favorite. Well, TTFN!

Rubber Ducky, you're the one!

Craig has really come to love bath time. He loves to splash and make a mess. He could do without the getting-wet-all-over thing, but he tolerates it for the chance to play, splash, and listen to his ducky quack. I think he's so cute that I HAD to show everyone else.

By the way, Happy Veterans Day Grandpa, Dad, and Scott!

Some random pictures

We bought Craig some shoes that fit him today. These are size 4!! They are a little big, but not by much and we figure he'll grow into them...next we need a new car seat, apparently. :)

We also got him a jumper today. He liked it when we stood there watching him dangle and helping him bounce, but once we were in the living room and he couldn't see us, he complained. I think he'll get used to it, though.

This I took to show that the snow is gradually moving down the mountains. A few weeks ago those peaks looked as dark as the foot of the mountain. It'll get here eventually.