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.

Robert and his birthday suit

So here it is folks...Robert finally decided on buying a suit for his birthday. He found a really nice one on sale for 60% off! He also bought a new belt and tie for that deal. It's hard to tell, but it's navy blue with gray pinstripe. Now you've seen Robert in his birthday suit (I just thought that was hilarious). By the way, I have a heck of a time getting him to smile in pictures.

We're in trouble now!

Craig's getting the hang of this position here. Any day now we expect him to take off and never look back! I keep looking at all the stuff I have to do: locks on cupboards and drawers, gate to block the cat litter and food, find a way to keep the carpet clean of kitty litter, etc...we'll figure it out.

Also, click here to see our nation's Christmas tree for 2008! This year it was selected to come from our very own Montana Bitterroot National Forest, which is practically right where we live. Robert and I went to Hamilton to see it (it was on the big truck already) and I forgot the camera, so go to the link to see the picture and read an article about it. The 70 foot one is going on the grounds in front of the capitol building and 75 smaller ones were cut and sent for various offices. Craig also met Santa for the first time at the tree ceremony. (Yeah, I'm kicking myself for not having a picture of that one, too.)

Happy Birthday Robert!

Yesterday, Friday, was Robert's 26th birthday.
What a young 'in. :) I have been selling Mary Kay
stuff like crazy for two weeks to raise some money for it. I had decided that since there are so many things he wants that HE doesn't even know what to get himself, I would just five him a wad of cash. I wrapped up a cookbook and taped the money inside cover so he would think I got him a new cookbook that he wanted, but I tricked him! In the book I had $200 and then in Craig's card to him, I put the extra. I think there was about $75 in there. He also wanted that Funfetti cake, so I make it into cupcakes and Craig and I went down to Robert's work and we had a little party. (I caught him off guard here and I thought it was funny:). When he got off work, we all went to Missoula to
go shopping. We looked at guitars, suits, kitchen
appliances, cookbooks, puppies, fly fishing rods,
ceramic knives, and talked about many other
things. He didn't get anything last night, but he
thinks maybe he narrowed it down to a suit and
maybe a guitar (he found a great starter one for
$99!). Thanks to the money my parents also sent him, he'll have enough for both. So, happy
birthday Sweetie!

Pardon me boy, is that the 'baby'whochewedyournewshoes?

"Hey Mom, look at my new shoes!" Thanks to Grandma Cassie for these little sneakers. Mr. Bigfoot is almost too big for them, though, and they're supposed to be for 12 months.

"I wonder what they taste like?"
I like the little footprints on the soles. :)

This John Deere outfit also came from Grandma Cassie. How did she know that people in Montana would go gaga over a baby dressed with a John Deere logo? John Deere is to Montana what The Rocky Horror Picture Show was to the 70's--it's kind of a cult thing.

FOOD!!!
Craig started solid food last Friday night for the first time. He was 6 months old on Thursday. I tried to give him green beans last night, but he didn't like them, so other than that he's only had rice cereal and some watered down apple juice, but he likes both...a lot. I didn't realize the green beans had salt added, which I think was the part he didn't like. Tonight we're trying squash!

Na na na na...BATMAN!!

So, we splurged on Craig's Halloween costume. It was just so dang cute and Robert loves the new Batman movies, and it all fell into place, so here is our little BatBaby. He was a hit last night (well, I think so at least) and seemed to enjoy watching all the ruckus at the ward party. I dressed up as a ninja and Robert went as a chef disguised as a regular person . He says if he's going to dress up, he goes all out. I, on the other hand, wear anything I can create out of stuff in the closet. Maybe one year we'll do a family theme.

California...there we went!

Well, we're back, and I figure the best way to document the trip is to do it day by day. The reason it's taken me so long to post this will be explained on the last two days, so stay tuned!

Day 1
We left Tuesday, the 14th, and drove to Spokane and stayed the night since our plane left early-ish the next morning.

Day 2
We flew from Spokane to Portland, then from there to Oakland. Here's Craig and I on Craig's first plane ride! I wanted to take this in case he becomes a pilot one day and I can show him his first flight. He did really well--he played for the first leg of the flight and slept for the rest. I felt really sorry for another lady on the flight with a baby. She was by herself and her kid would not stop crying for most of it. She was quite a ways from us, but I could hear the faint cries. Then there was the girl traveling by herself with twin boys, about 18 months old! But I think they did okay.
Once in Oakland, we went to get our rental car that we had reserved. It's long story, but basically one thing Robert really wanted to do was rent a Charger (he loves them). One thing he never in his life wanted to own or even drive is a minivan. But through a series of unfortunate events, this is what we ended up with:
It's a Kia Sedona and I loved it! It was just so convenient to have all that room and to be able to fit my parents with us if we all wanted to go somewhere, which we did end up doing later on.
After more than two hours of struggling with the rental car situation, we drove to Sonora. We got there only about 20 minutes before my dad got home from work (we were there to surprise him for his 60th birthday). We hid in the back room while he circled the strange van outside with the Pennsylvania plates. My mom had to lure him inside finally and we jumped out! Now that I think about it, it would have been great to have a picture of his reaction. Sorry.

Day 3
I had arranged to visit my old work this day, so Craig and I spent almost two hours talking to my old coworkers and boss and friends. Everyone loved seeing this little guy. It doesn't seem I've been gone long enough to have had a baby. I was not quite 4 weeks along when we moved and we didn't know it yet. There were a lot of times on this trip that I forgot to bring the camera and I am kicking myself for it. Thursday night we met a friend and his kids in the new Copperopolis Towne Square. It's a little place with shops and restaurants that was still being built

This is me with my sister, Laura, and her baby, Laney who is 2 weeks older than Craig.This is Laney and Craig next to each other. Such cuties!!

Here's Bryan holding Craig and Kate in front. Somehow I missed getting a picture of Lily.

Day 4
Friday was my dad's first day off of his three-day weekend, so we decided to go to Yosemite! Robert and I never made it there during the time we lived in Sonora, so we were really excited to go. It was great because we got to take the van with everyone together and since my dad has a handicapped plaque, we got in free, and at $20 per vehicle these days, that was great deal. We saw El Capitan and Half Dome, of course, toured the Awahnee, and had a picnic lunch in a beautiful spot. It was a really good day. That night, back in Sonora, my parents watched Craig for us and we went to my high school's homecoming football game! That was something else we always wanted to do when we lived there but never did. We lost :( but it was fun to go and remember the good ol' days. (I can't believe this year will be 10 years since I graduated!)

Craig slept almost the entire way there and back. He was so great the whole time.

Day 5
Saturday was the big surprise party day for my dad. Not only did he not know Robert, Craig, and I her coming into town, he didn't know my mom had planned a big dinner with all his family friends. My other sister and her family was there, as well as our extended family. It was really tough keeping it a surprise. He was really suspicious and nearly sabotaged all of our plans for keeping it secret, but we somehow pulled it off. It was a lot of fun. My dad is one of those guys that you never know what to get them, so this year my siblings and I went in together and got him this digital scrapbook (email is rsleal05@gmail.com and password is "guest" then click on "storybooks" and "preview") of his life. (Thanks Grandpa and Mom for the pictures!)

Day 6
On Sunday we decided to hit two different wards. We went to our old ward in the morning then to my parents' ward in the afternoon. Again, it was fun to see old friends and show off Craig.
(By the way, Craig was as good as gold the whole time!)

Day 7
There's an old mining town that's now turned into a state park near Sonora called Columbia. We've loved going there since I was a kid and I still love to go whenever I'm home. My sister and her kids met us and my mom there. We walked the little town, went to the candy store, and played in "Rock City" (that's an area where hydraulic mining washed away all of the dirt and left the big boulders). That evening, Robert stayed home with Craig and my sister's husband watched their kids while Laura and I went out to dinner and just hung out for the evening. It's been a long time since she and I have been able to do anything like that. I only wish our other sister could've been there too.

Day 8

Tuesday was our last full day in Sonora. We went to the local apple ranch, called Covers (and I remembered my camera!). We went through their maze and saw the farm animals. Another favorite place of mine to visit.

There was a hay bale maze and this is us after we made it through (there's little Lily in front).The pumpkin patch.

Craig was very interested in all the animals.

There were a bunch of chickens and all but one had a significant amount of feathers missing. This one looked particularly funny to me.

Two cute little baby pygmy goats!Maybe this is their dad..boy he was smelly.This guy was a little suspicious of us. I think he (or she) needs a trim.

Day 9
We finally caught up with the only person we hadn't been able to see yet, one of my former bosses, Loretta. We were able to stop by her place Wednesday morning before going to Oakland and she made us breakfast! It was great to see her, but we're sorry we missed Dave. :( We headed down to the Bay Area and stopped by my grandpa's house. He took us out to lunch and I got this picture.Then we headed to the airport to return the van (sigh) and wait for our plane to leave. While there, I began to feel a little dizzy and out of sorts. By the time we boarded the plane, I was feeling very poorly. I ended up with Craig in the sling, sleeping on me, holding the barf bag as far away from him as possible, and literally losing my lunch. I'd pass Craig off to Robert whenever I had to go get cleaned up, but the little guy was so worn out, he wouldn't be happy without me for very long. Poor Robert.

Day 10
We made it back to Spokane and crashed in a hotel room. I was pretty weak the next morning, but we drove back the three hours to Stevensville, upon which time Robert began to feel sickly. So, that's why it has taken me so long to get anything posted. With sicknesses (Craig got a little of it, too), getting back on track with my new Primary calling, unpacking, laundry, and everything else, it's been a little crazy. Craig did get during the whole trip. He slept well at night was extremely patient with us during the days with all the things we wanted to do. What a trooper.

OnVacation

We are currently out visiting my family on vacation, so that's why I haven't posted recently. I will post pictures and more after we get on home. We'll be home Thursday, so it will be sometime after that. We are having a great time seeing everyone and Craig is getting to meet all of his cousins and extended family.

Craig and his "play station"

I bought this exersaucer/play station thing at a consignment sale last week and Craig loves it. It's a fabulous invention and can keep him busy for a good amount of time. Next thing we'll have to get is one of those jumper things.

SNOW!!!

Here's a short little video I took yesterday morning to show that we got some real snow! I'm excited for the changing of the seasons...I LOVE this time of year. We got some flurries a couple of days last week, but nothing stuck until yesterday. It didn't stay long, but it was fun to get a little. I'm excited for a REAL snow and I can put Craig in his cute snow suit and take pictures.

I was doing a little photo shoot the other day and these were some of my favorites. Some of Craig's favorite toys are kitchen utensils, so I've been giving him the little whisk and the spatula lately. It reminds me of the nickname that the girls next door have given him--they call him Remy and Little Chef (you know, from Ratatouille). I think it's cute. I wonder if they make a Remy costume for Halloween...? Anyway, another trademark of Craig is The Tongue. He'll sit and stare at people with his tongue hanging out of his mouth. People always ask me, "Does he always do that?" and "Why does he do that?" I don't know, he's a baby! He's actually not doing it as much and he only does it when we're at church or the store, or somewhere that there's lots to look at and keep his attention. It's almost as he forgets to keep it in his mouth. What a cutie.

I had Craig on my lap while I was watching a video of him and me and he just started busting up at the peek-a-boo I was doing in the video. The funniest part to me is that he didn't think it was that funny when I was doing it while I was shooting the video. He's got the cutest little belly laugh and we only hear on very rare occasions, otherwise he has a little nasal-ly giggle. I happened to have the camera sitting right there (a very rare thing as well) since I had just downloaded the other video, so I grabbed it and was able to get a few seconds of him cracking up, until he got the hick-ups. Then it wasn't so funny anymore, apparently. If I can figure out how to make the megabytes less on the other video, I will add it and you all can see what Craig thought was so funny, but I can guarantee you probably won't laugh that hard. :) I mainly took the other one to demonstrate his sitting up skills, the peek-a-boo thing was a side note. Anyway, enjoy!

P.S. Craig is 5 months old today! Crazy.