blowout city

This type of explosion doesn't happen to Win every time he poops, but almost, and the boy has a good system. We change at least two poopy diapers a day. Needless to say, OxiClean and bleach are becoming my best friends.

mullet man

To cut, or not to cut, that is the question.

Our little man has a full ring of dark newborn hair that basically brushes his shoulders. The top of his head is covered with light, feathery fluff, but the back constitutes a true mullet. I'm not going to touch it and I haven't been tempted, yet. The day will come, but I'm just not ready.

in brief

How do people blog with an infant? I feel like I hardly have time to eat lunch and straighten the house. I want to blog more. I need to blog more. I've always enjoyed writing and blogging is a great outlet. Plus, it's a journal of sorts. We'll see if I can't squeeze in a post a week.

This post is going to be random and unstructured, but that's how my mind functions as of late. Here are a few likes, goals, happenings, etc. of mine.

First off, things I currently really like (in no particular order):

1. Almonds. That includes almond milk, almond butter and plain old almonds.

Milk: I could drink almond milk at every meal, including snack time. I love it. The Reids' introduced it to us a while back and I'm hooked. Regular cow's milk still plays a role in my diet, but almond milk (vanilla is my favorite) is carving out a spot in my daily food consumption.

Butter: I don't own any almond butter yet, but I had it at my sister's house the other week and I want some. Any good brands you would like to recommend?

Nuts: And plain almonds, they are my go to snack. With skins, without skins, salted, seasoned, whatever. They are all good.

2. After the Baby's Birth...A Woman's Way to Wellness. Yes, it's a book. A book that I picked up at the local library a few weeks ago and I love it. The author lives on Maui on a farm with her man named Stevo and they have four kids. Sound kind of dreamy? I think so. Anyway, if you haven't guessed, she is very natural/earthy, but it's not overbearing. I wish I would have found the book before I had Winston because it explains postpartum "stuff" much better than other books I read. Plus, it has great after baby recipes (we've made a few...I'll have to post some), exercises and advice. I read it while I'm nursing and I'm going to purchase a used copy on Amazon. $3 is about right.

3. My baby. I love having a 3 month old baby. Win is a pleasure to be with all day. I loved the first couple of months, but this month has just been enjoyable. He is such a social boy. He laughs and makes high pitched squeals these days, especially when he is excited. It cracks me up. He is also getting big. The 0-3 month onesies are getting tight. I sorted out most of the newborn clothes the other day to make room for the 3-6 month sizes. I thought I would be sad, but most of me is excited. What is this little guy going to be like? I think strong, intelligent, kind, fun, insightful and incredibly good looking. Nothing like a mother's love.

4. Grape-Nuts. Think they're for old people? Think again. Dr. Oz seems to like them, so I eat them. If you go to his site, you can find all sorts of Grape-Nut recipes. I combine mine with granola, berries, almond and cow's milk for breakfast and it is delicious. I think one bowl satisfies my daily fiber requirement.

Secondly, a few goals:

1. Run the St. George Marathon. I submitted my name into the lottery and lo and behold, I made the cut. It might be too much too soon, but I want to do it. I have 4 1/2 months to train and we just purchased a jogging stroller so I should be able to manage. We'll see though. I ran it in 2007 and enjoyed it. Hopefully, I feel the same way this time around.

2. Eat fish once a week. Not much to this one other than I've read it's good for you. Kent and I rarely eat fish, so it's time to incorporate it into our diets. Any fish recipes you would like to recommend?

3. Become a minimalist. I know I'm not a minimalist by nature, but I'd like to become more that way. I read something about becoming a minimalist and it says to throw, sell or give one thing away each day. I tried to eBay a dress that has been sitting in my closet, tags still attached, for the past 3 years, but I ended up selling it to a buyer named "kentonkent" (aka: my husband) who tried to increase the bid for me. Ha. I'll try again. Minimalist inspiration: Watch "Hoarding: Buried Alive" to get inspired to clean house and "Human Planet" to realize you only need so much to live happily.

4. Go here for enlightenment (and to relive my college devotional days). One benefit to receiving the BYU Magazine is finding out about things like this. The quote in the magazine that moved me to check out the site: "You are good. But it is not enough just to be good. You must be good for something. You must contribute good to the world." That was said by President Gordon B. Hinckley in a 1996 devotional. Don't you want to be a better person now? I do. Here's the entire talk.

And finally, the happenings. Actually, not much here. Just learning how to be a mom and staying busy doing so. I'm trying to decide what to do about work. Should I go back part-time? I don't know. I'm also looking forward to the summer. We have a mud run coming up, my sisters from Arizona will be in town for a couple of weeks and then we have a family reunion to look forward to. Fun times ahead.

That's about it for now. Hopefully, I'll get a little more consistent.

bubbles and bumbos

I guess it's okay to blow bubbles in the house now and then. Win and Daddy were having so much fun and I couldn't take that away.

i still like music

I'm kind of out of the music loop lately, but I heard this song on the radio yesterday and loved it. The chorus is catchy and there's whistling. Who doesn't like a song with whistling? Remember this one? Loved it as well. Anyway, the song below got me doing a little dance in the front seat at a stop light. It's probably a top 20 or something by now, but I wouldn't know. Either way, please enjoy Pumped Up Kicks by Foster the People.

truly man's best friend

I know this shouldn't surprise me, but as I was driving along on the PCH the other day, I passed a pet grooming store and noticed a sign on their window that read "Canine CPR Certified". I had to repeat that back to myself to see if I understood correctly. CPR for dogs? All I could envision was mouth to mouth resuscitation on a dog's snout and it wasn't a pretty picture. I can't even KISS a dog let alone do mouth to mouth. Yikes.

Don't get me wrong, dogs are wonderful creatures. I grew up with dogs, but they were outside pets in our household. A dog was treated like an animal. They ate crunchy, hard dog food and lived in the backyard. At one point, my sister and I insisted they should eat the wet stuff so my parents gave in for a bit. We even got them to buy Science Diet for Angus, our overweight German Shepard, but my parents went back to the generic Sam's Club bulk mix, and I can't blame them. We also rarely bathed our dogs. On occasion they got rinse downs in the outside shower or took dips in the pool, but that didn't happen often. As for brushing them, I think we did that seasonally. And teeth brushing? Our dogs always had dog breath.

Since I grew up with outside pets that were treated like animals, things like canine CPR blow my mind. I know I would have done it when I was young and in love with our dogs, and I would do it now if Win had a dog that he cherished, but it still kind of grosses me out. I can't promise canine CPR if you ever need me to watch your dog, but I can give you a good lead.

sunday best

We did it, we took our first ever Easter family photos. When I was little we always got new dresses for Easter Sunday and my dad would take pictures right before or after church. In keeping with tradition, Win got a special Easter tie. Since he doesn't have any siblings yet, I thought we could all sort of match. Cheesy? Maybe, but I enjoyed it.

(really happy with Uncle Lance our photographer)

I love Easter and the hope it brings. I'm glad we were able to spend time with both of our families this weekend and I'm grateful for the new little man that has joined Kent and me. We are truly blessed.