Random

We have lots of random things to say, so if you'd like to be in the know, read on.

-Carly doesn't have a stuffed animal, she sleeps with books. She insists on being laid in her crib with a small board book and she's usually still clutching the book when she wakes up.

-Jay thinks everything that comes out of Carly's mouth is "gaGA" (emphasis on the 2nd GA), so he uses the word constantly. For example "Mom, watch me gaGA", or "Carly wants gaGA for lunch". He even sings entire songs replacing all words with "gaGA".

-Most of you know that shortly after Carly was born, she developed a hemangioma under her left eye. (She also developed one on the back of her head, and one on her back, but the one under her eye was the most noticeable.) There was a possibility that the one under her eye would need to be removed for fear of it interfering with her vision, but thankfully it was not a problem. We were told the hemangioma would fade over time and go away by the time she was 2, but currently the hemangioma is almost completely gone. Here are 2 pictures for comparison:

6 Months Old

1 Year Old

-Carly is almost walking. Actually, she is walking, but won't do it if she thinks you're watching. If you turn around and pretend you're not looking, she'll gladly walk across the room.

-Jay now officially has chores to do. His chores include unloading most of the dishwasher, making his bed, and picking up toys all over the house. He does a pretty good job and is still pretty excited about doing them, but I'm sure that won't last. Sometimes he gets a quarter for doing them, but he really doesn't care about the money.

-Yes, I am likely allowing my 3 year old to be the same thing for Halloween as every other 3 year old boy. Spiderman.

-We're buying a house and just have a few more hoops to jump through before we can close. We really love the house and are really excited to have a permanent place of residence. We'll show you pictures as soon as we close! (yes, its stucco and has a flat roof)

-We really want to purchase Beatles Rock Band for the Wii. However, since we don't want to use money from the monthly budget, we're trying to find creative ways to find money to buy it without using "real" money accounted for in the budget. So far, we're cashing in the spare change, and using Amazon giftcards earned through Swagbucks to raise money for our cause. We're about half way there, so we're hoping to be able to get it by Christmas!

-Chad and I are getting back into shape and even trading off days running at 6 am. (Chad's parents have a treadmill and it has been very convenient) I am not a morning workout person, but we've been consistent for a few weeks and it feels good. We're searching for a race to run, but all races around here seem to be on Sundays.

-Chad's parents have a fabulous apple tree in their yard and so we picked tons of huge delicious apples. I tried my hand at making applesauce and it turned out quite yummy. I was going to try canning the applesauce, but I got a little overwhelmed and decided to just freeze the applesauce instead.

-Speaking of how domestic I am, did you hear that I won a pie contest? Some attorneys at Chad's law firm invited us to a pie party and I made a lemon meringue pie fro scratch to enter into the contest. To my surprise, I won! (It was delicious if I do say so myself)

I've got another edition of "Loving New Mexico" almost ready for publishing, so stay tuned!