All the Sun For You

A mom, two boys, a husband, and a whole lot of adventure!

Category Archives: FUN!


by 7 Comments

A Tribute to TBD

One of my online (and offline) besties is having a new baby!

Congratulations, SRB (and BJB and HGB)!

Because you already have so much stuff (and you don’t need more stuff accumulating in your house – because then it’s just more stuff to pack when you move) – I went small on your gift for now.

The NOW Gift:

This little gadget has saved our lives 10,000 times.  My sister gave me one and I was totally grossed out thinking, “No way in hell will I put that thing in my mouth.”  Well – then Matthew got sick when he was teeny tiny and we’ve used this awesome thing ever since.  If you already have one, you can use another (I’ll tell you the mold story about mine when I see you).  If you don’t have one – you need one!  I will tell you what my sister told me: “I promise that you will not get snot in your mouth,” (unless, of course, you’re like B and forget to ensure the filter is in place!).

Enjoy!

The LATER Gift:

You can’t have this gift until TBD is here – and named!  We will work this out once TBD arrives (or you share his name and room theme with me prior to his birth).  There are lots of choices, but here are a couple of examples to give you an idea of what we can do:

 

We can do TBD’s entire name in individual wood letters….(I would name our next baby ‘Hugo’ if B would let me ;))

Or we can do just one framed letter if you want…

It’s up to you!

Part of “the later gift” is the same type of thing (but unique) for HGB!

I wish you the best of luck in the next few months as you get ready for TBD’s arrival!  I am so looking forward to meeting him!

Love to you, Good Friend!

 


by 16 Comments

Quick Roadtrip to See Some Good Friends!

B, Matthew, and I headed down to KC last Friday for the Micr.osoft Surface launch, which gave us another chance to meet up with Steph, JJ, and Chloe!  When B asked if we wanted to make the trip with him, I told him to first let me check with Steph to see if they’d be in town that weekend.  I have my priorities  😉

Matthew woke up on his own just a couple of minutes before we were going to wake him, so it worked out perfectly.  He was in a great mood – I think he knew he’d be seeing Chloe later in the day!  The drive was fantastic and Matthew danced in his chair the entire way.

We went to the launch and spent a couple of hours at the mall.  It took a long time to get into the store to make the purchase, but they had a huge touchscreen out front hooked up to the Kinect which entertained the kids – specifically my kid!  He and his buddy, Cade (the son of B’s coworker) had a great time together and Matthew tolerated his stroller the entire time.  I still cannot believe that.

We ate at Fi.ve Gu.ys and Matthew had his first hot dog (all beef), which he loved.  We love that place, even if it is a heart attack in a paper bag.  B’s coworker then headed back to Iowa and we headed to the hotel for a nap.  Steph and Chloe met us for dinner and we then came back to the hotel to swim.  That was fun, but cold.  It was so cold!  Steph noticed that Matthew’s lips were a little blue right before we got out of the pool.  The kids loved hanging out before and after swimming, listening and dancing to music and checking out the cars and trucks going by on the darkened street out the window.  It was fun to watch!

We did have an accident after Steph and Chloe left.  I was in the bathroom brushing my teeth and B was getting Matthew’s jammies on.  Matthew was enjoying his naked time so B grabbed the camera to capture the fun.  Matthew, for the first time, climbed onto an ottoman  in the room and positioned himself to stand up.  I had come out at this point and was surprised that this was being allowed (B is a “safety cop” – HA!) but figured it was fine.  Just then, he fell off the ottoman from a standing position and landed on his back.  He was not hurt but he was terribly frightened.  I scooped him up faster than I’ve ever scooped him before and he was so shook up that he peed on me.  Poor baby.  But we both got cleaned up, snuggled before bed, and had a great night of sleeping in the hotel.

The next day we met Steph, Chloe, and JJ at a bounce place and the pictures tell that story 🙂  The babes had a ball!  We had Matthew’s first incident of not wanting someone else snuggling his mom as I cuddled Chloe.  He ran over and tried nudging her away.  We don’t want him nudging other kids, but it was cute because he’s never possessive of his mom – it made me smile  🙂  He quickly got his hug and went on his merry way with Daddy.  We spent 2 hours there!  I’ve never spent 2 whole hours somewhere that totally entertained Matthew.  We will be going to a similar place here in town soon!  We then went to a place for lunch that had model trains deliver your food (no kidding) and even though the kids were tired, that kept them completely entertained the entire time.  It was hard to get these two good eaters to eat with all the commotion!

It was a great little road trip for one night and it’s always super fun to meet up with Stepp, JJ, and Chloe!  They’re lucky we don’t live near them or we’d probably never leave them alone.  HA!  🙂

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

 

 


by 7 Comments

Crazy Fun At Our House

Oh Matthew – I heard this going on out in the hallway today while I was folding diapers.  I heard the sound of something sliding on the floor, and honest to God belly laughs coming out of you.  This went on for a couple of minutes before I thought to get my phone to record it.  CRAZY!

I don’t know if you were laughing at the sound the charger was making on the tile, or if Jane was playing with you that entire time.  Either way, you and your laughing made my day!


by 8 Comments

Get Away!

What a weekend!  On Wednesday, we decided we needed to get out of town – we just needed to GO SOMEWHERE.  I suggested Kansas City because, well, I love it there and the last time we headed out of town, we went to Minneapolis so I didn’t want to do that again.  We’ll go to Minneapolis soon enough, I’m sure (I love MSP – I would move there in a heartbeat if B wanted to).

We invited our friends to come with us who have a new baby – and they were itching to go somewhere too so they came down Saturday around noon.  We had a great time!

When B and I travel, most things revolve around food.  We are always looking for some place new to try, and are open to just about anything.  Matthew is open to most foods too, so we’re pretty lucky there.  What Matthew can’t handle, unfortunately, is a long dinner at a quiet restaurant.  So, on Friday night we went across the street from our favorite KC restaurant (too quiet for Matthew!) and had some fancy Mexican food.  I love Mexican food.  I love it more than any other food type in the world.  I cannot get enough of it.  This place did not disappoint.  But – Matthew was a hot mess and tired from the drive down, so we wrapped up pretty quickly and got him back to the hotel for bed.  For some reason, the grilled chicken and superbly cooked veggies weren’t doing it for him (and truly – they were fantastic!).  Sigh.

We did stop at a wine and cheese shop and picked up lots of fancy chocolates (B loves chocolate!) and a bottle of red wine for later.  Matthew enjoyed sampling the cheeses which was nice since he didn’t eat much dinner  😉  B enjoyed picking out chocolates.  I enjoyed just being out on a nice night!

Bedtime went ridiculously well – Matthew only cried for 30 seconds and he was out cold.  We had our chocolate and wine but we feared waking him so we went to bed shortly thereafter.  I think it was the earliest I’ve gone to bed in years (9:40).

Matthew woke up too early on Saturday and wanted to get out and about, so B took him out for coffee so I could sleep a bit.  Matthew was tossing and turning all night long, and being a light sleeper and a nervous mother (I like to be constantly aware of how he’s sleeping), I heard every sigh, flip, and grunt.  I basically had been awake since 4 AM so I welcomed a little extra sleep with great enthusiasm.  I made it count 😉

We shopped and shopped – but really just walked and walked.  It was beautiful in KC and the Plaza is perfect for getting out and about and just enjoying the weather.  I did find some shirts for Matthew that I’ve wanted but refused to pay the ridiculous prices for – but they were on SALE so I got them (it was a crazy sale, ladies)!  We went to our favorite place for lunch (Houston’s) because they have the BEST smoked salmon but what do you know?  They changed the salmon since we were last there and it wasn’t cooked enough for Matthew.  As everyone knows, Matthew LOVES salmon so we were super excited about getting this for him (cold smoked – ummmm!) but alas – we could not.  We ended up getting him tuna (figured we should try it) but he hated it, lost his shit, and we were out of there.

Notice a trend???

I headed out with Matthew as B got our salads boxed up (best salad ever – I am so sad I didn’t get to savor it!) and we went back for a nap.  Our friends weren’t in town yet so the timing was great and I snuggled with my boys.  It does not get better than that!  Matthew slept on my chest and sure – my neck was all screwed up and I didn’t really sleep – but my nose was buried in his sweet hair and I was in heaven!  This nap lasted almost 3 hours.  Wonderful!

We then headed back out with our friends and picked up cupcakes (more on this later), played at a park, and then grabbed a quick early dinner before the rush.  Again, Matthew was not having it so we boxed up his food once we were all done and headed out.

What is going on with this kid who used to love going out to eat???

We all stopped at the wine shop again and got some goodies for the night.  Upon returning to the hotel, we put Matthew to bed (not a peep out of him) and S and I sent our husbands down to the hotel bar with a free pass to stay out as late as they wanted, and to drink as much as they felt the urge to drink.  S and I had a great time sitting on the sofa, dishing about the latest happenings in our lives, eating chocolates and cupcakes, and drinking wine.  B bought me a bottle of bubbly and I drank that whole thing – and didn’t even get tipsy (what is wrong with me – I never drink so this makes no sense?!).  We shared the best cupcake we’d ever had (strawberry lemonade and HOLY HELL it was GOOD!) and I got to hold her new baby the entire time (LOVE!).  The guys came back late and expectedly tipsy.  We all sat around and laughed and laughed before parting ways and going to bed.

GREAT NIGHT!

This morning consisted of a sleepy baby who woke up too early, had his morning milk, slept for another 15 minutes on my chest (oh my back!), tried to get up for about 45 minutes but was cranky the whole time, and then took a nap on me for 1.5 hours.  I am not kidding – he went down for a ” nap” from 7:30 AM – 9:00 AM.  CRAZY!  He woke up still tired and that’s when I got that cute photo of him with B on the sofa.  I’ve never seen Matthew so mellow in my life!  It was precious.

We headed out for brunch – back to the Mexican place – and had a great breakfast.  The babies behaved and it was quite enjoyable.  We then parted ways with our friends so that I could get to the highlight of the trip!

We met up with Steph, JJ, and Chloe from Blawndie’s Blawg and had a super fun time!  We went to a local park and let the kids and hubs play while we chatted.  This was my first experience meeting a bloggie friend and it was super fun!  Matthew was exhausted (really?  After a 1.5 hour morning nap and 10 hours of sleep prior to that?) and very stoic, but he showed his dad what it’s like to parent solo at the park  😉  The kids swapped sippy cups and Matthew attempted to steal a kiss from Chloe before he realized that we were trying to photograph them.  HA!  Chloe was just as cute in person as I was expecting (I can’t get over her cuteness and her blonde curls!), and we escaped the morning without a hair pulling incident (Matthew loves to pull hair – a lot!), so I would call it a success.  🙂

Matthew was asleep before we hit the road – he crashed while we were filling the car with gas.  He slept the whole way home and was still exhausted when we got home.  He was in bed at 8:30 sharp – sound asleep.  B says he’s going through a growth spurt and I’m starting to buy into that.

I didn’t take a lot of photos but these capture some highlights:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 


by 14 Comments

The Secret Room…

Have you ever had that dream where you discover a secret room in your house – one that’s always been there, but you never knew about it?  That dream came true for Matthew today!

We have a finished basement that we rarely use.  There are a few reasons why we don’t use it much.  I won’t get into the reasons because they’re way too stupid to even discuss.  B asked me this weekend to please remove one of the reasons (a litter box in the main living room) so that Matthew can run around and enjoy it.

So I did.

Matthew and I spent a couple hours in the basement today and it was like a whole new house for him.  He was running around like crazy – squealing and chattering the entire time.  He would turn corners and scream with delight!  It was super fun watching him!  I grabbed my phone to take a bunch of pictures for B.  This post is really for him so he can see how much fun Matthew had per his wonderful suggestion  🙂

This slideshow requires JavaScript.