Chuck Norris has already been to Mars; that's why there are no signs of life there.

Alex in her new Toy Box. She is sitting on a bunch of blocks.

We have some mint bushes by our house and this summer my mom harvested a ton of mint leaves. She dried them out and put them in baggies in a drawer in the kitchen. A few months ago someone noticed that the garbage bags (also stored in that drawer) smelled like mint. We all thought that was funny and didn't think much more of it.

A couple day's ago I made Muddy buddies and Cinnamon rolls. The Cinnamon rolls turned out great, the muddy buddies were to use up wheat Chex that no one would eat and didn't taste so nice. Well, we were making frosting for the rolls to give to a neighbor, and my mom gave me this accusing look and said "What did you put in the frosting?!" I was a little taken aback, and told her milk and powdered sugar. She then continued on "What did you do to the frosting", I couldn't figure out why in the world she was making that face and accusing me like that. Then there was the "ah ha" moment. The extra powdered sugar had also been in the mint drawer, and the strong mint smell had soaked through the heavy plastic and tainted the sugar!!!!!

So we had mint flavored muddy buddies and mint flavored frosting on top of the apple Cinnamon rolls. Hmmmm, not so good. So now we are trying to figure out what to do with a pound of mint powdered sugar.

Some day's the majority of what Alex eats is Cheerios. She usually won't let me feed her and when i don't want a huge mess i just give her cheerios to eat. Well, on those particular days her poop ends up smelling like cheerios. So much in fact that Tyler and I have had a few false alarms on poopy diapers while at the breakfast table, while David is eating Cheerios for breakfast. Needless to say, I now refuse to eat cheerios.

Chuck Norris destroyed the periodic table. He only recognizes the element of suprise.

Alex has become quite the walker. Here is just a taste for the grandparents.

Chuck Norris can kill two stones with one bird

David introduced me to the wonderful world of Chuck Norris jokes today. So I have decided that now these will be the titles of all of my posts.

Tyler and I decided to host a FHE inspired by our recent kindergarten winnings. I know we are so childish and dorky, but since we unloaded the toy boxes on Saturday, it's been non stop block building fun.

So we split up in teams (Mom and David, Tyler and I) and had a temple building contest. The rules were only that you had to use all the blocks, each team had the same pieces. So here we are.

Temple number one is more of an Ottoman influence to it, minarets and such, very decorative.

Temple number two looks a bit Catholic, but much taller than the first.

I told the family that I would post pictures and have you guys vote for the winner. So here we are.

Temple number 1

Temple number 2

We Struck Gold

Alex insisted on feeding herself cottage cheese.

Saturday the Billings School District was having an auction to get rid of all sorts of surplus and old stuff. Tyler and I had decided to go check it out since we heard there was a kiln there and owning one is pretty much one of our dreams. We show up and find out it is a silent auction. Well, we figured that could either be good or bad, so we sat down and carefully thought about how much we wanted to bid.

For my birthday, the first year we were married, Tyler bought me a pottery wheel. It was a dream come true. Now, due to strange circumstances we haven't been able to use it as much as I would like, but some day we are going to want a kiln, and getting a used one at an auction sounded great! So we bid $50.99, not expecting to win, figuring it would sell for like $200. I could not believe my ears when we heard that it sold for $51.00. That's right, we lost it by a penny! I felt sick. It's not like we need one right now, or would be able to use it for awhile, but to lose by a penny! Oh man.

Well, it ended up not being such a big deal because let me tell you what we did win! A whole vintage children's kitchen set! I was drooling over these and I just had to have them for Alex. I am going to refinish the set and then sell the extra hutch. We also got 2 kids tables with 3 chairs, a mirror, and two toy boxes. While loading them into the truck we discovered that the toy boxes are filled with wooden blocks and toys, and the kitchen set had dolls and all sorts of toys shoved in the cupboards! I am just so happy! I can not wait to get started fixing these up. I'll post pictures once it stops snowing and we can take them out of the truck.

Tyler and I love the blocks. Probably more than Alex.

The hot pants

A few months after I had Alex, Tyler and I went to our favorite store (REI) to splurge a little. We were looking for a few specific things, but I saw these wonderful pants and I had to try them on. Well I fell in love and we made the purchase. These have since become my favorite pants ever and I think I have worn them at least 2-3 times a week since I got them like 6 months ago. They are super comfortable and they make me look GREAT! Well, for Christmas Tyler gave me a coupon that said I could get another pair of these magic pants, perhaps in another color. I was so excited and got online to order them, only to find out that REI doesn't carry them anymore! NO ONE DOES! Apparently they were discontinued. I am heart broken.

I have never really cared about clothes, or I suppose how I look in them. Oh I tried to care. I would buy things that other people were wearing and try to be fashionable, but I never liked the way I looked or felt comfortable. I think I will be 90 before I finally have a complete wardrobe I like enough to wear. So I finally find my dream pants only to be broken hearted. Now I am afraid to wear them because they will wear out all the faster. I think when that day comes, I will carefully cut the seams, make a pattern from them, and try to recreate the magic. I should have bought like 6 pairs in a few different sizes and colors. I'm kicking myself for not.

On a hopefull note, I think I found some magic shoes today. I hate shoes, I hate socks even more. So unless it is under 10 degrees, or there is a lot of snow on the ground, I wear sandles. This has not been working well in Montana and so i've had to wear my tennis shoes everywhere. I had finally had enough when at the 'Mommy and Baby' day at the library, I sat cross legged on the rug only to find out my shoes were covered in manure and now on the back of my pants. So right after, we went to Target and Tyler found me a nice pair of shoes.

The favorite wife

So on January 1st, like a lot of other people, I decided to set some "Goals". I seriously thought about these and narrowed it down to 3 good ones.
1. STUDY the scriptures every day. (I am reading the old testament, the book of Mormon and all the footnotes that catch my interest from both, which right now means Jeremiah. This way If i'm bored with one section, i just go to one of the others for awhile)
2. Only eat sweets when i am really honestly craving them, and try not to eat candy at all. (I don't really like 'candy' anyway, so i'm limiting myself to baked goods/icecream stuff, and only when i need a fix)
3. Be more service oriented. (I always come up with great service projects but then talk myself out of it because it might be weird to just drop a loaf of bread off at a near strangers house)
Well, So far i've done pretty good. I actually don't think i've eaten any candy, and only splurged on a pan of brownies and some ice cream. With a few days exception I have studied everyday. The service thing is still hard and I'm sucking so far, but i have some ideas I might actually do, so there.
Well, to the point. While reading the Old Testament there are lots of stories about guys marrying multiple wives, like upwards of 3. And in a lot of these stories there is a 'favorite' wife. Well I wouldn't call myself 'naggy' but I was thinking and realized that if Tyler had another wife, she would probably be the favorite one. Sometimes I let myself get consumed by Alexandria and her needs, or I try to ignore both of them to focus on my needs. I think having competition would make each wife act her best and be a better spouse as to gain the love and attention of the 1 husband. So I've decided for goal number 4, to become the favorite wife.

Alex Alex BoBalix is 10 months old

Alex has entered a very independant stage of life, especially when it comes to food. We have reached the point where she throws a fit unless her hands are the ones putting the food into her mouth. We discovered that shredded cheese and cut up lunch meat work great, I bought some tofu to try as well as avacado, but the one thing that she LOVES..... is Rice Crispies!!!!!! It is just hilarious watching her eat them, frantically trying to stuff them in her mouth as fast as she can, 1 at a time.
She has also become a momma's girl. I have found that the only way I can get anything done is by tying her to me. She adores the vacume as long as it is off, but once I turn it on she crawls over as fast as she can and makes me pick her up.
Alex can walk now, but when we try to make her practice she just gets silly and falls over on purpose.
We have decided to put the swing away. EVERY time she sits in it she will just grab onto both the rails, making the swing stop, and then sit there stretched out and cry. I wish I could have gotten a good picture of it.


She teases and plays and knows when she is doing something she shouldn't. She loves to give High 5's, but only to her uncle David, and whenever my mom laughs, she starts to laugh in this hilarious fake laugh. You know she is trying to be sweet when she puts her cheek up to yours and then does the "ahhhhhhhh" sound. She will even give kisses! We try not to let her watch TV, but i realized what a terrible job we were doing, when she picked up the remote, pointed it at the TV and then looked at the TV expectantly. I learned my lesson fast! She is just a treasure.

A video to pass the time

I've collected a bunch of great Alex video's that I plan to post as often as I get the chance. When I watch this I think how brave and cute Alex is, then I wonder if everyone else is thinking "WHAT WAS SHE THINKING!!!" The horse was super nice and there were about 10 adults standing by just in case, and there was no way the horse could have eaten her toes. I'm not a bad mother.

The update on us......

Temperatures in Billings are slowly rising, but the wind has made is still to miserable to go outside. Alex and I have cabin fever.
Tyler and I got called to be the primary teachers for the 10 year olds. There are 16 of them. We are also giving talks on Sunday.
We went to Alex's 9 month check up and found out that she is in the 90th percentile for height and the 75th for weight, and overall just looking great!
While he is still looking for a job, Tyler has gotten a part time gig helping out a tree trimming service. He is really excited about this, mostly because he loves chainsaws.
Alex got sick right after Tyler and I got better, and has spent the last few days miserably throwing up and filling her diapers with diarrhea. A couple days ago at 5am Alex woke up fussy. I fed her and put her back but she was still whiny so I decided to change her diaper. As soon as I started to unzip her PJ's I noticed a problem. Lets just say that Tyler and I took her into the bathroom and peeled her PJ's off her to discover she was covered from her armpits to her knees in the nastiest poop ever. It was like someone had dumped a couple of jars of mustard down her diaper and then rubbed it all over her. She got an early morning shower that day.
A semi full of eggs went off the road and the cargo was going to be sent to the dump. a man in the ward found out about it and took charge of the cargo and therefore we got a bunch of free eggs. So far I have developed my own recipe for deviled eggs and today I plan on making angel food cake and the wonderful white Christmas cookies.

Vintage Fern: GIVEAWAY!

One of the blogs that i enjoy reading is having a giveaway. You should check out her etsy shop, she is very talented!

Vintage Fern: GIVEAWAY!

The New Year

In my family, on New Years Eve we have the greatest meal of the entire year. Seafood, steaks, appitizers, any and everything you can imagine. It's the one holidday meal I just can't wait for. That's why it was a double whammy when I got SICK! Somehow I got the stomach flu and spent a wonderful night running to the bathroom every hour, and then spent the next 5 days laying in bed, sipping water, and eating applesauce. Tyler has been feeling pretty terrible as well, but luckily Alex hasn't caught it yet (knock on wood). We drove up to Worland, WY in the midst of it to spend New Year's Eve and Day with my Grandparents. It was torture watching them eat all that great food, but it was so fun to spend the time with family.
My favorite part of the visit was when we went out to my Grandpa's farm to see the animals and mess around. There was a horse there that Alex was just amaized by, and spent the whole time looking at and talking to that horse. I got some great pictures of her and her Great Grandpa hanging out.
Alex is growing up fast, she crawls on her hands and knees now. Well, she will crawl over to a chair, then pull herself up, and then walk around the room holding onto anything she can. I can't believe she is already so grown up!

My favorite picture in the whole world