What the...?

The last few times I have tried to update my blog is hasn't worked. Sorry for the delay. The Sanfords are having a wonderful holiday season so far. We got all of our Christmas shopping done before Thanksgiving and I am sold! Never again will I put off shopping until the short amount of time between Thanksgiving and Christmas. It makes the time go by too quickly. Seriously, this has been the most fun and relaxing holiday season we've had in a while. We've watched a ton of Christmas movies, spent a lot of time with friends and family, decorated the house (I even got Cory up on the roof to put Christmas lights up...1st time ever!) and sent out a Christmas card (also a first). We're loving it. Phoenix is doing great, of course. He sits up by himself, and rolls over both ways (but only if he has a reason to, and he usually doesn't). He also is getting his first tooth! It just poked through his gums a couple of days ago. He's been a lot more fussy than usual, but luckily he's still pretty good. He eats some solid food now. The two pictures below are rice cereal and yams at Thanksgiving. He also ate some avocado yesterday. I don't think he liked it, but we'll keep trying.

Speaking of Thanksgiving, we went to Weiser for the holiday and had a great time. Cory, my dad, my brother Q, and I had some good games of Risk. I love Risk (mainly because I win more than I loose. I'm a bad looser when it comes to games. Just ask Cory. He won't play scrabble with me anymore because I get too mad). We didn't do much after thanksgiving shopping, but we did hit the local Bi-Mart. Fun times! Also, my mom and sister and I went to Jo-Ann's. If you've never been to Jo-Ann's the day after Thanksgiving, don't! It's CRAZY, but they do have some great deals! As soon as you get there, you get a number (restaurant style) in order to get your fabric cut. Then you do your shopping while you're waiting for your number to be called. We got number 89. By the thime we were done shopping and ready for the cutting table, they were only on number 64. It was insane, but fun.

We took family pictures this year. It was freezing! Of course the ones that turned out well are the ones with the houses in the background. We had some really cute ones in front of some evergreen trees, but there were these annoying boys in the park making noises and trying to get Phoenix's attention so he's looking to the side in all of them. Grrr. Also, a couple of weeks after family pictures, I chopped my hair off. It's pretty short. The longest layer is about at my chin and the shortest is like 4 inches long! I still can't decide what I think about it.

A quick side note. I picked Cory up from work yesterday and as we were leaving the Courthouse, we saw some EMT's wheeling a dead body out of the apartment building across the street! It was kind of creepy!

PS

If you're wondering why Phoenix's diaper is so big in the last picture, it's because we use cloth diapers. I love them! They're really not as gross or as much of a pain as you probably think they are. He very rarely gets diaper rash, he doesn't leak out of these any more than he did with paper diapers (I used them for about the first month until he grew into these ones), they're way less expensive in the long run, better for the environment, and kids who wear cloth usually potty train earlier!! I use Kushie's all-in-ones so it's just like putting on a normal diaper. There's no folding or pinning or using a separate diaper cover. When they're dirty I put them in a plastic garbage can with a lid until I wash them (usually every other or every 2 days). When we're out and about I have a waterproof bag with a zipper that I put his diapers in until we get home. When he starts eating solid food and has real poo, I'll have to put it in the toilet before putting the diapers in the pail, but it's not a big deal. The kids that I used to nanny used these diapers, which is how I found out about them. I posted some pics of the inside, back, and front.

Also, a little story about church on Sunday. We had our primary program. We have 260 kids in primary and they took up about 1/2 the chapel so most of the ward (including myself) had to sit on folding chairs in the gym. Cory had to sit up with his class, so it was just Phoenix and I in the back. He started getting really fussy during the sacrament so as soon as I got the water, I got up to take him out. As I was stepping over his carseat, one of my shoes fell off. I tried to reach back with my foot and put it back on, but it fell upside down. So I kicked off my other shoe and walked over to the door in just my nylons. I was holding Phoenix and his blanket and his pacifier and trying to push the door open, but it was really heavy so my feet just kept sliding on the floor. I finally got the door open and took him out into the foyer where he pretty much cried through all of sacrament. It was a little embarassing. He eventually started falling asleep about 10 minutes before our sacrament meeting was over, but the other ward was about the get out and I knew it would get really noisy, so I took him back in hoping he would sleep but as soon as I sat down the kids in front of me slammed a toy car on the metal seat and woke him up. Luckily he didn't fuss too much after that, but it really made me appreciate having Cory there to help out!!

His latest trick

Here is Phoenix standing up. Also, a little update on Jury Duty. They excused me since I'm nursing, but I think that I am going to have it again next April. We'll see...

It's been a while...

I know I haven't posted in a while. Phoenix is getting so much more interactive and fun, but he also needs a lot more attention!! He's still rocking the 6-9 mo size clothes. He does fun things like laugh, roll over (sometimes), sit up, and now he can stand by himself if he has something (like the couch) to hang on to. It's crazy how quickly it all happens. We had a fun and relaxing Halloween. We took Phoenix into Cory's work dressed up, so he got a half day. That was pretty sweet (one of the advantages of working with a bunch of ladies). Phoenix was a pirate, as you can see from the pictures. We grossly underestimated the number of trick or treaters we would have so once we ran out of candy we went over to Cory's parents house and handed out their candy! Oh, and of course Phoenix had a huge blowout in his halloween costume at like 6 pm so I had to wash it and dry it really quickly before we went to grandma and grandpas so they could see him in it. Anyway, here are som pics. Enjoy.

Little White Tie

Here are pictures from Phoenix's Blessing Day. Check out his little white tie. I love it! Thanks to Grandma Erhard for making his cute white outfit.

Jury Duty

I just got called for Jury duty, Oct. 20th-24th. I'm kind of excited. It's my first time! Yeah!

My New Favorite Phoenix Pic

For Trenna

Hey Trenna, here are some more pics! We have had fun lately taking Phoenix to all kinds of new places. Most notably, the MK Nature Center, The Zoo, and a Hawks game. He's growing like a champ. He wears 6 month size clothes now and is still in the 95th % for height and 75th for weight. We'll see how long it lasts

A Tiger at the zoo. Cooler than we thought!

Phoenix at the Zoo. This was pretty much the only time he was awake, so it's the only picture we have of him.

Meerkats

Our neice Brynlee and the Zebra.

Brynlee at the MK Nature Center.It's hard to see w/ the reflection but there are a bunch of trout, salmon, and carp behind the glass.

Phoenix and I at the same place.

Phoenix and I having fun at the Hawks game.

At the Hawks game again.

They did YMCA during the 7th inning stretch and he LOVED it! This is us still doing it after the inning started. He was great the whole time until the fireworks started. Then he got a little fussy but not crying. He's a pretty cool kid.

After a bath. I thought he just looked cute and funny with his towel on his head and his big round tummy.

Lately he's been pulling his blankets up by his face to do snuggles when he sleeps.

Family Reunions

We had the family reunion tour a couple of weeks ago. It was fun. Mine was in Island Park, ID Monday through Thursday and Cory's was at Pineview Reservoir in Utah Thursday through Sunday. It was nice to get out of town for a week! Phoenix was awesome, of course. He slept almost every minute that we were in the car. He loved it! We didn't take a lot of pictures, but here are a few... The first is Phoenix in the Newborn size hat that I bought for him for the trip. Huge!!!!
Family pictures....all the kids
Phoenix asleep on Aunt Trenna's Arm
His first Hike! It was too rocky so we didn't get very far, but it was still cool.

More Pictures!

Holding his head up Watching Baseball with Dad
His first real bath-he didn't even cry!

Too sleepy to be bothered with burping

3 Weeks

That picture is a little blurry, but I love it! Phoenix was 3 weeks old on Tuesday. Crazy! It seems like we've had him forever. He is doing great. He's getting better at sleeping. Last night he slept for 4 hours at a time, and for the most part, went to sleep by himself in his crib when he was done eating. It was so nice! More pictures to come...

July 8th, 2008 - Finally!!

So I went to the reflexologist, and it was very interesting. It was kind of weird, but it really did help. It didn't put me into labor or anything, but I felt a lot better afterward. He made my heartburn a ton better, and he pushed all of my muscles in my torso around to help with the back and hip aches. I felt pretty good afterward. Phoenix was 10 days late (they had to induce me) but the labor was awesome. It was only 3 hours long, and I only had to push for about 1 hr 15 min. I don't know if that had anything to do with the reflexology or if I just got lucky, but it was great. Phoenix was 8 lbs 12 oz and 21 inches long. He was a big boy! Here are some pictures...

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A little update

I stink at this blogging thing. It could have something to do with the fact that we don't have the internet at our house, yet. That should be coming sometime this month, though. Luckily my work is allowing me to work from home after I have the baby, so the internet is a must. I'm pretty excited about that (working from home, that is). My belly is ginormous, or it feels that way. I don't like taking pictures of it. But maybe I will before I have the baby. We just bought a four door car (a Toyota Rav4). I love it! It is 4WD and easy to get into and out of, but it's only a 4 cylinder so it still gets decent gas mileage. We also bought a rad stroller and carseat. It's a jogging stroller travel system. The stroller is pretty bulky, but I love it. If I ever get around to posting pics, I will show you.
We went to Seattle in April and went to a couple of Mariner's games. It was really fun. We had kumquats for the first time. We bought them at Pike's Market. They are crazy. Super sour at first but they get sweet enough at the end to make you eat another one. We also went to the top of the Space Needle at night, which was awesome! We had a great time.
Cory's position with Ada County is official as of the middle of June. It wasn't supposed to be official until next fiscal year (September or October) but the director of Ada County Administrative Services went to bat for him and got it approved earlier. He was also named as the Outstanding Graduate in Human Resources for 2008. We went to the awards ceremony on Tuesday. That was really neat.
Those are the highlights of our lives lately.I'll try not to wait so long in between posts next time....

The First Post

Everyone else is doing it, so I thought we should too. This will, hopefully, be a good way for us to keep everyone updated on all that is happening in our lives. Especially after the baby! More to come later...