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I'm losing the blogging spirit. It just seems like I always have better things to do than blog. I will still keep doing it for the people that we don't get to see very often, but I apologize in advance if it's even more boring than it has been. I mostly just like showing off pictures of Phoenix anyway :-) Speaking of Phoenix, the picture below was supposed to be in the last post, but I accidentally deleted it, and didn't want to take the time to put it back on.

Here are pictures of the graffiti pictures that I talked about last post.

And finally, one of my new year's resolutions was to cook a real meal at least twice a week (and by real I mean not hamburger helper or grilled cheese sandwiches). So, I made this chicken pot pie last week, with home-made crust. I was so proud of myself that I had to take a picture of it! The next night I made a ham n' swiss braid. Home-made bread and everything. I was also very proud of that, but didn't take pictures of it.

2009!!

Can't believe it's 2009 already! What a fun year 2008 was. We had some friends in town from Phoenix (the city) who had a New Year's party. It was great the see them. Phoenix (the boy) staued up until 12:30! It was a super late night for him. Cory and I did make some resolutions and blogging more is not one them. Sorry! Maybe if I was more funny/interesting.... Cory and I did resolve to be more "green" this year, though. We are going to do better about recycling, we sent out "e thank-you" cards after Christmas, we're doing cloth wipes (in addition to cloth diapers), Cory rides the bus to work (which he actually did most of last year, too), we got a bunch of those flourescent energy saver light bulbs, and as soon as it's warm enough, we're going to walk to church. If you have any other great "green" ideas, let us know!

Phoenix is 6 months old now! He had 2 bottom teeth and is starting to get his top two. He had 6 month vaccinations yesterday and I think his legs are really sore. He keeps crying and won't try to stand up (which is very unusual). He also has his first fever. Sad story. But he is doing all kinds of fun tricks now. He sits up really well by himself. We put a box under a sheet and had him sit on it for these photos.

Looking up at dad

Kind of smiling, but kind of not

With the light shining through his ears...so funny :-)

Phoenix loves attention...Cory's parents were over the other day checking out our awesome grafitti pics (pictures to come later) and we were showing them how he can rock forward from a sitting position onto his hands and knees, how he loves playing with his push walker, and how he can pull himself up on his crib rails. Before then he had just pulled himself up from sitting to his knees, but when we put him in his crib to show them, he pulled himself right up to standing while looking around at everyone and smiling his big cheesy smile.

Christmas!

Christmas was so fun this year! We spent Christmas Eve and morning with Cory's family. All the kids were home for one last big hurrah until who knows when, so it was fun. We all had matching PJ's and lots of gifts! Phoenix loved the wrapping paper and boxes, of course.

Our best Christmas present ever!!



So focused. This is serious stuff!

Christmas afternoon we went to Weiser to do gifts with my family, and of course, forgot to take pictures. It was great to see everyone, though! We hung out there for a couple of days before coming back to Meridian on Saturday in the blizzard! It was fun and relaxing as usual. I love the holidays.

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.