Uh oh

Logan (my brother) is in trouuubbbbllleeee.....

or we are.....

http://www.newsoftheweird.com/wayne.html

Calvin explains the bailout

whoa

Brian's company just had a planning meeting about the budget and cutting some costs.  One of the places they talked about was the break room.  Now, Brian's job has a pretty good break room.  They keep it stocked with some good stuff, one thing being peanut M&Ms.  They are cutting the M&Ms.  It seems that they go through 8 bags a month!  Costco size bags.......yah, crazy.

Speaking of being fat, I need motivation to exercise.  Not really to lose weight, although I could stand to lose a little more baby weight, but more just to be healthy.  Brian found this website that provides some pretty good motivation.  There are a few things you can do, such as, if you make your goal you can donate money to a favorite charity or something.  That, to me, is not great motivation.  I mean, it would be good to donate money but it doesn't MAKE you exercise.  Another option is if you DONT make a goal you donate money to something you HATE.  For example, every day I do not exercise for X amount of time I would donate $10 to something I dislike.  Planned Parenthood and ACORN are at the top of the list so far.  Any suggestions? :)

So nice

So Sunday night Claire went to bed at 10:00 and woke up for a few minutes around 5 and then slept in until 10!!  It was Heaven on earth!  When I went to check on her, I saw this

My baby is a belly sleeper!  She sleeps so much better now that she can be on her belly or side.  Yay for me!

Nothin has been happening around her.  I've just been playing with this cutie.

Claire has a bruise on her knee so she is crawling like a monkey now.  Its cute but I'm sad that it hurts her.

Wanna take a gamble?

Why you probably shouldn't....

http://tolearnflash.appspot.com/lotto/

Ouch

Brian took a tumble on his bike today.  He underestimated how cold it was and it was icy this morning.  He made it almost the whole way but slid out turning into work.  Luckily he wasn't hurt but unfortunantly, his bike did not escape unscathed.  

Nothing much has been happening around here so I will just leave you with some pictures. 

I let her suck on a little bit of a candy cane when we were going from the Temple to Jeff's house.  Bad me.

 

Brian did a part in her hair after her bath

Walking with the help of a box

Thank you

I found a good website today.  You can say Thank You to President Bush for keeping America safe.  You can just push a button if you want or you can write a little note.  I did.  I think he is a good man who did what he needed to.  I think he (and his wife) had dignity, grace, and class and showed it throughout the whole presidency, especially to those who had none themselves.  (exhibit A, those who boo'd him yesterday, come on people..geesh)  Even if you don't agree with everything he did, or didn't like him personally, you can at least click the button to say a little thank you.

http://www.mission1accomplished.com/

I love to see the Temple

Today we got up at 5:00 to go to the temple in Bellevue today.  It was much needed and long over due.  This is the first time we have been since the baby was born.  We went up with another couple who have a 5 month old baby.  The guys went in first and then we girls went.  There were a lot of weddings going on today.  Beautiful weather for the brides :) Claire did good.  Slept the whole way up and the whole way back.  We met up with Brian's friend Jeff and his wife Janelle and went over to their apartment for lunch and some games.  It was a really nice day.  

On another note, last night we went to JoAnnes fabrics and bought Christmas stuff and some patterns for me to work with.  We spent $17.58 and SAVED $167.32.  Beat that if you will :) I submit that you probably can not....lol

Claire has learned how to chase us now.  Its so fun 

Tsk tsk

Tom Hanks Says Mormon Supporters of Proposition 8 'Un-American'

Tom Hanks, Executive Producer for HBO’s controversial polygamist series “Big Love,” made his feelings toward the Mormon Church’s involvement in California's Prop 8 (which prohibits gay marriage) very clear at the show’s premiere party on Wednesday night.

“The truth is this takes place in Utah, the truth is these people are some bizarre offshoot of the Mormon Church, and the truth is a lot of Mormons gave a lot of money to the church to make Prop-8 happen,” he told Tarts. “There are a lot of people who feel that is un-American, and I am one of them. I do not like to see any discrimination codified on any piece of paper, any of the 50 states in America, but here's what happens now. (Not that I like polygamy or want it to be legal but isn't not allowing that discrimination? haha) A little bit of light can be shed, and people can see who's responsible (blacks, whites, hispanics, Catholics, evangelicals and so on), and that can motivate the next go around of our self correcting Constitution, and hopefully we can move forward instead of backwards. So let's have faith in not only the American, but Californian, constitutional process.”

Anyone else find this dumb?  Maybe since he tars polygamists and Mormons with the same brush, and he thinks Mormons are 'unamerican', he should probably do America a favor and stop doing Big Love and quit making money from it.  Although, I doubt his consience will go THAT far...

MORMONS ARE NOT POLYGAMISTS

I am so ta-ta-ta-TIRED of stupid celebrities or anyone who do this!  Why is it un-American do give money or vote on something that you don't agree with?  I won't even go into the fact that Mormons make up like 2% of California and with all the kids Mormons have, the voting percentage is way less.  Ticks me off.  Tom Hanks...YOU are un-American and I won't go see anymore of your crappy movies...neener neener... :)

Its so hard...

learning how to move those legs!!  

Now that Claire pulls up on anything and everything we are hearing a tad bit more crying around the house.  She lets go alot and can balance herself for a little bit but then sometimes takes a tumble.  She usually can sit down fine without crashing but sometimes she trys too hard to walk.  Right now she has a couple of bruises on her knee, rug burn on her chin, and a big bump on the head!  Does that make me a bad mom?  lol.  I can't hover around her all day.  I've been letting her crawl pretty much everywhere.  I've been super good at cleaning my floors and vacuuming.  I have a couple of drawers in the kitchen that she can get into.  I can't believe how mobile (and quick!) she is.  

Standing up under her high chair. 

Looking guilty

Soooo cute :)

Anyway, I'm sure everyone has heard about that plane crashing in the river by now.  **MY WORST NIGHTMARE**  Well, actually, in my worst nightmare everyone DIES but that's pretty close.  I hate hate hate flying.  Urg.  I've learned that the most dangerous time in the flight is 3 minutes into it and 8 minutes till the end.  I've learned that you should want to be one or two rows from any exit seat.  Upping the paranoia.  

Bush gave his farewell address tonight too.  I think he is a good man.  I think he did the best he could.  Nuff said.

The only thing I didn't like about his speech is that it pushed Bones back another week!  AH!  I was so looking forward to watching a new episode tomorrow.  Oh well.  Anyways, it's time for bed and I am so looking forward to getting into it.  Claire woke up at 5 today and did not want to go back to sleep.  I was so tired....

Yes! Vindication!

Alrighty everyone, I would like you to take a moment and gather your preconceived notions about people who play video games.  Go ahead, I'll wait... got em?  Good.  Now go ahead and pile them up... yep that will do nicely.  Now go ahead and take a hammer and give em a good smash!

I get a copy of Quirk's Marketing Research Review at work now, since I'm all up in the market research world.  One article caught my eye about "gaming" households.  I'll quote some stuff here.

"According to the research, more than 75 percent of video gamers play games with other people either online or in person."  Now, this statistic doesn't do anything for me, because World of Warcraft is online with other people, and you can play games online with people without washing your hair for days (keep that preconceived notion, I'm pretty sure there is a strong correlation between your character's level in World of Warcraft and the average number of days in between bathing).

11 Million people can't be wrong!

Wait...yes...yes they can

"In addition, more than 47 percent of people living in gaming households said that video games were a fun way to interact with other family members."  Not even a majority?  Pretty sad statistic, but again I blame Halo and World of Warcraft, as you don't have to interact with the real world around you at all (person hygeine) and still qualify for the statistic above.

Now here's the part I like.  "The study also indicates that gamers are actually more social and more active than non-gamers."  Wait, ok, you're going to pull something like "is social with other people via his level 70 orc wizard, right?

"Gamers were twice as likely to go out on dates as non-gamers in a given month."  Wait, what?  Ok, wait, raiding a dungeon with a lvl 50 elf princess on a Friday night does NOT count as a date (for more reasons than the insanely high chance that lvl 50 elf princess is a 28 year old male IT guy at your work).

Yep, I'm a dude

"In addition, gamers were 13 percent more likely to go out to a movie, 11 percent more likely to play sports and 9 percent more likely to go out with friends than non-gamers."

You got me, no witty remarks here, that's research baby!  And those are just the statistics I cut out of the article.  There was another one that I believe said about 50% of all gamers are married, and I think about 40-something percent of them have kids.  The median age of a gamer is almost 30.

So, take those statistics with a grain of salt, because it's not a good thing if those married gamers with kids spend hours each day killing each other on Halo, but I'm glad playing video games is becoming more mainstream (thanks Wii).  Maybe someday Megan will let me play shooting games again (see how many "gamers" give up entire genres for their wife, now that's true love!).  Viva el Mario!

Just doing my job...

Prunes...Glorious Prunes....

(Can you see her pearly whites?)

Who woulda thunk it? She likes it :)

Because I haventt left the house.....

We painted wooden letters a while ago and just barely put them up.  Now I sit and rock/nurse Claire and look at them.  This is what I have come up with...

CLAIRE

ace

air

arc

are

car

ire

care

lair

lace

liar

race

rail

real

rile

Is that pathetic?  Have I missed anything? lol

:(

I only knew one Claire my whole life.  Now everyone is naming their kid my baby's name.  :(  Wazup wit dat?

Guess who...

is 8 months old?

Wow, y'all are smart.

Doing some pushups

I cant really think of much going on in our lives for the next few...well...months.  The beginning of the year is always the boring part.  I apoligize that my blog will be surpremely boring for the next while.  Well...unless you live to see pictures of Claire...then I'm sure you won't be disappointed. 

Catch-up

Our poor computer has been out of commission for a while. It got a virus and Brian had to totally reformat and wipe everything. Of course it happened at a time when I could have done posts every night!

The 30th was our two year anniversary. I would do a whole sappy post but the day has past so you all are off the hook until next year ;) Anyway, we didn't do anything that day. I got my new phone though and I'm glad to finally have it back! Brian's mom came that day and Brian went and picked her up from the airport. It was really really nice to have her here. She babysat Claire while Brian and I went out to eat the next night. I felt a lot better leaving her with Grandma than someone else. At least I know that Grandma will love on her when she is crying. Claire did really well during her visit....especially compared to how she usually does when anyone else takes her.

We also pretty much had another Christmas! Brian got a GPS unit and some clothes and I got a willow figure and also some clothes.

I love it! Claire got some of the cutest little legwarmers and clothes and a monkey blanket. She loves her blanket.

You can see the blanket in the background and she is wearing her legwarmers. Brian didn't have to go to work on the first so we went into Silverdale to do some shopping. That is the day to go shopping. There was no one there!! It was nice to get out of Sequim. Saturday Sandy helped me learn my sewing machine! We went to Walmart and got some fabric and I made a blanket. Its nothing fancy at all, just pinned down the sides and sewed straight down it but it was fun. It got me excited to learn more things. And we needed a bigger blanket for Claire to wrap her in. The only other one we have big enough is one my Aunt Samantha made.

Sadly, Grandma had to leave today but we REALLY enjoyed having her here. We had fun and played some mean games of Trivial Pursuit. Come again soon!

Claire does really well having people here. She does so many new things! She is getting really good at eating her Puff finger foods by herself. She actually ate some banana from a SPOON today!! Crazy. She is pulling herself up very well and can move from one thing to another if she is able to hold onto something for the whole time. She likes sitting up on her knees now too. She also loves sitting on Daddy's shoulders.

All this playing wears her out...

This is her new tongue trick

Hope you enjoyed :)