Going Green

Okay, I know the subject has been really popular in the last year or two due to a number of things. I know I got interested in all the things we can do for the environment after watching a special on Oprah. My sister Kristy has always been into it and tries really hard to recycle and things like this. One of the areas I am most concerned about is the health of my family and friends. There are so many things we can do to keep healthy that don't involve that much work from our part. I have been meaning to write a blog about this but didn't know how to describe some of the things I wanted to talk about. Yesterday I did some research on a couple of topic because I was hoping to find something I could copy and paste. As of right now I am still looking for a good article. So really quickly ( since I need to get ready for church ) here are some things to be aware of:

Don't reuse water bottles. If you are a water person, buy a biodegradable water bottle that you can refill and is good for the environment. People think they are doing the world a favor by reusing the plastic bottles they get a the store, but when you reuse a bottle you are actually harming yourself. When you feel the bottle up again, the water pouring into the bottle scraps the sides and let's toxins into your water. Water bottles are REALLY bad for the environment anyways so buy a nice 15 dollar one and refill that with some filtered water. You can also find water bottles that have filters at the top so you can use your tap water to fill them.

Another thing you can do for your self is to NOT put Tupperware in the microwave. It's basically the same reason. When the Tupperware heats up it spills toxins into your food and these toxins have been linked to cancer. Cancer seems to be on the rise every year that passes and there are so many thing we can do to help prevent it.

The last one I am going to mention is something a lot of people don't know about. It's called parabens. This is what I was researching yesterday because it's hard to explain in my own words. I still need to find a good article to post so that will come later today ( after church ). But basically parabens are something in lotions, soaps, shampoos, lubricants, make-up and a million other things. They are put in there to help prevent bacteria from growing to prolong the self life of these items. The problems is they are being linked to a number of problems. One of them being the fact that parabens mock our body's estrogen. So when the stuff soaks into our skin it can disrupt our hormone levels. There are a few study who link it to breast cancer. They don't know that it causes breast cancer BUT in one study they took 20 samples of breast cancer tissue and every single one had one or more parabens in it. Like, I said, I'll find an article for you that better explains things. But look at your lotions and make up products. You will be sure to find at least ONE paraben in them. I decided to read one of Tyler's lotions and it had 3 different ones in it and I was trying to decide if I should throw it away or not. Then I found his Aveno for sensitive skin, really expensive 8 dollar lotion and it had 6 freaking parabens in it so I chucked it. It's a choice but I would rather be safe the sorry. IN little boys like Tyler who has not reach puberty, it can mess with their hormones as well and in some study has thought to believe this is why mens sperm counts have been going way down in the last 10 years or so. OKAY I REALLY need to get ready. I hope everyone has a fabulous Sunday. Wish me luck because we haven't been to ALL of church in 3 weeks so I hope Tyler does okay.

Tired

Man am I tired! i didn't have trouble sleeping when I was pregnant with Tyler. I can NOT fall asleep the last couple of weeks. I know for me things are different. I am not getting any loving from my hubby since he is gone, I am in a different bed that is so small I have to roll over in place and its a LOT harder then my bed at home and I am sleeping in a room with my kid. Yeah, WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY different then last pregnancy. It still sucks though. I HATE not being able to sleep. Right now I am so tired but I know that by the time I am done getting ready for bed I will just go lay there thinking and who wants to do that ( especially when they haven't seen there husband for 3 months and has another 3 months to go )

Any ways. I didn't want this to be a complaining blog. Sleep is just on my mind since it is late and I should be going to bed. However, I shrank some pictures earlier today and wanted to post them. We had fun with the in laws in Cedar City, well Tyler was a butt and threw a huge fit when they took us to dinner but other then that it was good. When we got back here to St. George Tyler was upset he didn't get to sleep with me still. He liked cuddling with his momma I guess. Which makes me happy we had no desire to do a family bed! Oh my gosh...I would have never gotten him out of our room because he is my cuddle bug. No offense to anyone who lets their kids sleep with them. It's not for everyone and I am for SURE one of those people it is NOT for. I like my bed to be mine only....well and Cody's of course. Oh my gosh...I am rambling again already. Here are some pictures.




This first 3 pictures are of Tyler with his grandparents. For the longest time we called Cody's parents 'Papa and Nana' and mine 'Grandma and grandpa' Then it started changing. So Tyler to keep things straight started calling Cody's mom "grandma-nana" I think it's so funny. I always try to get good pictures with them but I can never get Cody's mom looking at the camera. She's a sneaky one to get pictures of so I was thrilled to finally get a couple.




Tyler's new obsession is puzzles! These puzzles in the picture here are 63 pieces each and he can do a pretty good amount of them by himself. He wants to do them all day everyday...while watching the Incredible's of course because that is his favorite movie this week. He has favorite lines from the movie too that he will just blurt out whenever and wherever we are. This morning I heard him moving around and opened my eyes. I looked over at him and the first words out of his mouth were, "I'm so proud of you!" haha If you know the movie well, you'll know where that is...here are the others:
"I want to BE normal. Jack Jack's the only normal one and he isn't even potty trained!"
"TV trying to watch"
"It's not about you"
I'm forgetting one but you get the idea. It's always random one liners.





I bought my mom a birdhouse at the dollar store because she loves them. Then we bought paint and I let Tyler do his thang. He hadn't really painted before and he was having so much fun...that is until he got paint on his hand and on his arm and started freaking out! I wasn't kidding when in previous post I called him my little Monk. But he still had lots of fun and is proud of his little bird house! Next we are going to get grandma-nana something and paint it! WOO HOO



Then I let him have some ice cream. MMMMMMMMMMMMMM There are a couple more pictures but they are all kind of random...


I gave him a kit-kat and he had never had one before. He didn't quiet know what to do with it so it just melted in his hand! haha I tried to get a good close up of how melted it was and the chocolate dripping from it!


And last but not least, Tyler's favorite thing to play with at Papa and Nana's. My little guy LOVES instruments. HE seriously know the difference between a guitar, a violin and a flute! he knows a bunch of other instruments too! He loves them all. He;s going to be mu little musician.

365 week 12

I have been slacking on posting these projects every week. One time I had to figure out two of these at once and I was so frustrated trying to remember which picture I took which day. The date on my camera is messed up so it changes like half way through the day so I can't always rely on what date it says it was taken on. Anyways...babbling


Day 1

This is from our walk. This is the ONLY picture I took this day. I loved how the rays of lights were coming from the mountain. It was kind of funny because the sun was setting on the other side of the sky so I don't understand where the rays were coming from. But any ways it ended up pretty.


Day 2

Tyler is all about patterns. You do something with him once, chances are he will remember doing it and you will have to do it every day FOREVER after. One time when we were out playing in his monkey pool I brought him some pretzels. It became a thing. He request pretzels every time we are out side playing with the water now. I liked how the glass was leaving a reflection on the chair.


Day 3

We played outside again and this dragon fly is ALWAYS at my parents house bugging us. So I took it's picture. They are so pretty the way the glitter in the sun.

Day 4

This is a fountain that is out by the street by my parents house. It has a bunch of lily pads that bloom during the day time and then close up at night. I had been wanting to go to take pictures of them and then finally got a chance to do so. Here is one of my favorite ones.

Day 5

We were at my parents new house and Tyler and Noah had been playing out side. Tyler was SOOOOO tired and found these pillows on the floor so he helped himself. I titled this picture "helping grandma move" haha

Day 6

I know these two pictures look the same but they are very different in theory. This is at the "old" house. My mom has an exercise ball that Tyler loves to play with. They had taken the air out of it to make it easier to move and Tyler was very sad it didn't have air in it. So he was playing with it anyways without the air. I found him in the hall archway, leaning on it like it was a pillow! haha He's my little weirdo

Day 7

Last but not least, this was taken on our walk. Tyler is all into having his picture taken right now. If I am NOT taking a picture of him he asks me to! AND he says, "CHEESE" It's so cute. So here you go. This week was kind of whatever I could get time to take pictures of. Nothing specific and I am pretty sure the pictures from this week are the same way. BUT I am still doing the project and I can't wait to go back and looked at all of these when the year is over. :) I am going to make a big book of them for us to have as a yearly journal. WOO HOO!

Peace Out

We are off for a couple of days to go visit my in laws. My parents are moving all the big stuff today and we figured it would be easier if Tyler and I were gone and he wasn't trying to get in the way. He had a HUGE fit at lunch time which means he finally got a good nap it. :) So wish me luck. I have a 1 drive a head of us. We'll be back Wednesday.

Makes me laugh every day...

Tyler does something everyday that just cracks me up! Last night before we went to bed he was in our bedroom looking at books and I was in the living room doing something. I could over hear him talking and all of the sudden I hear him say, "Jesus Christ" I thought...."No, that couldn't have been what he said" so I listen in some more. Again I hear, "Jesus Christ"!! Horrified over what I just heard and trying to think about how I was gonna explain to Tyler that we can't say that name whenever we wanted to, he came running into the room saying, "Mommy, mommy look" He held up a pass along card with a picture of Jesus on it and said, "It's Jesus Christ!" LOL I thought I was gonna die laughing. Here I thought my kid was taking the Lords name in vain or something and he was just excited to see a picture of him! Awwwww how I love my little Tyler boy!

Tyler has a bad temper. I have mention this oh about a thousand plus times because it drives me nuts! When he starts throwing a tantrum I usually say, "Stop freaking out Tyler!" About a week or so ago I took Tyler shopping and he was being kind of grumpy which was making me grumpy. I was getting hungry and wanted to go to get some lunch on the way home because I couldn't think of anything I wanted to eat for lunch at home. It was only 11 but I was starving and getting antsy. It was taking Tyler forever to get in the car and I started getting mad at him. I finally get him in his seat and he starts throwing a fit about what was playing on his DVD player and what not. So I started yelling at him and trying to figure out what the heck he wanted me to do. He just stops, looks at me and says, "Oh you freaking out Momma!" haha Who could be mad after that?! I started laughing and said, "Yeah momma is freaking out huh? Momma needs to chill out." To which he replies, Chill out Momma!"

And one more...I may have written this already to which if I did, humor me. Kristy my sister, called Tyler a crack head the other day and he immediately copied it. Thanks Kris! About a week or so later I told him to go into to say good night to grandpa and they started teasing each other. Tyler looked at my dad and said, "Oh grandpa, you a crack head!" My mom and I, who were in the kitchen, heard and just started laughing hysterically! Awwwwww, kids say the darnedest things!

Something new PLEASE

I have been SO SICK of my background here on blogger. The problem was that I couldn't figure out how to change it without re-doing all of the my page elements. Since I am lazy and didn't want to redo ALL of them I decided to just keep it until I could figure it out or someone else could tell me how to do it. Well, I got onto blogger tonight wanting to kill sometime before going to bed and found this on my friend Crystal's site

http://www.shelsscraps.blogspot.com/

So I went here and looked around. The cool thing is that she tells you how to change your background without having to change EVERYTHING! SCORE. So I changed it and I didn't like the way it turned out. Do you know what bugs me most about blogger templates? That most of them don't go across the full screen and there is a bunch of wasted space. It makes a two paragraph blog look HUGE and so after getting excited about being able to change to a new cute background, I ended up using one the of plain ones blogger provides for you. HAHA I'm so lame I swear but I really like it a whole lot better. My blogs go across much more of the screen now and I think it just looks great. WOO HOO. I am not happy about where my header is and have no idea how to change that, but one thing at a time right?

A quick story for y'all and then I am off to bed since it will be 1 now before I get there. Tyler is kind of a girly boy sometimes. He doesn't really understand "girl" stuff and "boy" stuff which is fine with me. As long as he doesn't want me to put a dress on him I am down with pretty much whatever. Oh and he tried to get me to buy him a Barbie once and I wasn't so sure about that either. He wears bracelets sometimes and loves to put high heels on. We went to the store the other day and he REALLY wanted something from the vending machine on the way in. I had ONE quarter so we were limited in what we could buy. He choose something, we put the money in and out came a necklace. I say pretty a lot and so sometimes he tells me things are pretty. I opened it up and said, "Oh Tyty you got a necklace." Expecting him to say something about it being pretty I was totally shocked when he said, "Oh momma it's beautiful!" HAHA Another reason this is funny is because he has recently gotten into the movie Beauty and the Beast. He calls it Video and the Beast though. BUT when he says, 'Sleeping Beauty" he says it just fine. Isn't that so strange how kids do that? So Cody and I were working on it today over the web cam.

Cody: Say Sleeping Beauty
TY: Sleeping Beauty
Cody: Beauty and the BEast
Ty: Video and the Beast

HAHA Oh well....so to continue the story because it does not end there. So he is sitting in the cart with his necklace around his neck and we get to the fruit snacks. I don't know about you guys but my kid has to have a certain kind or he won't eat them.

ME: Ty do you want Nemo fruit snacks or Scooby Doo fruit snacks?
Ty: I want Princess fruit snacks momma!

Never before had I gotten that response but he has been really into the Disney movies lately. Grandma and grandpa have some and so he keeps getting into their movies and asking to watch stuff. I guess it's a phase. He loves the Princess fruit snacks too! He gets very excited when I ask if he wants one :)

A side note...I tried to make the link an insert you could click on and it wouldn't show up every time I tried...so apparently I have something else to work on too. I can NOT figure some of the crap out on here I swear.

I got Nothing...

Yeah I feel like I haven't written in here much the last couple of weeks. I feel like we do the same thing every day. Who want sot hear that. Right now we are moving our parents which is really depressing yet exciting at the same time. They got permission to paint ( they are renting ) and so they have been painting and me being pregnant and having Tyler, I can't really help with that. we went over there yesterday and were hanging out for a bit and Tyler is going to LOVE having a yard to play in. The one my parents has now doesn't have any grass and it's small. It's all about the view not having room to do anything. There's lots of cacti too which sucks. At the new place there are some death traps though so I will HAVE to be outside with him which kind of sucks but will be fine. Trips to the bathroom, which happen about once every half an hour, will have to include him coming in with me probably.

There are some other ups to the move as well. We will be closer to EVERYTHING! Except Kristy and Noah which sucks a little. But I really want to take some classes. They have classes every semester for normal people to take just for the knowledge and not for credits. they have some photography ones I want to take and they have a mommy and me class I would really like to take Tyler too. So we'll see. I need to sign up right away though because the mommy and me class starts in a week. Any ways..this one is just kind of a rambling blog about..well nothing really. Okay we are taking naps and then going shopping with Aunt Kristy and Noah. Wish us luck...because last time they BOTH drove us nuts! haha

Important Information about SIDS

I was reading my parenting magazine and they had this article called "Lost Babies" I was shocked at some of the info they offered on SIDS. If you have a baby or know someone who has a baby, I encourage you to go to parenting.com and look it up. One of the things it said, which I was shocked about, was that putting a baby to bed with a pacifier reduces the risk of SIDS by up to 90%! Can you believe that! 90% is a lot! I had a hard time getting Tyler to get off of the binkie when he turned 2. I figured he was old enough that he didn't need it but he was one of those that used it to get himself to sleep. It was hard but we did it. I was thinking about not even getting binkies for the next baby since Tyler was SO attached to his but after reading this I will be buying them for sure! They think the reason it prevents it is because babies who sleep with binkies don't fall asleep as deeply but they aren't sure. I don't even care the reason as long as it helps my kid stay alive past the age of 2! I will give you the other 3 things it said helps, aside from the ever so obvious 'lay your baby to sleep on their backs'. Even that since they came out with it in 1992 about 6000 babies died in their sleep from SIDS. But now because we know to put kids to sleep on their backs its down to 4500. Thats quiet a lot from one simple rule! Okay here are the other 3 things:

Put the Baby Down Alone. NO blankets, pillows, stuffed animals, or overly big bumper pads that don't stay on well until the baby is at least 4 months old. Also use a certified safe crib with a firm mattress.

Avoid over heating. This sounds so easy but a lot of mothers of certain Ethic backgrounds over swaddle their babies. Don't over swaddle. Make sure their room at night and nap time is a good temperature between 68 and 75 degrees.

And lastly, NO SMOKING! The babies of mothers who smoked while pregnant are more vulnerable but second hand smoke also rises the risk. SO DON'T DO IT AND DON'T LET OTHER PEOPLE DO IT AROUND YOUR BABY!

OKay so that was my rant on SIDS. Seriously read the article because it gives a lot more information then just that. I was just so shocked about the pacifier thing that I had to write this.

Another thing I found in the parenting magazine that made me laugh was another study by BYU ( that's what was funny about it to me was that BYU did the study ) was that Happily married couples are less likely to have problems with blood pressure and lessen the risk of heart disease. The catch is that being unhappily married is worse for you in those areas then being single! haha So be happy people and if you aren't happy in your marriage try and fix things for your health! :)

Pictures

I just wanted to post some pictures from yesterday. I bought Tyler a new pool, well really it's like a little splash pad. He loved it. His monkey pool has been outside since we got here and it blew into some cactus. Oooops. Since summer is officially over here pools and such are on sale. Any ways. Here are the cute pictures.

Menopause jewlery

My sister read this to my mom and I and I thought we were gonna die we were laughing so hard. So I thought I would share! :)



My husband, being unhappy with my mood swings,

bought me a mood ring the other day so he would be

able to monitor my moods. We've discovered that when

I'm in a good mood, it turns green. When I'm in a bad

mood, it leaves a big frickin' red mark on his forehead.

Maybe next time he'll buy me a diamond....the dumb ass. :-(

365 week 11

Hope these aren't getting old.

Sunday

We went to a park and I found this really cool leaf. It had obviously been eaten by some kind of bug but I loved how the leaf was still in tact.


Monday

This was the day we went to Discovery Park in Cedar City with Kristy and Noah. I am reusing a picture from earlier this week. I tried really hard not to do that this time but some pictures just end up being my favorites.


Tuesday

We went to the play ground this day. I get overwhelmed sometimes with how pretty it is here. Texas can be very pretty too but I can't go to a park and have a play ground like this!




Wednesday

I went on a walk with my mom Wednesday and I took the camera along. I got some good pictures of the sky at sunset but I liked this picture of the cactus. Which reminds me of a funny story I will tell you really quick. My nephew Noah has what the call social autism and sometimes we don't know how to explain things for him. He is VERY smart and sometimes he makes you feel stupid! haha One time he went to play in my moms backyard and she was worried because she has all sorts of cacti. she told him. Noah, see these plants here with all the prickly needles on them? They hurt very bad if you touch them so please be careful okay?" Noah looked at my mom and said, "Okay grandma." Then he couldn't stand it and said, "Um Grandma, those are called cacti." I love that he made it plural because I NEVER make that word plural, I just always says cactus! haha


Thursday

This was the day I was super sick. We didn't do much. But I got this sweet picture of Tyler needing some loving from grandma.


Friday

This was the lightening night. I decided to post one of the pictures before I edited it. so here is what it looked liked before I cropped the street lights out. It actually looks kind of cool like this too but I like it better cropped.




Saturday

I posted pictures from this night already so I used one I hadn't posted yet. This is a huge tree that had fallen over. I loved how big it's roots were.

Extreme picture overload

Seriously, I have like 20 pictures to post. SO just humor me and pretend to enjoy them. They are form our Pine Valley trip from last night. I tried to get one of Tyler and I and it didn't come out good at all. I will put those first. The one has the stream behind us but my mom doesn't know how to use my camera and didn't zoom out. Then in the one where she did zoom out in another area, I was leaning forward on the rock to keep Tyler on top of it and it made me look like I weighted 300 LBS! Seriously, I look huge. Especially my butt! I got baby back butt in this picture but whatever...




Now some picture of Tyler ( because you know I have a million...) In the first picture Tyler is eating a hot dog bun ( no hot dog ) and a marsh mellow. My kids so weird...










The next two were an accident. I love happy accidents though. Tyler was showing me the stick he was gonna throw into the water which I took a picture of, then I snapped another one when he turned his back to me ( because I have been loving the back shots lately ) and I got him throwing the stick in the picture. I didn't even know until after I was looking at them on the lap top. Heehee




Okay and now for the final picture. These are of Ty with my parents or of my parents by themselves. And Em if you read this, that is SO the blanket you made Tyler when he was a new born on my moms shoulder! She was cold and I always keep it in the car to keep the sun off Tyler car seat! :) I love the stripes! Any ways...








And last but not least, this is my mom standing just in the sun light! I really liked this picture. I like her shadow on the ground and I love the sun in the background. My dad was in this too but I cut him out! haha



Alright, I better go get ready for church. Everyone have a wonderful Sunday!