Thank heavens that Violet is better, not counting the congestion that still needs the blue snot-sucker a couple times a night. But what I'm wondering is, who turns my sweet, easy-going little girl into a monster every night? Lately she goes to bed mad and she wakes up mad--nearly five times a night. She used to slowly wake up by slightly stirring and mildly complaining. Now it has turned into spontaneous angry screams when she realizes that we've finally tricked her into falling asleep. And I used to think being a mom was easy!

On another note, we are going to San Fransisco next weekend! I am so ready for a vacation. This will be Violet's first plane ride, and we're hoping it will be a good experience :). We are going to visit Berkeley Law School, and thankfully we only have to pay for one plane ticket since Dan's is covered by the school.

Here's my smart husband who is also my handsome cowboy:


And Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (don't be fooled by her guileless smile...I should have a mad picture to go along with this, but I'm usually too distracted to take pictures of an angry child):


This picture is funny because Dan was supposed to get Violet dressed for the day after I took her pajamas off and changed her diaper, but he fell asleep instead, and Violet decided to follow suit (in her birthday suit! hahahahaha I'm hilarious):

Our little girl is the sickest she's ever been in her whole 5 and 1/2 month life :(. The past few days she's been congested, but last night she really came down with something awful. She wasn't sleeping well, and during the night I realized she was burning up. We took her temperature and found she had a fever of 102.5.

Today she has thrown up three times--large amounts each time too. I'm trying to keep her as comfortable and happy as possible, but I've found there is nothing more sad than having your sweet little baby so sick.

This is a story about Dan's mustache last week. He let it go for one week to celebrate "Mustache March," and here are the results:



Does he look Mexican or not? What's your vote?

Here's something funny about me. I probably read my first Don Aslett book when I was 9 years old. My mom had several of them. For those who are unfamiliar with him, he writes organizational books, cleaning books, time-saving books, etc, such as Make Your House Do the Housework, Is There Life After Housework? , Clutter's Last Stand, etc. For some reason I loved reading those books right along with my Nancy Drew collection.

I still love reading his books, and recently I've been reading his How to Have a 48-Hour Day. Here are a few eye-openers I learned.

The average American spends in his or her lifetime:
8 months opening junk mail
9 months sitting in traffic
1 year looking for lost items (for Dan this would probably be closer to 5 years)
17 months drinking coffee/soft drinks
1.5 years dressing
1.5 years grooming
2 years on the telephone
3 years "sick" (1,086 days)
3 years in meetings
3 years shopping
4 years cooking and eating
5 years waiting in line
7 years in bathrooms
12 years watching TV
24 years sleeping

Isn't that just shocking? Other than the sleeping part--I think most people realize that they sleep nearly a third of their life away. But 12 years watching TV?--and probably at least 4 of those years are just COMMERCIALS!

Even those who think they are busy have an average of 1500 hours per year of doing nothing (outside of sleeping, eating, watching TV, etc.)! This list makes me really want to be more productive with my life! I remember one semester in college I was taking 20 credit hours, but when I think back, it was probably one of my favorite semesters! I think I even got better grades that semester than the semester I only took 13 credit hours.

The first step to being more productive, according to Don Aslett, is de-junking. Dan and I are both kind of pack rats, and I am constantly trying to decide what we can throw away.

Now I just want to go clean and organize my whole house from top to bottom. I'll get back to you on how it turns out for me :).

My brother Nate despises everyone who steals the basketball term "March Madness" for anything other than basketball, but hopefully he'll forgive me this once.

Last weekend was definitely full of quality family time. My brother Quincy was able to spend the weekend with us because the National Guard flew him here (from Indiana) for drill. So, Friday night we had a big familial party where we played some of our favorite games--"Bang!" and "Speed Scrabble." For those who haven't played "Bang!," it is a stellar card game where everyone gets to be someone from the wild wild west (Sheriff, Deputy, Outlaw, or Renegade) and then basically kill off everyone who isn't on your team. We have had tons of fun playing it ever since Nate brought it into the family last May :). Michelle even brought her boyfriend to meet the whole family. We'll see if we scared him off or not :).

Friday & Saturday I was able to go to a family-reunion-type women's conference which was fun as well. It is always fun to catch up with a few of my hundred cousins :). Saturday morning Dan ran the Rex Lee Run. He did pretty awesome running the 5k (3.1 miles) in 21:01, despite the fact that he doesn't ever "run" anymore--just plays soccer and basketball. Saturday night we played some good rounds of "Scum" with my family. Afterwards, Dan & I watched "The Fugitive." Such a well-made movie, but I have to close my eyes on all the bloody parts. Luckily I have Dan shield my eyes with his hand.

Sunday we went and heard Dan's brother Matt speak in their Stake Conference. He gave such a wonderful talk and everyone thought he already sounded like a return missionary! Matt is going on a mission to Fresno, California and leaves in a couple months. We also went to the Frandsen's baby blessing on Sunday and enjoyed spending time with them as well. Sunday dinner was at Dan's parents' place. We also played some good rounds of "Canasta" there (Do you get the idea that we play a lot of card games?).

Monday was super fun as we were able to have a St. Patrick's Day FHE with our friends Ben and Charlotte Allsop. We played this ultra cool trivia game about St. Patrick's Day which I made :) and mostly had fun just visiting with them. We were FINALLY able to give them their wedding present from over a year-and-a-half ago. Hopefully gift cards to Macaroni Grill don't expire. Please ignore the crooked pictures on the wall in the background--I don't know why I have such a time getting them to stay straight!


We also got some good pictures of feeding Violet peas for the first time (green food for St. Patrick's Day :)






Isn't she just the cutest?

Strolling in the stroller (and sleeping in it):

Napping with Daddy on Sundays:

Visiting friends:

Going with Daddy & Mommy to Chile's:

My Nutcracker boyfriend:

More Nutcracker boyfriend:

Grandma helping me see my Nutcracker boyfriend:

Mommy catching me with my Nutcracker boyfriend:

Eating my toes:

Eating more toes:

Looking at one of the first flowers of spring with Mommy (in our flower bed):

Wearing blue jeans for the first time!

Playing with Mommy's ribbon:

Getting caught playing with Mommy's ribbon:

That's all, folks!

Well, I thought I would add a few more words.

The real reason I came here to blog to you all is to tell you that no more than 15 minutes ago Violet ate her first spoonfuls of real baby food. Lise chose the flavor, something squash, like "strange squash" or "silly squash." As soon as the first spoonfuls were within two inches of Violet's face she opened her mouth and dove towards the spoon. She didn't even make any faces until after the fourth spoonful, when she closed her eyes and gave a funny shudder. When she opened her eyes she attacked the spoon again with a smile, but as soon as she realized that it was the same stuff as the last spoonful she made the exact same closed-eye shudder. She reluctantly accepted one more spoonful, but that was the last one she would open up for. Lise and I think that it was pretty good for a first showing, especially since we are just doing it to get her used to the idea of being spoon-fed strange tasting food with names like "silly squash."

Well, that's all folks. For now. I will be sure to put my next blog post on the blog so you can all read it.

Well, here is my second post ever (thus the awesome title). I thought I would tell everyone a little more about me. Some people know me as a simple man and a man of few words. I would tend to agree with them, especially the last one.