An I-5 adventure continued

Thanks for all of the prayers for our trip down to Oregon. The roads were clear (with a little slush in Castle Rock) and Ephraim slept most of the way there. We had to make one stop to get gas and feed Ephraim. We paid 91 cents per gallon! You read that correctly. 91 cents. Thank you Safeway for allowing me to add up my 10 cents per gallon off. It made a huge difference in filling up the suburban.

On Christmas day we continue our adventure down to my mom's house in Newberg. Getting out of Frank and Lona's neighborhood was interesting, but the roads were clear until we hit Wilsonville road. I must comment about the morons driving on clear highways with chains going 60 miles per hour. That is not how you drive with chains! You can't go that fast with them on your car! Stop, pull over and take them off!

While I am ranting - this whole winter storm would not have been such a big ordeal if the transportation departments in Oregon and Washington would learn how to snow plow! The plow needs to TOUCH the pavement. And actually scrape the snow and ice off. They made it more treacherous by removing the top layer of snow and leaving the ice. Morons. I could plow better than them - and its a scary thought to invision me behind a snowplow.

Enough ranting. I will update more later on our fun week in Oregon.

Merry Christmas!

I hope that you all have a wonderful Christmas with family and friends and enjoy celebrating the birth of our Lord!

An I-5 Adventure - Part 1

We are about to embark on a driving adventure down to Oregon for Christmas. Please pray for safe roads and that the person who hates his carseat is not too fussy. We've never driven down in daytime before (with him) so we shall see how it goes. Stay tuned...

Not Me Monday

- I did not wear my pajamas all day yesterday and did not thoroughly enjoy it.
- I did not wear sweats 4 out of the past 7 days
- I did not seriously think about having another baby just so I wouldn't have to have a period for another 18 months.
- I did not eat cookies for 2 out of 3 meals yesterday
- I did not lose weight after eating said cookies
- I did not bring my child into bed because I was too tired to try to get him to go back to sleep. Again.
- I have not become giddy every time I see a snowflake fall this week. Even though I know that it makes the roads difficult to drive, and will most likely have a negative impact on our economy because people can't get out and drive to stores. I love snow.

For more not me Monday posts - visit MckMama's blog

Splish Splash

Ephraim loves bath time. He can now pull himself up to standing by the tub and watches the water fill up his bath. He is finally sturdy enough sitting that I need to graduate him to the big tub.
He loves to squeal and splash.
I always have to have two washcloths so that he can eat one.

It just hasn't been my week...

Okay. The title of this post is a slight exaggeration. It hasn't been the greatest 48 hours. I have burned my finger (it turned white and had a lovely flower petal design on the tip) - while I was making my husband dinner, sliced my finger open while attempting to wash dishes (that's what I get for trying to be sanitary) and my child has decided the past two nights to be wide awake from 3-4 in the morning. Oh - and I left my credit card at the beauty salon and had to drive back and get it. I also drove in the snowstorm last night with a screaming baby (there might have been two of us crying, but I was WAY quieter).

My wish list for this week:
- that I get all of my projects finished before Christmas
- that my child stops waking up every 2 hours at night
- that most importantly - I will remember the real reason for this season and be joyful for everything.

O Christmas Tree

I hope you don't mind a virtual tour of our Christmas tree and decorations! I love Christmas!
This past weekend we went for our annual Christmas tree hunt. We went to a tree farm close to our house, hoping for cheaper prices than the past few years. We were slightly successful.
All bundled up and warm.
Forrest the woodsman.
Ephraim is fascinated by the tree and continually tries to eat it.
Look mom! Lights!
The finished project.
Our new tree skirt.

Ephraim's first Christmas ornament
The 2008 Arnold family ornament


Our very first Arnold family ornament
I love Nativity scenes. My grandmother gave this one to me when I was a little girl.
Grandpa gave us this one our first Christmas.
Forrest bought this one for me 3 years ago.

How Did I Forget?

On Thursday, Forrest, Ephraim and I went to bible study, just like we do every Thursday. As we are pulling up to the house I looked at the clock in the car and lo and behold - I should have fed Ephraim an hour ago! I fed him as soon as we got into the house. He was one hungry dude. How on earth did I forget to feed him? If there is one job a mom who breastfeeds has - it is to feed their child. He only eats 4 times a day, so it is not like I have a lot to remember. Oops. I guess I should set myself a timer.

Little Monster

Ephraim has been trying to get his 4 top teeth in at once and has been a bit of a bear the past two days (not that I blame him, poor guy). However, I found the outfit that he wore yesterday very fitting.

And for Marisa: tonight for dinner we ate chili and cinnamon rolls. Not a combo you would usually think of, but the savory chili goes well with the sweetness of the cinnamon rolls.

Whee!!

Ready.

Set.


Go!

I should be sleeping, but ...

8 Months

I must say that I have the world's cutest 8 month old boy. He is such a doll, and so happy.
He is super mobile and has a crazy looking commando crawl that gets him anywhere he wants to go - which is usually the dog's toy box.
He weighs about 21 pounds and breastfeeds every 4 hours.
He is beginning to pull up on things and when he is tired of his crib, tries to use the bumpers to help him escape.

His blue eyes just kill me.
He seems to know when he is being funny and loves to blow bubbles.
He is still a horrible napper and is really inconsistent with how long he sleeps at night, but he is not fussy or whiny when he doesn't sleep.
He has started to babble - and his favorite sound is dada. He also loves to squeal as high and as loud as he possibly can.
He will chase Wallis anywhere, but Wallis is getting smart and is spending time on the couch when he gets tired of his tail being pulled.

My Attempt to be Organized

This is the calendar in my kitchen. Last month I decided to meal plan in an attempt to save money, be organized and not waste as much food. Overall, it was a success. It helped me not to buy unneeded food at the grocery store, and I liked being able to see what my food patterns are. I feel like I make the same things over and over again, and seeing it on the calendar helped me be creative. Forrest loves to have leftovers for lunch, so I made a lot of casserole type dishes. The only downside was that I noticed that we did not eat as many vegetables as we probably should. I will try to fix that this month.

Ephraim the Destroyer

Ephraim has officially started crawling. He has been able to get himself anywhere he wants by rolling for a few weeks, and I was wondering if he was even going to crawl (Forrest didn't crawl) - but on Friday night we were playing rock band at a friend's house and as we were in the middle of rocking it out, Ephraim crawled to their fireplace and tried to play with tools. He has been bee lining for stuff ever since. With this new ability, he has also developed a no fear complex. He has no fear of rolling off of the couch, changing table, bed, etc. We haven't had any accidents yet, but there have been several close calls. I am seriously thinking of moving the changing pad to the floor.

In the past few months I have laughed at my friends who have kids that ruin things. My sweet baby didn't ruin anything. Ha! They can all laugh at me now. Ephraim has become a great destroyer, and I am now picking up after him constantly.

God's Sense of Humor

For about a week, every time I have opened my refrigerator I think, "I should clean this out." Tonight Forrest and I returned from an evening of watching the Beavs beat Arizona with friends to a refrigerator and freezer that was no longer keeping anything cold. We moved what we could to our deep freeze and drink refrigerator in the garage and also threw a bunch of old stuff out. I cooked 8 pounds of hamburger and 6 pork chops and made jam out of the defrosted raspberries. Forrest has cleaned both the refrigerator and freezer. Maybe I should start completing the other little tasks I think about when I am going throughout my day so that God doesn't have to break anything else to get my attention.

Surprise!

Last weekend we went down to Oregon to attend Marisa's surprise birthday party! I shamelessly stole these pictures from Hannah, since I was too lazy to bring in my camera. The party was lots of fun and Marisa was completely surprised! Ephraim was the only baby there - since he is still attached to me - and he enjoyed being passed around and checked out the plants in the planter.

The birthday girl. After the party a bunch of us went to the Brownlee's and played Rock Band. Forrest and I finally drug ourselves away at 10PM, and drove home. We were both wishing that we lived a lot closer, did things like that more often, and started Rock Band parties a little earlier.

7 Months

In the last month, Ephraim has become a mobile little guy. He rolls anywhere he wants to go and lifts his legs up to push himself towards objects. He hasn't figured out that if he were to use both his hands and feet he would get places much faster.
He babbles all of the time, and can get quite loud when he is letting you know what he wants.
You can't see them, but he has two teeth. He handled them coming in like a champ, and wasn't really fussy - only a little bit clingy the day before they each popped through.
He has started to sleep from about 8-4 every night, which is a happy improvement. He still takes 3 naps a day and I don't see that changing any time soon, since he only naps for 30 minutes at a time max.
He is a very happy baby - and we are enjoying him more and more.

An Election Day Birthday Bash

Yesterday was Forrest's 30th Birthday. Ephraim, my mom and I spent the morning preparing our home for a little birthday party.
I made this beautiful collage of pictures of Forrest from high school and beyond. The problem is that many of my pictures are digital and not printed out.
I decorated our door in patriotic colors. It took us four stores to find red streamers.
I made this fabulous banana cream pie.
It was a lot of fun to have friends over on a weeknight to celebrate my terrific husband. We watched the election night coverage and ate burgers and drank beer.