Where, oh where has my little Rees gone?

Rees is giving me a run for my money. I have TONS of picture of just his legs and bum hanging out of things. Since he has learned to roam the apartment, nothing is safe. He is always getting stuck behind doors, under tables, in out entertainment center, under chairs, you name it. I have been trying really hard to keep him out of things but have decided to change my approach. I am hoping that after he explores everything, he will get bored and stop going to the random places and getting stuck. I have started letting him go where he wants while I very quietly follow to monitor the situation. If he realizes that I have been watching he, I have just killed the fun for him. He throws his tantrum until he thinks I am no longer around and then it is back to business. I think Rees is more like me than I have been willing to admit. Great.

Comeau Party

Last weekend we finally had the “We paid off the house!”/“Bye Hawkley’s” party. This was hosted by Benjy’s parents who now completely own their home. It was a very fun day. The Hawkley’s, Comeau’s, and our little family all met in Salt Lake City for the afternoon. We goofed around at the hotel for a while, and then headed onto Temple Square for an amazing dinner at The Garden Room. It was so much fun! The Comeau’s went all out. We had appetizers, dessert, and the works. You always hear of The Roof being the fancy, nice restaurant but I think The Garden Room was actually better. After the fab dinner, we walked around Temple Square for a while then everyone else went to the concert at the Conference Center. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir was performing with the Osmond Family. We all had tickets but since we couldn’t take Rees in with us, we ducked out. The whole night was so relaxing, fun, nice, and yummy. Thank you Mom & Dad Comeau!

Benjy showing Allie that his tongue is longer

Salt Lake Temple

Me and My Babe

This would be me and my excellent parenting skills with Rees. This is the reflection pool in front of the temple. In my defense, there was hardly any one around, no wedding pictures being taken, and no one was proposing at that moment :)

These boots were made for walkin'

About a week ago, Esther (Buddie I grew up with), Nick, Kevin, and baby Wyatt came to visit us. It was so good to have them here. I have really been homesick since I have had Rees (who would have thought!) so I really appreciated the visit. We got to meet the new baby (so cute) and got a few good chuckles from Kevin. He found Benjy's work boots and decided to try them on. He looked so cute waddling through the kitchen in huge boots that were on the wrong feet.

Chatter Box

There is an episode of Every One Loves Raymond where Ray calls Amy "Lady Chatterly" because she talk so much. Rees has since become my "Lady Chatterly." He never stops talking to himself. While we are at church, Rees' pacifier HAS to stay in his mouth at ALL TIMES or he will drown out the speaker by adding his two cents. The kid is such a crack up. This video was taken in the Salt Lake City Temple Visitor's Center. You know, the place where people are mostly whispering :) Yep, we got all sorts of dirty looks.

Who ya gonna call?....US!

I got to do my first official wedding cake yesterday. Here is how it happened

At 6 o'clock last night Benjy and I were at our ward's activities meeting. During this time, Jason (one of our friends) was catering his first wedding. As we are leaving our meeting we get a phone call that goes something like this...

Jason to Benjy: I have a question for you and for your wife.
Benjy: Who do you want first
Jason: Definitely your wife
Ashley: Hey, what's up?
Jason: How do you get fondant soften after you already let it harden?
Ashley: You knead it with Crisco and powdered sugar
Jason: How do you get it soft when the reception starts in 10 mins and the fondant is already half on the cake and it is the marshmallow kind but there isn't enough and what you have is to hard to knead.

??????

Ashley: I have some fondant made in my fridge, I am on my way down, and I will buy more on the way.

So I get there and an hour later, produce my first wedding cake. Didn't look that great but it sure was fun. I think I would like to make more. I really do enjoy doing them. We spent the rest of the night helping Jason put out fires. For his first time catering, he actually did really well. We just have to get him to make the cake a little more ahead of time. :)

P.S. The cake in the picture is not a cake I decorated. It is the same style though.

Memories

Yep, I am alive. I have gotten several emails asking whats up and when I saw Amanda's last comment (you crack me up, by the way) I figured I had better get cracking. Tons has been happening and I am WAY behind on sharing stories (we have some doozies), pictures, and tags. Just to kick things off, here is a tag from Crystal.

This is how it works:

1. As a comment on this post, leave a memory that you and I (or Benjy) had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember! (but it must be nice!)

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments. If you want to leave a memory about Benjy, that's fine too!

**Crystal B. sent me this memory via her blog :

Ashley,
You haven't added this to your blog yet, so I will put my memory of you on here! There are so many wonderful memories from our months of living together (including, of course, my soggy cereal), but one of my favorite memories with you is when you did my hair for my bridal pictures when I was engaged. You did such a great job!!!

Family Updates

I have been slacking on my posts but to my defense, I haven' t been feeling well the last few days. And NO...I am not pregnant.

I still have tons of pictures of Delta to post but I figured I would give a brief update first. Benjy got a new, old truck to replace his Ford. I keep meaning to take a picture to show everyone but obviously that has happened yet :) He got a black 1997 Dodge Sport. It looks like crap but I think it is going to run well. The outside has completely oxidized and the interior looked horrible when we first picked it up but we have done a TON of work on it. The interior actually looks pretty decent know, the smell is gone, and we have lessened the oxidation. Now it is time to dig into the in-erds of the beast. Cross your fingers that we don't find any bad news!! There are two things are really great about this truck. #1-No truck payments!!! Happy day! The payments on the Ford we doing more damage to us then helping. #2-It gets the same (if not a hair better) gas mileage as the Ford did!! YEAH!!!!!!! We pay a ton in gas every month (last month our gas bill was over $700! Kill me now. Granted that did include 1 trip to Vegas.) so I was worried our bill was going to skyrocket but it totally didn't. Some one is looking out for us. Second item of business, we have a crawler! Rees has started doing the army crawl thing. The little turkey is so stinking fast. I turn around for one second and he has gotten across the entire living room and is under the desk having a hay day in the cords. Let the baby proofing begin!

One little Monkey Swinging From A Tree

Rees got to go in a swing for the first time on July 3rd, 2008 at his Grandma Comeau's house. He looked so cute and had a blast. He was still pretty small for the swing so he mostly just laid back in the swing like he was in a hammock. He thought he was king swinging back and forth on that thing. For those of you who don't know, Rees never holds still. He is in constant motion all the time. Even when he is in his car seat, his legs are kicking like he is running a marathon. His legs never stopped pumping in the air while he was swinging. It was pretty darn funny.

1st time in the pool

The weekend was full of "firsts" for Rees. On Saturday, he got to go swimming for first time. He loved it! He splashed and kicked until his whole entire body looked like one big prune. The funniest was watching him try and grab the water. He would sit there and touch the water using a the pincer grasp like he was trying to pick up a piece of it. It was also a crack up when his diaper made him start to float. My little boy may look like me but I think he is going to be a little fish like his dad.Grandma Comeau & Rees

Me and my little white boy (let's face it, I am pretty white also)

Happy Independence Day!

We headed to Delta for the 4th of July, which is our family tradition. I actually LOVE Delta on the 4th. The day starts out with a patriotic ceremony, some kind of cannon fire thing, and pancake breakfast, which I have never actually gone to. Sorry but it is way to stinking early in the morning. We do go to the parade though. It starts at nine in the morning and is actually really good. I thought Rees was going to be to young to care about it but I was so wrong. He LOVED the floats and watching all the candy being thrown. He even scored one of those bean bag balls from one of the floats. I have always been impressed how good the floats are for a small town parade. Hate to say but Moapa Valley could use a lesson or two on parade floats. Any ways, after the parade they have a small little fair thing. They have quite a few booths of different foods (we always get Navajo Tacos) for lunch and tons of stuff for kids to do. They have horse rides, those big blow up toys to play in, games, little rides, and a volleyball tournement for the adults. It was so much fun. One thing that particularly cracked me up was this fish catching pool for the kids. They had this huge wading pull full of trout that kids got to wade into and try and catch a big trout with their hands. It was so funny to watch. Only in a small town. When we went over to the volleyball tournement we ran into some old friends. We were expecting to see Matt & Derrick but they had brought some friends that had happened to be Benjy's roommates while we were engaged. It was so fun to see them and catch up. I also got to full fill a childhood dream at the park. I have always wanted to go into those big blow up things and they totally let me in. They that one that was a maze/obstacle course inside and was quite the work out. It was so much fun was kinda killed my ego to realize how out of shape I am. That Benjy and I went to the Demolition Derby and fireworks. The derby was awesome this year. Several cars rolls, tires were flying, radiators were exploding, we had so much flung onto us that when we got home I realized it was clear down my shirt. I would show you pictures but I didn't take my camera, sorry! The whole day was just so great. Can't wait for next year!

Me fulfilling my childhood dream.

Kids trying to catch the trout

Grandma's Famous Flag Cake

Mommy Tag

Joey Staheli tagged Rees! Since Rees can't talk yet to give me his answers, I tried to think of things from his perspective. Didn't quite have the same effect but was still fun.

1. What is something mom always says to me? Sweetie, please stop crying. (usually in a very pathetic voice out of desperation)

2. What makes mom happy? Watching him roll over and when he laughs. And I also get really happy when Rees sleeps

3. What makes mom sad? When I won't sleep

4. How does mom make me laugh? Hanging him upside down

5. What was mom like as a child? I am a twin so we were DOUBLE TROUBLE. Got into everything. Just ask my mom.

6. How old is mommy? I am 23 but feel much more ancient compared to Rees

7. How tall is mommy? Probably seem as tall as a giant

8. What is mommy's favorite thing to do? Play games with friends

9. What does mom do when I'm not around? SLEEP

10. If mom becomes famous, what will it be for? Who the heck knows

11. What is mom really good at? Cleaning myself up after Rees sneezes food all over me.

12. What is mom not really good at? Giving Rees bathes. I end up more wet then he does

13. What does mom do for her job? Keeps Dad in line :)

14. What is moms favorite food? Anything I don't have to cook these days

15. What makes me proud of my mom? Unkown. This one definitely has to wait until Rees can talk

16. If mommy were a cartoon character, who would she be? I choose to be tinkerbell. I want to fly

17. Do mommy and I do together? Take walks, take naps, read books, play with toys

18. How are mommy and I the same? We look alike and we both love Dad. Oh and we both dislike peaches

19. How are mommy and I different? Rees doesn't seem to value sleep as much as I do

20. How do I know mommy loves me? I don't think Rees will ever realize this but I think changing his poopy diaper shows more love than all the kisses I give him.


We tag Milo Sharp, McKinley Brown, Miley Bingham, Julia Tanner and Estefan

There's a rumbly in Rees' tumbly

In Rees' attempt to test the waters of being mobile, he has also decided to test his digestive system. The other day, we went to visit Benjy for his lunch break. Rees was sitting on my lap playing with a receipt. I had taken it was from him so many times that I finally gave up and let him have. About two minutes later (seriously, two minutes) I realized the receipt was all gone except for this little piece that was stuck to his lips. He ate the WHOLE receipt. I thought after that experience I would do much better with monitoring what goes nears his mouth. Apparently I have failed miserably. Benjy and I were cleaning out his truck(still) and I looked over in time to see Rees gagging HANDFULS of grass and dirt. If that wasn't enough, he was covered in pen marks because he wouldn't stop screaming in Walmart until I finally gave him a pen to play with. Yep, after the grass incident, I took him into the apartment asap before someone saw my pathetic attempt at parenting