Well hello there blog!

hello! it's been a few months... i always start my new posts saying i am going to be better at blogging. that's always my intention, it just hasn't stuck yet. we will see how it goes this time:) now that summer is almost over i guess i'll just do a quick recap and give an update on our lives. if you follow my instagram you know i go a little insta crazy with my pics and you probably know more about my life than you cared for;)but being away from all my family and most of my friends, instagram is the easiest and quickest way for me to show everyone what's goin on.
this summer was crazy fast! trey and i went to utah for about 4 weeks. it was so great to be back home with family and friends. even though it was a nice long vacation, it went by so fast and feels like a big blur! i love my family and miss them like crazy every day, so i'm grateful i was able to spend that time with them.
summer time in chicago is great. we spend most of our time at the park or at the beach. it only takes us about 10 minutes to walk to the beach so it's very convenient and we love our beach days! we also live about 5 minutes away from trey's favorite park so we are there pretty much every day. i love watching that kid play and seeing his imagination get bigger every day. so that's pretty much what our days look like, now for some update's on us:
chris: chris is starting his second year of his masters program at the divinity school and will be done with that in the spring. he will start applying soon for phd programs and we will find out if he gets accepted or not early next year. he is hoping to get accepted to the program here in chicago which would be nice so we wouldn't have to move again. he has had the summer off so he watches trey while i work and we have all been able to spend a lot of time together. it will be weird when he starts school next month to have him gone all the time.

trey: trey is almost three and a half and started preschool this week. i can't believe how big he is getting! it definitely goes by so fast. he is such a sweet and hilarious little boy. he is getting to be a little bit more feisty as he gets older, but sweeter too:) i love spending my days with him and watching him learn and grow! he is a pretty picky eater lately and sometimes we have a hard time getting him to eat anything at all besides fruit snacks and milk. he loves to hum and sing, dance, play at the park, ride his scooter, watch his favorite shows, play ipad games, play with toys and play hide and seek. i will keep posting separate posts of the funny things he says, although it's impossible for me to write them all down because he says them all day!! if you can't tell by my instagram, i'm kind of obsessed with him;)

me: i started working at a new office this summer and right now i am working every monday and tuesday. it's a good schedule for me, two days is definitely the most i want to work so i can be with trey as much as possible. during my free time i have become a little obsessed with designing fabric. i honestly know nothing about design, but i have always wanted to be a graphic designer so this is a fun way for me to try and be a little artistic:) you can click on the flower on my sidebar to see the fabrics i have designed so far. so addicting! hopefully i can keep it up and get better with time:)

so, pretty much we have had a nice relaxing summer. even though i am dreading winter, i cannot wait for fall!!! i love fall so much sometimes i want to cry when i think about it:) i am taking trey to utah in october so he can go with chris's family to mexico. lucky duck! even though it's only for a few days i'm super excited to be able to visit during my favorite time of year!

this has been a long post! like i always say, i will try to post more regularly. i really do want to be better so i can make a blog book at the end of the years since i suck at keeping a journal. and, that's all;) now for a few random pics, most of my pics are on instagram, i just think blog posts are a little better with pictures!

Trey Talk

Trey was walking around with a shirt wrapped around his legs, it looked like a skirt. He kept saying, "I'm a sultan!!"

I grabbed Trey to pull him away from a rail he was licking and he yelled, "stop it! You're out of your mind!"

He was hugging all of his little animals saying, "you're the best little animals!"

Me: I love when you're Batman.
Trey: I'm not Batman, I'm a boy pretending to be Batman!

"The donkey has ears, we spray his nose and put underwear on the donkey."

We were watching the Lion King and he says, "Look at those bouncing bazows!!" (Prancing antelopes)

"A cooter is a big giant animal!"

"Ok guys, a beautiful race is about to start!"

"Mom these are contewations!" (constellations)

While I was cutting his hair he said, "mom, you're a good friend."

Talking on his Mickey Mouse phone- "hi Mickey Mouse. Are you talking to me? You are? Ok bye."


These are just some of the ones I wrote down in time before I forgot. Trey is the sweetest boy ever!! Everyone he walks by he says " hi! What's your name?" He wants to play with every kid at the park and is always so friendly. This is such and adorable and funny age, I hate how fast it's already going!!

Toddler teepee

For Trey's birthday I really wanted to get him one of the cute teepees I have seen on the internet. When I saw that they cost over $100 I decided to try and make one first to save some money:) I'm glad I did! I love the way it turned out and it was a lot cheaper! So, this is how I made mine:
I used this tutorial to help with the construction of it, and just changed a few things here and there. Also, I used duck cloth canvas instead of painters canvas like she used. My measurements were way off for some reason so I ended up cutting my bamboo poles 12 inches.








I used bamboo sticks, but they aren't as stable as I would have liked. I love the way they look though. I tied them together with leather.


Paint your bamboo sticks if you want, or keep them the way they are. The only problem with the paint is that it chips off when you tie the sticks together. I should have prepped them but didn't think about it.




I just drew the black triangles on the front with a fabric marker. It ran out of ink fast so I finished one of the triangles with a sharpie. Oops! (can you spy a little Trey inside?)


I sewed double fold bias tape all around the raw edges instead of hemming them. I think it gave it some nice contrast.



I was too lazy to add ties to the front. I may or may not do that in the future. I also still need to add attachments inside that hook onto the poles. Again, too lazy and impatient.



To make the banner I just cut out the triangles with my scrap fabric, cut out a long strip of burlap, folded the burlap strip like a hot dog and sew the triangles inside the fold.




Add some feathers to the leather tie and voila! I'm really happy with the way it turned out!!

Trey Talk

My silly little boy says the cutest and funniest things all day long. Here are the ones I have written down from the last few weeks:)

Me: Trey can I have a kiss?
Trey: No
Me: why?
Trey: I already gave you too many kisses today.

He saw a toy watering can at the store and said "this will be great for my bath!!"

I put him in the car and he said, "this is a dark cave we can live in!"

A show called Super Why came on and he said, "what do you know, Super Why!!"

"I spy with my little eye, I spy somping(something)...........an elephant."

Also, "I spy something.......cool."

When I pick him up he always pulls my hair over my eyes and says "now you have super hero power."

We have a kid song cd in the car and after every song he says, "that was a great kid song! What song is next?!"

Me: I love you Trey.
Trey: you do love me?
Me: yes I do!
Trey: wow! That's cool!

When I spray saline in his nose and then have him blow he says, "thanks for helping me blow my nose!"

I reached back to hold his hand in the car and he said, "I love holding your hand!" (Then a minute later he told me he can't hold my hand while I'm driving:)

"My owie smells weird. It smells like a T. Rex."

"My T.Rex is so hungry! He needs to eat bologna!"

Me: I love you Trey.
Trey: yeah you do!!

I was playing with his hammering toy and he said, "you are a great hammerer mom!"

Trey: listen mom! It's the war commanded me five!
Me: you mean, the Lord commanded Nephi?
Trey: ohhhhhhhh, Nephi.....I get it!

Trey walked in while I was in the bathroom and said "Wow! Those are big giant underwear you have!!"


I'm sorry you can't hear his little voice saying these things. He has such a cute personality and I'm so happy I get to hang out with him every day:)

Valentine's Day.

Here are some pictures of our church Valentine's party and Valentine's Day. I don't know if blogger changed things but I'm having a hard time putting my pictures in the order that I want and writing captions. I'm confused. And annoyed. The party was the weekend before and was really fun! Trey was a dancin' fool! It was so cute to watch him dance all night:) On V day the boys and I walked to the Sit Down Cafe and had a nice little dinner date together. It was great to be able to spend Love day with both of my boys:)

oh yeah, Christmas.

I totally thought I already posted about Christmas, but I guess I didn't so here it is! I am so grateful for my in-laws, they flew us home for Christmas! We were able to stay for almost 2 and a half weeks and it was so wonderful to be home and with family and friends! I was very busy, I wanted to spend time with as many people as I could in that short amount of time. I'm so glad I was able to spend my favorite holiday with my favorite people. All those songs about "being home for Christmas" totally apply to me now, and I will never take that for granted! Christmas is getting better each year that Trey gets older since he is becoming more aware. He doesn't really understand the whole Santa thing yet, but he knows Santa brings presents! It was so fun to watch him open his presents Christmas morning, I know it will just get better every year:) We had a wonderful Christmas and I hope so much we will be able to make it back in December!!

My Little Buddy

I just wanted to take a minute to write about the best little friend anyone could have! Right now I am only working one day a week and so I get to spend so much quality time with Trey. I love it more than anything and it's going to be extremely difficult for me to work more days if I get the chance! Trey is honestly the sweetest little thing I have ever met. I love watching him grow and learn new things, and I especially love listening to the cute and funny things he says all day long! He is such a polite and thoughtful child. Lately he has shown a little more feisty side, I think it's because he goes to nursery and daycare and is learning a few tricks:) But if he ever see's me sad or upset he takes my face in his hands and asks me what is wrong and gives me huge hugs. I have also had multiple people who have watched him in nursery tell me he is so polite and says things like "may I please play with this toy?" Every day he says something new and always makes me laugh. It is so interesting to watch his little personality develop, and I'm so grateful I can be with him so much right now and not miss these things. It is also interesting to watch the way he reacts to certain things, and know that he is reacting that way because he learned it from Chris or me. It shows me things I need to work on, like being more patient and not raising my voice:) I want to be the best example to him of how he should treat others so it is my goal every day to treat him with love and kindness. It is a hard thing sometimes as a mother to stay calm and collected and I am FAR from perfect, but I am constantly striving and that's all I can do! I have been trying to write down the funny little things he says, and hopefully once a month I can post them here so I never forget them. Here are some of the ones I have written down, too bad I can't record them all, his little high pitched voice makes them so much better!!

"I can help you find a wooden animal at the zoo! I can help you whatever it means!" -He kept saying this over and over one day after his nap, I have no idea what he was talking about!

"You got me a surprise?! Oh how beautiful mom!!" -he said that before I gave him the surprise.

Me: you make me happy Trey, what makes you happy?
Trey: ummmmm, how about........diggers.

-He kept asking me what animals say, so then I asked him what Trey says and he said "I don't say anything mom, I just talk."

Me: would you like to share some lasagna with me?
Trey: no, maybe tomorrow.

-I picked a block out of the bag to make a tower and Trey said, "OH! That is a good choice mom!!"

-I was playing the piano and he says, "Mom! Stop playing that beautiful song!"

-Waking up from his nap: "I can't find my Basosaurus Rex anywhere! I can't hear him, but he sure is hiding!" (He is talking about a T-Rex, they call it Basosaurus Rex on Little Einsteins)

-During the closing prayer in sacrament meeting he said, "this church is weird!"

-Rihanna's song was on in the car and it says diamonds in the sky, Trey heard it and said, "There's not diamonds in the sky! There's just a star!!"

"Look at that castle mommy!! (he starts chuckling) sorry, that was a building."

-He saw a kid with binoculars and said, "I love your telescopes!"

-My brother's friend was wearing a green cast on his leg, so Trey went up to him and said, "I love your green stocking!"

-He also told Jackie's little baby that he loves his helmet:)

-during sacrament he was sharing his dinosaur with another little boy and said loudly, "this is my dinosaur I got for pooping in the toilet!!"

-whenever I tell him where we are going, "Ohhh, that'd be fun!"


Those are just the ones I wrote down, I am so sad that I forgot or didn't have time to write everything down he says because they are never ending!
Obviously I am obsessed with this little guy. He is at such a cute, and challenging age, I am scared to see it go so fast. I'm so grateful to be his mom and I can't wait to see what each new day brings with him!!!

many words and many pictures.

Warning, this post will be very long and filled with pictures! If I could just do this more frequently it would be a lot easier! I have so many random pictures from the past month and a half, I don't even know where to begin! I decorated for Christmas 2 days after Halloween. I know some people think that is crazy, but it makes me happy so that is why I do it! We had a good Thanksgiving, it was hard to be away from our families but we kept busy cooking and we were invited to a ward member's home for dinner with a few other families. It was very nice of them to include us and it was a good time! Chris's parents were able to visit us the week after Thanksgiving because Gary had a conference. It was so fun to have them here. We went downtown one day, and they stayed with us for a couple of nights. They also took Trey for us one night so we could have a date and sleep in Saturday morning. That was amazing:) I have really tried to get us out of the house during the day if I can. Sometimes it is too cold and I am too lazy! When the weather is nice we usually go to a park, and some days we go to the zoo because it is free! We also like going to museums or the aquarium. I love going downtown, but that only happens once in a while. Trey doesn't love being in his stroller too long:)I have also been temping at a dental office, usually about once a week. It has been good to work and make some money for Christmas. Starting in January I will try to find a solid part time job. I would love to work 2 days a week if possible, that way I can still spend most of my week with Trey. In one week we are going back home for Christmas!!! I am so excited!!!!!!!!!! So pretty much that is what has been goin on. Now for the pictures.....

Other than needing two more chairs, my dining room is done!!

Christmas decorations make houses so much better:)

I felt like sewing something, so I used my fabric scraps to make a Christmas pillow!

Thanksgiving! (Chris has gotten a haircut since then, he was looking a little homeless:)

Trey at the little kids table

Beautiful city.

This is what he does when it is too bright:)

Trey making friends on the metra.

Navy Pier for the Ferris Wheel w/grandma and grandpa

Ferris Wheel!

Pretty

I love this pic of Trey with grandma and grandpa

looking at the display windows at Macy's

A very serious Santa and Trey:) Trey asked Santa for a dinosaur.

The zoo! Yes it's free, but parking is $20. Luckily we have always been able to find street parking.

Trey and his friend Asher.

Can you see the tiny baby gorilla in his mom's arms?

This is an awesome play place at the zoo. Trey isn't brave enough yet:)

Museum of Science and Industry. I want to go there by myself someday so I can look, they have so many cool things!

Huge train track! I took this from the floor above and couldn't fit it all in the picture.

This picture and the next one are from the Field Museum. Also a very cool place.

The next 7 pictures are from the children's museum at Navy Pier. So fun:)

This and the rest of the pictures are from the Museum of Science and Industry. Trey is playing in the Idea Factory.

Ginormous Charlie Brown Christmas tree.

Trey looking up at the fake snow falling down.