last year in the 20's

I'll be missing this man--who turned 29 this week :) . 

6 more days... yes i'm counting.  

stars and (tie dye) stripes

who doesn't love tie dye? okay, i actually know a few people...they really do exist. I'm not one of them though--- and until Lincoln is able to voice his opinion, he's not one of them either. In celebration of my favorite holiday coming up, I made some tie-dye for the boys and I to wear.

We'll be spending the 4th on the ranch in Colorado, which will be a first for me. I'm pretty stoked because this year, we'll have our own private show put on by the Pyromaniac Shideler boys themselves.

1. White onesie (or whatever item you're dying)

2. Fold accordian-style and secure with rubber bands (or hair-ties in my case)

3. Soak in warm water and dye (I used a large kitchen bowel and a cap full of Rit dye. Depending on what you're dying, the water and dye will vary but directions will be on bottle).

4. Rinse thoroughly until water turns clear. Remove rubber bands. (You'll want to wash separately in washing machine before washing item with other clothes.)

 

Now I must finish packing. Lincoln and I are headed to Idaho for a week long family reunion and then flying to Colorado to stay with Ryan's family for another week. 2 weeks of packing for me and the baby?? yah, a little stressful. On a positive note: Lincoln's clothes don't take up much space. Negative: I'm not sure how he'll like being dressed every day for the next 2 weeks. That's a lot of "naked-time" out the window.

3 months

 

 I receive emails on Lincoln's milestones from BabyCenter.

It says in this next month he'll start smiling a lot more---

he already smiles ALL. THE. TIME.

He'll be cooing. ----

Yep, he coos ALL. THE. TIME

It also says he should start rolling over. ---

He's done that a few times already too.

And he should be able to hold his head up more on his own---

This one could use some more work.  Unless he's trying to look like a bobble head. In that case, he's got it down pat.

 

So apparently, there's not much to look forward to this next month???

 au contraire !

This boy has got some major personality. I wish I could capture it all with a photo, but there's just too much of it.

 

PC Knowledge

Stealthiness.

You must learn to be stealthy if you are a parent. I want to say it's a skill that you can't learn; you're just born with it. But I want to give my husband some hope; so yes honey, you can become more stealthy with practice.

 

Sometimes, Linc will wake up mid-nap and needs us to give him the paci to help him fall back asleep. But then there's the chance when we do this, he will see us and start getting really excited and happy (can you blame him?). Which then leads to him not wanting to finish his nap, and getting cranky because we picked him up to play when he's actually still tired. Sigh.

 

 Of course it's ideal that we didn't have to do that, but of course it's ideal that he just doesn't wake up in the middle of his nap either.

 

Which brings us to being stealthy/the arched arm technique/ and the army crawl

 

When he starts waking up from his nap early, we'll hunch next to the crib (you never stand up in fear he'll see you and want to get up and play), blindly reach our arm over the rail to pick up the paci and plug him, then army crawl away. It's really the only successful way to do this.

 

It's actually quite funny when we're both standing there and Ryan gets closer to peer over the edge. He quickly jolts his head down and mouths the words

"HE SAW ME....WHAT SHOULD WE DO?!"

a step-up from last year

If there's two foods Ryan loves and you can never go wrong serving him, it's this: Cinnamon rolls or a cheeseburger. Last year for his birthday, I was so proud of myself because I got up super early to open a can of Pillsbury cinnamon rolls and baked them for him before he left to work. I pretty much gave myself a pat on the back for being "wife of the year". I deserved something for enduring the dreadful 'POP' when opening the can. I HATE THAT!!!!!!!!! I'm pretty sure I never liked the Jack in the Box toys growing up---  No thank you.

This year though, being Ryan's FIRST father's day, I decided to be a big girl and just avoid the Pillsbury can all together and make my own cinnamon rolls from scratch. Whoa. I am a big girl now.

First time making homemade cinnamon rolls and I needed to find an easy recipe. I found one (thank you Pinterest) and followed the recipe to a 'T', making sure his morning breakfast wasn't a complete disaster. Having store bought cinnamon rolls on back-up would have been smart, but that's just setting me up for failure. Luckily, for Ryan's sake, there was pure success that morning with me, kitchen, and these cinnamon rolls.

I would call them easy-cheesy cinnamon rolls, but that might give the impression there's cheese in them. So I'll just say,  "easy-peasy cinnamon rolls for someone who's never made them homemade before and wants a safe recipe to try" :) yah, that's better.

rolls
2 & 3/4 cup all purpose flour
3 tbs sugar
1 tsp salt
1 pkg. red star yeast
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup milk
2.5 tbs butter
1 egg

filling
3 tbs butter- softened to room temperature
1.5  tbs ground cinnamon
1/4 cup sugar

glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tbs milk
1 tsp vanilla

1. Make dough: set aside 1/2 cup of flour. In Bowl, toss remaining flour, sugar salt, and yeast. Stir ingredients and set aside.
2. heat water, milk, and butter together in microwave until butter is melted and mixture is hot to touch. Mix butter mixture into flour mixture. Add egg and only enough of the reserved flour to make the dough soft. Dough is ready when it pulls away from side of bowl and has an elastic consistency.
3. knead dough on lightly floured surface for 5 minutes. place in lightly greased bowl and let it rest for 10 minutes.
4. Make filling: Roll dough out to 14x8 inch rectangle. Spread softened butter on top. Mix cinnamon and sugar and sprinkle over the dough. Roll dough up tightly. Cut into 11 pieces and place in lightly greased 9 inch. round pan. Loosely cover rolls with aluminum foil and allow to rise in warm, draft free place for 60-90 minutes. OR (what i did) heat oven to 200F degrees. Turn oven off. Place rolls inside oven and allow to rise.
5. After the rolls have doubled in size, preheat oven to 375F. Bake 25-30 minutes until lightly browned. (Mine were ready at 20 minutes). Cover rolls last 10 minutes to avoid heavy browning.
6. Make the glaze: Right before serving, top cinnamon rolls with glaze. Mix powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk until smooth. You can add more powdered sugar to make a thicker glaze.

*Best eaten same day, but can store up to 5 days in container. Recipe fromsallysbakingaddiction.com

a potato for our trip to idaho

this saturday will be a first.

Lincoln and I are flying to Idaho for a family reunion.

First time Lincoln flies, and first time I fly with Lincoln.

Let's just say, the flying alone will be quite an adventure. We'll be in Idaho for a week, then we'll fly to Colorado to meet Ryan and his family for another week!

 

Cooler weather for 2 weeks? Yes please and thank you.

 

Lots of traveling, which means 2 weeks of not sleeping in his crib.

SO. We wanted to buy a travel crib and have him start taking naps in it to get used to a new a new sleeping arrangement. We won't have any problems. This boy sleeps anywhere.

 

I found this beauty for him to use and it's perfect for traveling. It folds up small so I can easily carry it in the airport with baby in tow. And because I'm in a stenciling/stamping mood lately, I stamped this beauty with a potato. yes, a potato. I'm confident the new design upped it's resale value. :)

 

tips: cut the design deep and dab with a napkin to get excess moisture out. Use right away or cut edges will start to turn in.

fathers

these father's rock my socks.

I have the best father who raised me and showed me what I wanted in my own husband/father.

And I'm grateful to have found and married that guy, who is now the best  father to our own child. 

to daddy, our hero

 Ryan and I were driving in the car, listening to country music (of course), and a song came on we had heard before; only this time, the lyrics had more of an impression on us now with our baby boy.

 

Rodney Atkins- Watching You.

(chorus)

He said I've been watching you dad, ain't that cool
I'm your buckaroo, I wanna be like you
And eat all my food and grow as tall as you are
We like fixing things and holding mama's hand
Yeah we're just alike, hey ain't we dad
I wanna do everything you do
So I've been watching you

 

Well, Lincoln is the same way. Ryan and him have a special bond that even a slightly-jealous mommy can't get in on. Ryan's been super busy with work and church meetings, so the hour Ryan has to play with Lincoln at the end of the day is special. Lincoln fixes his eyes on Ryan the entire time. He giggles more and lights up more, and if he happened to be fussy a few minutes before daddy got home, he is now a well-behaved and content baby. No doubt this boy wants to be just like his daddy. Love them both. Happy FIRST Father's Day!

12/52

PC knowledge:

PUNK'd by a baby? It's true.

As soon as Linc falls asleep for his nap, a rush comes over me-- What do I need to do before he wakes up? As soon as I think he's in a deep enough sleep, I'll bolt for the shower and try to have some "relaxing-me-time" the best a new mother can. Maybe if I'm feeling real crazy and think I have enough time, I'll shave my legs. PreBaby: my showers weren't over until we ran out of hot water.....now, if I stand there for an extra 30 seconds, it's a real treat.

Anyway, with this particular shower, I felt confident Linc was sound asleep and I would stay in a little longer to relax. Of course, as I finished and turned off the water, I heard Lincoln SCREAMING!!!!! How long has he been screaming for? I felt terrible for trying to get a little "me" time when the shower should have been short-and-sweet. I barely dried myself off and ran to him saying I'm so sorry Lincoln!! BUT! Before I even get the chance to pick him up to console him, the water-works ceased immediately, he looks up at me, gives me a BIG FAT smile, and falls RIGHT BACK TO SLEEP! What?????

I feel like I can read his thoughts and you wanna know what he was thinking? After he immediately stopped crying and gave me a big grin he thought, "I punk'd you." He closed his eyes feeling successful for having a whooped mother!

see you in september

Well my best friend decided to quit her job in Tucson and instead of spending the summer with me, she's leaving this girl bestfriendless for the next few months to travel to Spain. I don't understand why she needs to travel to Spain as to be an au pair when she has Lincoln and I here in Phoenix. :)

Putting my butt-hurt feelings aside, I'm super duper excited for her and already miss this girl like CRAZY (she left today)! This is when I find myself extrememly grateful for technology and a thing called Skype.

roll out the red carpet for these beauties

today was one of those days where you finally buckle down and do that project you've been meaning to accomplish but lack of supplies keep holding you back. I went to guy buy the supplies but of course forgot one small item, which inevitably delayed the project again. UGH! When a project is as simple as this and doesn't require much, you almost want to say FORGET IT! BUT, a trip a few days later to buy that silly $2.50 item was totally worth it. :)

karn came over today and she worked on her super cute

diy printed sneakers.

WHITE TENNIS SHOES - $15

STENCIL- free! (homemade)

FABRIC MARKER/OR PAINT- $3 (depends on what you use)

She made these shoes for her trip to Spain this summer. If you think the heart stencil looks great, I won't hesitate to take full credit. I made the stencil myself, thank you very much. But if you think the heart looks messed up.... well then, I'll just say she bought it.  

 

She traced the stencil with pencil where she wanted them, then went over with with marker. You could always use fabric paint too, but the markers are just way too easy.

 

book of cards

and while she drew away, I fumbled around punching holes in Lincoln's baby cards. Oh yeah, that one item I didn't buy, a whole puncher. Kinda important to have one of those. But I did buy the clasp rings!

HAND PUNCH $2.50

BINDER RINGS $2.50

I was pretty happy with my project. I do have carpal tunnel now, but what a small sacrifice for a well organized book of Lincoln's baby cards. After I have corrective wrist surgery, I'll tackle our wedding cards. :)

and the real beauty of today: of course is this baby :)

11/52

Linc's developed a bitter-sweet skill. He's turning those chubby fingers of his into a death grip.

SWEET: more interaction than just staring at his toys from his play gym.

BITTER: the pain he is inflicting on his mother.

 

Which brings me to my P.C. Knowledge for week 11.

 With this new skill I've discovered why mom's go and cut their hair after having a baby.

Sure, mothers will say, "Oh I cut my hair so it would be easier to take care of blah blah blah..."

The truth?

 

Their baby mastered the death grip.

 

When ever I try to set Lincoln down (especially for his nap) he intertwines those chubby fingers through my long locks and instills the death grip. This means I could (hypothetically) let go of him and he would dangle with a firm grip on my hair.

 

He finds it pretty funny hilarious. He gives me this look like, "I'm only letting go if you can pry my fingers open." And then there's the evil laugh..... not vocally but it's definitely in his facial expression.

Something like this but with a long lock of his mother's hair.

 There's two fixes for this:

1. The mom hair cut

2. Hair in a bun, on top of your head, every day, all day

our wallpaper arrived

We received our photos in the mail yesterday!

I've been checking the mail diligently and patiently waiting to see our family photos.  I have to say, I am super stoked with how they turned out. Thank you Leah! I've been blessed with handsome boys in my family and now I get to plaster our living room walls with their good lookin' faces. :)

 

 

 

And this would be my fave. Proud parents admiring their precious baby... alfalfa hair and all. :)

family and marriage

MONDAY! I feel so refreshed, ready for whatever this week will bring. Tons of energy here. This weekend was a restful weekend. Lincoln has officially transitioned to sleeping throughout the night, an occassional hiccup here or there but this new mom feels great. This weekend we had the opportunity to hear from an Apostle from The The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Elder Russell M. Ballard.

Ryan and I left the church meetings with a stronger testimony of the importance of family and committment in marriage. He talked about how he and his wife, every night, take each other by the hand and say, "I'm grateful I had one more day with you." And this is how Ryan and I both feel about each other. We are grateful. We know our marriage is eternal and our committment to each other and the gospel will keep us strong and help us endure through everything. There is no way Satan can destroy our marriage when we stay committed. This doesn't mean our marriage will be perfect. But when we view our marriage and the covenants we made with each other seriously, the troubles we will face will be overcome through our committment to each other and to our family.

Family is so important, and when I see these two boys, I can't help but think how wonderful life is.