Mommy's Big Helper

When I do the dishes I usually have the choice between waiting until William is asleep, or doing the dishes with a boy standing at my legs crying to be held. Yesterday I really wanted to do the dishes while he was awake, but was definitely not in the mood for a whiny child. So I figured-why not? I'll just let him help. So I rolled up his pant legs and sleeves, set him on the counter and gave him a scrub brush. It was a hit!!! He had an absolute blast, and even though he was completely drenched and soapy by the time and there was soap all over the counter, it was totally worth it to have such a happy boy. It was really fun to see him help me scrub the dishes, the sink, the counter and anything else he could reach. I finally grabbed the camera after I was done. Just so you know, he didn't actually stick his feet in the water until after all the dishes were done.


After I was done and had drained the water, I turned on the faucet to rinse out the soap suds, and William immediately decided that was his cue to go all the way into the sink. He had so much fun playing in the faucet and letting the water run on him while he scrubbed the other sink.

It's times like these that just make me love being a mother!!

In other William news, this morning William was sitting on the floor in the middle of the living room, and Chris was sitting on the couch. Chris said, "William, stand up and walk to me." And guess what William did? He stood up (without help) and walked to Chris. He's totally been playing us!!!

A Sad Evening

This evening I was cooking spaghetti for dinner and as I took the pot of spaghetti from the stove to the sink to strain it, William decided he really needed to be held and grabbed onto my legs whining to be picked up. This had disastrous results because as he did this and I poured the scalding water into the strainer, some hit the side and splashed onto his arm. Needless to say, he screamed hysterically for a little bit and I cried and his poor little elbow was all burned and blistered. Overall he was actually a pretty good sport, and luckily it only got him a little bit, but I still felt SO bad.
After I ran it under cold water and put aloe vera on it he was much better so we ate dinner and since he ended up with spaghetti all over him I figured it was time for him to take a bath. I didn't want to put the water too warm because it always hurts on burns, so I just put in luke warm water, closed the bathroom door and turned on the little baseboard heater that was in there. He played pretty well, and after a while decided he was ready to be done so I was going to grab a new washcloth out of the hall closet. I figured it was pretty warm in the room, so I leaned down to turn off the heater and as I was standing up opened the door rather quickly. Too bad I didn't quite get my head out of the way first. The corner of the door smacked me so hard right on the eyebrow bone and I have a nice goose egg that developed within about a minute. I'm sure I'll have a black eye tomorrow.
The best part about it was that when Chris got home a little bit later and learned what happened he LAUGHED HYSTERICALLY!!!!! (Not about William's arm, just about my head) Honestly-what kind of sympathy is that? So I figured I deserved to lie on the couch with a bag of snow on my head and a bowl full of chocolates beside me and watch a Jane Austen movie.
Sorry, I didn't take any pictures of any of it. I've been too traumatized by the whole evening. Luckily William seems to be sleeping pretty well so far. Poor little guy!!!

Never knew I could dance like this!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

World's Water Problem...

This guy has come up with a couple pretty amazing inventions!!! Clean water is a big issue facing our world. There are companies trying to turn clean water into a commodity, while there are other people, like this guy, who are fighting for water to be a free part of life.



I'm currently in an African History class, and this is one of the issues that we've been discussing. Highly fascinating. Let me know what you think. :)

Halloween and Birthday Party Catch Up

I've been meaning to post pictures of Williams's birthday party for a while now, and now I also have halloween to do as well, so I'll just post lots of pictures!

Halloween:


These are pictures of our adorable little puppy dog. Originally my plan was to have William be toto, me be Dorothy and Chris be the Scarecrow, but of course, as things go I didn't finish William's costume until right before our ward halloween party a week before halloween. So instead Chris and I did impromptu pirate costumes. We were all actually a big hit at the party, but sadly we didn't take any family pictures. I think we are all a little depressed because our small camera got lost\stolen a couple of weeks ago. We still have Chris's big nice camera, but I don't really know how to use it well and it's hard to take around with you.

Anyway, William's costume turned out ADORABLE and everyone loved him (but I think his mother more than anyone). On the actual night of halloween we went to the annual halloween costume that the symphony does. I was in it for a couple of years and it is such a fun concert with lights, costumes, sets, a silly story line, singers, dancers etc. We dressed William up again, but Chris and I didn't really feel like it. We didn't do any actual trick or treating, but I figure that at this age the less candy William is exposed to the better.

Birthday Party: (all of the captions are for the pictures above them)


William was a little unsure about the whole candle thing. So was his mom!

He wasn't so much a fan of the actual cake, but he really loved sucking the frosting off the end of the candle. He didn't want to give it up when all the frosting was gone so we just kept dipping it back in the cake.

William and his cute cousin Trey

He eventually decided to get into the cake a little more.

Trey was very excited about helping William open his presents! You can also see my sister Mary, William's friend Sebastian, and part of his cousin Jain.

William eventually got the hang of opening his own presents though.

Looking at the adorable book Grandma and Grandpa Hall gave him.

Playing with cars from Sebastian

I made William this fleece blanket because he had been sleeping with my pink one for quite a while. He loves to hold on to the ties at the end and rub them on his face, or just feel them with his fingers. As you can see from the picture he loves to snuggle with soft things! It's like a reflex-if his face touches something soft, especially something like fleece, he automatically lies down and snuggles with whatever it is. It is one of my favorite things!

Anyway, there are a ton more pictures that I would like to post, but I have to stop myself. I didn't post a whole lot of the people who came, but it was a lot of fun with a lot of people. My parents and sister came, William's Grandma Cutler and Great Grandma Blaylock, and Chris's sister Katherine with her kids Trey and Jain. We also had our neighbors Chris and Elizabeth Sant with Sebastian, and Nate and Allie Dickson with Keith. It was a lot of fun to have everyone over and William had a blast and was exhausted by the end.

Free Handbag

Hey, I came across this contest for a free handbag from a friends blog and thought I'd share it. Check it out at www.HandbagPlanet.com. Kinda weird because I don't usually do stuff like this, but it is free, I have been needing a new purse, and there's no obligations involved. Good luck!

The Amazing Phenomenon

I was browsing through the pictures on our computer this evening and I began to compare some of the pictures between William and myself. It was interesting to see some of the similarities. I put together a little comparison picture for my own reference, and then I thought I would share it.



We are quite alike aside from the fact that I think my face was a little rounder, and the fact that William has his mothers beautiful eyes. :) As she puts it, my eyes are more "almond shaped" and Williams are more "round." Kind of a random thing to post, but I suppose that is what you get with blogs. :)

Welcome to Politics!

I just received this little clip from my mom. It was a good laugh! Enjoy. :)

Our Little One Year Old

William is one years old today!! I was going to write a blog before and catch you up on all of his exploits before this, but since I didn't get around to it, I will do so now. We are having a little party for him on Friday so I'll post pictures of cake and stuff then. Since he is now 12 months old, I will tell 12 things about him, and put some random cute pictures intermittently.

1-As you see in some of the pictures, William likes to stick his tongue out ALL THE TIME! He started doing this when he was getting in his bottom two teeth and hasn't stopped. My favorite thing is when he does this little babbly language of his with his tongue out the whole time.

2-For some reason William is mystically drawn to the hymnbook. We have a bookcase in our living area and William can pull himself up and get anything on the bottom two shelves. For some reason, no matter where it is, he will always go straight for the hymnbook every time. He loves to pull it off the shelf and then sit down and look through it. (Below-Aren't his crossed feet the cutest things? He does this a lot)



3-William really loves dancing to music. One of his favorite things is when we turn on something upbeat and we have a dance party. He loves being twirled around in circles, and laughs and laughs and laughs when we dance with him. He especially loves it when his daddy dances with him.

4-Lately William has been wanting his dad a lot. It used to be that he always just wanted me, but then a couple of weeks ago Chris went on a 3 day fishing trip and when he got back William practically jumped out of my arms into his. Ever since then I can tell that he misses his daddy when Chris is gone all day. He absolutely loves the evening time when they chase each other (crawling, of course) all around the apartment laughing hysterically.

5-William still doesn't regularly sleep through the night, although he has gotten much better lately at letting me just put him in his crib and going to sleep by himself. He is also getting better at going to sleep again quickly after he wakes up at night. Maybe someday he will actually stop waking up, but I'm taking what I can get right now. :)



6-William likes to talk in this little language of his that is very cute and funny. (If you want a vague idea of what it's like -stick your tongue out of your mouth and say "giggle" over and over while varying the intonation and inflection.) Sometime he will randomly hold his arm high up in the air and stare up at his hand while he talks very quickly and dramatically. It's hilarious to see.

7-William loves to watch the "signing time" movies. I don't like to let him watch movies very often, and he really isn't interested in watching most movies, but he really likes signing time, and it's nice to be able to let him watch them every once in a while so I can clean something up without him making another mess. He still doesn't really sign himself though, even though we've been doing signs for months. Every once in a while one will slip out, but not very often. I'm sure he'll do it eventually though.

8-William always wants to feed himself. Lately he has only been letting me feed him a few bites and then will refuse to eat anymore until I let him do it himself. The problem is that he really hasn't mastered the art of using his spoon yet, so he will try that for a while and then resort to digging his hands into it and trying to lick out of his bowl. I don't really mind cleaning up the mess most of the time, but sometimes it's pretty disastrous. IN the picture below he figured how to dump his bowl on the top of his head. It was incredibly funny when he did it, and then even funnier because the rice just stayed there.



9-Lot's of times when William wakes up in the morning we will just lie in my bed for a while and I will nurse him, and then I will try to catch a little more sleep while he plays (wishful thinking, I know!). It's funny though, because lots of times he will play for a minute and then lay his head down on my pillow with me, then bounce up and play, then lay his head on my stomach, then bounce up again and then lie on Chris's pillow, over and over. It's actually really cute to see, and I love it when he comes and just lies down right next to me. Granted, he often smacks his head on mine when he is trying this, but it's worth it for the snuggle time.

10-On Sunday we learned that William is able to crawl up stairs very easily. I had been asked to play the organ so we were sitting on the stand. Chris had taken William out for a minute, and then come back and sat on the front row. He put William down and he crawled straight for the stairs to the stand and went straight up them and back to me. It was pretty cute. It was funny because before he could crawl he couldn't get around at all-he never even rolled onto his tummy. But as soon as he decided to crawl (10 months) he suddenly could do anything he wanted and get anywhere and walk along furniture and everything, so I really shouldn't have been surprised when he did this too.

11-William is pretty much in constant motion. It is pretty much impossible to get him to sit still long enough to clip his fingernail. He always tries to grab the clippers, and hates having his hand held still. We've even tried to do it while he is asleep, but even then he will jerk his hand away. It has also become quite the ordeal to change his diaper and he continually tries to crawl away while you are doing it. Even when he sleeps it's as if he is just hovering there waiting to get up and play. I can go into his room when he is sleeping and say "William" very very softly, and he will shoot straight up on his hands and knees, look at me, then stand up and reach for me to get him out to go play. It's pretty amazing.

12-We have this little bike toy (this isn't ours, but it's one like this)

and the last couple of days William has spent tons of time, energy and attention trying to get up on it. He loves it when we push him around the house on it and it's just been really cute to see him focus so much on trying to get on it himself. He has come really close, but can't quite get up far enough. It's funny when you say that little kids don't have very long attention spans because he spent at least 10 minutes completely focused on it the other night.

So there it is-a very long update on William. It is so amazing to me that he is one years old. In some ways it seems like he can't have grown up that fast, and in some ways it seems as if he has been with us forever. He brings us so much joy! I never knew how much you could love until I got married and then having William just added so much more. He lights up our lives every day!

Tag

It seems like whenever I have quite a few ideas for blog updates that's when I get the most overwhelmed with blogging. I have this problem with lots of things-projects, cooking, etc. Anything where I feel like I have more ideas than I have time. But I decided that one blog post I definitely could do right now was this one.

I was tagged by Becca

The rules:
Link the person who tagged you
Mention rules on your blog
Tell about 6 quirks of yours
Tag 6 fellow bloggers
Leave a comment to let them know

I don't really think I'm a quirky person, but I'll do my best to come up with some.=)

1-I am a RECIPE FOLLOWER: This is Chris and my term for my obsession with following directions. It starts with recipes, where I like to read the whole thing and put in the exact amounts-etc. One struggle with this is I have trouble cooking without a recipe, but since Chris is the exact opposite, I am coming out of my shell slowly. More than just cooking though, this obsession extends to anything else where there are directions involved. I am the kind of person who likes to follow them to the T. Maybe this is why I was always able to do well in school :).

2-SMALL AMOUNTS: This quirk extends from #1 somewhat, and also has to do with my not liking to waste food. I have a tendency to put very small amounts of things back in the fridge when actually it would be fine to either use them in what I am cooking, or throw them away since they won't really do me any good for anything else. Chris never lets me hear the end of the time I put a very small amount of coconut back in the fridge because it was more than the amount called for in the cookie recipe. :) Silly, I know.

3-HISTORY BUFF: I guess this isn't a current quirk, but I'm struggling to come up with things so it will have to do. When I was younger I went through stages where I was obsessed with different aspects of history and would read everything I could find on the subject. For instance, I went through a Egypt and mummies phase, a Titanic phase, a King Arthur phase, a French Revolution phase, an Industrial Age America phase etc. I also had a 4th grade history textbook that was my favorite thing to read for quite a while. It's funny, my love for history hasn't dwindled, but I have to admit that reading college history texts isn't nearly as fun as reading stories about the French Revolution.

4-ONE SITTING: I guess this has to do with my preface to the post. I like to be able to complete things in one sitting. Hence the reason I easily get overwhelmed when there are things I really want to do, but are longer projects. I have trouble with the idea that I am going to have to interrupt what I am working on to take care of William, or that I am going to have to leave my project out (being messy)for a couple of days before I will be able to finish it. I really hate that I have this trait because lots of times it stops me from growing and developing and learning new things. Hence the reason that I am really trying and I think slowly overcoming it.

5-CLEAN HOUSE: I always feel like my house has to be completely clean before I can do anything else, such as visit with friends, go to the store, exercise, work on projects, cook a meal, or basically just anything. I know that this is completely irrational and impossible, considering the two boys I live with :) but it is part of me none the less.
Note: I have organized my house much better the last little while and it is now much easier for me to pick up the house in a short amount of time, thus leaving my conscience clear for whatever else I want to do.

6- DRIVING WITH CHRIS: This quirk actually stems from the fact that I have an OCD husband. I always go to pieces on the rare occasions when I am driving and he is the passenger. For some reason (actually-because he is a very critical OCD driver) he makes me extremely nervous when I am driving and I always do something stupid that I would never do when driving by myself. Then he makes me laugh like crazy about whatever it was and the situation gets worse and worse. Luckily he really doesn't mind letting me drive and I don't really mind driving with him, we just always have something to laugh over afterward. But usually, I am content to just let him drive.

I tag: Ashley, Kelsey, Haylee, Mara, Aubrey, Steve

Las Vegas Pics

Well, my dad emailed me the pictures from Las Vegas, which were many so I will only share a few. For some unfortunate reason (probably because my family has never been big picture takers so we don't think rationally sometimes) we didn't get any good ones with my grandparents. I am very sad over this because I don't know when the next time I will get to see them is. However, there are some very cute ones of William and Katie!

Here's William in his "Mexico outfit" with his grandma Hall. Chris and I went to Mexico with his family last summer when I was hugely pregnant and this is one thing we brought back with us for the baby.

My brother and his family-sorry for the cut off heads, I wasn't taking the picture and I have noticed that most of the pictures tend to make the children the focus. I guess I don't really have a problem with that though.


Adorable Katie


Katie and her Grandpa Hall

Swimming-My grandparents don't have a pool, but their next door neighbor was very very kind and told us to come over and swim whenever we wanted to. We definitely took advantage of that because it was SO hot!



William and his uncle Jesse

William playing patty-cake with grandma and laughing like crazy!

Just a crazy face-couldn't leave this one out!

And finally-my sister Mary and her braids that I spent hours putting in her hair!


Whew!! Sorry for all the pictures, but my computer was uploading them really fast this time so I just kept going. The trip was a lot of fun, and amazingly William did fairly well in the car. It was very nice to get home though and be back with Chris. It was fun because at first I wasn't going to be home till the day after him, but we hurried back from Las Vegas in one day so that I could surprise him at the airport. I think he was glad :)

Blogging again

I have decided that since today is the start of a new semester for Chris it's also a day/time for me to get a fresh start on some things that I've been slacking on. One of those things is blogging. So here goes- my once again battle to actually write consistently in this blog.

I thought I would just kind of give an overview of what our summer (which really is only 7 weeks long since Chris goes to school till middle July) was like, and some fun things that we did.

To start off our break we went on vacation--separately. :) Chris went to Alaska for a week of fishing adventure and William and I went to Las Vegas with my parents and sister to visit my grandparents. It was the longest we have ever been apart and it was kind of strange, but it sure did make it very fun to see eachother when we got back.

Here's Chris and Kurt with some big fish

And some beautiful Alaska scenery (I'm jealous)


Sadly I don't have any pictures from Las Vegas because they are on my parents camera, but we had a good time with my grandparents and visiting with my brother Jesse, his wife Heather and adorable daughter Katie.

We went on a couple of fishing trips-here are William and Chris

And me with my mad fly fishing skills :)


A fun camping trip



And much more...but I think I'm worn out with my blogging effort for the night (plus Chris needs to order some books). So hopefully you will get more soon with a full update on all of William's (the Destroying Angel) escapades. Just for the record our son is the cutest boy ever.

First New Car... well, new to us :)

We purchased our very first new vehicle today. We purchase it used, but it is new to us. :) Talk about a scary thing, making your first large purchase like that! It is a Chevy Malibu Maxx LS.







We've only had it a matter of hours now, and I imagine the new feeling will last a while. Anyhow, just thought we would share our excitement.

Bouncer

I love this video of William in his little bouncer\plaything. I especially love it when he is talking to himself and his high pitch squeaks. As you will see in the video he really really likes to bang his toys on things, and to make as much noise and move as much as possible. He is such a funny little kid because he gets very intense and serious sometimes, and then is just a happy giggly smiley little boy at other times. This video shows quite the spectrum. Sorry it's so long, but I just couldn't leave anything out.



Lately William has started being much more mobile on his stomach. I taught him how to sleep on his stomach so that I wouldn't have to swaddle him anymore (although we still have to kind of hold him down before he will fall asleep) and in the few days since then he has started bringing his knees and feet under himself and pushing himself around backward. This is a lot of progress for a child who has always screamed when we put him on his stomach. It's still not his favorite position to be in, but it's getting better.

My very favorite thing that he has been doing, however, is DANCING. He started it yesterday and it is the cutest thing in the whole world!! He will shake his head back and forth and bounce up and down when music that he likes comes on. He seems to be drawn to guitar music with upbeat rhythms and singing. However, having said that, he did start doing it when I tried to put him down for a nap and turned on his little fish aquarium that plays lullabies. It wasn't quite as endearing that time because it meant that he wasn't much in the mood for taking a nap, but oh well. :) I'll take the dancing! When I can get a good video of him doing it I will post it.

You woke me up to talk about fishing?!!!!

So I finally have a funny story to tell about Chris. It's almost always me who does funny things in my sleep or says something dumb to give him something to tease me about, so I really cherish it when he does something that I can give him a hard time about. So here's the story-

I was sick all last week-started with a sore throat on Sunday, fever, headache, achy body Monday, sinus infection Tuesday and Wednesday, and the to top it all off the stomach flu all Wednesday night and Thursday. Then on Friday Chris got the stomach flu, so between trying to help him be comfortable, and William's normal sleep difficulties I was up all night. So, needless to say, I had a whole week of not very good sleep, and then to top it all off William did not sleep AT ALL Saturday night. Well, he slept some before I went to bed, but about an hour after I went to bed he was up pretty much the whole rest of the night. I must say that it was the longest, most miserable night of my life.

Sunday morning I had been asked to substitute for the organist in Sacrament Meeting at 9:00, but because of the crazy week I had not had a chance to practice at all. And let me tell you-I am not proficient at the Organ!! So I left William at home with Chris who was still recovering, got there at 8:30 with eyes that seemed almost swollen shut from no sleep and crying (because of no sleep) and went through the hymns as best I could before people started showing up. By the time Sacrament Meeting was over I was tense and achy and feeling sick all over again.

I did get a little nap time that day but by the time Sunday night rolled around I was so exhausted that I thought I was going to die. I got into bed by 10:00, and sank blissfully into sleep. And-thank heaven, William slept very well.

But then, in the middle of the night while I was FINALLY deep in sleep, I suddenly noticed Chris talking quite loudly in my ear. Our conversation went something like this:

Chris: I think you can go past
Me : What?!
Chris: I think you can go past!
Me: What?!
Chris: I think you can go past Ansard
Me: Chris, are you awake?
Chris : (very convincingly) Yes!!
Me: What are you talking about?
Chris: Fishing
Me: YOU WOKE ME UP TO TALK ABOUT FISHING?!!!!!!!
Chris: Sorry

I was SO upset and annoyed at him that I just rolled over as far from him as I could and buried my head in the blankets. I really thought that he was awake and that he just couldn't sleep so he wanted to talk to me about places to go fishing. (This is NOT and unreasonable assumption, by the way)

In the morning when we talked about it I found out that the only part he remembered was me asking him if he was awake. And, like we all do when we are half awake he remembers thinking that he had to really sound like he was. However, he says he doesn't remember anything else. So now I get to keep teasing him about how he woke me up to talk about fishing.

Sorry this was such a long story-it's probably not even funny to anyone else, but I still chuckle every time I think about it.

This made me smile...

I think I now know what I want for next Christmas. What a great idea! :)

Something to ponder on...

These are a couple of clips from a lecture given by Rob Bell. He's a Christian lecturer that we stumbled upon. Though there are some parts of what he says that we do not agree with (the nature of God), he still puts forth some really interesting insights into our existence. It's worth a brief listening. Let us know what you think...

Who knows better how to dance the robot than a robot?

I thought this was a cool video...

Bathtime Fun

William has always loved his baths. Even when he was a newborn he would completely relax as soon as he was put in the water. But now that he can be in the big bathtub and can splash and wiggle and play he REALLY loves his bath. Its funny because he can be really cranky all day and I will put him in a bath and it's as if a switch is flipped and he becomes the happiest kid in town. So we took some pictures from his bath time and I thought they were pretty cute. Oh and don't worry-they're censored :)

Here he is sitting up on his own in the tub-he has been very happy to be able to do this!

In this one he is splashing like a crazy man! I had already retreated somewhat because I was pretty wet at this point from him having so much fun. It's funny because he gets it all over his face and it doesn't even phase him. He just laughs and splutters and splashes some more. I sure love this kid!!

William has some bath toys that are a fishing pole and some little sea creatures that squirt water. Here he is inadvertently squirting himself in the eye. Once again, it doesn't phase him.

I love that he loves the water so much! He definitely gets it from me. I don't ever remember not loving and feeling completely comfortable in the water. I still remember swimming lessons when I was 3. My best friend was 4 and in the same class as me and I thought I was so cool because I wasn't afraid to put my head under water and she was. :) Yep, he's my little boy!

Picture frustrations

Just to let you know, the last entry I made was having serious trouble with the pictures for some reason. I tried to put them in there every way I could think of, but for some reason-although they told me they were there only two would show up. Let me tell you-I was severely frustrated!! I finally threw up my hands in despair and decided to do a slideshow. So check out the previous entry and look at the pictures you couldn't look at before.

Stupid technology! You love it until it doesn't work!

A...couple of hours...in the life of William

I guess I can't say a day in the life of William because all of this stuff just happened within a few hours. I look at these pictures and it just makes me want to wiggle because my child is so sweet and precious and adorable. I think mothers need days like this to help them keep a good perspective.

We went to General Conference this morning at the stake center and William got to wear his new suit that Grandma Cutler bought for him. He was so devestatingly handsome that it was a good thing there were no 6 month old girls in sight, although I did catch an 11 month old making eyes at him!

Later he got his rice cereal lunch-yummm! (He thinks so!) He is so funny when we feed him cereal-he opens his mouth as soon as the spoon is within sight. He looks just like a little bird.

After his nap he was sitting on Chris playing contentedly for quite a long time which is unusual for him. One of the things that kept him so entertained was his big toe. Apparently it was very appetizing! So were the tassels on my pink felt blanket, but we already knew he liked those. :)

Next he got dressed in his super cute new outfit-which I bought at Once Upon a Child for 11 dollars total (sweater, pants and shoes)-so that we could go to Idaho Falls and eat dinner with Chris's family. Once again he was so cute we just had to take some more pictures! Hope you enjoy this slideshow-you can click on it to see the pictures big. I like them better that way.

Simply a thought...

I was pondering today and I began thinking about how interesting it is that one of the most enjoyable things in life is anticipation. As I was thinking about this idea I began thinking back to old memories.


I recall waking up with my dad at 6a.m. on cold winterly days and being so excited that I most likely had only four or five hours of sleep that evening. We were going ice fishing to Hebgen Reservoir in Montana. The long drive almost killed me I was so excited to be fishing. There were many experiences like this concerning fishing, and I have to admit I still get a bit antsy when it comes to fishing trips. :)



I remember the times in high school where my friends and I would be planning big and crazy dates. I would be so excited for everyone to have a good time and also to see the look on my dates face when she realized what we were doing. I also enjoyed the woo or awwww factor from the girls that was sure to come with our rrrrrrromantic and mushy parts of the dates. What can I say...it appealed to the cheesy hopeless romantic side in me.



I recall preparing for serving a mission. It was scary but very exciting to prepare and gather the necessary things for the two years. Also while being on the mission it was exciting to search for people who we could serve and teach, though this was also much work. Once on the mission it was exciting to look forward to seeing my family once again. I began to understand a bit of what it is like for our heavenly Father who eagerly awaits the time when we will be reunited with Him. Isn't family wonderful!



Then there was Bita and I being engaged. It was so exciting to talk about our future lives together. Who we wanted to be and what we hoped to do and the family we wished to have. Maybe it is a silly thing, but I was even excited for Bita to be referred to as Sister/Mrs. Cutler. We were thrilled to know we were going on a cruise for the honeymoon and that there was a possibility to see the home in Puerto Rico where Bita was a baby(which we did see, or at least walked past).



(These are some of my old roommates)

Even pending events that tend to be a bit scary I have looked forward to. It was a very frightening thought to attend college for the first time, but also exciting because it was a new step in life. In high school I was not anything close to a valedictorian and did not care too much about what happened to my grades. This being the case, the thought of actually applying myself in school and finding myself wanting was scary. Looking past my insecurities though, I was excited for the test.



(Bita was 7 months pregnant on this trip - What a TROOPER!)

Then there was a big family trip to Mexico. Having never been to Mexico this was certainly something to be looked forward to. It was exciting making the preparations and also very much fun once the trip was underway.




What a thrill it was when we found out Bita was pregnant! Talk about anticipation! That was quite a trip and more so for Bita. And now everyday we are excited to see what new things William will do. It's just plain fun to anticipate. I feel truly sorry for those in this life who do not have something to look forward to. There are wonderful things in store for us in this world, but all the good things require a little effort and planning on our part.

And so you have it. There is the result of a ponderous moment in the life of Chris.