Uncle Paul

Hi everyone, it's Christopher, the star of the blog. I just wanted to take a turn and tell a story.
Once apon a time, Utah played BYU. We went over to my Uncle Pauls house to watch it. Even though I wanted to go through all the cupboards, and play with Harley, Uncle Pauls dog, I was really tired, so I took a nap and just dreamed about all the food I love to eat. (I can do run-on sentances in my story if I want.) I was so tired that I slept through the whole game! When I woke up I got to play with the Harley again and then I climbed up on Uncle Pauls lap to sing some songs. He's almost as good at singing 'Itsy Bitsy Spider' as my Mom is. My Mom's version is really intense and loud, but Uncle Pauls version is so relaxing. I got so relaxed that I let myself go. It took Uncle Paul a minute to realize what he made me do. I guess he got kinda relaxed too, with all the new warmth in his lap. But when he realized what happened he just passed me off as if I wasn't his favorite nephew anymore. Rude. Then he went swimming. I guess he needed to do something to wash off and work off his frustrations since his team didn't win the game. We all lived happily ever after, especially me!
-Chris

Pumpkins and Hamburgers

Happy Halloween! We like to carve us some pumpa-kins in our family. This would be Christophers first experience with the pumpa-kin carvin.

He wasn't too sure about it at first...

Actually he didn't like it at all, as you can see me putting his hand in to touch the pumpkin guts.

We ended up with a wolf, a grave site, and a racoon jumping out of a jack-o-lantern.

And here's our little hamburger...

It's like he just jumped right out of that happy meal and started walkin around.

Elk!

Craigs most favorite time of year has come and gone. Hunting season! I'm glad he has something to show for it this year. He's been in school every year since we've been married and hasn't really been able to go. After 5 years of marriage, the term 'Hunting Widow' makes a lot more sense. You should really hear the story from Craig but, let's be honest Craig, you'll probably never make a post on our blog again. :) Love you though!
If he were to tell you how it went he'd say something about how he and his brothers got up at like 4 am and hike 20 miles up the mountain before noon everyday. And I think that's pretty much it. Ha

Christopher had a Birthday (his very first one!)

Chris's birthday was on September 30th. He weighed 25 lbs 9 oz and was somewhere around 31-33 in long. I don't even remember exactly. I know, I know that's so bad becuase I should be logging his stats in a scrapbook or something like that, right? All I know is he was off the charts again in all categories so it doesn't really matter how tall he is because it's pretty much garaunteed that he is bigger than your kid at this age. He is even bigger than his Daddy was at one (thanks to Grandma Yerke who kept a log in a scrapbook of all that stuff).

So anyway the big boy is ready to party!...regardless if he had 5 shots on party day.

He has his party hat on!

And the cake modeled after the hat is ready to eat!

But dinner is first. No problems here. Chris loves to eat!

Now it's cake time!

Braydon was dying to get in on the action.

I think Braydon likes Christophers hat. Either that or he's trying to show Chris his backhand.

Chris's cousins helped him open his presents.

Ok so that pretty much sums up the Yerke party. The next day was the Hutton party. But I guess Christopher was all caked out. He didn't want anything to do with it this time.

We may have gotten it all over him, trying to get him excited about it, but this was the outcome...so sad. But Grandma Hutton thinks it's pretty funny! (I was there too...it was funny.)

I kept trying to tell him not to cry, becuase like his hat says, 'It's FUN to be ONE'. But later, he told me it's his party and he'll cry if he wants to. I guess I can't argue with that.

Before and Afters

Uh, Hi. I don't know if you remember us, but we're the Yerkes. We haven't blogged in a while. I guess that's pretty obvious. I don't think we'll promise that we'll be better bloggers, because quite frankly, blogging frustrates me (Sarah). Just little things like how I accidentally deleted 5 photos I was going to share. Yeah, that's why I don't blog. Oh yeah, and there's that thing about the first photo you upload, becomes the last on your post...I always forget about that. Why can't the computer just know that the first thing I want to talk about comes first, and then everything else comes after that, in that order? Does anyone else feel that way? Or am I just so blogger un-savvy?

Well anyway, you don't have to answer that. Here are some before and afters photos of me trying to turn our house into more than just walls and a roof. Oh by the way, we bought a house in Stansbury Park, Ut. Moved in Jan '10. If you don't know where Stansbury is, maybe you've heard of Tooele? It's over there, about 20 min west of SLC. I like it because it's in the country; so we don't have all the traffic; and the views are awesome; but I can escape to the city in less than a half hour!

Here's great big empty wall. I put up the paper to see if the layout of photos was what I wanted.

And this is how it turned out. I love it!

This was the "rocking chair" I was using in Chris's room. To give it a little credit, it's called 'The Big Boy' and it is the most coveted camp chair around the camp fire. But it did lack the whole rocking aspect. And it was difficult to get out of when I was holding a sleeping baby.

I was just waiting for the rocking chair which I was given (thank you Jim and Heidi!) to be refinished. As you can see it was white, which didn't really go in Chris's room.

And I don't have a picture of the original pads but Jim and Heidi also gave us this baby swing with fabric that was almost identical. They had kids in the 90's when the teal with the pink scribbles was totally radical. (And we so appreciate them saving that stuff for us for when we could use it!)

But it didn't go in Chris's room either. So Craig painted the chair black, and I had the pads re-upholstered. (Any of you Stansburyians need any re-upholstering done, I know just the man to call...he charged me $25 for labor, fabric, and extra padding! I couldn't even find slip-covers online for less than $90. It's just a hobby of his that he does out of his garage. He's so sweet too.)

And this is how it turned out. Much better.

Hats, Bobble-heads & Laughs

I don't think I ever mentioned that got a sewing machine for Christmas. Well I did. Eager for an easy project I made Craig a new surgical hat, which he is so beautifully modeling below. What a great accessory to his plain blue scrubs, don't you think?

Craig wanted in on the fun so he decided to make Christopher a hat too, which is also being modeled below.









































Then Craig proceded to tie up the boy. I'm not quite sure why. Maybe since he had his new thinking cap on, he thought he would try a body cast. He does like to practice those things at home...

I know becuase I've been the guiney pig before...

When Daddy comes home it's time to play. Craig can always get the best laughs out of Christopher. (you will need to turn off the music player so you can hear his cute laugh).

Here is our sleppy, bobble-head boy.

First Photo Shoot

These were taken in November when Chris was just over a month old by one of the best photographers in the land: ANDEE: She also happens to be one of my very best friends. Check it out here. http://andeemcdonaldphotography.com/

Picture Binge

Picture Binge- a period or bout, usually brief, of excessive indulgence in sharing ones pictures in the form of posting, blogging or facebooking, with no incorrect assortment, in order to reach a certain level of satiety. {Not a disorder.}













Christopher and Uncle Paul hanging out














Santa wants Craig's head to be warm and oh so stylish!




















Christopher and cousin Braydon hanging out on Christmas Day






























Christopher hangin out with G&G Nelson





















Grandma Nelson made this beautiful quilt for Christopher


















Christopher plays with Winnie the Pooh and Tigger too!































Such a happy boy!



























Craig shows us Blue Steel. He too, like Zoolander, is working on turning left.
















My handsome boys!














Merry Christmas Craig! You can now shave without hurting your face!
















I got to hang out with Bomber, one of my best friends from College. It was just like old times, except Christopher was tagging along, and we didn't eat a whole bag of candy! Good times!

















Catchin up and hanging out with some more good buddies! I have so many dear friends who have helped shape me into who I am today. Thank you good buddies!















Christopher goes from this full head of reddish hair

To this...












I can't quite find the words to describe my dissapointment.
(I don't know if you can tell but he was quite mad when this picture was taken. It just goes to show how much he misses his lovely locks as well.)
Oh how I love this boy!

Stay tuned for some more picture bingeing and videos!