Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

I just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you and yours. May you be blessed with the love and company of friends and family, and may you all be blessed with a wonderful year in 2008.

Keep an eye on http://www.inatree.org and http://www.frugalmom.org in 2008.

Cheers,

Brandon, Jessica, Aiden, and baby!

I would like to note.

I would like to take a moment to note that the woman below is an amazing, beautiful, and talented person.

I am lucky to have her as my wife.

That is all.

Ketchup is not an Entree, or a beverage for that matter.

However, I have a 2 year old boy who would completely disagree with that statement. Aiden has more interest in eating ketchup than he does in just about anything else. It is somewhat amusing at times, but it can get gross too. I, like any other red blooded American loves ketchup on things such as burgers, hotdogs and French fries, but not nearly to the extent that Aiden does. He will pretty much eat anything if I let him smother it, or dunk it in ketchup. I even caught him dipping a banana in it, but today was interesting. It’s Officially Thanksgiving day, but I was supposed to be working, instead I am at home, on call. So I made breakfast for us this morning, nothing too fantastic, just some waffles and sausage. I was hoping not to introduce ketchup to the table because both of these foods are highly acceptable (to me, and Aiden) without ketchup. However, Brandon thought otherwise, and decided her wanted ketchup for his sausage (gross, right?) Aiden saw it and insisted on having some as well, but he didn’t stop at ketchup on the sausage, he wanted it all over his waffles, and then when there was a bit left o the plate he proceeded to dunk his fingers in it ad suck it off. You think this is getting gross, just wait until lunch.

So for lunch Aiden had veggie corndogs, with ketchup of course, and some steamed baby carrots on the side. I advised him to dunk his little corndogs in the ketchup, which of course he would have done without my prompting, but when he finished them he was on to the carrots. He started out just gingerly dunking them and sucking off the ketchup to dunk again. I saw no harm in this and went about loading the dishwasher, it had been several minutes now and he wasn’t, to my surprise, antsy to get down. So I asked him if he had finished yet. I looked at his face and he had the ketchup ramikan up against his mouth and chin and he was drinking/licking out all the ketchup. It was everywhere, his face was coated, and it was even all over his neck! YUCK!!!!! This is something my brother David would have done as a child (or maybe he still does?) I am thinking it’s a boy thing. We’ll see if our next little one likes Ketchup as much as her big brother does!

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

We are having a girl!

I am happy to announce that Jessica and I found out yesterday that we will be having a baby girl. We are both very excited about the new addition to the family. Let the parade of pink and frilly bits commence!

John Mayer

So I love John Mayer (his looks and his music) I love his style and he new album Continuum is FABULOUS!!! My husband got it for me because he knows how much I love John Mayer. The latest single is called “dreaming with a broken heart” which is a bit of a sad love song. It’s Hilarious because whenever I am in the car and it comes on naturally I turn up the volume a little. Aiden is usually in the car with me and he has picked up on some of the lyrics. He is quite the little singer. (He knows row row row your boat, and Old MacDonald had a farm) I never intentionally taught him this John Mayer song, but whenever it comes on he sings along, it’s is about the cutest thing ever. There is a line in the song that says “cause you’re gone, gone, gone, gone, gone” This is Aiden’s favorite line, he never misses the chance to sing “gone” and he always does it 5 times (which is right!) it’s so cute!

Brandon is now tracking the traffic our site receives which is actually kind of fun. We can look to see what kind of search will give them our site as a “hit” Many of you might remember my post early this year about pubic hair. If you have read it you most likely have not forgotten it, if you haven’t, give it a go, it’s funny!
http://www.burtonbowman.com/2007/01/23/just-another-day-in-labor-and-delivery/
That’s the link to it. Apparently our site gets most of it’s traffic because of that post, if you Google “Labor and Delivery shaving” My post is at the top! Crazy, huh? I didn’t realize how concerned people were, but trust me, if I can just raise a small amount of awareness about this important issue I will be satisfied!

New Look

Brandon and I (mostly Brandon) are re-vamping our blog, so to speak. I am the main author on the blog, but Brandon is the main administrator, so he keeps things working, and I keep them interesting. I am going to be posting a new category of posts mostly all relating to finances, and saving money. I haven’t changed my career, but saving money is a personal hobby of mine, and my husband has been encouraging me to share my knowledge with the world, or the people who read our blog, both I guess:) I would love to draw the interested of strangers, it would be fun! You know like a fan club. Anyway when you see those posts that is what they are about, basically me writing about one of my hobbies. Having a life on a budget, not necessarily a budget, but basically how to do anything cheaper. But doing it well! Anyway read the posts as they come out and you’ll get it. Also we wanted to change the way the blog looked (when I say we, I mean Brandon) But I like it. I am mostly of the mindset of if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, Brandon enjoys renovations, so now our blog is prettier. Hope you all enjoy it, more to come.

New Pictures

So I loaded up a bunch of new pictures, these were taken at Aiden’s Birthday party, which was held on Sept 22nd (his real b-day is Sept 15th, but mommy wasn’t organizer enough to have everything together in time, so we had it a week late) We had planned on going to this great park called Burton Chase park in Marina Del Rey (right on the Marina) but the day of the party we had this flash flood thing going on, so we wound up having the party at our dry home. Aiden had a lot of fun, you will see some of our guests in these pictures as well, there are several shots of Aiden with Brandon, and the little blonde girl helping Aiden open gifts is his bff Kaitlin. She turned 2 just a couple weeks before Aiden did. Her mom and dad are in some photos and they are Alona and Marc, there is also Madi, Laura, Laura’s mom, Chris and Lori, Claude and Denize, and Greg and Ethan. Aiden had a great time opening gifts although he seemed a bit overwhelmed. Holidays and Birthdays are a lot more fun with little ones though, they get so excited about everything!

Today we went to a portrait studio and had some posed pictures of Aiden done, I will have the proofs online in a few days, they turned out pretty cute, he had on a regular outfit and then a Monkey costume which was completely adorable! He hated it though, he was so afraid of the studio. He had to see his pediatrician recently and I think he was thinking he was back again, because he had a mini panic attack! You can see the leftover tears in some of his pictures, it about broke my heart. The photographer was great though, and so patient with him. I was very impressed. Brandon’s Grandmothers have been requesting “real”photos of Aiden, so I needed to get them done. So please enjoy these and check back next week, there will be more!

It’s Official

So the title sort of gives it away, but Brandon and I are very excited to announce that we are expecting our second child in the Spring!!! We had our first ultrasound on Monday and now I feel comfortable sharing the news with everyone. So lately I have been feeling like crap. I was hoping to have another pregnancy similar to my pregnancy with Aiden, no morning sickness and I felt great all the time. This one is a whole other matter, I basically feel like I am going to puke at any moment! So that is our news, I will keep you all updated as I know more (gender etc) but for now my little kidney bean seems healthy, and hopefully happy.

I am still working a bunch, and staying busy with raising Aiden who is getting smarter by the second. Brandon is still at his job and enjoying himself. Aiden will be 2 on Sept 15th which is crazy!!! We decided to throw another Curious George party because this year he actually knows (and LOVES) Curious George. So although it might be unoriginal, it will be just fine, because Aiden got to pick out the plates!

Other than that life is pretty much the same, Hope all of you are doing great!

Called

So it’s 0430 and I am actually writing this from work. I have been working nights short term the last few weeks and completely hating it! But I will go back to days soon enough, and all will be just a nightmare inmy past. They put me on call though, but at 1:30am my phone rings… we need you to come in… blah blah blah… So here I am. Tired and cranky, and hating every minute of working nightshift. So My family had a nice busy weekend, My husbands mother, Judy, and her new husband Kelly and Brandon’s brother Matt were here for the weekend, so we spent our timw with them, showing them around LA, but mostly just hanging out. Funny story though, here goes.

Last night (Sunday night) we decided to go to the Santa Monica Pier for dinner at Bubba Gump shrimp company (yes like the movie FOrrest Gump) and after dinner as we were heading back toward the car, I see no other, but, yes, wait for it. Britney Spears. Crazy huh? No kids, no K-fed, just her and some girlfriends. No shutterbugs at the time either. No one noticed her but me, I looked her right in the face and was like, oh yeah, that’s her. Then I proceeded to tell Brandon, who was surprise how “chunky” she had gotten. She has been under a lot of scrutiny lately for the care (or lack of) of her sons Sean and Jayden. Apparently she gives them coca-cola in their bottles, among the other numerous things she has been sighted for. I feel kinda bad for her, she looked really bad, and her skin close up is terrible!! Her wig was a bit ill-fitting as well, but what can you do? So it’s a nice little bit of notoriety for Brandon’s family as they head back to ole SD, they got to see (sort of) a big time celeb. Excuse me for all the typos and mispellings, it’s 4:30 in the morning, plus there doesn’t appear to be a spell checker on this, so bear with me.

Other than that Brandon, Aiden and myself are continuing to lead boring lives, with the Britney Spears episode being the exception (wow, we need to get out more!) Any offers for babysitting will be gladly accepted!

Vanessa Carlton

So last night Brandon and I trekked through West Hollywood to walk to the Roxy theatre to see Vanessa Carlton. People my age will remember her with that song 1000 miles, and if it doesn’t immediately come to mind when you hear the unmistakable intro on the piano you will surely know who she is. She kinda dropped off the map for a while, but she has a new album coming out this fall and she is out promoting it. I entered a contest and won tickets to see her which was pretty great, because I absolutely LOVE free stuff. (hey I am only being honest, and who doesn’t like free stuff?) I didn’t really know what to expect seeing as though she has been in hiding for some time, but her music is just as amazing as I remember. I bought her CD be not nobody like 6 or 7 years ago, and I always liked how talented she was both vocally and on the Piano, she is really quite amazing. So we went to the concert and she had a surprise guess, none other than Stevie Nicks. WOW what a legend, she even sang with Vanessa. I know she is a little before my time (OK a LOT before my time) but that doesn’t change the fact that she was a groundbreaking female artist of her time (Think “Landslide” before the Dixie Chicks did a cover, THAT is Stevie Nicks) The concert was sold out, wall to wall general admission, standing room only, so we were a bit crowded and we smelled like moldy cheese when we came home, but it was totally worth it!!!!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=XIQtLAk8OWk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTIjuhjsagQ&NR=1

so check out this clip, it’s Vanessa and Stevie singing “The One” For that matter if you forgot about Vanessa Carlton just type her name in Youtube.com and your memory will be refreshed. SO check out the clips, they are great!!!

In new news, Aiden is now 22 months and obsessed with Elmo, and newly interested in curious george cartoons. I think most of you know that we don’t own a television at all, so we occasionally allow Aiden to watch clips of Elmo on youtube.com he loves it, infact he loves it a little too much, we may have to get rid of the laptops as well (right… like that would EVER happen) Brandon and I are busy and enjoying our summer, we need to get to the beach a little more though I think. This weekend sounds good, I love to swim in the ocean. Aiden is also learning to swim which has been fun for me, and a little scary for Brandon. We take hi to the YMCA usually at least 1 time a week. he has a little life jacket and if he wears it he can swim all night without help, but without it he can swim too, pull himself to the edge and get out. But mostly he loves to climb out and jump in to make a big splash. He is somewhat fearless, but he knows his limits. Brandon and I have been truly blessed with an amazing child. Hope your summer isn’t going by too quickly!!!