Craziest thing I saw in the 'Tah

It wasn't the fact that my sister finally got to meet my boy.
It wasn't the fact that Soder's extended family finally got to meet the boy.
It wasn't the fact that we survived the Blizzard to end all Blizzards in the 'tah.
It WAS the fact that my mother got an early Christmas present from my dad.
It was a beautiful Ipad.
It was to give her the chance to read more books online (she is a big reader anyways.).
It was also a great toy for her to play games on.
It is a little unfair.
It seems like that graceful piece of technology has found a new, loving home.
It also seems like she at least appreciates it. It seems my number is on speed dial to act as her tech support.
It is nice to be needed by my parents 800 miles away. This blog post will be a test to see how much she uses her ipad.
It will be interesting to see if she says something about it tomorrow on our daily phone call.

The images I love....

Out of the tons of pictures we have taken here are some of my favorites so far, simply spending time with my parents at our house in Sunset. My dad love to walk around with baby and show him stuff around the house.


Baby is eating up all the attention and all the love and kisses from everyone. It is only half over so I am sure we will have many more sweet moments to blog about.

The reason for the visit...

SNOW!

We came down to Utah and, of course, what happened? It starts snowing. It is great for now that we have a great day to relax and wait out the snow, but not so great when I am planning on driving all along the Wasatch Front to visit people. It is refreshing because we haven't seen snow in over 2 years and Baby has never seen snow. I have missed how beautiful it is after a nice snow storm. It is nice to be here to experience it. And who knows, maybe we will go out and make Baby his first snowman!

Cutest find

As I was shopping for other things, (of course) I saw this cute shirt that fits the blog great. (and that is all that matters.) I can't wait to get a picture of him in it, but it is still a little big.

Baby's Blessing

On Saturday, we had Baby blessed. He was really wide eyed as he watched the Priest read the blessing. Baby was so amazed by all the gold icons on the doors of the alter and was excited when the Priest allowed him to touch the icons. And of course, the thing that made me happiest was dressing my boys up. I think my new drug of choice is putting ties on my baby.

Pictures speak loudly

I am in big trouble. I took some photos yesterday and when I looked at the shots today I realized I was in real trouble. There it was, looking at me right in the face: the bad situation that is looming right on the horizon. While the baby looks innocent enough now, the resemblance to the biggest troublemaker so far in our house is uncanny. My worst fears have been realized, I fear that Thing Two and Baby are on the same brainwave. It is only a matter of time before they are co-conspirators in trouble. You see it too, right? I am not going crazy, right? Please tell me you see the resemblance too. *sigh*

Weekend of nothingness

Well maybe not complete nothingness. This weekend was mostly errands to prepare for our trip to the 'Tah next week. I am at least finding some sanity in the fact that we aren't going to the wilderness and that if I forget something I can go to the local Target and pick it up. We did end up at one of my top 5 fun gift places in the Puget Sound area, Molbaks. I love that it just SCREAMS Christmas this time of year. They have a sea of poinsettias, tons of ornaments and lots of cute little knicky knack things.All the sensory overload created a little boy that looked like this...
Soder looked a little glazed over too because of all the crazy women snatching up all sorts of trinkets from candles, to bird ornaments, to anything holiday related. I love to visit places like this and they both played along wonderfully. Thanks, guys for putting up with my craziness.


For my trip, I have a mental list in my head that will be worked on for the next few days until we leave. I have stressed out more about my poor puppys being boarded in at the 'Pet Hilton'. (it really isn't the pet hilton, but it might as well be considering that we are paying an arm and a leg for them to stay.) I feel so much guilt that i haven 't even been able to talk about it with them. (yes, I am one of those crazies that talks to her pets. And yes, they do know what I am saying.) I know my little Thing One will take it the hardest and that just breaks my heart. She will think that she did something to be left with the crazily happy Thing Two. (I swear Thing one is a reincarnated Catholic because she has so much guilt.)
I had to laugh when Soder tried to help me organize by asking what I was going to be bringing to 'entertain' myself on the plane. Um.... I think the Baby is all I will be paying attention too, but thanks for thinking that maybe I should pick up a People Magazine because I might get bored. Haha, he tries so hard! He gets an A for effort and an A for putting up with me and my mental state. Now, I know why people don't do 'vacations' very often and most times it isn't the mother that is thinking travelling will be a great idea. Sorry for the disjointed blog post.... I might be more mentally organized once I get some packing done. Yeah, that will help the situation, right?

Weekend of Freaks

Last weekend, while I was at home with Thing one and two, and the Baby, Soder went off to explore the anime convention, Aki Con, that was taking place in nearby Bellevue. While I opted out again, (like I did at the comic convention in April) I was more than happy to look at the photos of all the weirdos that dressed up. I am more of a make-funner than a participant of such events. (I am not proud of that, but I am at least honest.) While Comic con was made up more of middle aged virgins dressed up in spandex, this was not the case for the Anime convention. Apparently, this is where all the 20 something girls come to show off their poorly put together costumes. (which my husband did not know about until he got there. Trust me when I say this, there is no jealousy on my part, especially after you see the pictures.) There were a few guys there as well, that just seemed a little out of place. I find it funny that it seems that there was no real cohesion about anything that happened at Aki Con. There were characters from video game, anime, tv and comic books. And while, Soder could name some of the characters, there were quite a few that were humorously, unrecognizable. So let me know if you know or recognize any of these costumes?Of course the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers are there.
This is a GUY in drag in the white, with his poor monkey child on the leash.... there are entirely too many things wrong with this picture.
Um, Spidey, I think you are at the wrong convention.
I don't know if she is one of the cleaning ladies or what. Soder couldn't identify her either.
No, the Furry convention was at the other Hilton in Bellevue.
They are, we think, from the video game Kingdom Hearts.
We have no idea how this horse got a bow and arrow, but I think it is dangerous for him to have because he can't have much control of the arrow with a hooved foot.
Naruto and his Gang

A disclaimer: While my husband enjoys Anime, even this event was a bit weird for him. I am glad he can find the humor of the situation and laugh with me. He even encouraged me to blog about it. I do support the fact that he enjoys Anime and respect his hobbies, mostly because it is more entertaining for me if I do.

Fall Time is here

Baby Loves his backpack

Last weekend, I didn't really do much (because I was working) except we did take a walk around our neighborhood with our entire brood. I have started walking the dogs on a more regular basis. I finally feel like I have a little bit better of a schedule going on with Baby and the Things have been so understanding this summer. I call him 'Hannibal' because he wears a muzzle when we walk (and very vaguely you can hear him say 'Chianti' and make a sucking noise like on the movie Silence of the Lambs.)

When I am alone with them, I have to take them one at a time on a walk. (I usually only take them around our apartment complex because it is a nice walk and then I can keep it fair. I don't need any sibling rivalry coming from the Thing department.)
It has been such a beautiful fall here in the Northwest, that I will forgive it for the crappy summer. I love fall. It has to be my favorite season (until of course I see Spring then I forget the beauty of Fall and become infatuated with all the new growth and colors.) But back to Fall, I love all the leaves and especially love to crunch the fallen leaves on the sidewalk and gutters. That is right, I still walk in the filthy disgusting gutters to satisfy my need for that crispy sound that only comes once a year. This picture just makes me smile and want to walk back down there to stomp and kick through one more street before this fall turns into the swampy cold, rainy winter that is just around the corner. It is definitely the little happiness in life. I am glad that one thing that has carried over from my childhood is the leaf crushing thing (well that and my horrible bad habit of chewing my nails, but that is for a different day.) I think I better leave the laptop and head out while the sun is shining......

Reposted with Video: Jabbering on

Recently, Baby has started to find his voice. He loves to sit and just jabber. He actually reminds me of my Grandpa Asao. I was very young when he died, so I only have a few memories of him. I was always amazed that he didn't have many teeth (I don't think he had any in the back to tell you the truth), but could still 'eat' any piece of Kentucky Fried Chicken. So with the greatest respect, this video happily reminds me of being a kid watching my Grandpa eat, surrounded by all his grandkids and family in his tiny house on Wall Ave. No fried chicken yet for him, but great memories to talk about with my jabbering Baby.

And the winner is.....

And that makes the winner.....Congrats, Hillary!

Thanks so much for everyone that entered and Hillary I be emailing you all the info to use your fabulous $35 gift certificate from CSN!

ALSO a big THANK YOU to CSN for the gift certificate.

Lookin' Good

You know how one day you look up and things have completely changed. Today was that day for me. I had my camera out and was able to snap a few pictures of a very cooperative baby. I have know for a while that he is no longer a newborn, but today, as I was editing the pictures, I realized he is getting so big so fast. (as I know everyone always said, but you never believe it until you are living it.)He is smiley and happy (unless he is hungry, but as you can see, he doesn't miss many meals on my clock). His little personality is starting to shine through more and more. He finds our crazy Thing 2 hilarious. I love that he finds laughter contagious, and if we are laughing he will bust up as well. And of course, it is common knowledge that baby's laughter will heal any bad day that the real world can throw at you, so we are in good shape at the Sodermoto house!

One last reminder.... Friday is the last day to enter my wonderful giveaway from CSN from Monday. Don't be left out and Good Luck to all that have entered!

So this is ok right?

I was impressed that he would go cross-eyed for it.

I figured that since he had to dress up like a monkey he should reap some of the benefits, right? I only let him suck and break apart the candy bar from the outside of the package. No chocolate this year, but definitely next for sure. Until then, the fun size candy will only be moving straight to my hips.... maybe I should try sucking on a few of the candy bar packages too. I don't need to open any more.

Also, don't forget to enter my giveaway from Monday...

CSN Giveaway and I ain't talkin' about Crosby Stills and Nash

So today is a special day. It is the first ever giveaway for our blog ever. Yeah! I was contacted a week ago to do a giveaway for one of my readers from a company called CSN (not affiliated with Crosby, Stills and Nash). It is a website that has a ton of different stores and sells a ton of different things. The winner of my giveaway will win a $35 dollar gift certificate to use on anything from their online store.

So here is how to enter....

Leave a comment as to what you would get from CSN if you won this gift certificate.

For extra chances to win:
Post about my giveaway on your blog, twitter or facebook account. (Please leave a separate comment on my blog for each post that you do.(example "I posted about your giveaway on Facebook."))

Become a Follower of my blog (Leave a separate comment letting me know that you are a new follower or an existing follower of my blog)

Giveaway ends Friday, November 5, 2010 at 11:59 PM PST. The lucky winner will be drawn by a random number generator. With each entry, please include a valid email that you can be reached at. If no email is included with your entry or the winner does not contact me within 48 hours, a new lucky winner will be chosen.

Thank you, CSN!
and Good Luck and I can't wait to give this prize away to a lucky reader!

My Monkey Related family....

Yesterday, we officially had a reason to celebrate Halloween. I was a lot more excited this year than in years past because I couldn't wait to put Baby in his cute little monkey costume. I decided to dress up as jungle vines because I realized that I needed to find a way to carry the little one around all night for the party we were invited to. I really liked how my costume turned out and was excited that Baby didn't freak out when I was wearing my vines. Soder found a shirt that was the chest of a Wookie, and since he is losing his hair he decided to wear a werewolf mask and hands that my sister had. It was funny because the kids really loved the fact that Soder would try to scare the kids which would in turn make the kids run around and then want Soder to howl at them. I loved to watch Soder get attacked by a pack of children. It was a great time and while we didn't trick-or-treat very long, it was a great first Halloween as a family.