Birthweek

Yep, that's right, I've gotten Rick into celebrating a birthweek instead of just a birthday for me. I didn't come up with this myself...I'm not that self-absorbed. It was actually an old coach in high school who introduced me to the birthweek idea. His rules were simple, you get both weekends, the one previous and the one following your actual birthday, and you have to do something nice for yourself each one of those days. It doesn't have to be extravagant, just be good to yourself. I had usually done this for myself and then my mom would do little things sometimes as well, and now Rick has jumped on the bandwagon. He starts exactly one week before my birthday and gives me a little something everyday. This year I was spoiled with Diet Dr. Pepper, a new bath puff, some new socks, a massage from a super hot male model, a toilet lock (amazing! considering our bathroom doors don't close), new floor mats for my car and a photo book. See, nothing too outrageous (besides the male model), but nice and thoughtful. I have pretty much the best husband ever!

On my actual birthday Truman and I did our usual thing and he took a really long nap. I consider that his gift to me and I thought it was fantastic. Then, we got some Jack in the box for dinner, Rick made me a jell-o no-bake cheesecake and we watched some women's games. All in all a pretty great day to turn 27.

 My sweet little boy. Thank you for the nap Truman.

 This is the photo book Rick made me. It is titled, "Julie's Best, According to Rick"...he made a book of his favorite photos that I have taken. Very thoughtful and it includes a sweet birthday message inside. I love it.

At the end of the day...me and the male model, looking a little wasted, must be the cheesecake, or having a "very active" 13 month old. Not sure which.

My day was also filled with phone calls from friends and family, texts and facebook messages from lots of old friends. I think I have come to appreciate birthdays a little more this year. Not living in the same city as any family or friends made all of the facebook messages, texts and calls just a little more special. I felt very loved and blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life. Cheers! And here is to another fun filled year!

Super Truman

Truman's favorite blankie turned into a magical, super cape this week and here are some of the feats it helped him to accomplish....

 He figured out how to open the impossible, super secured bedside drawers in order to add to his weaponry the magic markers.

 Da da da DA! Super Tru!

 He became super strong! Look at those massive abs!

And he was able to scale the entire couch in order to look out over the city and keep watch for any evil disturbances.

Spring Break

Rick had spring break this week, so we headed down to Scottsdale for most of the week to warm up. Rick and I got to go on a date on Saturday night and then had a nice family dinner with all of the siblings on Sunday. And Monday the fun began...we went to the Phoenix Zoo with my Aunt Lynne and Maya.

We took the train almost all the way around the Zoo, so we got a glimpse of just about everything. Then we went and did the Arizona trail and the kids sections of the zoo by foot. We saw lots of great animals and had a really good time. Truman liked riding on the train and when we let him push his own stroller a bit.

He got an up close view of the Prairie Dogs and also some domestic animals in the kids section, like goats, sheep, horses and cows. He even got to pet a goat in the petting zoo.

The CSI Golden Eagle!

The boys checking out the elephants. It was so fun to watch Truman point at all of the animals, at least the ones that were obvious...some of those creatures are HARD to find in their little habitats!

A BIG thanks to Aunt Lynne for inviting us out to the zoo! I hadn't been in years and now I'm pumped to go back. We all had a great time and great memories from Truman's first zoo trip.

Rick and Truman got to hang out a lot more than usual this week. Truman liked to have his Daddy give him rides in the office chairs.

Truman LOVES my parents' dogs! Coco is a little afraid of him, but she is actually really good about playing with him if she is in the mood. Truman always sticks his finger out like this so that she'll lick it. He also loves to throw things too them from his high chair and just chase them around.

How appropriate that Truman's first official word is "dog". He loves them so much that he will even kiss them....gross.

Here we are back in Flag. We had a great week and it made me even more excited for the summer when we may get some more "Rick time", Truman wanted to try out a head band (ok, maybe I just put it on him because he was intrigued by mine), I think he looks like a very young John McEnroe. Anyway, a great week spent relaxing and spending time with family and friends in the warm sunshine, life doesn't get much better.

Dancing

Truman is a dancing fool!! This is a really mellow and super short dance session for him. This kid is constantly rocking out and it is so fun to watch. He got rhythm, yo!

Sucker

Laughing

I love it!! I love making this kid laugh and try to do it everyday; it is so fun and funny!!

New Glasses

I decided it was time to get my eyes checked since I couldn't remember the last time I had done so. I've never had glasses or contacts, so I guess this means I am officially getting old! The Dr. said that my prescription is very minimal and that I probably wouldn't be able to notice any improvement by wearing glasses except for maybe driving at night. So far, I don't think they really help, but they are fun to wear sometimes.

 They make me look like I would be able to help you find a book at the library or something and that's pretty cool. I have to put a plug in for www.zennioptical.com These sweet mamma's only cost me about $15 including shipping. It's the only place we buy glasses and we try to tell everyone about it.

It's like I am a new person when I put them on. Amazing.

Playing

The weather has warmed up recently, so we have been able to go outside and have a little fun. Truman and I have taken a couple of walks on the golf course during the afternoon. Sometimes he doesn't want to be pushed, he would rather walk by himself. I like to find a good flat spot and then let him out of his stroller and we play. He played with his ball for about 5 minutes and then figured out it was much more fun to push the stroller, which is now one of his favorite things to do on a walk.

 We actually saw a TON of deer poo, a coyote, and a blue herron on this walk. Such exciting wildlife on the golf course!

 T is also fascinated with the diswasher, so Daddy let him climb on in (after bracing it) and go wild. He threw all of the silverware out while saying, "Uh-oh!".

The Friday before Spring Break, Rick didn't have any class, but he needed to go to campus to work on an assignment with a classmate. Truman and I decided to stop by and Rick hooked it up! Truman got to play with all of the fun equipment that the physical therapy students get to use. I think Rick should take him to school more often.

Trouble

Figuring out that he can push things around to where he wants and then climb on them, in his desired location.

"Yeah, so what, I climb on stuff all of the time when you aren't looking."

Elden's Crack....

We actually got out and did something this weekend!! This is pretty big time for us. The weather has been pretty nice (in the 50's) so Rick's classmate, Beau, set up a group hike. We headed to Mt. Elden on Saturday afternoon for about a 2 mile jaunt up Elden's Crack...ironically Rick's Grandpa's name was Elden, so Rick felt slightly awkward at the beginning.

Drink break...don't worry, Truman thew that sippy cup in the dirt, that's how he likes things.

Starting to see some water! Truman got switched to Rick's back at this point so that Rick could use his hands while doing some minor rock climbing...probably not our safest move as parents.

We had great views of Flagstaff pretty much the whole way.

Our final destination. There was a little waterfall and pool. We were hoping to see some ice waterfalls, but we think we were a couple of days late.

Truman absolutely loves being outside, even in the Bjorn. He pointed at things and jabbered the whole way. He had a great time. Thanks for packing me Daddy!!

Mr. T hangin' out at the top, throwing rocks, sticks, dirt, and lovin' every minute of it.

We also had Holly and her BFF Lorena come up on Friday. Lorena is going to apply to the NAU PT program this coming fall, so she came to check things out. Hopefully we were able to answer most of her questions and give her some helpful information. It was fun to have family up to visit. We ate a lot of fruit and sugar and had a fire in the fireplace on Friday night. It was good to catch up and hear about Holly's cookoo school stories. Good times all around. Come back and visit again ladies!!

All, in all it was a really good weekend. Rick had 3 tests this last week, so having them all done, he was able to relax and spend a lot of time with Truman and I. I loved it :)