one year pictures

The pictures have arrived from Walmart! We don't have a scanner so I had to take digital pictures of them. They may not be the best quality... sorry.

colds and cleaners of the vacuum style

Garrison has received his first cold and let me tell you it has not been fun. It has been a battle all day with him. He is known for his easy-going, fun-loving self, but today was not the case. (I don't blame him). We've been fighting each other all day over sleeping. I can understand that he's not feeling well and it's horrible trying to sleep when you feel icky, but I also know how much he needs it. This morning I laid him down for his usual nap time and for 30 minutes all I heard was him kicking the side of the crib and banging his legs on the mattress crying. That was the end of that nap. When he did finally take a nap he only slept for an hour, instead of his usual 2+ hours. His eyes have been red most of the day from lack of sleep. He's supposed to be sleeping right now, but I can hear him crying and rubbing his stuffy nose. I think I might be in for a long night. I gave him Tylenol about 30 minutes ago, hopefully it will kick in soon so he can get some much needed rest.

Besides battling with him today we did have a funny moment. Garrison is scared of the vacuum cleaner. It all started when Lady and Bear came to live with us. These two dogs do nothing but bark insanely at the vacuum cleaner, trying to bite and drag it away as you vacuum. I think the dogs scare Garrison more then the vacuum cleaner itself or so I thought. Tonight Lady and Bear were in Joanna's room with the door shut so I found it a perfect opportunity to vacuum. I normally pick Garrison up and vacuum while I hold him, but since Lady and Bear were not around I decided to leave him on the floor. I vacuumed one room and noticed I couldn't see Garrison anymore so I started looking for him. It took awhile, but I found him hiding between our coffee table and rocking chair peeking over the table staring at the vacuum cleaner. As soon as he noticed I was looking at him he turned to me and smiled. I almost fell over with laughter. I love that kid!!


FYI: Garrison has been asleep for 30 minutes and it's time for me to grab a book and kick up my feet...

Garrison's Birthday Party... I'll explain the party through pictures (that way I won't get long winded)

My sisters and I made these Mickey Mouse cupcakes. I went back and forth debating if I wanted to make these or not and when I couldn't find a Mickey Mouse cake the decision was easy.
Garrison's cake

I made enchiladas and hot dogs. I made up names for the food like, Mickey's Mexican Menu, Daisy's Delicious Dips, Donald's Hot Doggies, etc.A few of our guests...

Garrison did really well with the presents. He got easily side tracked, which is normal, but made it through the pile.Garrison was so funny eating his cake. He's such a performer. He flipped the cupcake over, as you can see, and ate it without his hands (at first). He would look up and see people watching him and get all excited and put his face back into the cupcake.

This was thanks to Uncle Tom. He couldn't resist the urge to smear a cupcake in Garrison's face. This is one of my favorite pictures of Garrison. Even with the frosting it captures Garrison's "concerned" personality. Now he's using his hands.

It turned out to be a great party, with 30 people in attendance. Garrison was absolutely exhausted by the end and slept like a rock the entire night. We even had Thomas' parents, niece, nephew, my dad and my sister spend the night. It was a lot of fun.

lists

I am a huge list person. I write "to do" lists just about every day because I feel such a sense of accomplishment whenever I get to cross the finished items off. In fact, Thomas said to me tonight, "You have so many lists on 100 different pieces of scratch paper. Do you think you could get rid of some?" (he was digging through a drawer for a rubber band and my "lists" were getting in his way.) There are days when I feel overwhelmed at my list and there are days that I wish I could have gotten to more of the items. Tonight I decided to sit down and think about what I actually did today since I did nothing from my "to do" list.

Here is my "I did" list today:

Woke up early enough to spend some time reading the bible
Made breakfast
Dressed Garrison
Fed baby Landon 4 times (two-month-old I watch 4 days a week)
changed too many diapers to remember
laughed as Garrison turned the tv to the Mexican music channel and started dancing
made lunch
cleaned up lunch
put two babies down for a nap (twice)
played with both Garrison and Landon
read Garrison and Landon a story
talked to Thomas and my dad
took a 5 minute nap
did a load of laundry
gave Garrison a snack
watched Garrison give baby Landon a kiss on the forehead
took care of Lady as she had a seizure
sent a few e-mails
let the dogs outside about 10 times
put a band-aid on Garrison's cut thumb
made supper
put Garrison in his pajamas
picked up Garrison's toys

I like this list much better than my "to do" list I had for today. I think I would have missed seeing this blessing otherwise.

Monday

I decided to start my day off by cleaning the house. Since I have company coming this weekend I wanted to get a head start. I accomplished three rooms: Garrison's, the downstairs bathroom and the upstairs bathroom. I was on a roll until I scrubbed our bathtub and forgot to crack a window for ventilation. I ended up with a headache and the lingering smell of chemicals in my nose for most of the day. Oh well, there's always tomorrow.

Today Joanna told me that the house we'd grown up in, the one located in Browerville, was for sale. I have never gone back there or driven past it since we moved a little over 5 years ago (the rest of my family has) so I was super excited to find pictures. I jumped online and found the listing and I must say it's weird to see your old home decorated and lived in by someone else. They put in a HOT TUB!! There are so many memories from the 13 years that I lived there. We moved in when I was 9 and we left when I was 22. I wish I could run and buy it. If only I had the money...

This afternoon Garrison and I had to run to Maddy's house and watch her for awhile before we took her to basketball. We made strawberry sherbet, which came out more like a strawberry smoothie. It's entertaining to cook with a 10 year old. We had strawberry "smoothie" everywhere. Maddy kept turning the pitcher on the blender, while it was going, and ended up unscrewing the base and strawberries started oozing out the bottom. They were good though.

Before basketball Maddy, Garrison, Aaron (one of Maddy's friends) and I met Tom at McDonald's for supper. Having supper with two rowdy 10 year olds was also another entertaining moment. They somehow started talking about bodily functions and would get louder and louder as they spoke. Then as we were preparing to leave they decided to go beat up the plastic Ronald McDonald. I'm glad they were going to basketball to burn some of that energy. After dropping Maddy and Aaron off at basketball we all came home. Garrison fell asleep in the car, he missed his afternoon nap, so I decided to leave him in his car seat once we were inside so he could get a little more shut eye. Little did I know he was making puddles with his sweat under all his layers. I tried taking pictures, but they really didn't capture how truly soaked he was. A true Bush for you!!

a first

There are many GREAT things that come along with being a mother and tonight I was blessed to experience one of them for the first time. Garrison was in the bath tub having a wonderful time splashing around, while I sat next to the tub talking with him. Every now and then he would come over to the side of the tub and stand. On one of his standing occasions he leaned over and gave me a kiss. What a sweet boy! It's one thing to kiss your child, but it's a whole other ball game when they kiss you.
He's growing up faster than I would like him to. Today when I came to pick him up from the church nursery one of the workers told me he walked around the room using a plastic container as his guide (when he's home he uses the laundry basket and empties clothes along the way or he'll push a truck that he has). This afternoon as he played I noticed that he will let go of furniture and stand by himself for longer periods of time. It won't be long until we have a walker and then our hands will really be full. Wasn't he just born?!

Say cheese! or not

Today was picture day for Garrison. When he turned three, six and nine months I took his picture. Just something laid back, in the same area of the house, with the same stuffed soccer ball so we could see his growth progress. But when he turned one I wanted to have a professional take his picture, for something fun and different. I thought all week about what outfit he would wear. I debated, should I cut his hair or leave it long? His appointment was at 1:00. I didn't put him in his outfit until we were about to leave because I didn't want him to get it dirty. Which is weird for two reasons 1. it wasn't that great of an outfit 2. I'm not a person that gets crazy about details. Whatever happens happens. We arrived for our appointment (which was at Jcpenney's), we went in to take his pictures and he freaked out!! It normally takes him awhile to warm up in new situations, but usually not when we are standing right next to him. The poor photographer tried everything - being goofy with a teddy bear, letting him push the button on the camera, peek-a-boo, etc. He could have cared less. If he wasn't in my arms he was throwing a fit, with tears and drool all over his shirt. Needless to say, we left after 20 minutes and the only picture that she was able to take was him sucking his thumb and pulling on his ear. That didn't go as planned... So... we decided to try Walmart. But first we took him home, put him to bed and he slept for 3 hours... oops, guess he was overly tired. At 6:30 we took him to PictureMe portrait studios in Walmart and were able to get his pictures done with no problems. Now I can't wait to receive them.

3 months old

6 months old

9 months old

In the beginning...

I love mornings! They are fresh and new. Whatever happened yesterday is gone, but today is a new opportunity. Which got me thinking... Garrison just turned one January 12. There are things that I have forgotten about. The every day to day things that you take for granted, over look because you're either too tired, too crabby or too busy to see. So, even though Tom thinks this is dumb, I decided to start a blog so I can look back and remember what life was like and to keep family and friends updated and a part of our lives. Let the fun begin.....