Life lately in pictures

Pretty much everything revolves around this cute guy.  He is getting more and more smiley every day.  Good thing he's cute, cause he's a lot of work!

Here we are after church one Sunday, when we were still 'dressed up' -- a big improvement from what we normally look like.  Normal might include sweatpants, one-sock-on-one-sock-off, or no pants (the baby, not me.)

Today was one of those days that I told myself it has to get worse before it can get better.  My house is a disaster!  Piles of clothes (and... more clothes, yep, mostly just clothes) everywhere!  If only I had 2 or 3 huge closets!  I never feel like there's quite enough space.  I'm trying to get things organized before Hyrum gets home in a few weeks.  Hopefully once the baby is asleep tonight the mess will become more orderly.  

With the end of the deployment closing in, there are almost daily homecomings. [!!] I went to one yesterday to take a few pictures for a friend.  Even though they all take place in a big dark gym, they do a good job making them dramatic: loud music, fog machine, the doors fly open and the soldiers march in.  Now if only it were my soldier...  

While I try to do things around the house, it's nice to have Santiago self-contained -- in this seat, or the high chair, or his bouncer. He finds random 'toys' to play with, like our whisk.  (His personal favorite is fingernail clippers.)

Once, I had him playing in his bouncer for quite a while before I saw that his foot was caught... whoops!  I guess if it really bothered him, he would have cried.  

Since I wore this sweater last Sunday, and knew I had a picture taken in it last Thanksgiving, I decided to take a picture to mark my weight loss progress.  With some healthy eating and exercising, I've lost quite a bit of weight over the last 2 months.  I'm still a few pounds away from the pre-baby weight, but I'll take it!  I'm actually happy enough where I am that my motivation to keep eating mostly vegetables is waning.  I fit into most of my clothes, and it feels great to be "normal" again.  [I'm still technically 'overweight... but at least I'm no longer obese!  There's a silver lining to everything.]

 The weather here has been beautiful!  Last week I saw the farmer in the field in front of our house throwing down seed by hand.  I'm not sure if his tractor was broken, or he just found it therapeutic.  But it was kind of a funny sight.

I've taken advantage of the weather to go on a lot of long walks with the baby.  Once... that walk included the bakery in town.  I ordered a pretzel, and the lady asked me something I didn't quite understand.  So I smiled and said yes. She brought back a pretzel with butter and cheese in the middle-- YUM.  It was delicious.  I need to stay away!

The grocery store has started selling its cheap tulips again-- and they lasted for over a week.  I also saw some red bananas (from Colombia!) so I decided to support the Colombian economy and buy some.  They tasted like normal bananas, though.  I was expecting something more life-changing.  

Lastly, Tiago had his 6-month check-up... and hasn't gained much weight since his 4-month appointment.  It's a little frustrating, because he won't let me feed him a bottle and he refuses to eat baby food.  He gets so distracted with stuff around him that he won't sit still to eat for very long.  Hopefully he gains more before we go back in a month or I'll probably get chastised by the doctor. It's not enough that they're still alive and happy... they have to grow too??