And so I have a one-year old.

Happy Birthday Jordan!

Oh, how time flies. I cannot believe we have a one-year old.

On Friday night, I baked and baked and baked. First up, strawberry cake shaped like a basketball, this baked for 1 hour 20 minutes, yikes. Next up, chocolate mini cake for Jordan, this baked for 1 hour 10 minutes, yikes again. Last, chocolate cupcakes, 21 minutes, phew.

Saturday, morning I had a frosting fiasco! Between beating it for what seemed like forever and still never reaching the right consistency and coloring the frosting, that took about 3 hours. Note to self, black, terra cotta and red take LOTS of coloring. Next up, decorating. I figured this would take the longest, but I was wrong. Since I couldn’t get the frosting the correct consistency, I couldn’t make stars, so I just drew with the star tip. 1 large basketball, 1 small basketball and 12 baseballs later, my task was complete.



Sunday was great! We had a small, but nice party; Jordan got super nice gifts, thanks everyone; and we all had a blast. Among the nice gifts were a wagon, basketball hoop, t-ball set, trucks, clothes, a baseball mitt, a bubble machine and savings bonds. Thanks to everyone for the nice gifts and for coming down to celebrate with us. Jordan enjoyed the frosting on his cake, but wasn’t much for the actual cake part.

Monday, Jordan had his one-year checkup. 19 lbs, 27 ¾ inches – can we say RUNT! Oh well, I love my little runt. Next up, hemoglobin check since his iron was low at 9 months. If I get my hands on that phlebotomist, she will be one hurting unit! Let’s dig in a one-year old’s arm with a needle for 5 minutes while it takes two adults to hold him down. She never did get blood in the needle. Finally, I asked her to use his finger. Halloween Massacre! She is terrible and should never be allowed to touch an infant/toddler with a needle ever again. In the end his hemoglobin was perfectly normal and we are moving on towards our 15 month checkup.

Prepare to Party!

Holy Buckets! It has been 2 ½ weeks since I lasted blogged. Maybe I am not cut out for this. Let me try and recall what we have been up to.

Jordan – he is now a walker! He walks more than crawls and gets into more and more trouble everyday. He listens when dad says no, but laughs when mom says it. He has 7 teeth now and no longer has a nighttime bottle. He had also turned into a terrible sleeper, so we put the kibosh on that. He now puts himself to sleep. The first night he cried 11 minutes, then we were down to 5. Last night he didn’t even cry, just played himself to sleep. Yeah for us!

My sweet little boy will be 1 on Sunday. I can’t believe it! I have also turned into psycho mom and gone mad with the first birthday. I am making two cakes and cupcakes: one basketball cake, one basketball cake for Jordan to destroy, and baseball cupcakes. We are just having immediate family over for lunch and cake. I am not a big fan of large chaotic birthday parties.

Anyways, I will post sometime next week with how the birthday went.

Yikes, two weeks already!

Yikes, I can’t believe it has been two weeks since I blogged.

This past Wednesday, Riley and I purchased a new pickup. It is a 2009 Chevy Silverado. I think I am more excited than Riley is. I love it! We bought it from Dean Bender in Killdeer. I would highly recommend them. We had a long day that day. We were car shopping before 9 am and didn’t get back to Bismarck until around 11:30 pm. Thanks to Rod for shopping with us and thanks to Carol for watching Jordan for us.



It was Riley’s state softball tournament in Williston this past weekend. Rod and Carol came to Bismarck and watched Jordan for us. It was my first night away from him, ever! Riley’s team won two and then lost their third game to the team that won the tournament. Jordan caught a bit of a cold or something while we were away, but seems to be getting better. It might have been teeth as he is drooling like crazy! We stopped in Dickinson Friday night and had dinner with my parents at The Hat, oh so good!

Riley and Tyler have decided that it would be exciting if Jordan was walking by his first birthday. So, they have started practicing. He now sits on the bottom step, stands up and takes about four steps. He would make more, but he gets too excited.

Here are some recent pics of Jordan.

Gress Softball Complex

While home this past weekend, Carol, Mandy, Jordan and I picked up ice cream and drove around to look at the tornado damage in Dickinson. I took some picture of Gress Softball Complex. Riley's softball team was supposed to be playing in the Miller Lite Softball Tournament the weekend after the tornado, but it was cancelled.

Those of you who aren't familiar with Gress, it never did have much shade, but now most of it is gone.

Warning: Boring Blog Ahead

This blogging business is tough work. I am certain that if anyone is following my blog, they are probably bored to death.

This past weekend, Jordan, Riley, Tyler and I went back to South Heart just to relax. Rod grilled us an excellent meal on Friday night and Tyler has his famous garbage can bonfire. It was good to see everyone and I am sure I gained at least five pounds.

Sunday night while giving Jordan a bath, he slipped and got a black eye. Don’t worry, it is not his first one. He had one a week ago from the Elmo guitar at Grandpa and Grandma Steier’s. On the tooth front, we are up to six now. Four on top and two on bottom. And so begins the days of painful bites!

Monday morning Jordan got up at five, so Riley entertained him while I got ready. I posted a picture of the entertainment. Looks pretty boring to me, but oh so cute, melts my heart! Actually, I had locked Jordan in the bathroom while I showered and Riley yelled at me for letting him play on a floor that has piss and shit on it. He is such a germafobe!

A Week in Review

Nothing too exciting this past week. We were supposed to go to Dickinson for the Miller Lite Softball Tournament, but it was cancelled because of the tornado that hit Dickinson on Wednesday. Yes, a tornado in Dickinson.

On Friday, Riley, Jordan and I met our friends Corey and Keri out at Sibley Park. We grilled and had a campfire. Jordan did so good. He fell asleep in my arms at the fire and we were able to stay out until about midnight when I was ready for bed. Yeah Jordan!

Saturday morning, Jordan and I went to Dickinson just to visit. We spent Saturday with my family and Sunday with Riley’s. Nothing too exciting, just hanging out and visiting. I was able to see some of the tornado damage, but nothing too major because they have blocked off the area to allow residents time to clean up. I am sure glad my parents’ don’t live on the southside anymore. It is sad to see the neighborhood I grew up in torn to pieces.

While Jordan and I were gone, Riley and Tyler did a BUNCH of yardwork. Yeah for them! They push mowed the entire two acres, since our riding mower is waiting repair. They also weeded all 90 chokecherry trees.

This coming weekend, we are heading back to South Heart. Rod is going to grill us dinner on Friday night, yummy!

Oh yeah, Jordan learned a new trick, opening cupboard doors. So, on top of him taking all the lids out of the drawer, he now takes all the tupperwares out of the cupboard.

So long for now….

Four Day Weekend

Ahh, a four day weekend!

I took Thursday off so Riley and I could spend the day together. I got up, took Jordan to daycare, went home and went back to bed until 11. Awesome! Then, we went out to lunch, gave Riley sticker shock at the price of new pickups, and did some shopping. I guess the days of $25,000 pickups and no interest for 60 months are over. Too bad for Riley.

On Friday, Riley, Jordan and I went to Art in the Park in Mandan. Nothing too exciting besides waiting in line for 30 minutes for an Indian Taco.

Saturday, Riley was in a golf scramble. So, I decided Jordan and I would surprise Grandma Carol, Grandpa Rod and Auntie Mandy. We had a great day – visited Old Grandma, had lunch, shopped then Grandpa grilled an excellent dinner. Jordan and I headed back to Bismarck that night and met up with Riley, Corey and Keri for fireworks. I was hoping Jordan would sleep through them, and he was until a motorized scooter came by. I figured he would freak out from the fireworks, but he LOVED them! I don’t think his eyes could have opened any wider.

While in South Heart, Carol sent home the cutest homemade tent that was Riley’s as a kid. I can only imagine the fun times he will have in it.

Sunday was a nice relaxing day. Jordan played and played. He is turning into such a naughty little boy! He received his first puffy eye from playing so rough. Oh yeah, teeth five and six are just about through, hooray for us. Let the biting begin!

Here We Go!

I thought I would give this whole blogging thing a try. I have a few that I follow and figured maybe others would be interested in us, not that we have a very exciting life.

This past weekend was McQuades and Riley and his brother, Tyler, took first place in the Rec III/IV Bud bracket. Riley went to bed smiling that night. Jordan and I were in Minot for my cousin Amanda and her now husband, Juan's, wedding. It was great to see everyone.

The 4th is just around the corner. I took tomorrow off and plan on taking little man (a.k.a. Jordan) to daycare, then coming home and going back to sleep. I hope I succeed in this effort, but am willing to bet I end up doing housework.

Okay, this is it for now. I don't want to spoil any future posts. Have a good 4th everyone!