I know you’re thinking…Zander can’t write a wish list…but I thought I’d put together some ideas in case anyone was wondering what I think he’d like:

Clothing Size: 12 mo // Shoe Size: 4

Fisher Price Animals

wooden blocks

any toy with a hammer...

vehicles

musical instruments

kid-sized chair

board books

bath toys

balls

Now, I know this isn’t going to be a surprise to anyone, but I LOVE Halloween. And no, not just because it’s my birthday. I just love this season and time of year. I love anything made from pumpkins, I love carving pumpkins, I love dressing up…I love it all. Wanting to instill this love of Halloween/Fall in my son, I decided to find a local pumpkin patch for a family outing. After searching the internet and comparing and contrasting the limited options available in Arizona, I decided on Mother Nature’s Farm. It seemed to have the most bang for the buck and since Zander is so small, we didn’t need rides or some of the features that other farms offered.

We had a fabulous time and I think Zander enjoyed it too. This farm is great and very reasonable ($7 for kids includes a pumpkin & $3 for adults). They have pumpkins (of course), pumpkin decorating for the kiddos, a bouncer, a straw maze, animals & a hay(tractor) ride.

We went at night and brought a picnic dinner (they allow outside food & drink – one BIG bonus). We let Zander climb all over the pumpkins and explore the bails of hay. He was mostly just interested in pulling the hay out of the bails.

The only negative about Mother Nature’s Farm is that they don’t light their areas very well at night and we were unable to see any animals, do the maze or ride the hay ride. They were really nice, however and allowed us to come back the next day for free so that we could enjoy all of the activities.

So we went back and took Zander through the Hay Maze, rode on the they hay ride and Zander’s favorite thing: saw the animals (goats, sheep, chickens, turkeys & a cow).  He just stood and watched them. For some reason, he found watching a cow pee and goats poop incredibly interesting. And when we left, he was completely wiped out. It was the perfect way to celebrate Fall!

This past weekend I was invited to present a workshop at a Women’s Retreat – they wanted me to do something utilizing my graphic design/computer skills and so I came up with the idea of “The Tech Savvy Woman.” I put together my top 10 websites that I thought women should be aware of in order to make their lives more simple.

Let’s just say that I do not consider myself a public speaker and I was so nervous about getting up in front of all of those people (there were over 600 women at the retreat). However, I managed to make it through two 45-minute sessions without passing out. And honestly, it was a lot of fun. I enjoyed the excitement of sharing something I love with a group of women who were genuinely interested. The average age of those in my session was probably 45-60 years old and they ate up the resources I gave them. They left excited to go home and visit the websites and see how they could benefit their lives. It was an awesome experience and I’m really glad that they asked me to do it.

(In case you’re interested, I’ve included the basics of the presentation below:)

The Tech Savvy Woman

1. Knows how to do Everything // www.Howcast.com

2. Has something to say // www.WordPress.com

3. Networks Effectively // www.Facebook.com & www.Twitter.com

4. Protects her family // www.Kidzui.com

5. Keeps in touch with loved ones // www.skype.com

6. Makes everything more beautiful // www.dafont.com (free fonts), www.sxc.hu (free stock photos), www.clker.com (free clipart)

7. Can start an online business without breaking a sweat // www.etsy.com

8. Always has a great music collection // www.Pandora.com

9. Effectively manages her finances/investments // www.mint.com

10. Can do everything and still prepare a fantastic dinner // www.SuperCook.com

I’m much better at telling a story in person, than I am at expressing it in writing, but I’m going to attempt to tell one of the craziest stories of my life since becoming a mother.

We live in an upstairs apartment and so of course we have a super strong baby gate installed. The gate is always closed. Always. Well, except this one day. I was headed into the other room with my Mac Book Pro in hand and Tyler was going to hang with Zander while I did some work. Zander had disappeared from view and Tyler asked me what he was doing. I looked around and happened to notice that the baby gate was open. I don’t quite know what went through my head at this point, but somehow I threw my computer and frantically ran to the stairs. I literally dove on the ground and grabbed Zander perched at the top of the stairs ready to dive head first down them. My heart was beating out of my chest, Tyler was freaking out and Zander (of course) had no idea that something really bad had almost happened.

Once we both calmed down, Tyler’s first assessment of situation came, “At least we know you love our son more than your mac.” It’s true. I passed the mother test. Now I can hold that over Zander’s head for the rest of his life. In 20 years I’ll say, “I once threw my beloved computer so that I could save your life, and you can’t even spend Christmas with your mother?”

I get this question all of the time and I really don’t have an answer. Tyler’s family and friends say he looks like Ty when he was a baby; my family and friends say he looks like me. It’s funny how one baby can resemble two people so closely, so I’m posting some pics and I’d like you to tell me once and for all – who does Zander look like?

let me just say that i’m typing this one handed while i feed z with my other hand…so i’m throwing capitalization and some punctuation out the door. we are just a few hours away from leaving for colorado for easter weekend and i must say i’m a little nervous. not to fly, of course, i’ve done that plenty of times. i’m so afraid of being that person – you know the one with the screaming baby…the one everyone talks about when they share their flight horror stories. i know i’ve done it…”stinkin’ kid screamed the whole way…why didn’t his parents do something about it?” now that i’m in that position, i think i should’ve cut them a little slack. let’s just hope that zander continues to be the angelic child he normally is. watch for the next blog – it’ll either be titled “my child is a monster” or “my child is angelic”…we’ll see…just pray that it is the latter.

I never thought I would be one of those people who really thinks that my kid is the cutest one out there. I’m pretty honest, I told myself if I had an ugly baby I wouldn’t expect people to lie and say he was cute. I even admitted that Zander had a crazy-huge weird looking head when he was born. But now, I have lost all impartiality…all it takes is one look at his face and I’m sure that there’s never been anyone in the world as sweet, cute or precious as lil’ Zander. And it’s getting worse…everyday he just gets cuter. I guess it’s just hard-wired into moms – it’s probably good to know that at least there’s one person in the world who always thinks you are cute…your mom.

Zander is here – I’m sure most of you have already heard, but we are pretty proud, so I’ll repeat the specs…

Zander Lang Staton
6lbs 14 oz, 20.5 inches long
born Nov. 25th at 10:43pm

He is a beautiful little guy and we are so excited to finally have him to make our family more complete.

Check out pics from our Baby Shower…

click here

Everyone has been asking for new pics of the belly…so we took some new ones. Thanks to our friends who have a sweet camera and my dad for helping us out, we ended up with some nice pics without having to pay anyone to take them…man, are we frugal.

click here to go to our Web Album