The Count of Monte Cristo

I just finished reading probably the longest book in the whole world, the Count of Monte Cristo, which was about 3500 pages on my ipad.   I just loved this book.  I can see why so many people hated the movie.  I loved the movie, I think only because I saw it before I read the book.  Now that I have read the book, it makes sense to me why so many people hated the movie.  The movie is completely different than the book.  And the book is wwaaaaaaayyyyy better than the movie.  Anyway, have any of you read the Count of Monte Cristo, (long version)?  If so, what did you think?

Ashlee's Wet Canvas

I have another blog that shows many of my oil paintings and progress on my current oil paintings.  Please feel free to check it out and give me critiques.

www.ashleejudd.blogspot.com

Carson's 2!

Carson is now 2 years old!  Crazy!  He turned 2 on the 1st.  Carson loved his birthday.  He loves his presents and loved his birthday cake.

Here is the amazing cake!  Not really.  I am terrible at making cakes, but my kids seem to love it and I enjoy it too, so why not try.

Opening presents...

Carson loves this toy.  I got it from my neighbors because their son who is 3 months older than Carson doesn't play with it. So they just gave it to us.  It is in great condition and Carson loves it.  He loves taking all his cars and sending them down the ramps.  Great deal huh!

He got clothes from my parents!  Thanks again mom and dad.

He loves his basketball and hoop also from us.  When he makes a basket, he claps his hands and shouts, "I did it!"

And last, but not least, he got a balance bike from his other grandparents.  Thanks again Kory and Darlene!  Carson loves his bike as well and loves to get his helmet on to ride it.

Such a happy boy!


Carson at 2 years old...

He still loves his mom the most.  He throws a fit when I leave the room and screams until he finds me.

If I leave the house or take him anywhere to get baby sat, he screams with delight when I get back.

Carson has great motor skills, including, jumping climbing, throwing, etc.

He is the little boy in nursery that every nursery leader would dread having because he throws his cup of water on the kids next to him and thinks he is so funny afterwards.  He steals the other kids snacks.  He just loves being the bully.

He is our little rooster without the cock-a-doodle-doo.  He wakes up at the crack of dawn say somewhere between 5:30 and 6:15.

Carson hardly takes a nap.  He sleeps for about 1 hour to an hour and a half, and when he wakes up from his nap, he is the most unhappy person I have ever met.  I wish I could just eliminate the nap and have him sleep in longer, but nothing helps.  No matter when I put him to bed he wakes up at the same time.

He is obsessed with his Utes blanket.  He loves to carry it wherever he goes.

Carson's favorite show is Go Diego Go.  Whenever he wants to watch it, he says, " a show, go, go go."

Other movies that he enjoys are Rio, Despicable Me and Toy Story 3.

Carson loves to swim.  The pool is probably his favorite place.  He blows bubbles, jumps in the water and goes under, lets me put him under the water and loves every minute of it.  He especially loves the water slide and say weeeeee the whole way down.  When we get to the bottom of the slide, he shouts, "Again!  Again!"

Carson has such a love for life and enjoys and is fascinated with everything around him.  He sure keeps me on my toes, keeps me super busy, makes me completely frustrated,  but I sure love him and love having him in my life.

Another Oil Painting

I was asked a while back to do an oil painting for my father-in-law.  Last fall, he and three of his sons, (my husband included), went on an elk hunt in the book cliffs (roadless).  They had to ride horses in and camped for almost a week hunting elk.  My father-in-law asked me to do a 24x30 painting of the book cliffs with some elk in it.  They rode their horses through this valley as shown below.  Here is the finished product.  The painting looks much better than the photo of it.

The Smartest Mouse I Ever Knew

WARNING...If you can handle gross stuff, continue reading if you would like.  If you can't handle gross stuff, don't read.  We have had a mouse in our house for a while and it has been the biggest pain trying to catch him.  I was an idiot and left our bag of dog food in the furnace room.  I'm sure that is what attracted it.  At the beginning of the week, I set out the regular wooden spring traps and placed peanut butter on them.  Well, the next morning the mouse had taken the peanut butter off without setting the trap.  So I decided to cram some cheese up in the slot.  Sure enough, the next morning that mouse had got the cheese out of the traps without setting them.  So I decided to try something a little different.  I made some chewy oatmeal fudge bars.  This delicious treat is gooey and sticky.  So I crammed this stuff up in the slots on the traps and I even tested the traps to make sure they were working properly and they were.  I thought for sure I would catch that mouse. Well, the next morning, it was the same thing as before.  That sneaky mouse got the crammed up chewy oatmeal fudge bars out of the slots without setting the traps! Amazing!  I thought, this mouse is such a smart mouse.  I thought for sure I would have caught it by then.

I went to the grocery store and checked out their mouse traps.  My dad told me that the glue tables were a good trap, so I bought them.  That night I placed the glue trap on the ground and did everything the instructions told me to do.  The instructions said that the glue tables are pre-baited, but I can put extra bait on if I wanted to.  I decided to do that.  Well, the next morning, nothing.  I still wasn't going to give up though.  So last night, I set up all the original traps, this time cramming peanut butter up in the slots.  This peanut butter had peanuts in it, so I made sure I got big enough peanuts that would be difficult to get out.  Then I figured out where I thought this mouse was coming out of the wall.  I placed the glue table where it was coming out.  I shut off the lights, closed the door and went to bed, feeling that for sure I would get him tonight.  So this morning, I woke up and went downstairs to check out my room of traps.  Sure enough, my plan worked.  There was that little mouse stuck on the glue table.  

I could tell by the way it was situated on the table that it had quite the struggle last night trying to get free.  Poor thing, but I worry for my kids health more than the idea of having to kill it.  I wish it would have set the regular spring traps, because then I wouldn't have to kill it.  I was standing there staring at this mouse with some kind of sadness knowing that I would have to kill this thing by myself.  I couldn't leave it there and wait for my husband to get home to do the dirty job, because what if by some chance it got off.  And knowing this mouse, I'm sure it could have figured it out.

So I went upstairs, put a show on for my kids and went out into the garage to find my weapon.  I thought a shovel would work out, but unfortunately we didn't have on, but we have a metal rake.  It was the best thing I could think of.  I wanted to be as far away from it as possible when I killed it.  I went back downstairs and just stared at the mouse for like 10 minutes because the idea of killing it myself made my stomache churn.  And of course the mouse looked frightened and it wiggled like crazy trying to get off the glue trap, so that didn't help my uneasiness.  Finally, I decided it would be best to hurry and end both of our suffering.  I used the back end of the rake and bashed it on the head.  It died after that.  Goodbye little mouse.  Hopefully we don't have any more in our house.  

Update on Carson

Well, I would have to say thanks to everyone for all their suggestions on how to help my son go to bed.  They have all been very helpful.  It has been working out better.  I have just had to put him in his bed and lock the door.  Most of the time he would cry, pound on the door, or just play in his room for like an hour.  Then eventually he would either fall asleep by the door or in his bed. 

Well, at the beginning of the week, Carson started to figure out how to unlock his door.  He was thinking he was pretty cool that he figured out how to get out of his room and of course he won't go to sleep when he can constantly get out of his room.  And we don't have perfectly round door knobs, so the child proof door knob covers won't work.  Anyway, so guess what I did... we changed the door knob around, so the lock is on the outside.  What a mean mom I am.  Well, it works.  At least he stays in his room and eventually goes to sleep 

Here Carson is asleep on the floor by the door.  Don't worry, I didn't leave him there.  I picked him up and put him in his bed.

My Life Is Over

Yeah, you see Carson's bed.  It is now a toddler bed because he kept climbing out of his crib and I was worried that he was going to get hurt.  Last night was when this all happened.  I couldn't get him to go to sleep. He would continually climb out and open his door.  And boy, did he think he was super cool.  He had a smile on his face the entire time he kept climbing out of his crib.

I normally put him to bed at 8:00.  Finally at 9:00, I decided that I would put his bed into a toddler bed.  I thought that I might as well, since he can climb out of his crib.  This way it will be safer.  Finally at 10:00, Carson fell asleep.  Now you know why my life is over.  I guess we will see if he even goes down for a nap today.  If any of you have any suggestions, on how to get this kid to sleep, let me know.  Anything will help.  Kelli just stopped taking naps about the time she could start climbing out of her crib, so it worked out ok.  Carson on the other hand, needs naps and I need him to take naps or I go crazy.