What? Taxes were due in April?

I just filed our state taxes! you say..hmmm 4months late? correct, but that was not on purpose. I actually thought i filed our state taxes sometime in early march, however the federal government told me that i was sorely mistaken.
The whole fiasco started over a month ago when i received a letter from the IRS stating that we owed them 3,000! I about lost my cookies. In panic I called them and they said they would investigate the matter. Well, after over a month of investigating, they called us and told us we had filed twice-one with our original deduction amount and the other with the standard deduction. As soon as I heard that it clicked in my mind..."Holy Crap! i filled out the wrong form!" I informed chad by helpfully whispering in his ear as he was on the phone, "tell them we filed online for federal and sent the state in by mail-we must have sent in the wrong form!"
Chad, being as gracious as he can be talked to them and we got it figured out. The very nice lady on the phone said that we had to re-file our federal return in order to straighten the mess out b/c they used the second form as the "edited" return or whatever term was that she used.
The lady was very nice and said that she would fill it out for us and all we would have to do is sign the form :) They must not be very busy in the tax office right now if she is willing to fill out the tax form for us! but i am not going to complain.
So this morning, my task was to call the Ohio state tax dept and ask them what we needed to do. Luckily, all that was required was to file the state tax. We didn't owe anything-so there was no interest tacked on. To my dismay though, our return is significantly less than we thought-Instead of receiving 1400 from the state we are receiving a measly $13. But hey, that is $13 we didn't have before right? That will be a nice meal from Wendly's!
I am just glad that it is all figured out and that we don't owe the federal gov't $3000!
Boy do i feel like an idiot! I guess we won't do that again! Poor Chad, and to think he trusted me with it all-guess I got myself out of doing the taxes next year!
Well, we will be heading up to Indian Lake this weekend...so I'm sure there will be cute pics of Weston next week!
He is squealing like a little girl right now-that is his thing...squealing as high-pitched as possible. It's cute right now, but i'm sure it wont be later on when his lungs get stronger!

Sweet Potatoes and Carrots!

At about 4 1/2 months, my doc has recommended that we start weston on solids...well, at least that's what the paperwork they gave me said. So, I decided to follow their advice-He still breast feeds every 3 hours though-so don't worry :)

As my little man sleeps, i thought i would share some pics of him, but i dont have much time. I'm sure i'll hear his shrill scream in the next 15 minutes :) He doesn't wake up very happy after naps.

I gave him a bite of carrots as i was making them and he promptly made a disgusted face. He gave me the same face with his first bite of sweet potatoes. All i caught on camera was the "not sure about this mom" face...

In other news...he absolutely loves this toy now...it will be a very sad day when we move out of grandma and grandpa snyders and we have to leave this toy behind

...the towel is there for puke protection...instead of being white puke, it is now orange-yay for solids! one day it will end and ironically, i will probably miss it b/c that will mean he is growing up...

4 Months and Growing!

Weston had his 4 month appt last thursday. I decided to take Weston to an office in Huber where the doc's have rights at the Children's hospital in Dayton. As I was filling out the paperwork in the waiting room, my sweet little boy decided to leave evidence of his extracurricular activities on my shirt-which the doc got a kick out of :) We were called back quickly into the exam room where we were soon engulfed by a constant stream of nurses and doc's coming in to see the "new cute little baby boy with the spiked hair" :) The entire office got a kick out Weston-he had a great time too flirting with the nurses-what a ham.

The doc said that we don't need to worry about westons continuous flow of spit up since it doesn't seem to bother him. In which my thought was-it may not bother him, but what about me?! I go through as many shirts as he does if I want to avoid smelling like puke all day! Ok, that's not the complete truth...as much as I don't like smelling like sour milk and puke, I would rather dawn (sp?) that odor than to put medicine into my child that doesn't do any good for him.

Here are Weston's numbers if your interested: 14 lbs 14 oz - 50%; 26" - 80% Translation: long and skinny :) that's my boy!

Speaking of being long and skinny-Weston is now wearing 9-12 month clothes. I went out and bought him about 5 or 6 sleepers, all sizes 6-9 months. Come to find out-they didn't fit! I was less than happy about that! So all but 2 of the sleepers have been exchanged. One has been washed and the other just hasn't been dealt with.

In other news-we are now into 2 weeks of cloth diapers and I am loving it. We've had no leaks and no rashes! I love these diapers! Here's a pic of my new life of cloth diapers:

This past weekend we traveled to Pokagon State Park for the Snyder Family reunion. We had a good time eating food and speaking to relatives that I couldn't remember names of and some that I just plane couldn't remember! We got another picture of Weston and his cousin Landon though. Landon was born the day after Weston and was the same length and weight. Landon now is the same length as Weston but has him beat by 2 lbs!!!!

It took a while to grandma to look up and by the time we got it going landon wasn't very happy. Weston however, never quit staring and sucking on his fingers!

Weston Rolled over onto his tummy today! He has been rolling from tummy to back since he was about 2 1/2 months-more consistently since 3 months. So at just over 4 months he has accomplished the back to belly! Now we just need to accomplish walking...right! I'm not ready for that yet! Actually, i'm not ready for the rolling from back to belly seeing as how I was a little too trusting of the little guy yesterday. Mom called and had me call the butcher to put in her cut order for the side of beef she is getting (mmmmm). So, me being the airhead first time mom, left Weston on the couch on his back-all the way to the back of the couch. As I was talking to mom, I started walking back into the living room to check on the little guy and as I was about in there, I saw Weston in the reflection from the fireplace falling off the couch! I felt sooo horrible!! how could I do that and be so irresponsible!? My mom reassured me that most first time mom's do that-but i still felt horrible :( Weston is just fine though. He only cried for a minute or so and then he was back to his smiley self :)

One more thing before I quit on this post...Weston and I went to the Zoo with the clarks last friday-a day of fun and exhaustion :)

Weston and I infront of the baby elephant exhibit

What a cute baby!!!! This was my favorite exhibit!

Weston got tired quickly and passed out for a few hours...
Sleeeeeeeepy boy....
Out-Gotta love him!!!!!!

CLOTH DIAPERS!

Yes you did read it right, we are now using cloth diapers! Are you crazy? (what you are probably thinking) the answer is yes! I changed Weston's first wet diaper this morning and boy was it wet. but it didn't leak! Now we just have to wait for the "dirty" diaper test. I'm thinking it's going to be a bit more disgusting, but I will get used to it-i have to!

These diapers are awesome. They are the mother-ease brand that Chad's friends introduced us to. We just started using them b/c we were using all the diapers that were given to us as gifts and weston is finally growing out of the 1's. It only took 4 months :)

Another big thing that I am going to imbark on is making my own baby food. I've heard its easy and much cheaper than buying it.

I never thought I would be this person, using cloth diapers and making my own baby food. Who am I!?!

With all of todays conveniences, who would make more work for themselves? I guess the answer is me :)

Here are some pics of Weston's first cloth diapering experience

Mom...what are you thinking????

The diapers are a bit bigger than him right now!!!! What a cutie!

A view from behind-and yes, he is standing by himself! what a strong boy :)

"I love my new diapers mom!!"

So chad thought he would play with weston soon after he finished eating...

Careful daddy....you are playing with fire!!!

....Told you so!!!!! Good thing he was wearing glasses!

I love being home, but it still doesn't afford much time for blogging. Hopefully I'll post more soon!

poo and the bmv

Chad and Weston are talking to each other-Weston is very excitable/squeally today...it's so cute. Sometimes he sounds like a girl though...we'll have to watch that.
I went to the wonderful BMV today to renew my driver's license-that's right, I am now 25, goodbye youth :( - and I took Weston with me in the only vehicle available, the pickup. Please don't berate me. I turned the airbag off. I had to go and I really had no other options-we made it safe so don't worry.
During the half hour we were there, Weston decided it would be a good time to fill his drawers. I didn't hear anything but as I was holding him, I could smell it and all of you that have smelt it before know what I'm talking about. He doesn't have the nice newborn poo anymore, you know, the kind that doesn't have a scent. Nope, he's graduated to nasty smelly clay-consistency poo.
So as I'm standing there in close proximity to other people, i am just hoping it was a toot and nothing else, that way it would eventually go away. No luck, it got smellier and smellier the longer I stood there.
We got out of there without overhearing any comments-whew.
I love being a mommy-so many fun adventures!

A New Outfit

Yesterday, Weston and I went to the hospital to get him weighed and to show him off. After the hospital we were going to meet Grammy Clark for lunch and b/c she was going to give me some stuff that I had left at her house a few days ago. So, I packed an extra outfit for Weston for the few hours that we would be away from home, figuring that was all he would need...silly me. I always pack at least 2 extra outfits, I don't know what was going through my mind.

Anyway, on the way to the hospital and while there, Weston decided to puke all over his clothes to the point of being drenched and disgusting. Mom wouldn't let me redress him those clothes. So, i put him in another outfit. We got to the diner in Hilliard in about an hour and Weston was not going to be very patient about getting his lunch. I warmed his bottle and fed it to him. He ate almost the whole 1o oz without a break...oops. Grandma Clark took him to burp him and he immediately lost his lunch all over her!!! I should've known better the little stinker.

Throughout the entire lunch, Weston kept "sharing" his lunch with his grammy.

Needless to say, his clothes didn't fare much better than grammy's blouse and I didn't have anymore clothes for the little guy. So before we got back on 70 to head home, i stopped at target and picked up a cheap outfit. he needed some more clothes for later on anyway.

However, soon after we got home, Weston broke in those new clothes. 3 outfits in a matter of 4 hours...priceless.

here are pics for some smiles:

Myrtle Beach and Other News

It has been a very long time, once again and I apologize. I really have meant to update this thing but every time i think about it, it never happens. So I will now take the time while my little guy is napping, however long that may be.

Weston and I just returned from a nice week at Myrtle Beach with my family. Aside from the 12 hour drive, we had a great time. Ask anybody who has been stuck in a vehicle with a 3 month old for 12 or more hours and they will tell you it is no fun for anybody in the car.

We left Friday night/Saturday morning around midnight in order to drive most of the way while the kids slept. It was a good idea, but come morning, nobody was in a good mood. The last two hours of the drive-and most frustrating thanks to a faulty GPS-Weston pretty much screamed his heart out. His protest was heard by all in the Myrtle Beach area.

The drive home went much smoother with only about 20 minutes total of fussing. However, the worst part of the traveling was Weston's digestive schedule-if you know what i mean. He has been on a "weekly" schedule, meaning, he has blow outs all day long-once a week-and it just so happened that his once a week day occurred on the way there and on the way back resulting in a clean up of his carseat and his body during the trips. Oh what fun-especially when you are cleaning these kind of messes in the dark in a rest area somewhere in West Virginia. Oh boy :) I feel sorry for the person on bathroom duty that had to empty the trash-SMELLY!

During this week, Weston had a lot of interesting "firsts".

He got to "swim" in the ocean, "play" in the sand, and eat rice cereal.

Swimming in the ocean wasn't exactly his choice, but each day he enjoyed it more and more. That is until Grandpa Snyder took him a little too deep. As they were getting their pictures taken-which I will post when I get them-a few big waves hit and Weston did not appreciate the assault of salt water as the pictures will show.

Immediately after the pictures were taken, my dad gave me the screaming monster and i started nursing him to calm him down. He was traumatized, but everyone else was laughing histerically :) No worries though, Grandpa did earn his trust back later on in the week.

We did more swimming in the pool than we did the ocean and I dare say that Weston enjoyed the pool much more than he did the ocean, even though on the last day in the ocean, i got him to smile.

Much to our dismay though, the pool was closed for the last 3 days of our vacation-BOO. This resulted in a 2 hour search for a pool the saturday that we were leaving. We did end up finding the pool, but Weston was in blow-out mode, so he didn't have the pleasure of leaving floaties in the public pool.

As everyone knows, Weston has a bit of a purging problem. my lovely sister-in-law nicole told us that they gave AJ rice cereal to help with the issue and it worked. So I decided i was tired of the constant onslaught of soured milk and it was time to try something else since the Zantac didn't seem to be helping anymore. So we bought some organic rice cereal and gave weston his first real taste of solid foods-well, aside from the yogurt, chocolate, ice cream, whipped cream etc that he's had tastes of in the past :) I would never feed my child stuff like this at such an early age...ahem.

Anyway, he did a great job and I think he liked it. Aside from a face covered in cereal-he did great. Thanks to aunt Erin restraining him, all went pretty smooth.

Weston got to meet his cousins AJ and Elise this past week for the first time. Everybody got along and aside from one squashing attempt by Elise, there were no mishaps :)

Some milestones that Weston has reached in the past couple months are as follows-laughing out loud-sometime in the second month, rolling over from belly to back-around 2 1/2 months, talking a lot-i have no idea when-what a bad mommy, reaching and grabbing things-around 2 months. I can't remember any others right now, but when i do, i will post them.

Weston will be 4 months old-ALREADY!!-on August 8th. he is getting so big so fast it makes me sad.

Now for news on the job front for chad. He started at a job in St. Paris, ohio 3 weeks ago and is doing well. he is happy there for now. There may be another job opportunity in the future, but we're not sure. We are living with my parents for now during the week and we are traveling on the weekends. Hopefully our house sells soon so we don't have that burden anymore.

So if anyone is looking for a house in the Northwest Ohio area, we have a beauty that you may be interested in :)

That is all for now :) it only took 3 hours to get this post done-so i am done-whew