Christmas 2K9

Merry Christmas everyone! We have truly been blessed this year and hope you all have been as well. If it doesn't seem like it, dig deeper! God's hand is in our lives every day whether we choose to realize it or not. Christmas always seems to come and go so rapidly and we hope you ave been enjoying it.

I thought this would be the last "safe year" for our Christmas tree. Tucker hasn't quite mastered the art of crawling, but that boy can get around! He is never in the same place that you put him down (well...he will sit and be quite mesmerized by Baby Einsteins!) He rolls a lot and rolled right on over the the tree and started playing in it the other day!

Tucker is growing up so fast. He started at just under nine pounds and took off! He was about 21 and a half pounds a couple weeks ago! I should be getting stronger packing him around right! He is such a happy baby and it has been so fun to watch him grow, explore, and experience his new world. We are so blessed to have him in our lives and it's hard to imagine life without him now!

Matt and I are great. Still running, biking (Matt), and trying to keep up with life! Tucker enjoys our runs so much that he sleeps right through most of them!

Speaking of sleeping, Tucker just couldn't wait to see Santa!



We wish you the best this Christmas, New Year, and always.

Love,
Matt ~ Leslie ~ Tucker

Zeitgeist

I ran the Zeitgeist 1/2 marathon last Saturday. It's been on my to do list for over a year. Being preggo this time last year I didn't do it but thought it would be a good way to get back into it after Tucker's arrival. Call me crazy! I've been a runner basically forever....started track in middle school and have been running ever since. So you would think it would be no big deal to do a 1/2 but it is. I don't know why i've never done them before. I like to run but have never really cared to go much over 8ish miles....those were long days for me. So this summer i started making my 8 milers into 9s then 10s then 11s.... (well I guess I had to start less than 8 after having a baby!) So at the beginning of September I ran a 1/2 at my family reunion...a trial go of sorts. Then last Saturday I did the big daddy. We'll call it that because there are some pretty good hills! I don't know why I wanted to do this one instead of a flat half. Maybe the challenge of it all. I don't love running hills and I didn't especially love it on Saturday, but I loved being able to finish and say "I did that"! When you're out there running it's like "what am I doing" then when you finish it's like "What can I do next?" So the verdict?? I think I'll do it again! Who wants to come? And no...I don't have any marathon plans any time soon! Can't really imagine getting done with a half and thinking "great! 1/2 way done!"


Passing off my Shirt to Matt and Tucker



This guy was a stud! I never even saw him....cuz he was ahead of me!

The big hill!

Ahhh the finish! Those last two miles were tough!

5 Months Old!

Tucker turned 5 months last week! Time goes by so fast and the days somewhat blur together. He is such a great baby...not that I have anything to compare to. Even still...We really are blessed with this one. In the last month he started rolling over...always from his back to his belly. That's his preferred position! He found his feet and is constantly holding on to them. I'm sure they will soon be in his mouth! He more so squeals with delight than laughs although we can coax some giggles from him (which make me giggle in return). He is sitting up on his own. Still unstable at times but getting very good at it. He was screaming when he wanted attention but that has kind of subsided for the most part. He has been waking up again in the middle of the night but will sometimes go back to sleep if I give him his binki. All in all we love him and are so glad he's part of our family!

A few family pics

We've been having a great summer with Tucker with all the learning that goes along with being new p's. Once you think you have something down the next day you realize that you don't! What an adventure. We have been on one over night camping trip and are planning a three nighter for a family reunion next weekend. I am also doing my first half marathon! Hopefully all will survive:)

One of my friends/clients took these for us. It was fun to do our first little photo shoot:)

Smiles Swimming and a Little Bit of Puppy Love

Swimming swimming in the swimming pool
When days are hot and nights are cool in the swimming pool!
Breast stroke side stroke fancy diving too
Oh wouldn't it be nice if we had nothing else to do!
But...

Anybody remember that song from girls camp???

I took Tucker swimming for the first time yesterday in my friend Lisa's pool. He did awesome and didn't cry once. It's actually the first time he's been submerged in water. His cord stub was way slow in falling off so he's not even really been in the tub with much water. It finally came off last week (Matt helped)! So now he has a new hobby...swimming:) And a little bit of Puppy Love. Our friends gave us these adorable slippers! And last but not least...Smiles! Tucker actually started smiling at me before he was four weeks old! And these are genuine (not in his sleep) smiles! It makes me happy:)

One Month Old

OK so maybe I'm a little camera crazy, but I have at least one picture every day of Tuckers first month. Yeah - sometimes many many more than one. I can't believe that my baby is already a month old. Everyone keeps saying they grow fast. Guess I believe it. He's already changed so much and is getting pretty big to boot! We love having him here though. I don't know why we have been so blessed to get such an easy baby (I won't question it though)! Not that there are not challenges, but seriously...he's wonderful! He even slept from like 11 to 4 last night...woohoo!

We've been on a couple trips so far. Once to McCall and a couple days in Pocatello to meet GG and Papa and see Parker, Mel, Grandma, and Cait. He always amazes me how good he is.

Here's some of my favorites for each day...

A close second...

Tucker Jackson Howe arrived late Saturday night (the 23rd) at 11:40 p.m. eight days late! Yeah I'm a slacker getting pictures up but it was such a great/crazy/bittersweet first week home that I really didn't get on the computer much at all. Anyone with babies should understand!! My mom came down with Caitlyn in time for the delivery and I was soooo glad to have her here....in spite of the crazy week. She was more help than she realizes! Dad and Rikki came down that night too.

Tucker weighed in at 8 lbs 13 oz and was 20 in. It was hard to believe that he actually fit in there once he was out and yet he looked so tiny to me that it was hard to believe there was almost nine pounds on him! The delivery was unexpectedly hard (I'll spare all the details) but so worth it. I would do it again to get the sweet little boy that I got!

Here's some highlights from Tucker's first week home if you haven't already seen them on Facebook... You can click on them to see larger images.


I also lost my sweet Grandpa Jackson last week. It was tough not being able to go to the funeral with the rest of the family. I really wanted to take Tucker up to Washington this summer to meet GGJ. I'm glad Grandpa isn't suffering or in pain anymore. These last few months have been kind of rough for him. I hope he is having one big party/reunion with Grandma and all his siblings and friends. I'm glad that this life isn't the end all!

Grandpa last summer...still mowing the lawn at 91! Love that man!

The result is in!!!

And the winner is.....





Not me! Checked out the robin nest tonight to find 3 little fuzz balls with wide open beaks. Hungry little fellas! Hopefully I'll get some pics tomorrow. The light was too far gone and mama bird was not happy with us being there!

The Race is On!

Just a couple of spring treats I've found in my back yard this last week. I'm again amazed how fast the flowers (in this case the lilacs) don't seem to last. I guess you have to enjoy them why they are out! They were looking a little brown today:(

I was weed wacking the other day on the side of the house and a robin just started going nuts! She was flying all around and chirping like crazy. I looked up in the pear tree and saw the cause of her dismay....the nest. Apparently she didn't like my company! So instead of being good and leaving her be, what did I do??? Brought out a stool and had a little peak. I couldn't quite get the camera high enough from my little stool to get a full on shot of her three pretty blue eggs. I got a couple of them in the picture though!

I've been checking on it all week to see if there are little babies yet but not so. Apparently some babies like to take their time:) Which brings us to the fact that it's D Day and still no baby for us either. I guess if I were miserable it would be a big deal but since everything has been pretty great..I'm fine with this little guy taking his time to greet the world. It is a little hard to make plans though...sorry Mom!

So the race is on....which baby/babies will arrive first folks? Stay tuned...!

Twilight with cheeseburgers!

Some people have a lot of times on their hands...other people get to laugh at the products from those people!

Seriously...GOOD!

This might sound like an odd combination but it is seriously so good. I was introduced to it last spring. No worries it's not like a pickles and peanut butter thing (which sounds disgusting by the way).

Strawberries....dipped in sour cream.....dipped in brown sugar.

If you havent tried it, do it. You wont be sorry...unless of course you don't like strawberries. And if that's the case, maybe you'll change your mind:)

Just a word of advice....go with regular sour cream. I've tried light....not as good! Enjoy and let me know what you think!

You can call me Flower....if you want to!!

Love love love spring! Well the weather can be unpredictable but oh well. Anyways I have the coolest tulips. I've not much of a green thumb but these pretties just come up every year and I don't have to do anything. I don't even weed (as you can see!!)


First shot of the day...when the sun hits the front flower bed


About an hour later when they open up to enjoy that short lived sun (we have a north facing house)





Glad I got to enjoy these for a few days because they are SOOO short lived. They only last about a week and are pretty much dead and gone now:( Ahh well....maybe I can find something else fun to plant in there....then again my non green thumbs say maybe not. Guess we'll wait and see:)

Some song meets some other song

I really like how Jon Schmidt blends songs together.

This is a favorite
Pachelbel meets U2

Pachelbel Meets U2 - Jon Schmidt

And his latest! (The cello dude -Steven Sharp Nelson- is AWESOME!!)
Love Story meets Viva La Vida

Who's your role model?

Try it without looking at the answers......
please don't look down until you do it, you'll love it I promise!




1) Pick your favorite number between 1-9
2) Multiply by 3, then
3) Add 3, then again, Multiply by 3 (I'll wait while you get the
calculator....)
4) You'll get a 2 or 3 digit number....
5) Add the digits together





Now Scroll down ..............






























Now with that number see who your ROLE MODEL is from the list below:

1. Einstein

2. Nelson Mandela

3. Abraham Lincoln

4. Helen Keller

5. Bill Gates

6. Gandhi

7. George Clooney

8. Thomas Edison

9. Leslie Howe

10. Warren Buffett


I know....I just have that effect on people....one day you too can be like
me.... :-) Believe it!


P.S.: Stop picking different numbers. I am your idol, just deal with it!!!!

Fun with photo booth!

You can make fun yet pretty disturbing images with photo booth:)

Create

Everything takes longer than you think!

"So I think we'll be done with tiling by mid afternoon."
later that day...
"Oh yeah we'll be done by 7 / 7:30"
later that night (or should I say the next morning)
"Is this considered burning the midnight oil?"


Upon hearing from a few people that tiling is a very easy DIY project and having access to our friends awesome tile saw, we decided to give it a go. It actually is pretty easy and turned out great (so far) but be forewarned....it's very time consuming! We really didn't expect the amount of time it would take to do all the prep work (tearing out the linoleum and subflooring, and puting down backerboard), cutting out a design (which Matt did awesome at!), and laying them all down. We actually thought we would be done with it last weekend but only finished the prep work. So after full day of tiling yesterday, we finally layed the last couple of pieces about midnight! But it looks great and I'm totally glad that we decided to to it. Now we just have to do some grout work! Might be a little late now (after the living room floor, the backerboarding, and tile laying), but I think I might invest in some knee pads for that...or at least find some to borrow! The knees are feeling a little abused today:)

Here's some photo documentation of the project-

The old floor...with a gallon of primer all over it to boot! It actually looks better in this state that it did after the attempted cleanup with acetone:)

After tearing out the old floor...all Matt and Matt Millward (thanks for all your help!)

Playing in the mud!

Had to get a belly shot in there since the little guy was part of the projcet...except for the closet where we didn't exactly fit so well:)

Finishing up just after midnight after working ourselves out to the garage!

Did you seriously just say that? (part 2)

Background Info -

Matt and I are measuring furniture and a spot for a hood to go over the oven.

Matt: "I want to measure your belly."

Me: "OK I guess."

Matt: "Hey you're wider than the oven!"

What a charmer! Good thing I thought it was funny:D

Gonna get worse before it gets better!!

Sometimes I honestly wonder what possesed me to want to "fix up" the kitchen! I'm not so sure if this project will ever get done. It all started with me wanting a pantry..... Let's not talk about how that led us into the living room (which is actually starting to look pretty good by now) and other parts of the house!! Maybe the secret is 'don't start' haha! There is still a LONG way to go. Ahhh someday!

A perfectly functional kitchen!

Um...wow! This is pretty embarrassing!

I've been meaning to post this picture of my Dad's "mess" that he was all worried about when he moved our outlet.

I guess we failed to communicate that this mess was in the works!

s

Did you seriously just say that?!?

Heres a few of the more interesting things people have said to me since I've been pregnant...

-Old instructor/co-worker: "Was it planned?"

-Co-worker: "I can't wait for you to get a Buddah belly so I can rub it and make a wish!"

-Girl at Office Depot: "Holy cow! Is there a baby in there?"

-Guy on the treadmill one over from me: "Got company?"

-Client: "That just kicks all the selfishness right out of ya!"

I love the things some people say!!

Seven Things

Apparently I've been tagged to list seven things people might not know about me and have seven other bloggers do the same.

1. I like the smell of dirt. Potting soil straight from the bag and right after it rains are the best!


2. I love bananas. Unless we are out, it's usually the first thing I eat when I get up and sometimes I'll eat up to three in a day. Usually I have to go to the store like two or three times a week just for bananas (Matt likes them too!).


3. Mowing the lawn is my favorite outside chore. I like to watch the progress and the difference between the short and long grass. It always looks so much better when it's done. So I'm pretty much the designated lawn mower in the fam. I'm not sure if Matt has even used our new lawn mower yet (not a complaint). It should look pretty interesting this spring if I'm out mowing the lawn 8 mo. preggo. Haha - I'm sure Matt will help me out then:)


4. I'm a procrastinator. My latest moment was probably paying bills in bed on my phone the same day they were due:)



5. I have quite a disliking for cats. Yeah I know I have a picture on my blog of me holding a cute little kitten, but kittens grow up to be cats. Cats that some of your co-workers might like to let in your office....and that might poop under your table.....and you might not know about it until after your client is laying face down with their head right over the poop...and they might never call to reschedule with you ever again. And then you might have nightmares about certain cats that hang around your office! YIKES! I'm pretty vocal about the "incidence" and the cat coming to visit now.



6. I would much rather go hiking in the mountains than be laying on the beach. At this point in my life I hate sunbathing! No worries though....Hawaii is still PLENTY fun!



7. I'm a bit of a craigs list shopper lately. Recently I've scored a nice sectional, baby furniture, and an air compressor. Call me cheap but I think I'm getting more bang for my buck!


I'm tagging

Caitlyn
Heather Y.
Heather K.
Carolyn
Aunt Chandra
Tammie
Sara

Pay it Forward:)

What a fun game Sara!!

So, here's how it works-the first 3 people to leave a comment on this post will receive, at some point during the year, a handmade gift from me. What it will be and when it will arrive is a total surprise! The catch is that you must participate as well. Before you leave your comment, write up a pay it forward post on your blog to keep the fun going (or be lazy and copy and past like I did haha!!). Then come back, let me know you're going to play and sit back and anticipate the arrival or your gift! Please submit in an e-mail or on the comment, your address, if I don't have it already (howelie@yahoo.con) :) Remember that only the first 3 comments will receive a gift from me, so be quick!

Probably I'm the last to know!!

We have been doing ALOT of painting lately. Between home and at my office....good colorful fun. Actually it starts to get a little old after awhile. I swear I go to home depot at least once a day and am on like a first name base with the guy at the paint counter! Not really but he probably thinks I'm nuts spending so much time picking out colors and painting supplies. Maybe I should get a part time job there so I can get an employee discount or something:)

Anyways after...."oooh oooh learning the hard way!" here's a few tips I picked up along the way.

-Spend the extra couple of bucks to get the nicer gadgets...i.e. paint brushes, power rollers, etc! Well worth the extra $$ (probably because you go back and end up buying them anyway)

-Corner tools and edgers are awesome! Instead of making due with a paint brush...cut right to the chase!

-Laugh! Especially when say a gallon of primer falls off the counter and busts open on the kitchen floor! (good thing it's in the works to replace that one...and good thing it wasn't already replaced!!)

-And my personal favorite...which everyone probably already knows, but if you don't this is awesome!! When you're finished for the day but not finished with the project, wrap your rollers and other tools in plastic wrap/plastic grocery bags so they are air tight. No need to clean them out for the day. Unwrap next time and keep truckin'...beautiful!

My Dad is AWESOME!

We've been doing some home remodeling...or pretending like we are anyway. We cut the enterance to the kitchen in half and put a pantry on the kitchen side. In all the works were some electrical modifications....i.e. moving outlets and switches etc. We sort of forgot to move one of them that was on our living room side before we put the sheetrock up. So it had been that way for a few weeks. Yeah we can be kind of SLOW on some projects (especially intimidating ones that we know nothing about!). So my dad and Rory stoped on their way through to Moses Lake this week and they asked what they could do to help. I said we needed to move the light switch to the end of the wall and within like an hour or two DONE! And this was not just ANY light switch. It turned on the living rrom light if and only if the switch all the way across the dining room was off....and if you wanted them both on at the same time, well you had to have one of the dining room switches off the other on and the living room on. Who wired up this place anyway? So I guess it's a pretty simple three way switch...if you are an electrician that is! So he got it all fixed up! The living room turns on by it self now! How exciting for us! You would think being the daughter of an electrician, I would know all of this...but no! You know what they say about dentist's kids? They always have the worst teeth! I would like to say that I know enough not to stick my finger in an electric socket...but upon examining an outlet that we wired up the other night...I electricuted myself! How did it feel might you ask? It was well...shocking! Not that bad really...just a little zap! But needless to say, I did learn a little about this whole electric business...at least not to put myself between the hot and neutral wires:)

Dad sporting his Intermountain Electric hat!