Ladies Man, Jr.

Last weekend we had our friends over for dinner. While this may not seem like a big deal to most, when their daughter, Josie comes to visit, we take out the fine china, or at least the clean dishes. We didn't think that it would start this early, and given J's affinity to burping, thought that it might not happen at all. However, Josie has become the "main squeeze." A few months ago J came to me with a very serious look on his face and said, "Mom, Josie's coming. I need to get some flowers." Well, now we know that someone is teaching him right!

However, I fear that J is becoming a ladies man. At church last Wednesday, the dad of J's friend Maddy asked him if he thought his daughter was cute. He quickly gave a vehemently positive reply. Maddy has specific allergies and J has become accutely aware of them, asking me in the grocery store if any of the items we purchase have soy or nuts. I'm so glad that he can read now. All I do is hand him the package and make him read the ingredients himself.

Fortunately, J is very discrimating. At this rate, we won't have to worry about who he brings home in the future. Keep it up, big J and always keep them guessing!

Goofin' Around

Today was such a beautiful day. Who knew we'd actually see the beginnings of summertime weather. I was starting to worry...

Beautiful days remind me to blog, hence today's entry. I downloaded pictures from my camera that, as usual, have been sitting for awhile. I found this great one of Daddy and the kids making quite a ruckus in the kitchen with a big batch of bubble wrap. We celebrated our 10th anniversary on the 25th of April and bought each other a gorgeous picture of the Salt Lake temple. We had to order it and when it finally arrived, it was packed in all of this wrap. When I opened the box, the kids were ecstatic... All three of them. They immediately laid it out and started dancing all over it. Poor little C was upset because he didn't weigh enough to pop any bubbles. No worry, we all helped him out!

Then today, after playing out in the sunshine and the kiddie pool (yes Mom, and plenty of sunscreen :) the boys came in for a shower. I surprised them with costumes that I had set aside. They went nuts. In a good way, of course. So we had to have pictures. Who knew that Peter Pan and a Pirate would be friends. There is hope for the world after all...

The Bedtime Mantra

When J was a toddler, we did the usual things when it was bedtime. Teethbrushing, stories, prayers, songs, etc. However, as he got a little older and more aware, we had to start reassuring him of certain childhood fears such as the famed monsters, bad guys and the like. But over time, the list grew longer. He would see a movie that had something a bit scary in it, or a book and want to be reassured that those things also were not going to seize him in the night. Not only has the list grown longer, but it has evolved. Some things are not scary any more, so they have been removed from the bedtime mantra. Likewise, with awareness comes more trepidation at times, so new items have been added in place of the ones conquered. Below is the list. I thought you might get a kick out of it. Remember, each item is in reference to something specific, no matter how strange it may seem. It is repeated by us every night, even though J needs to help Daddy with it sometimes. Here's to a good night sleep with none of phantasms noted below:

No monsters

No Mike

No Sulley

No Boy

No blue monster

No green monster

No pink monster

No yellow monster

No rockets

No robots

No bad guys

No sharks

No dragons

No lions

No pirates

No Star Wars

No monsters

The Bee has left the building....

Our family had a momentous occasion last week. C lost his binky. We absolutely tore apart the house looking for it last Tuesday, when suddenly D and I paused. Did we really want to find it that badly? C is two and he definitely doesn't need it. When he turned one, we only let him have it at night. It was not allowed to leave his bed. He was very cool with this, but insisted on having it to go to bed. I even remember driving 40 minutes into town when we were camping last summer, after loosing the bee, to replace it in order to ensure we all got a decent night's sleep. However, this time we decided that it was time to carpe diem. It was obviously a sign from the fates that it was time to move on.
When he asked for it, I used the usual parental response. "Oh, you don't need a bee. Those are for babies. You are a big boy." He informed me that no, in fact, he was not a big boy, he really was a baby. I also had a few tricks in my bag, so I quietly started to put away the toy cars he was playing with. "Well," I told him, "Babies don't get to play with cars. They also don't get to eat cookies or fruit snacks. And they don't get to..." and the list went on. Well, I had him.
Now, it has been an entire week and he hasn't even asked for it. We are praying that we are the first ones to find it. No matter. I'm pretty confident that it has found a home in the vortex of lost children's items. I firmly believe that each home with small children has one.

Batter Up!!

I can't say "batter up" without thinking of the movie, A League of Their Own. It is one of my favorite movies of all time. OK, sing it with me: Batter Up! Hear the call! The time has come, for one and all, to play ball! That one and "There's no crying in baseball!!" It's all great and we are so excited to watch J play every week.

The change in him has been dramatic. He is confident, outgoing and he is actually out-eating his brother. Who would have guessed?

J has a great coach, Coach Chip. He is so patient, encouraging and loving with all of the kids. Best of all, he does it while teaching the kids teamwork and respect for each other and their elders. J is learning awesome life skills as well as the game of baseball. Well worth the $65.

J had the honor of being the very first one of the season at bat as well as the first one to score! Way to go Big J!

OK, be honest. Is this not the cutest catcher you've ever seen?

"We are the Broncos! The mighty mighty Broncos! And everywhere we go, people want to know, who we are! So we tell them! We are the Broncos that you heard so much about! Coaches lock their players up whenever we come out! Hey!!"

I had enough!

Well, as you all may have read on my previous post, I have been less than delighted with the weather that we have been having. Someone forgot to tell whomever is in charge that all of us stay out home moms wait with baited breath for sunshine, warmer weather, and the ability to send our children outside when they are driving us to the brink of insanity. So, I packed up the children, bought 3 plane tickets and took us all to California to visit Grandpa George and Grandma Elizabeth.

Brave, you say, to fly alone with two small children. Nay, I say! They were brilliant travelers. Even the flight attendants all commented on what great little guys I had with me. I was so proud of them. Never have you seen two children so excited to have a small bag of trail mix and a half of a can of soda. When we left Boise on the morning of April 1st, it was 32 degrees. When we touched down in California, it was almost 70. I almost kissed the sidewalk when we got outside. Below are some fun things that we did during our week with my grandparents. Enjoy, and remember, it is always summer somewhere in the world.

The boys were very conscientious and, when instructed, read in great detail the safety instructions that provided directions in the event of a water landing. I think they were the only ones on the plane that did so.

Tuesday night we were able to watch Grandpa sing with is barbershop group. They were awesome! They even sang the most beautiful version of Love at Home. I've only heard it at church, so to hear these men sing it in a completely different setting was a real treat. They are going to sing it in a competition next month and I really hope they win!!

Grandma has two little parakeets that the boys just loved. I almost had a heart attack when she took the cage off of its stand and let the boys play with them on the floor. I think the birds were sweating it too.

Of course we had to have story time every night with Grandma. She is a very good reader; Jonah was impressed.

It was also Grandma's birthday while we were visting. We picked out some fun new jammies for her and then went out to dinner to celebrate. Happy Birthday, Grandma!!

Our last night in California, we stayed in a hotel close to the airport. Boppo got us a really nice room at the Holiday Inn Express so Grandpa and Grandma wouldn't have to get up early in the morning to get us to our flight on time. The kids were thrilled to have a new place to destroy. Of course, we had to have some jumping on the bed time.

Thanks for the fun visit Grandpa and Grandma! We love and miss you so much!!

Spring Break?

OK, so am I the only one who is going nuts this week? I had all of these beautiful plans to take my children to the zoo, the park, and other various OUTDOOR activities. What the heck happened? We woke up to sun this morning, but it is about 20 degrees outside. Yesterday, in between brief peekings of sunlight what did we have? How about rain, snow and last night, very painfully tiny, sharp HAIL!! Oh Hail!!

I am so grateful to the Lord for blessing us with the moisture we so desperately needed in the valley. What a blessing to live in such a beautiful land rich with activites, freedoms of all kinds with safety and health...

That said, I am feeling totally jipped of my spring break! I couldn't even spring clean because I had already done most of it last week when our family was coming for the weekend. (Did I actually complain that I don't have anything to clean?) And on top of it all my kids have had croupy, phlemy coughs all week. I make note of all these critical feelings here because this is my family journal. I will look back on this years in the future and probably laugh at myself...maybe.

I have to stop writing now, my kids are screaming at each other. I think we are all getting cabin fever... Too bad I don't have a cabin to have it in...

This picture was taken two weeks ago when we, anticipating spring, made bird feeders out of Crystal Lite canisters. This week's freaky weather washed off the peanut butter and seed, of course.