What's wrong with this picture?

If you guessed, "there's a toddler in the background playing with spinach", then you are correct!

Sponge"Bub" Square Hat

Thanks to everyone who voted in our Dinner Campaign.  We were supposed to have our dinner on Monday night, but I had one of my "gallbladderless attacks" and wasn't feeling well.  I'll post pics when we have our Navajo Taco's, Grapes, Egg Nog, and Hot Fudge Cake.

This box, which came with a pendant light that I recently scored a fantastic deal on, has been the life of the party at our house this week.  Who knew that cardboard could be this much fun.

Justin calls Caleb, "Bub", so we have nicknamed him "SpongeBub Square Hat". 

Brayden came home from school today and got out everything I would need to make banana bars, right down to the measuring cups and frozen bananas.

I can take a hint...

Apparently, Justin likes the icing best.

Two!

On August 9th, Justin turned two.

I'm finally getting around to blogging about it.

I was waiting 'til Todd and I finished his present, but who knows when that will happen.  

Thankfully,when you're two, you have no idea that the Color Wonder coloring book isn't the only present you're getting from your parents. 

(He's getting a play kitchen.  I found it at DI but it needed an oven door and a new sink. We're still working on it, but  I'll post pics when it's finished.)

It's times like these that I really wish I were a better photographer.  On Justin's first birthday, I took a picture of him next to his newborn photo.  I had an 8x10 printed so I could take his picture with it again. I hope to do this until he starts kindergarten.

 Justin LOVES Elmo (what two year old doesn't?) so we went with an Elmo theme. I made Elmo Oreo pops with the red candy melts that I've had sitting in the pantry.  They were really easy and kind of fun to make, but I sure didn't want to eat any!  I made a 9" round cake that was frosted and covered in chocolate chips to look like a giant cookie and stuck Justin's toy cookie monster on top.

 Todd bought a goldfish on his way home from work, so Justin could have his own "Dorothy" fish.  Unfortunately, Dorothy killed over about four hours later.  The pet store offered a 30 day money back guarantee, so the next day we took a water sample and our beloved dead fish back for a replacement.  It turns out you can't put goldfish in soft water.  Oops.

Dorothy II was with us for a whopping 18 hours before she began the eternal backfloat.  I didn't have time to run to the pet store again, so I stuck her in the freezer.  A few days later, when I was running errands, I took the fish with good intentions, but never made it to the pet store.  After sitting in the hot car in 107 degree's all day, she wasn't lookin' pretty.  I stuck her in the freezer again, but when Todd found her tonight while looking for the frozen peppers for our pizza, he *hinted* that it was time to "throw the damn fish away".   I guess our pet goldfish days are over.

The best part of the day was when we took the boys to a park with a lazy river, and splash pad.  Justin was in heaven, and cried when it was time to leave after only two hours.

 The birthday boy eating the frosting off his cupcake and drinkin' his juice box.

I can't wait to surprise him with his play kitchen...he's gonna love it. 

toddler for sale

I guess I'll bake bread again tomorrow.

In the past two weeks...

In the past two weeks:

My oldest, greatest papa turned 80!

He brought Burger King crowns for all the kids to wear at the party :o)

Someone cut the butter with the apple slicer.  Someone also forgot to remove a foil-wrapped chocolate Easter egg from their pocket before their pants went through the wash.  Luckily, when it came out it was still in the foil and intact.  Thank you Hersheys.  

A bike fell on my foot on the dock at DI.  I had a bump the size of an egg on top of my left foot.  After icing it for a couple days, the bruising appeared. When I took Justin to the pediatrician later that week, I asked him if he thought I should have my foot "looked at" and he said that if it's broken, it's broken on top (since I can walk on it with no problem) and the treatment is a good lace-up shoe.  I think I can handle that.

Brayden learned to mow the lawn.

(it's kind of nice that our boys are getting old enough to be "useful")

While I was making dinner for a neighbor who just had a baby, Justin stole the measuring cup out of the flour bin, scooped water out of the toilet, and put it in his potty.  When I found him he was soaked so I put him in the tub and asked Caleb to sit with him while I hurried to get dinner in the oven.  While playing with "Bub-bub" Justin stood up, and then slipped and hit the faucet with his eyebrow.  It popped open.  I didn't think he needed a stitch, but wasn't sure so I called the urgent care clinic to ask their opinion.  They suggested I bring him in, but luckily as the swelling went down, the cut closed up on it's own and he didn't need any stitches. (Both Brayden and Dillon have the same injury, only they each needed 6 stitches in their eyebrows)

I've waited my whole life to trap my kids in a bottle of soap (or at least the past few weeks).  I took their pictures in crazy positions, used Photoshop to take the background out, and had their pictures printed on a transparency at a copy shop.  Then we rolled 'em up and stuck 'em in the soap. It makes me smile.

Todd's mom came to visit and took me and the boys shoe shopping.  Brayden's new shoes are 1 1/2 sizes bigger than his old ones, and they fit ME.

We also had our first school track meet, Brayden and Caleb got awards at school, Grandma came to visit a second time, our friends Travis and Cami stopped by on their way through, we finally planted our tomatoes after getting our sprinkling system fixed, and we took a day trip to Vegas to have my quilting machine serviced and visit a 120,000 gallon aquarium with a Mermaid show.  Whew!  It's been a busy couple of weeks!  I'll blog about this other stuff soon...

Easter weekend

We had a wonderful Easter weekend at our house.

It was filled with church, ham, Reeses PB cups, egg dying and hunting, naps (for the adults), 

and plenty of family time.

It took Justin a while to get into the egg hunting thing...until he realized there was candy inside!

Dillon chose to hunt for eggs in his pirate hat.

We color-coded the hunt to make it more fair.  Each child was assigned a color (or in Justin's case, a character).  They had to leave the yellow, green, blue, and Elmo eggs for the assigned person.

The pink, orange, and purple were free for all.

The golden egg had a coupon, "eggs"changeable for a Wii rental from Redbox.

Other "prizes" included coupons for extra computer time, ice cream, and getting out of dinner chores.

Todd took a spin on Caleb's bike

Our camera batteries died, so I didn't get any pictures of our egg dying activity.  A neighbor girl joined us on our patio, and after every egg had been dyed 2 or 3 times, it got dark so we turned on a light and set up cones for the kids to rollerblade/ripstik/ride scooters around.

Todd and I secretly wish we could ride the ripstik. 

We watched in awe as the kids wove through the cones.

We finished our celebration by watching Easter Bible Videos on Sunday night, 

with the air conditioning on, since it was at least 80 degrees in our house.

Spring Break comes to an end

On Saturday, Caleb, Justin, and I attended the Pinewood Derby while Todd, Brayden, and Dillon went to the air show.  Caleb won all but one race with his car this year.  Our ward had a fancy-dancy computerized set-up that timed all the cars and averaged their times.  The times were posted on a giant screen after each race.

 Caleb wanted his car "the color of the sky".  He drew the design himself, and did did a great job sanding, painting, and adding the decals.

Mom, you may want to sit down for this next picture.

My boys helped themselves to the brownies tonight.

(sorry if it makes your eye twitch)

Justin found a marker after church and had so much fun coloring his legs.  

I'm glad he wiggled out of his pants first...

This picture is also for my mom. 

I wanted you to see that I do cut my boys' hair at least quarterly 

whether they need it or not...

Someone told Dillon the other day that he must have been sun-tanning from behind the screen door :o)

Well, I survived Spring Break, and actually enjoyed it.  I'm kind of sad to send my kids back to school tomorrow.  (Did I just say that??)

I'm sure I'll get over it pretty quick.  Tomorrow starts MY spring break.  Stay tuned...

A boy and his kitty

This is our kitty, Loa.

Justin loves her.  

He likes to hug her, and pet her, and growl at her, 

and pull on her tail, and poke her eyes, and grab her fur.

And she puts up with it.

Yesterday, I caught him on all fours.  He was pretending to eat cat food like his kitty.  

Sometimes he even sneaks a real taste of her food.

She's pretty good at sharing.

 Because Loa is an outside kitty, we also have a stuffed Loa, for inside.

And he loves her too.  A lot.

He likes to put her in the blender...

 And lick her clean after her bath in the toilet.

(Don't worry, I caught him just in time)

Poor kitty.

If you give a baby a S'more..

If you give a baby a s'more...

 He'll probably make a mess with it.

 When he's finished...

 He'll help himself to a glass of milk on the table.

 While he's sitting on the table, he'll find the plate where you got the s'mores.

 Seeing the plate will remind him that he's hungry.

He'll ask for "s'more"...

And chances are, if you give him another s'more,

He's going to make a mess to go with it.

* We made these s'mores.  I think it would be a perfect recipe for a cub scout or achievement day activity because there are several steps, but all of them are easy to do.

Who would've thought?

Who would've thought that this little troublemaker...

...would someday turn into this?

Dillon has only been in school here for a month, and he was already chosen for a "Super Citizen" award.  When his teacher called to invite me to the assembly, she mentioned that he is always holding doors open for people and showing respect.  Way to go Dillon!

Maybe there's some hope for this one...

"One little hot dog frying in a pan..."

Dirty feet

Justin likes to sneak outside any time someone opens the door.
Most days, by dinnertime, his feet look like this:

Eww.  Too bad he won't leave his shoes on.  Actually, he will leave his left shoe on...just not the right.  Any time he's in his car seat, or a grocery cart, or just running around the house after going "out" he promptly removes his right shoe and sock.

He has his own way of doing things, our Justin.  He has a deep love for appliances, and can often be found toting around my salad shooter.  Or my hand mixer.  Or my blender.  Or my cell phone. Or pushing the buttons on my alarm clock.  Right now, he is pushing two frying pans around the kitchen floor.

He giggled last week when this hot air balloon flew by our house:

This is how he sits in his high chair lately.  We should all be so comfortable.

We sure love our little monkey!

Merry Christmas from sunny Southern Utah!

(Thou shalt not covet thy neighbors weather...)

We are slowly getting settled, and so far we are loving our new house, neighbrhood, and ward.  

I managed to get the kitchen, living room, and dining room unpacked (and decorated), but in the bathrooms and bedrooms we are still living out of boxes.  Hopefully I'll be able to post pictures soon.

This picture makes me laugh. It may take awhile to "grow into" our new house.
(We have our projector downstairs for movies and Wii, but our only TV is a 17"-er)

We are enjoying our holiday (and break from unpacking) immensely.  This morning (before church) we went through our stockings and saw what Santa brought us, then we attended a wonderful sacrament meeting (I love Christmas on Sunday). Now we're relaxing and waiting to skype with Grandma before opening the rest of our gifts.

Dillon has mentioned over and over (and over) how badly he needed a red scooter now that we have such a scooter-friendly yard.  Taking turns with Caleb's blue scooter was such an inconvenience.  He was thrilled  (and very lucky) that Santa got the message on such late notice!

Caleb got a ripstick.  These pictures give the false impression that he actually knows how to ride it.

He doesn't...but I have a feeling that it won't be too long before he's "rippin'" it up out there.

Santa brought Brayden a new bike.  It has hand brakes and 21 speeds.  With this gift, his brothers each got a "new-to-them" bike handed down, and now they can all ride bikes together.  They haven't been able to do that ever since "nobody" rode Dillon's bike into the middle of the driveway and parked it behind Dad's truck...

Justin got new sand toys, and some sidewalk chalk.  We haven't tried the chalk yet, but the sandbox has been a raging success since the minute we arrived in the moving truck.

Christmas with a 16 mos. old has been one adventure after another.  We re-decorate the tree daily, and we are dilligently trying to teach Justin to take the candy OUT of the wrapper before he eats it.

After Brayden rode his bike for awhile, I caught him out on the lawn trying to figure out his new maze game, "Perplexus".  

Have I mentioned that I love the weather here?

This helicopter arrived from Amazon a few weeks ago (to Todd; from Todd) and I wrapped it up before he had a chance to see it.  After a mad search for batteries this morning, he was finally able to get it off the ground.

I don't have a picture of it, but Todd surprised me with an ipod touch!  Someone (who already had an iphone) won it at Todd's Christmas work party and gave him a deal.  Now if I can just figure out how to use it...

I can't even begin to name all the blessings we've had this year, especially in the last couple months, but I hope to somehow convey my gratitude in a future post.  It's just too hard to think right now with all the unpacking/Christmas chaos/kids out of school.

I didn't get Christmas cards out this year (again), but we've loved hearing from many of you, and wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a blessed new year.