funny little man

1. It's mostly about Luke this week. He says some of the darndest things, and this week was no exception. First, are some phrases that he has recently added to his already expressive vocabulary. I have been hearing a lot of, "Oh, shut up!" (as in, 'no way', not 'be quiet'), "Oh, come on!" (as in 'you're kidding'), and "Oh my heck!" (Utah boy all the way). Some other things he has been saying a lot this week are some things that we frequently say to him - he's turning the table on us: "Daddy, you're a stinker!" (in a fun-loving way), "Mommy you're a mister!" (ouch), "Daddy you're a turd!" (once again, fun-loving). When all of these phrases are said in Luke's one-of-a-kind voice, you can't help but laugh.

2. The other day Adam set some ice cream on the counter, then had to leave the room for a moment. Well, 'Quick-hands Luke' seized the moment and helped himself to the ice cream. Adam came back and Luke's face was covered with ice cream. Adam started sharing the ice cream with the other boys and Luke asked him for some. Adam said, "You already have some on your face." Then Luke said, "Yeah, but I don't got any on my tongue."

3. For family night Adam gave a lesson about testimony. At the end of the lesson, he said, "I want to share my testimony with Isaac, and Luke, and mommy." Then Luke adds, "and daddy, and Heavenly Fadder (father)... and pumpkins." Always concerned for the pumpkins, he is.

Isaac and Luke both shared their testimonies, and I wrote down what I remembered:

Isaac: "I know Jesus died on the cross so we can live on Earth. Joseph Smith told us none of the other church's were true."

Luke: I can't remember his word for word, but he started by saying something about dying, then added, "And, I don't like skeletons."

4. Today Adam took the boys to the bank and while in line Luke was checking out a skeleton decoration. Luke turns to Adam and says, "Skeletons don't got a penis." He's observant, I tell you.

5. Here is an Asa moment that showed me he's a bit smarter than I give him credit for. I made some banana chocolate chip muffins for breakfast one morning, as I often do. I did some with chocolate chips and some without (for me, since I new I would end up eating half of them by myself). I gave Asa one without chocolate chips and he looked at it, took a bite, then started whining and just crumbling it. At first I couldn't figure out why he was so ornery, then I handed him a muffin with the chocolate and he ate it all up. I gave him another one, and he ate it too. I seriously think that he knew the muffins normally have chocolate chips and was ticked that I would serve him the lame ones that didn't have them.

Pics of the week:

Still not walking, but cute as ever.

Car phone. Ha ha ha.

Asa smothering Isaac.

This is Asa about 20 times a day. He climbs into one of the bouncer/walkers, gets stuck like this, and starts jabbering for me to come and get him out.

Luke has moved on from being obsessed with picking my garden, to picking up leaves. We have bags full of leaves lying around our house.

My boys want me to be a witch for Halloween, so I'm going to be a witch. They are as excited about my costume as they are their own. Here they are trying it on for themselves.

It gives me a glimpse at what cute girls I would have made.

I did it!

1. I actually managed to get through an entire day without raising my voice - a.k.a. 'yelling'. I know that shouldn't be such a hard thing to accomplish, but for my impatient, over reactive self, it is. I am continually praying for more patience and understanding with my boys, but I seem to loose focus of that goal pretty early in the day - usually about the time that they start arguing with me, arguing with each other, knock Asa over because they are being careless, or over react to something that has frustrated them (hmmm, I wonder where they could have learned that).

Well, I decided I better shut-up and listen if I am going to receive any help. So, when the little stinkers in my little angels appeared, I tried harder to think before acting (amazing concept). And, I did this for an entire day. Does this mean I handled every situation the best possible way? Heavens, no. But, I didn't yell. And, wouldn't you know it, there was a lot more peace in my home today. Now, if I can do it again tomorrow, and the next day, and the next....

2. One of my favorite moments as a parent is to listen to my children pray. I love how easy it is for children to have faith in their Savior. I also love how unintentionally funny their prayers are. Luke, in particular, always seems to make Adam and I laugh (not aloud, though) with the completely random things he says. Most kids try to repeat what you are saying in a prayer, but Luke just uses any pause to add his 2 cents - all while mimicking any movement/wiggle that Isaac has just made. One thing that he continually prays for is to "Help Grandma Po-wee (Pulley) or Grandma Ubridge (Loveridge) not die." This is obviously a great thing to pray for and makes a lot of sense. But, the other day he prayed, "And, help save pumpkins." All those poor pumpkins.

3. We took Isaac and Luke on the Alpine slide & coaster. Or as Luke calls it, the pine tree slide. They had been so excited to do this for a while, and we finally found a moment to go before it closed for the season. Luke's quote before going, "I not going to freak out on the pine tree slide. It's super big fun... huge fun!" They loved the chairlift ride up. Isaac thought the snowmakers were fascinating and we had a wonderful discussion about how they work (or think they work). On the way home Isaac was saying that his favorite part was the coaster. Then he asked Luke what his favorite part was, to which Luke replied, "The clouds."


4. Adam and I celebrated our 8th anniversary last week. We didn't do anything too exciting - just went out to dinner. In fact we had to do that early, since Adam had to work on our anniversary. But, we're cool with keeping things pretty low key. It is a good time to reflect on just how blessed I am, though. I love Adam more than anyone I know, but I'm glad I still like him and enjoy spending time with him. We have seen each other at our worst, but we are united in the same goal, which gives us the strength to press forward. I'm thankful for these past 8 years and all the blessings that we have been given.

5. Random pics of the week:

Asa is really into wearing hats right now. Usually they are too big, so they cover his face while he crawls around, giggling.

wait. where did september go?

1. Summer is definitely over. We have pulled out our pants and jackets and the shorts are now buried in the bottom of our drawers. Our garden is gone now. This is very sad for Luke, who loved nothing more than to pick the slightest hint of a vegetable.

We are excited for fall and have enjoyed the beautiful colors. I just hope that we get to enjoy a bit more of it before winter takes over (we have already seen snow, and it does not get me excited).

2. Asa called 911 last week from our home phone. I found this out when a nice police officer knocked on my door and asked me if we were alright or if I was being held against my will. I guess the phone will have to stop being a toy.

3. Just when I start questioning Luke's comprehension/intelligence, he makes the most impressive observations. Out of the blue, the other day, he says, "When you poop you get goosebumps." He's a lot smarter than I give him credit for.

4. Adam got his goat (hee hee). He drew out for a mountain goat tag - a once in a lifetime tag. I was excited for him, because he has really wanted to do this hunt for a while. But, I wasn't too excited for the time that I thought it would require (it's not an easy hunt). He did a lot of scouting before the hunt started, which means he climbed many mountains. Most of the time he observed the goats they were in some pretty precarious spots - that is why I expected it to take a while. Well, lo and behold, the first day of his first hunting trip, he ended up shooting a goat. There happened to be a decent goat in a perfect spot, so he took it. He was happy, I was happy... we are both very happy.


5. Now for a 'Divine Inspiration' story - seriously. So, I hadn't been able to find my phone for almost 2 days. I had looked every I could think of, but no luck. I didn't even bother calling it, because I knew the battery was low and I figured it was very dead by now. Well, tonight I asked Adam to take the garbage out. Before he walked out the door with the bag of garbage, I decided to grab his phone from him and try to call my phone - just for the heck of it. As I am walking around the house, listening for any ringing, Adam comes back in the house with the bag of garbage and says, "You must be very inspired." Apparently, just as he was putting the garbage into the garbage can, he heard my phone ring. It was in the bag of garbage - I had not thought to look there. I got the phone out of the garbage and now 30 minutes later, it is alerting me that it is about to die. Coincidence?... I think not.

Random pics of the week:

That is a tape measure in his hands. I had no idea that A) Luke was measuring the width of my butt, or B) that Isaac was taking a picture of it. Subtle, aren't they?

Don't they look comfy?