it's a miracle!

1. Asa is finally walking! He has now decided to make walking his first choice to get around, and leaves crawling to when he's in a hurry. I thought this day would never come. It has taken him the longest of my kids, at 15 months. Luke takes first place at 10 months, leaving Isaac in 2nd at 13 months. Hallelujah!

2. Adam was joking around with Luke the other day, and said, "You're big poops, and he's little poops (referring to Asa)." Then Luke added, "And your HUGE poops."

3. Isaac learned some pretty sweet karate moves from his friend:


4. I was able to go out to dinner with Carrie and my best friend from childhood, Bethany. It had been 7 years since we had last seen each other. Thanks to facebook we were reunited, and since she has moved back to Utah, we were able to get together. She is an incredible person who has overcome some pretty heavy trials and problems in her life. It is wonderful how you never lose a bond with someone after so many years. It's even more wonderful to find out they are in a much (MUCH!!!) better situation in their life. Thanks again, Beth, for being such an inspiration to me!

5. We enjoyed Thanksgiving with my whole family this year. It has been a great time for me to reflect on how truly blessed I am to have such an incredible family. They all love and accept me for who I am - flaws and all. I know that I could turn to any of them for help. They are my best friends. One of my biggest "hopes" in life, is that Adam and I are able to raise our kids to have the same kind of relationship with one another.

Random pics of the week:

My little carpenters

While I was in the kitchen, I heard Asa whining about something, so I went into the living room to see what was wrong. It looked like he was trying to move this chair over to the work bench, so I helped him out. He immediately climbed into the chair and stayed there for a good half an hour - until I had to pull him away for bed... he was not happy.

Okay, so the following pictures may all look the exact same, but a mother notices the tiniest little variations that make it hard to choose just one. I hung up the Christmas lights yesterday, and so for the last two nights Asa has climbed onto a chair and stares out the window, pointing and talking at the lights. He's too adorable!

design by isaac

1. So Isaac, like most kids, loves to hang stuff up in his room. He also has his "special stuff" displayed on his shelves. As he was looking for some tape to hang yet another picture on his wall, he made this comment: "Remember when my room was new and there were no pictures and it looked boring? So, I drawed pictures and hung them up to design it. I did it so it doesn't look so boring and so it could look cool."

Here is a sample of his work. If anyone is interested - his fees are very reasonable:


2. Luke. Just when I think we are through the ugly, it comes back - full force. The last couple of weeks have been a bit trying with the little guy. Adam and I are wracking our brains, trying to come up with a solution. We've got nothing. We are trying, harder than ever, to be strong, patient and understanding... and trying to "pick our battles".

One thing about Luke though: he makes you laugh. It may be a 'crazy mom' laugh, but there is still laughter. Like, the conversations he has with himself when he is sitting in his room, upset. Say I deliver any type of news contrary to Luke's wishes. Well, then his ever so predictable reaction is to run - drama queen like - into his room and shut/slam the door behind himself. Then, I am almost guaranteed to hear something like this: Luke, in an offended voice, "Mommy, not let me have cereal... mommy say I can't have cereal cause I didn't eat my food." At least Luke gives me the drama I would otherwise miss out on from not having girls.

3. Upon having one of those "it's too quiet moments", I went on a search for Luke and discovered this:

Mascara. At least it was contained to just his face, so no real damage done.

4. The boys were thrilled to welcome our first (or second) snow storm this season. As soon as Luke noticed flakes falling from the sky, he ran to the 'winter apparel' bin and got himself ready to go:


After some help rounding up coats and a second boot, they were ready to play:


As I was hanging out inside the house, I thought I heard someone screaming. I looked outside and Isaac was urgently yelling for me to come and untie him from the trailer because he had to pee. Laughing, I hurried out (but, still taking time to grab the camera), and got a picture of his great idea - he wanted to jump from the top of the trailer and have the rope catch him. Thankfully, he tied to rope too long. And, thankfully he had a full bladder to prevent him from another attempt.

5. I had the young women in our ward over to teach them how to make pies. Once they left, my boys were ready to make some pies of their own:

Isn't he the cutest little baker?

Random pics:

Who knows.

Another cute picture thanks to Isaac.

a day in zion

We were able to squeeze in one more non-snow trip this year, just in the nick of time. Adam had to deliver some snowmobiles to the Pinewood's Resort, so that is where we ended up for a couple of nights. It's not too far from Zions so we spent a day basking in it's beauty. It's unbelievable just how beautiful it is this time of year - with the yellow fall leaves against all the red rock.

Isaac was very disappointed to have to come home - he really has a hard time with a trip ending (who doesn't?). He even came out of his room the first night back, crying. He said that he thought we were still at the cabin and then realized we were home.

memories

1. As I was driving with my boys the other day, I got thinking about how nice it would be to be able to record our entire 1 hour conversation on the way to grandma's house. To completely capture every word, tone, and detail in the way my boys speak. I try to record those funny little things that they say, but I sometimes panic that I am someday going to forget how they sound and talk now. I hate the very thought of it. I'm not sure why I feel such a need to remember everything to the point that it causes me stress. Maybe it's because I have a lousy memory, therefore I have a hard time remembering a lot of my past (except for the things that I wish I would forget) - and that bugs me. Honest to Pete, I don't know how many times I have had to ask Carrie, "was I there", as childhood moments are being discussed around the dinner table. Don't get me wrong, I'm not completely dense - I do have memories. They just aren't much compared to my sister's elephant brain.

2. So, this week it's all about Isaac. The first comment was made during the previously mentioned conversation on our way to grandma's. He noticed a smoke stack and asked me what they were making over there. I said, "I'm not sure."
So he started speculating, "Maybe gas, or gasoline, or metal. How do they make metal?" Leaving no time for me to answer, he continues, "Maybe they melt plastic and add wood."
I respond, "No, probably not with plastic and wood. They find different metals, or elements in the earth to make metal."
Isaac's conclusion, "Oh, it's probably in rocks." Not a bad conclusion for a 5 year old.

3. I heard Luke asking Adam to draw him a picture of Spiderman, to which Adam replied, "You should go ask mommy to draw it. She would do it a lot better than me."
Then, I heard Isaac say, "Yeah, she can use her mad skills to draw it." It is such a proud moment when your kids pick up on your lingo, and use it in the right context.

4. We went to Cooper's (my nephew) baptism on Saturday. After he had been baptized, he sat back down next to us. I watched Isaac sneak over and stand in front of him and my brother, grinning. My brother later told me that Isaac had asked Cooper, "Are you happy?"

5. Lastly, is a comment that Isaac frequently makes - who knows, I may have already written about it before, but, of course, I don't remember. So, there is no doubt that Isaac LOVES Asa. About once a day, Isaac will say something like, "We are so lucky to have Asa.", or "I'm glad we have such a cute baby." It's always nice to hear your children speak so lovingly of one another. I'll be sure to remind him of all this love down the road from now.

Pics of the week:

Usually it's Asa learning bad habits from his older brothers - not the other way around. They decided to reconnect with their inner baby and help Asa empty my cupboards.

Asa loves climbing into little spaces - just like Luke did/does.

After church this past Sunday, Isaac rushed into my bedroom and told me that I wasn't allowed to come in. After a while he came out and this is what I found - my bed made (no, it was not already made), with this heart stuck on a pillow. His teacher must have given them a challenge to serve others (he said he can't tell me). I just thought it was adorable how excited he was to do this. I was pretty impressed with how good of a job he did: blankets relatively squared up, and pillows in the right order. Maybe I need to make him responsible for making my bed every day so that it gets done more frequently.

halloween 09

I have enjoyed Halloween so much more now that I have kids that are old enough to be excited about it. I even dressed up for the first time since being married, it is that enjoyable. My biggest problem with dressing up is that I lack the creativity to come up with a costume (at least something clever - which is what I always want). So, this year I decided to let my boys decide what Adam and I should be. And, they decided Superman and a witch (so clever, right?).

We took the boys to a 'haunted' house for the first time. They were beyond excited. I heard Isaac on the phone with my brother (since he is my personal secretary) right before we were leaving, saying: "Guess what Uncle Neil, we are going to a haunted house! I've never been to one before. I think I might get scared, but I'm going to be brave." They were so cute as they talked of getting scared the whole way there. We requested the creepy tour, instead of the scary one, so it was perfect for them. They have been talking about it ever since.

The little trick-or-treaters

Batman, what was a ghost at one point (the costume was off before leaving the house), and a skeleton

A 6'7" man in a ridiculous duck costume (hilarious), and an adorable lion

After every house, Luke would run back to me and show me how many more houses we would be visiting... it was always 4 or 5.

The weird duck (ha ha) getting in on our pic.

My adorable mom ready to hop on her sled and find some sick powder (she was a snowmobiler).

Us, in all our Halloween spirit.

This was the highlight of Halloween for me. I would get more and more excited for Adam's costume as I came across red underwear, red socks, the perfect red sheet to transform into the cape, blue spandex. But, the final result was much more fantastic than I had envisioned.

The Daili Lama, Mona Lisa, a gypsee, superwoman, and a cute little cowboy

Okay, so this had me laughing so hard! My lovely sister, Stephanie, did the most wonderful job of taking away all of her attractiveness. I'm not sure what to even call her costume... What Not To Wear's perfect candidate? From the horrid hairdo, to the uncontrolled facial hair/zero makeup, down to the tapered pants and holiday sweater combo - it was perfection. And by the way, this is a great example of why no one should wear tapered pants. She actually has a nice little butt, but you would never know that in these horrible pants.