Part Winged Lizard?

You may find yourself sitting in church enjoying the reverence and spirit of the meeting until suddenly you hear a disturbing Pterodactyl screech with a Russian accent. That is probably because you are in the same ward as me and my 10 month old son. He does this rolling of the tongue R noise with a high pitch screech that unfailingly turns the heads of the entire congregation. I am really big on not rewarding my kids with trips to the foyer for bad behavior so I force myself and everyone around me to coexist with the shrieking dinosaur age bird. We do quiet him of course. That is why you may see me shoving crackers in his mouth giving him hardly a breath between each one and then the sippy cup to wash it all down. My apologies to those of you that have been startled awake from your sacrament sleep. I can’t make any promises that it won’t happen again, but I’m hoping he will outgrow this prehistoric phase soon. (And you thought that you would never hear a Russian Pterodactyl in this life time!)

Here are the boys posing between playing hoops.

Here is a blanket I made for Kim's baby. It's really the first thing I have attempted to sew since high school and it made me remember why I haven't tried. No, I kind of enjoyed the finished product minus the imperfections.

Sisterly Love

We had a fun quick visit with my sister and her family. She was in town for her sister-in-law's graduation. She is such a fun girl and it was soo great to see her and her hubby Dallas. It had been way too long! Aaliyah is such a cutie. Love ya Kim!

Here is my darling 8 mos. preggers sister and her beautiful family and my son.

(Dallas, Gavin, Aaliyah, Kim)

Gavin & Aaliyah getting acquainted.

Starting to warm up.

Getting friendly. Now remember you two are cousins!

Loving my Boys

Gavin really really likes crepes.

I missed the shot where half was hanging out of his mouth. He already swallowed some here.

Is it normal for a 2 year old to roll his eyes at his mother?

He's dreaming about eating crepes again.

Jackson and the return of daddy.

Sleeping Bebe

What can I say? An angel.

Fear Not a Factor... Anymore

So I was on Fear Factor yesterday. Oh you didn't know that it is still in production? Well it is. And it was filmed in my backyard. Or at least that is what it felt like. And in order to complete my daunting task I had to keep telling myself I was going to win lots of money. I had to clean windows in concrete window wells that were like 6' under ground. It may not seem that scarey to most people, but seeing as they were filled with about 12 inches of dead leaves, trash and who knows how many centipedes, big juicy worms and SPIDERS. It was a problem.
Only when I tried to lower myself down into the well did I realize how deep it was. Luckily I was able to catch myself before I went too far and went and grabbed a step stool (which I still had to drop onto after lowering myself down). Being a girl from So Cal I have never had to clean basement windows and their wells before. It was my worst nightmare once I started shoveling those wet moldy leaves into a bag. I cannot express the horror I felt as tons of HUGE Nasty looking spiders & centipedes starting running towards my sandled feet. More were climbing up the wall right next to my body, face, etc. I get chills again just thinking about it. I cleaned the window as fast as I could and then high tailed it out of there running and shaking off any pests that had attached themselves to me. None did because I kept a very wary eye on each one of them.
This reminded me of an experience on my honeymoon to Cancun. My husband and I went to Xcaret excited to see their amazing underground rivers. You put on lifevests and snorkel masks and then jump in the water that has a current that just takes you through these dark tunnels with only sporatic skylights. We expected to see fish swimming below us, but really there was nothing living in the water that we could see because the rivers were man made apparantly. It was cool, but after a while we were kind of claustrophobic and itching for more adventure. So we decided to take a detour. Along the way there are many little side tunnels that veer off of the main tunnel and we decided to take one thinking it would connect back up. Well instead it eventually ended into a teeny opening of which we could see the light from outside. I thought if we took off our gear and twisted our bodies in very akward positions (which we were accustomed to) we might be able to get through to the other side. So I went first and it was quite a task. It probably took about 2 minutes- as my eyes adjusted to the suddenly very sunny day outside I looked up and realized that people were staring down at us as if we were part of an exhibit.
Let me just take a moment to explain that this amusement park has many exotic animals in what would be considered quite different caging philosophies then we are used to in the US. They have extremely natural exhibits where the water from the sea turtle exhibit runs into that of the deadly crocidile exhibit which lie just beneath a bridge that the crowds walk across with just one rope for a handle to guide you. Anyone could easily fall in. My point is that they have very open exhibits.
I suddenly realized that we were in some sort of exhibit and screamed at my husband to go back! Then as I looked at the wall that I had just come out of scraping my face and body against to get out, I saw that it was covered in thousands of GIANT silverfish bugs. It took every ounce of courage in me to hug my body against those walls swarming with bugs, but I guess the fear of not knowing which exhibit we had ventured into made me do the impossible. We were never quite sure which exhibit we had clambered into, but to this day we think it was THIS ONE. So I would like to thank this experience for allowing me to have the courage to tackle cleaning the window well yesterday. Thank you Mr. Manatee and all your squirmy silverfishy friends. The windows look great.

Family Spontaneity

ParK CiTy

So we went on this great spontaneous family adventure to Park City yesterday. And I mean so spontaneous that I didn't even have my diaper bag packed with essentials, nor were we dressed for this weather. We were just going for a drive. And then it turned into a DRIVE. I also didn't realize that I did have my camera until the end of our daytrip when it was too cold for the kids and so the pics are terrible and shot from a moving car.
The mountains are so beautiful and tranquil. I find it so refreshing to escape the rush/busy-ness of our everyday lives. The cabins are darling, but I wonder what it would be like to be there in the wintertime. I think you would have to dig yourself out of your second story windows to escape the snow! I would much prefer to go during the spring time when there is still snow, but you can feel the heat of the sun, like we did yesterday.

I loved the shops on Main St. Especially Mary Jane's.

Sweetest Moments

Every nap-time I read Gavin a few books and we cuddle in the rocking chair. Right before I put him down for his nap I say "Do you know mommy loves you so much? I love your nose (I kiss his nose). I love your chin." (I kiss his chin etc, until I've kissed about a dozen body parts.) I peeked in on him during his nap today to see if he had fallen asleep yet and he was sitting on his bed holding his toy giraffe saying "Do you know how much I love you? I love your back (kiss). I love your toes (kiss). I love your horns (kiss)." That made my heart swell with love for my little one. He is so precious to me. Some days I can't believe how lucky I am to be his mother.

Jackson is growing up so quickly everyday. Today he was holding onto the toy car that Gavin drives and taking steps as his big brother drove around very slowly (while mommy was holding onto him of course!). They also wrestled in Jack's crib for a while.
Gavin likes to get in when his little brother is in there and they roll around laughing until they cry.

Literally.

They are cute little pumpkins.

Slurping Spaghetti

Does anyone else's kid slurp spaghetti down whole?

Gavin will not chew the noodles.

He doesn't know how to eat them without just slurping them down. It drives me crazy!

This cannot be good for his GI.

(Do you like our food storage in the background of this picture?)

My faaaaavorite kids clothing store

I lalalalove Janie and Jack. My boys would always be dressed in their clothes if it weren't for the vast difference between my budget and their cost. Their dresses make me wish for a girl one day. She will wear dresses everyday regardless of weather and occasion.

Goldilock's Gavin and the 3 Beds

Last night when I went to check on Gavin, as I usually do before I

go to bed, my heart started pounding when I found his bed empty.

Then I thought maybe I just forgot that I put him in the crib

(which happens if he gets out of his big boy bed).

Remember that it was really dark in his room,

but the flash just illuminated everything.

But he wasn't there either. Just as adrenaline started coursing

through my body I saw his little toes peeping at me

from under the crib bumper. Do you see him?

That little stinker was curled up in the coziest place he could find.

I guess Goldilocks thought his big boy bed was too hard,

and the crib too soft. But the blankets on the floor were just right.

There he is fast asleep.

My little Deer in the Headlights

Gavin was in the pitch black basement at night when I took this. He wouldn't come upstairs and I turned off all the lights for a second, aimed in the dark and took this picture. It makes me laugh so hard whenever I see it. I love his wild eyes as he was searching for me in the dark and then the flash that caught him by surprise.