Family Time

This last Sunday we had a family dinner at Kole's parent's house to celebrate having all of Kole's brothers together again... even my parents got included. It is so rare to have everyone together lately. Grayson is the only kid living at Kole's parent's house anymore- well, for now. We always joke that it's just a matter of time until one or more will be back. Sam moved into an apartment with his cousin Nick a few months ago so even though he lives in the same town we do we hardly even see him anymore. Keaton recently graduated from basic training in the Army so he got a little time off before he'll be moving to a base near Seattle at the beginning of December. I guess he will stay there before probably being deployed sometime in April. Damion flew in from Washington D.C. where he is usually oh-so-busy volunteering in something to do with politics. OK, I know I should know exactly what he does and who he works for but I just don't- even though I know I've heard the answer over and over.

Anyways, Eve and Jack had cousins from both sides of the family there and they all had lots of fun playing together. But I think Eve and Jack especially enjoyed manipulating Damion and Keaton into doing whatever they wanted them to. Eve likes to play hard to get at first before she clobbers them and demands they do her bidding. I saw Eve and Damion doing lots of dancing and twirling together. I highly doubt that was Damion's idea. He really is a softy for her. She sometimes tells me how she's going to marry Damion someday. Why does she always want to marry family members? Hopefully he, and all the other brothers, won't still be available when she's old enough. I know Deb is praying pretty hard.

Here are Damion, Keaton and Jack... with the most annoying toy bird ever. Jack loves it and wants to make it "talk" over and over and over and over. Should have gotten packed away with the rest of the Halloween decorations. If I hear "the end is near" one more time...













Eve LOVES her new red dress from Grandma Deb which she got to wear when Grandma took her to Disney's Princesses on Ice. Since this is her new favorite outfit, she rarely takes it off (we usually have to bribe her or tackle her amidst tears, kicking and screaming). At least it is almost Christmas and it looks pretty festive.


















Jack just wants to be one of the boys playing video games.














Eve and Brooklyn- they've probably made some kind of oath to be princesses together forever.

















I think you lost something, buddy.

















My dad and Jack blowing raspberries at each other... naughty!













Cousins- Kennady, Eve and Brooklyn













Quite the dip from Grandma Deb

















My mom with Eve and her cousin Kaylee.













Try to smile a little harder, you two. It's like when your parents used to tell you that your face would get stuck that way.













You know who.













Story time with Grandma Deb













Everyone wants Damion's attention.

Puppy Love

My parents got a new puppy! She's at the peak of cuteness. Everyone swoon. I've been waiting in great anticipation for the puppy to come home ever since my dad told me they were getting one way back during summer- she hadn't even been conceived yet. I made the mistake about a month ago of telling Eve about the puppy and she has been asking me every day since if the puppy was coming "today" It's hard to explain how long a month is to little kids. However, I'm sure I've been way more excited than the kids.

Anyways, "Misty" came home just yesterday and we all just had to see her. She is so cute that it almost makes me insane enough to want a puppy of my own. And then I remember: having a puppy is like having a new baby- only worse in many ways. Not only do they not sleep through the night and then bark and bark when they are unhappy but they pee and poo right in the middle of the floor. Makes changing diapers look like a breeze. Like children, they rarely listen and they cost a lot of money to take care of. Plus they destroy all types of things... toys, clothing, furniture. Oh the joys! But I realize that I am having puppy withdrawls already. We will have to go visit her again soon. I'm sure we will be doing a lot of puppysitting in the future. Since I don't live with my parents, I figure my relationship with the puppy is probably much like grandparents must feel with their grandkids... they love them and love to be around to spoil them but they get to give them back when the not-so-fun stuff is going on. I think this is going to work out rather nicely.

So cute it's scary

Happy Halloween and happy birthday to my pumpkin! Eve turned 4 years old on Halloween. I can't believe I have a four year old! Really, a Halloween birthday is not as bad as it sounds. Kind of fun actually... there's always stuff to do and she'll always have an excuse to play dress up. We had her birthday party on Monday with just family but next year we are going all out. Save the date.

What a wonderful Halloween it was. Eve was a princess again (and has been everyday since) and Jack was a lion- a very angry lion.






And this was only the beginning of the evening...

Trunk or treating was about the happiest Jack was all evening. Hence why this is the only time I could get a picture of his face. He was in awe. People just handing out candy... he could hardly believe it. This was his second Halloween but he was too little to understand last year. He was so excited, he was running from car to car (often in no particular order)- with some very close car accidents on the downhill runs. Eve loved all the compliments on her costume. For her, getting candy was secondary to everyone seeing her dressed so pretty.

I realized that as adults we can often become cynical about the holidays. They somehow become about consumerism and materialism and we let ourselves get wrapped up in over analyzing everything. They don't seem to hold the same magic they did when you were a kid. But once you have kids of your own, you see everything through their eyes and everything becomes splendid again. I had so much fun this year. Eve and Jack are at great ages. Everything is still so new and fun and so it seems new and fun to me too. These next few years are the glory years of childhood.

The fairy princess with the little girl (Grandma Wendy)

In case you can't tell, Kole was "white trash" and my black belt lets everyone know I could kick his butt (but I don't need a costume for that). Really, since I was so sick last week I didn't plan a costume for myself so Kole let me borrow his karate outfit. He really is a black belt. Now that's scary.

The kids both liked trying on Kole's mullet wig. This is what our kids would look like if they were raised by the family down the street. Seriously, their little boy has a mullet. Can anyone say child abuse?

Time to put the bikes away

We had quite the snow storm last week. They said it would snow but I wasn't really thinking this much. I was so sick with the flu that I didn't even take the kids out to play in it. (FYI- If you can get a flu shot anywhere, get one or you could get the flu 4 different times this year from all the different strains. Glad I'm not dead from the swine flu but it still was not fun... and definitely not fun to have sick kids. Just sucks that we've had to deal with the flu and we still have to go get shots.) But anyways, I am sure we will have plenty of future opportunities to play in the snow. I would put all the outside toys away now but it is suppose to be close to 60 today and close to 70 in a few days.

Free at last

This last week Jack finally escaped from his crib. The other day I stuck him in his crib to keep him out of my way while I was hanging some pictures and then the next thing I know he is standing right beside me like some creepy little kid in a horror movie. I am honestly surprised it took this long. He has been climbing everything else since he was tiny. Of course with this milestone I am a little sad. Not so much that my baby is growing up as I am that now it is harder for me to get stuff done. Before I could just stick him in his crib and he would play while I did things around the house that were not safe for him to be around- or when I just needed too keep him from hanging on me- like he does all the time. But now I am at a loss. When Eve was first in a bed we turned the door locks around on the kid's bedroom door so we could lock it from the outside. Call us mean but it was a necessary evil. But that doesn't even work now... because both of them know how to unlock it no matter what side they are on. Sometimes they even try to lock me out of their room! But on the good side, Jack is still good about staying in his crib during nap time and when he wakes up in the morning he still waits for me to come get him. But the days are soon approaching when he will be running wild around the house at night and I will wake up in the morning to find he has left the house barely standing before he fell asleep in the middle of the floor.

Jack may be enjoying some new found freedom but lately I feel like I am under house arrest. Jack has been so positively terrible anytime we go out in public lately that I would rather just stay home. Honestly I can understand why he is acting so bad. It must be rough being forced to go and do things he has no interest in and on top of that being confined to shopping carts all the time so he can't run free and play with all the fun stuff. Being a little kid can be hard. So even as I give the following example, have a little pity on both of us. Yesterday Eve was at preschool so Jack and I ran errands during the afternoon. After running all over I could tell Jack needed a nap but I needed to go to the mall and I figured I could get in and out quickly. In hindsight, not such a good idea. Things went downhill right away... the first thing he sees when we walk in is the kid toys you ride on. I tried to convince him that there were better things to see and do further in the mall. When that didn't work I started to drag him away but after a screaming fit and trying to keep his flailing arms from giving me a black eye, I gave in- even though I know how rewarding bad behavior will come back to haunt me. So, after spending my last 2 quarters for 30 seconds on the lame kiddie car that just tilts back and forth, I was determined to make Jack get off the rides so I could find what I was looking for and then get out of the mall. But did giving in to the kid help at all? Oh no. Definitely not. He just screamed and flailed harder and harder the further we moved away from the rides. His new tactic to escape from me when I am carrying him is kicking off his shoes so that I have to bend down and pick them up so he can wriggle away or fling himself back without me dropping him. Meanwhile, everyone kept giving us the evil eye and looking at me like I must be a terrible mom for not controlling my kid and destroying the peaceful environment of the mall. What, like they've never been around an angry child before. It's like trying to diffuse a bomb. After looking in one store I gave up trying to shop and decided what I was looking for was not worth the trouble. With him still kicking and screaming, I made a beeline for the doors and back past the riding toys which inspired new vigor to his tantrum. I finally got Jack out to the car and then tried to force him to stop arching his back and twisting around so I could buckle him into the car seat. He is freakishly strong. It took all my strength to buckle him in without breaking bones- all while the parked police officer kept looking over at me to make sure I wasn't going to abuse my oh so deserving child. Once I finally got him in, I figured I should let him just sit in his seat for a minute and calm down but by this point he is in a full blown melt down and is making only what I can describe as growling sounds. He got so worked up that he threw up all over himself. Even once we got home I had to tackle him and pin him down to get his clothes off. Of course after that I had to change my clothes too. Yuck! Today we are just going to have a relaxing day at home.

And it came to pass

Little kids are so perceptive. Anyone who has read the Book of Mormon knows that the phrase "And it came to pass" is used a lot. Now, whenever we pull out our scriptures to read as a family, Eve always says "And it came to pass." I just think it is funny.

Hogle Zoo

This last Saturday we went to Hogle Zoo with my parents as a belated birthday celebration for my mom. We went together last year too and it will probably become a birthday tradition for years to come. It was lots of fun even though we all froze our butts off! As cold as it was, we had to force Eve to wear a jacket. I guess she thinks jackets cramp her style. The kids were in awe of all the animals and just seeing their happy faces was so worth walking around all day in the cold. Sometimes the animals would be holding so still that Jack couldn't tell what he was looking at but then the animal would move and Jack's eyes would get all wide and he would get this expression of "wow" on his face and he would get so excited and wave and blow kisses to them. It was way cute. There were lots of animals that Jack through a fit about having to leave but as long as I promised him he could see more animals, he would calm down. There were so many baby animals. They were all so cute. Before we went I knew there was a new baby elephant but I didn't realize that over the summer practically every other animal had babies too.

Baby elephant Zuri and her mom.

Rhinos munching on dirt.

Baby giraffe and mom.

Jack pretending he's a turtle.

Eve enjoying her ride on the train.

Jack getting kisses from Grandma Wendy.

Jack snuggling with Grandpa Rusty.

Jack riding on the warthog on the carousel.

Eve on her tiger in bull-rider pose.

Here she is practicing her Lion King on pride rock pose.
At least they are both facing the camera.

Jack thought this alligator was so cool.

Good to sleep on the way home after a long day.

Strangely normal

Jack really liked his cereal this day... so much that he couldn't resist the crumbs at the bottom of the bag. I am not really sure how they got all over his face but it is possible that at some point he had stuck his head in the bag and was trying to lick the bottom. I suppose my mom will tell me that I need to be more responsible so he doesn't suffocate. I'll pass the message on to him for next time.


This is not some kind of Chinese torture I perform on my children. Actually, Eve does it to herself. I think it looks painful. She calls them her "bad witch fingernails." They go right along with her "bad witch attitude."

Is it a bad thing that my kids like to play "drive through restaurant"? Eve "drives" up on her tricycle and Jack "makes her food" and hands it to her out the window. It's cute but kinda sad at the same time. Maybe it's a sign that we eat out too much or maybe they're just practicing for their future careers. Oh, I hope not.


The quiet moments are so few and far between that I sometimes have to take pictures to remind myself that they really did happen.

Who me?

I don't know why but there comes a day when children start to lie. The experts say they don't do it on purpose... maybe they forget what really happened or maybe they're imaginations are just so creative that they blend reality with fantasy and can't tell the difference. Blah, blah, blah. As I observe my "sweet and innocent" little 3 year old Eve and her fictitious stories, I am pretty sure she lies for the same reasons adults do: either to not get caught and in trouble for doing something wrong (such as hitting, biting, kicking, or strangling Jack and then taking his toys away) or so she can get something she doesn't deserve (such as in today's lie). I tell her that she must eat her breakfast before she can have orange juice. So I go upstairs to do something and she comes up a minute later to tell me that she finished her breakfast and now she can have orange juice. Being a little suspicious I go down to the table to check it out. Sure enough, I see no breakfast. But where is the evidence that there even was breakfast? Hmm, there do seem to be a lot of newspapers suddenly spread all over the table. Turns out she hid her uneaten breakfast under the newspaper. Like I wouldn't notice. Little fibber! So I give her another chance and a few minutes later she tells me she can have her orange juice now. I go to make an inspection. Once again no breakfast but there's no plate either. "Where's your breakfast?" I ask. "It's gone. It got eaten." she replies. Yeah right, I think. So I search and find that her plate is under the table and the cat is finishing her breakfast. Sneaky. Not just outright lying but bending the truth. They grow up way too fast. But in response, I have now become the orange juice Nazi- "No orange juice for you!"

10 Hours of TV

Well, this last weekend was General Conference for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Being a rainy weekend (as it usually is Conference weekend) it was easy to stay home and be warm while we watched conference in our pj's and relaxed. We actually caught all the sessions and Kole even went to the priesthood session- taking the total conference watching to 10 hours this weekend. WOW! The kids were really well behaved too. We didn't make them sit and watch with us. They played quietly and let us watch as much as possible. But Eve loved to see the prophet whenever he spoke.

Anyways, everything was really edifying, uplifting and inspiring. I hate to even pick out the talks I liked best since they were all so great but I have to admit that Elder Holland's talk on the Book of Mormon was truly magnificent and powerful. I was almost in tears. And I always enjoy Elder Oaks and Elder Bednar and President Uchtdorf. Elder Hales was also amazing as he spoke about the reality of God and bore his testimony as an apostle and special witness of Jesus Christ. I am so thankful to have a living prophet and apostles on the earth today. I mean, we have current and living prophets and apostles who know God and have seen Him! How can anyone compete with that!?!

Well, for those who missed it and need some inspiration, here is a link to the talks. http://lds.org/conference/sessions/display/0,5239,23-1-1117,00.html