Nana's Bear Hunt

The kids have always loved going on a Bear Hunt with Nana.  Sometimes they hunt lions or dinosaurs.  Every time they are enthralled and laughing through the whole thing.

Play Doh Fun, Dec. 2015

With Christmas break being two weeks (two weeks!) long, every day was another hunt for fun things to do.  Play doh was an activity all the kids loved.  The boys wanted to make "cookies" and "bake" them in the oven.  Eva liked pounding the play doh.  Good times.  

Bowling and Books, Nov 2013

Do you know what we love at our house?  Books.  They are always laying around the house, despite the bookshelves downstairs and the basket upstairs.  They are on the floor, on the couch, by the bed, on the table.  I wouldn't have it any other way.  Ok, maybe, if given the choice, I would prefer they were in their designated spot.  But I love the fact that we love books enough that they are used everywhere.  And read everywhere.

Do you know what else we love?  Bowling.  Davis could bowl for hours if we let him.  And if it was free.  He still throws it kind of side-armed so it hits the lane with a shuddering thump and bounces a few times before rolling on its way.  He is determined to get good enough to take the bumpers down.

Hot Air Ballons - My New Fascination

Each year there is a Hot Air Balloon Festival out at Antelope Island over Labor Day Weekend.  This is the first year we have gone and it opened up a whole can of worms.  Now I really, really, really want to ride in a hot air balloon.  I mean really.  They start each day of the festival by launching a few balloons from a park in Kaysville.  So we go the boys up early, fed them a snack on the way, and arrived just in time to see the first balloon lifting off.  Noah, who was scared of the big balloons, and I sat on a blanket a little ways off to watch the other two launch, while Davis and Darren went closer to see how they were inflated.  I'm not going to lie - I got a little teary eyed watching the balloons rise gently into the morning sky.  I don't know why it was emotional.  Perhaps it was something about the old fashioned adventure of it all.

Later that day Jeanette and Nic and Max joined us out at Antelope Island to see the festival part, which turned out to be a bit windy, dirty, and anticlimactic.  But it didn't diminish my new-found love for the hot air balloons.  Someday, I will ride in one.

A Few of Our Favorite Things

Every day seems to slide into the next without the benefit of distinction one from another.  Noah usually wakes up about 7 am (although lately it's been 6 am and that is just not acceptable!) and I sit in the chair next to his crib and we chat for awhile before Davis wakes up.  Breakfast is most often cereal, because that is Davis's favorite.  Noah goes down for a nap (this is only sometimes now, for which I am in grieving) while I exercise and get ready for the day and Davis watches a show.  Then playtime and lunchtime (PB and J usually) and nap time again for Noah.  Davis and I do school work or play outside.  Then get out of the house to run errands or go to the park or just play out in the yard.  Then dinnertime and story time and bed time.  And that describes most days.  But we love it.

I try to do special fun things as often as we can (or as often as I have the energy and forethought).  One day we went to the Dinosaur Park with Lincoln and his mom, Mickenzie, and little sister, Anya.  We all loved it because the boys kept each other entertained, the little ones could walk all over, and the moms got the credit for all the fun.  Noah wouldn't stop roaring at the dinosaurs!

Books and stories are a big part of the day.  Noah loves books with bears and other animals and Davis loves all books.  He is getting big enough to read short novels to and we have read Charlotte's Web, Frog and Toad, and several Magic Tree House books.  My favorite sight to see is when Davis read Noah books that he has grown up listening to and knows all the words.  This was a newer book, but Davis was still showing Noah the pictures and they were talking about the sounds.

We also play the piano, sing, and dance almost every day.  If I want to play the piano by myself, I have to let Noah sit on my lap first, playing until he is tired of it.  Then the boys take turns pushing the buttons to play the preset songs, mostly classical, and dancing to the uptempo ones.  Then I might get a few minutes to play what I want to play.  One day we had our cute neighbor over, Peyton, and all three were playing together.

Davis has been LOVING preschool!  He goes twice a week in the afternoon and is learning so many things.  I love when he comes home and sings the fun songs he learns.  Preschool Express took a field trip to the Fire Station.  Noah and I went with them, and Davis's friend, Payson, rode with us.  They loved getting in the fire truck, but were a little leery of getting too close to the firefighter in full gear.

And Noah was completely done by the end!

This year we really tried to get Davis involved in General Conference.  I printed out Bingo sheets to color and Davis was really great at listening for the words and earning a treat when he got Bingo!  This first picture is me and the boys waiting for Conference to start.

Darren and Davis helped each other find the words on their Bingo sheets.  Toward the end of the first session, their concentration faltered and it turned into a wrestling match.

Some of our other favorite special things:  hamburgers from McDonalds (Davis still calls it Old MacDonald's), going to the park, making cookies, watching a movie in the afternoon while Noah is napping, eating popsicles outside, and making smoothies.

Letters to My Men

I found a blog called "Today's Letters" written in the form of letters.  It is a cute married couple that write short little letters to each other or other people or other things.  I love it.  I want to try it.  So here goes . . .

Dear Darren:  Thanks for washing the dishes today.  I love it when you wash the dishes. I mean, I really looove it.  I also love it when you bring me double stuff Oreos.  And now I love it when you bring me cherry flavored M&M's (yeah, that's right - cherry flavored M&M's).  I love it when you come home early from work.  And do the dishes from last night before dinner tonight.

Dear Davis:  You say the funniest things and sometimes I have to try to hide my laughter so you will keep talking because you don't mean to be funny.  Today I asked you why you don't like kisses (someday you will change you mind, I hope).  You answered, "Because they have sour cream."  You continued to tell me you like sour cream in your hands, but not with your kisses.  I don't know.  I just don't know.

Dear Noah:  The gate at the top of the stairs is for you safety.  Please don't kick it down again and roll down the stairs.  You didn't like it.  I didn't like it.  But I did love all the cuddling I got when you were done crying but not quite ready to get down and conquer the world again.

Happy Birthday, Davis!

My sweet boy is three years old! What a wonderful three years they have been. I'm a little worried about the upcoming year, seeing as how Davis is starting to disagree with any answer that contains the word, "No." But I sure do love him anyway!

One of Davis's favorite places to go is Hogle Zoo. So that is where we went to commemorate his first three years of life. I didn't want to go on a Saturday, thinking it would be too crowded, so we went on Wednesday. Apparently, every summer day is crowded. Especially after a long, rainy spring. But it was still so fun. There were life-sized, water-squirting, roaring dinosaurs around the zoo. Davis roared everywhere he went for the next two days.

We had a little party on Saturday, celebrating Mom's birthday and Father's Day with a grilled hot dog dinner and Davis's birthday with cake and ice cream after. A great big thanks to our very generous family. Davis has loved everything! (And it is nice for me to have something new to play with him, too!)

Love List

Some of you will be surprised to see there are no pictures of Noah or Davis on this post. I have one of Davis holding Noah, but I am too lazy to upload it from the camera to the computer, so watch for that one later.

Today I just wanted to make a list of the things I love, mostly as a reminder to myself of how great my life is.

• Watching a movie with Davis and eating popcorn. His favorite part is watching/listening to it pop. Too bad the movie has to be primarily about talking animals. There are several new cartoon movies out I would like to see, but I am pretty sure there are too many talking humans in them.
  
• The feeling of putting on my walking shoes. They are New Balance and I love the way they make my feet feel energized. Sounds stupid, but it's true.
• My electric blanket. Yep, still using it in the middle of May. Have you looked outside lately? Will summer (and a warm bed) ever come?
• Making cookies. Making cookies with Davis comes in a close second. It would win over making cooking by myself if it didn't require so much patience and extra clean up after.
• The Good Wife. Great tv. Especially at 2 am. Confession: it doesn't take Noah 45 minutes to eat anymore, but sometimes I make it last that long so I can finish the latest Good Wife episode.
• Noah falling asleep on my chest. So warm and cozy and peaceful.
• Hearing Davis sing. He has such a cute little voice and he tries so hard to pronounce the words right, but he is just off. His favorite songs: Jingle Bells (this wins the top spot by a landslide), Itsy Bitsy Spider, ABC's, Down By the Station.
• Facebook. I am not a Facebook-aholic, but I sure do love the fact that I can post a question or ask for opinions and within a few hours get real answers from people with real experience with something. Not just the experts who tell you what is right or best. Yes, I love this mostly with mothering questions. And book recommendations.
• Going out to eat. There is just something so wonderful about someone else making the food, bringing it to me, and cleaning up the mess. Some days I love it cheap: McDonalds' Double Cheeseburger, Denny's value meal and kids eat free on Sat, Texas RoadHouse early bird specials, anything with a coupon. Other days I love it extravagant: Mt. Ogden Grille's desserts, The Roof, Toucanos, anywhere you need a reservation (makes me feel special).
  
• Putting on a beautiful, full meal. One that has all the parts to make it look good. Roast, potatoes, rolls, and salad. Pork chops, baked sweet potato, green beans. Chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn. Enchiladas, salad, chips and salsa. Grilled hot dogs, watermelon, chips, fresh veggies.

I could list many more things I love (many involving food), but I am pretty sure those who have read this far are hoping I will stop. So I will make another list on another day. And if you have read this far, what are the things you love?

Not much to say. . .

I don't have much to say, but I thought I'd better update the two sweet mothers who read this and have been worried about me and Davis. We are feeling better. We have progressed to the point of just a bad cough and cold. Davis is running around again. I stopped crying and started sleeping more at night. All will hopefully be well again soon.

On a different note. . a more random note. . . . I love Costco. We went there today (tried very hard not to share our sick germs, but we had to get out of the house and what better reason than to spend money?) and filled our cart with delicious fruit, new pillows, diapers (I hope Davis will be potty trained before we get to the end of this box, but I have hoped that with the last three boxes I have bought), yummy chicken salad (yep, still too lazy to actually cook dinner), M&M's (no real excuse for those, but they are an essential in our food storage and we were down to just one huge bag), and, among other things, a huge package of Kleenex. I felt much better after bringing home so many "necessities."

Cookie Dough in a Bucket

This is not a "grandma's best" recipe. This is not a "do it yourself" project. This is bliss in bucket. I supported the local elementary school by buying a bucket of triple chocolate chunk cookie dough this year. A very expensive way to get cookies. But my, oh my, a very easy way to have fresh baked cookies with no dirty dishes.

Step 1: Get the bucket out of the fridge.
Step 2: Taste a spoonful of dough to make sure it is still tasty.
Step 3: Spoon it onto the pan. Eat the little pieces that fall off.
Step 4: Bake.
Step 5: Eat warm gooey cookies.
Step 6: Repeat as necessary.

Gotta go. Guess what just came out of the oven.

A Perfect Day

Some days just seem perfect. Nothing big, nothing exciting, just perfect. Today was one of those days.

Davis slept in, which meant I got to sleep in. After breakfast, we headed out to do a little shopping. Normally Davis refuses to go the store with me, but today he was just fine with it (the first sign that this was going to be a great day). We stopped at Kid to Kid to find more shirts to fit Davis (I swear he grows and inch a day) and to pick up a BellaBand for me (a stretchy thing that pregnant women can wear around their belly to keep their pants up - I have worn it all afternoon and it has done a great job). Davis found one of those Flinstone-type cars and followed me all around the store, "driving" along behind. I thought about buying it and keeping in the back of the car for whenever we had to go grocery shopping or run other errands so he could just "drive" along behind me, but decided it might not work out as well as I envisioned.

Then to a few more stores for exchanges and returns, all the while Davis remaining happy to be there. Our last stop was Target, where he got to choose some big boy underwear (Mickey Mouse - he really wanted the pink Cinderella ones, but I nixed that choice.) By the time we were done shopping there, it was way past lunchtime and Davis was getting cranky, so we stopped at the little Pizza Hut Express inside Target to pick up some lunch. I was going to take it home, but Davis got so excited and asked, "Eat in a restaurant?" Well, sure, if this counted as a restaurant and would bring such happiness to my little boy who had been so sweet all morning, then of course we could eat in a "restaurant." We sat down at the little tables there and had a fantastic lunch, laughing alot as we carried on our own little conversation.

Home for a little snooze together (apparently the shopping hadn't worn Davis out as much as it had me, because he didn't want to lay down. Luckily I was perfectly happy to lay down with him for bit, and yes, I slept longer than he did.)

Later we dusted the shelves (one of Davis's favorite things to do) and put up Christmas decorations, and Davis watched the Christmas Kung Fu movie while I cooked dinner. After dinner, he stood on a chair next to me at the sink and helped me "wash" all the dishes (all his "helping" makes things go a little more slowly, but I sure love it!). I would hand the dishes to him after washing them in the hot, soapy water and he would use his clean washcloth to rinse them. Finally we got to the last big pot. It had some water that was soaking in it, so I dumped it down the drain.

"Where did the dirty water go?" he asked.
"Down the drain."
So he leaned over the sink, put his face down close to the drain and called, "HELLO?"
He did this several times and then said, matter of factly, "I see the dirty water down the drain."
Funny.

Then bath time, then naked dance time (with a diaper and blue socks on), finally p.j.'s. We had bought some Eggnog at the store, so I asked if he wanted a special Christmas drink. Of course this called for it's own special jumping dance. We all (Darren, me, and Davis) joined together in the kitchen for our first glass of Christmas eggnog (well, Davis's first ever, our first of the season). Davis loved it. But he handed the glass back to me with a few sips left.

"Do you want to finish it?" I asked.
"Nope. I've had enough." He answered on his way out of the kitchen.
Sounds like a logical conversation. But it sounded super funny coming from the mouth of a 2 1/2 year old.

And now bedtime. He has been up there for about 45 minutes now. He is still calling my name. Apparently he is not ready for the perfect day to end. I am. Hope he gives up soon and goes to sleep.

Heaven in my Freezer

Cake Batter ice cream from WalMart. Left-over caramel sauce from . . . so long ago I can't remember why we have it. Together they have created a little bit of heaven in my mouth! Which is lucky because I can't get my TV to work . . . again. Sometimes we turn it on and it works (it always works when Darren turns it on) and sometimes it doesn't (like every Tuesday for American Idol). But the ice cream is taking the edge of the pain. Perhaps a little Project Runway online will also help.

Project 52: A to Z

Last night we were going to get our taxes done for date night, but I decided I wanted something a little more fun, so we got them done in the afternoon, leaving Darren without much time to plan a different date. He left after dinner to fix his parent's computer and my job was to get Davis to bed. He used to go to bed at 7 pm, but for the last two months or so, because of evening events, Daylight Savings, and being sick, his bedtime crept backwards to 9 or even 10 pm. So yesterday we made him skip his nap (oh, the afternoon of crankiness) and, without getting my hopes up, I put him to bed at 6:40 pm. There was much fussing and boo-hooing for about 15 min. Then silence. I stayed almost motionless on the couch for a good 30 minutes so as not to break the spell. And sure enough, he slept through the night! (Just for the record, "through the night" meant he didn't wake up until 8:30 am!)

Anyway, that left us with a full evening together. When Darren got home, he pulled out a game he had borrowed from his parents called A to Z Electronic. They sent it with a warning that it was slightly addictive. Each player has a "board" of the ABC's and on each turn you try to get rid of as many letters as you can by naming things in a category that start with the letters you haven't used yet. And true to the warning, it was super fun and quite addictive. I think we might have to shop around for our own game so we can play it whenever we want. For such a simple date, it was one of my favorites!

Three Little Monkeys: Toy and Book Store

This morning Davis and I visited the greatest little store ever. Maybe not ever, but it was pretty cool. It is called The Three Little Monkeys (285 S. Mountain Rd, Fruit Heights, Ut; turn east on the 200 N./ 400 N. stoplight on Hwy 89 by Kaysville). They have little toy fruits and veggies, shopping carts, bugs, books, musical instruments, stuffed animals, puzzles, art supplies, balls, scooters(sort of), and enough kitchen supplies to stock several mini-kitchens. They do a Story Time on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 10:30 and 11:30 am. Davis decided that today was not a good day for story time and all he wanted to do was go home. So we looked around a bit (it turns out he really didn't want to go home when he saw several different toys set up and ready to be tried) and my mental wish list for Davis grew exponentially (he has a birthday coming up in June, hint, hint). Worth a visit even if you aren't looking to buy anything.

Project 52: High Stakes Yatzee

For our date this week, Darren chose to play Yatzee. With high stakes. I mean really high stakes. The winner of this one round of Yatzee would get a back rub, a head massage, ice cream served to him/her, a love note from the loser, and the choice of shows to watch at the end. See? High stakes. So of course I wanted to win, more than usual. I wasn't feeling really good (just a little bug) and I really didn't want to be the loser.

So the game started out and the lead kept switching from me to Darren and back. The roll that decided it all didn't come until close to the end. Darren rolled two sixes. Then another six. Then two more sixes. Nooooo! If your opponent gets a yatzee and you don't, the game is over. And at the end, I didn't even bother to add my score up; Darren won by a landslide. I almost started crying.

But then my wonderful, sweet husband did something so wonderful and sweet. He offered to give me the spoils of the win. I got a fantastic back rub, head massage (see the next paragraph about this marvelous invention we found), and ice cream served to me. I offered to write the love note because of all the love I was feeling and we deferred on the show because I was tired and needed to go to bed. All in all, a wonderful date night.

Now a little note about the head massage. At Bed, Bath, and Beyond, I found this weird looking thing called a head massager (under $5) and bought it for a funny Valentine's gift for Darren. When we took it out of the box and tried it, we found it was not funny. It was fantastic. On the top ten list of best things ever. If you see one, buy it.