Name Book

Elijah has a hard bound Book of Mormon with his full name engraved on the cover. He rought it with us to Grammie's house and has been using it for family scripture study. Sam had become very interested and even jealous of Elijah's book so Grammie decided we should get Sam a book of his own. I explained to him that we would go to the store and get him his own Book of Mormon and put Sammyon it. I then turned to go get ready to go and Sam, still holding Elijah's book, clearly said "Shammy". I couldn't believe my ears, did he really say his name? He then repeated it for me, "Sham".

Finally! The kid has been able to recoginze and spell his name for months but has refused to say it out loud. Last week I was writing his name for him on Grandma's big white board. He would tell me the letters and then I would ask what it said. Sam would say "Me" and I would say "No, this is how you write me... M E". He would then point to what I had written and say "You" and I woud say "No, this is how you write you... Y O U" and he would respond by pointing and saying "Me". The boy is smart and stubborn.

Anyway, it was the thought of getting a book like Elijah's with his name on it that got Sam to actually say his name. He carried his shopping basket around proudly with his Book of Mormon in it. He was very excited when we got it back and it had his name on it. When we got home he would sit and hug it. I pray that his love for the book will grow even more as he comes to know the words that are found inside.

Spring Snow!

Sunday night, much to our dismay, it started steadily snowing here at my parents house (which is know to get more snow than the rest of Utah Valley). It snowed most of yesterday and there were still flakes falling when I woke up this morning. Just now is the sun starting to come out and melt the snow off of the trees.

I will admit that the snow is very beautiful, especially when it is freshly fallen and still sticking to the multitude of trees in my parents yard. Ultimately they got about 8 inches of snow.

My sisters and the boys went out for a sledding run yesterday afternoon. Pure fun!

Kid K'nex

I found a couple small sets of Kid K'nex at a consignment store out here in Utah last week. We pulled them out the other day and Elijah has been having a lot of fun with them. My friend Christina recommended them and I second the recommendation. Some of the pieces are a rubbery plastic and others are a harder plastic. They interconnect rather easily without coming apart too easily (the curse of toddler toys for parents is having to do it over and over and over again). There are also so unique pieces like eyes, flippers, horns, etc that come with the different sets.

One of our sets came with the original paper that shows multiple ideas of what you can make with the pieces. Elijah has had fun trying to reproduce the pictures. He has also branched out and created some interesting things that he has dubbed as random items. He and Sam have been carrying some around like they are flowers and giving them to me and my mother.

I actually came up with the glasses idea with the random eyes. Elijah was more than willing to model them for me. I think the set off his blue eyes rather nicely.

I also go the cute picture of Elijah without the glasses. Isn't he just a handsome little man. He is growing up so fast! It amazes me.

"Shnowman" Song

Sam has started talking in sentences. It really has come on all of a sudden in the last few weeks and is very exciting. It is so fun to hear what is going on in that little man's head. He is so cute!

Along with talking he has started singing. I believe all his songs are from nursery, they aren't ones that we sing around the house very often (at least the didn't used to be but are sung often now). His repertoire includes "Knees and Toes", "Shnowman", and the Wise Man and the Foolish Man "House... Rock".

Grammie has a folk harp and Sam has adopted it as his and multiple times has dragged people into the room so that he can perform a singing show. He gets really serious about it. He will adjust the music stand, turn the pages in the hymn book, take a big sigh, strum the harp and then begin to sing.

The snowman song includes the words "showman" "tall" "sun" "melt" and "small". There are also actions involved. He will stick out his elbows and twist his body as he says "melt, melt, melt" among other actions.

The wise man and the foolish man include the words "house" "rock" "rain down" "flood up" and "sand". He really gets into the actions for the house, rock, rain and flood.

Knees and Toes he likes to do "fast" and he will point out his knees, toes, eyes, ears, mouth, and nose.

It excites me to see him enjoying music so much. I am grateful for nursery leaders that have created an environment where he is soaking all this stuff in. He loves it and it makes me happy to hear his little voice.

Rock Show

Today we went to the Timpanogos Gem and Mineral Show at the fair grounds. Elijah went with a mission to find a volcano rock (we've been on a volcano fix lately in his pictures etc). Most of the show consisted of venders selling cool rocks but there were some cool cases and rocks to touch.
Elijah found a green "gem" that he really wanted when we walked in. I told him we would walk around and see what else was there and if he wanted anything else. We were there probably an hour and at the end the green gem is what he wanted. He proudly carried it around in his bag.

Sam picked out a blue grab bag of random rocks. The man we bought it from had us open it and he told us what the rocks were and gave Sam a magnifying glass to look at them with. Sam really enjoyed it and even showed Elijah one of his rocks under the magnifying glass. Since we got home he is povery protective of his bag of rocks.


I fell in love with some cool egg shaped rocks, perfect for Easter. One of them is a limestone with a bunch of tiny fossils in it. I'm excited to take them home and add them to my Easter/Spring decorations.


There also was a guy going around in a HUGE dinosaur puppet. The boys were glued and Sam was a bit intimidated by it. No wonder, he would come up to you and put his teeth around your head!

Four Buds in a Tub

The four boys (Christina's Caed and Caleb and my own) were very excited to take a bath at Grammie's house. She has a large jetted tub with plenty of room for the four of them. It made for a great opprotunity for crazy cute pics. Caed cracks me up with his crossed eyes.

tickle bugs

aka box elder bugs

these bugs are a topic of amusement when it comes to Josh and his family. Apparently there was a toddler snacking incident many moons ago.

When it comes to my parents house, box elder bugs are a common part of life, more so this year than in years past. They come in waves, buzzing-crawling infestations that swarm around the house, inside and out. The ground is literally crawling with harmless but creepy box elder bugs. They scatter and some take flight buzzing in your face with their red bodies and black wings.

They have been nick named "tickle bugs" because of their tickling legs initially in a effort to make my little sister not scared of them. Now Elijah and Sam have fallen in love with them.

Sam will find dead ones around the house ("sleeping" ones) and escort them outside pinched in his little fingers and lovingly throw them out the door.

Last night Elijah kept popping his head down the stairs exclaiming that he found a tickle bug in his bed and a few minutes later he came down to tell us that one had climbed on his hand and tickled him and then climbed up his sleeve and then yet again to say he had found one "sleeping" next to his bed. By that time I was a bit frustrated and was very tempted to go up stairs and trample all the tickle bugs into oblivion.

To top it all off I swore I felt one tickling me in bed last night and woke up to find evidence that I was not mistaken. Ew SICK!

I attempted to take a video of the bugs. I stepped in the flowerbed to get them moving more and it stirred them up a bit, they started flying around me and buzzin in my face so the video is a bit shaky.

Spring is in the air! There were multiple feet of snow on the ground when we got to my parents house but it has been getting warmer every day we have been here, the snow is receding, crocus' are out, the tulips are popping up their leaves, and the BUGS ARE OUT. While I was out stirring up the box elder bugs today there was a massive bumble bee flying around the crocus blooms. I am so ready for spring and will take any sign of it I can get.

Draper Temple Open House

My friend Christina from Oklahoma and I had the opprotunity to go the the Draper Temple open house last Thursday (before LDS temples are dedicated they are opened up to the public to walk through). We have been plotting and planning to drive out for the open house for months. It took a bit of scheming but we made it. And it was well worth the drive!

The temple is a small one and is tucked next to the mountain in the southern part of Salt Lake Valley. With the snow and the dormant trees the temple really blends into the mountain scape but when you drive up to it it beautifully stands out. The interior is even more breath taking. The beauty of the building, inside and out, the symbolism throughout, and the doctrine of temple work are central to our religion and I was very excited to share then with Christina who is a recent convert to the church. The temple truly is the House of the Lord. It is a building where His spirit can be strongly felt.

A Long SLOW Process

Yesterday I started the long, slow process of transforming last years blog posts into a printable book format. I've talked about making a hard copy of my blog for awhile now. Ultimately it was my being asked to participate in the Stake Family History Conference and to focus on blogging that initiated actually doing it. I downloaded a program through Blurb.com that is very similar to a program I used through mypublisher.com to make a photobook for Christmas. The big difference is that Blurb will download all of your posts, text AND pictures, into the program and allow you to manipulate them into a blog format. You can pick and choose the page layouts and which blog entries you want to inlcude or not. It will also flag what pictures are not a high enough resolution so you can upload them directly for better quality. The program is a little choppy when it comes to response time (maybe it is just my computer) but once you get used to the little quirks and express a little frustration you can progress rather easily.

It is still going to take me a few more days to get it all cleaned up. I'm a lazy writer when it comes to blogging. Especially when I started out, I wouldn't even capitalize my "i"s, so I need to go through and reread everything and made slight changes. I'm also probably going to have to cut out more posts just to keep the cost of the book down.

I'm really excited to get it all finished and actually hold it in my hands. I really enjoy blogging; it had become a great medium for me to journal about my life and my boys. It is a great way to preserve a personal history!

Well, I did it. I succumbed to peer pressure

I joined facebook today. And many of you already know this fact because you are on there yourself.

(I know Charis, I read all your comments on Rosie's blog and the post on your own but I still went ahead and did it).

I've been hearing so much about facebook and how I should join and how addicting it is, etc... The only thing that really held me back is the potential for addiction, I have enough distracting me from my kids and home as it is (blogging being one). There was one thing that pushed me over to the dark side though. I was asked to do a demonstration/information table at our Stake Family History Conference next month focusing on blogging and family history. The idea is very exciting to me so I was surfing around last night on all the family history blogs I've been neglecting and came upon a description of a facebook app called "We're Related". Apparently it is an application that helps you connect with your relatives that are also on facebook and build family trees. The idea really intrigues me.

Anyway, so I'm trying to learn the ropes of facebook. Bare with me as I catch on. We'll see if I become an addict or not.