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.

Whirl Wind Project: Completed

Well, I got bit by a whirl wind project this past week. We actually I guess it was two.

The first one was to crochet a shrug for my good friend Christina to wear with a formal gown to a banquet. I used a free pattern by Moda-Dea called Sassy Stripes. We liked the design but not the yarn so I went to the ever resourceful Hobby Lobby to search out a black yarn in the same weight as called for in the pattern. I ended up using the Baby Bee Yarn Light Licorice which is a super soft baby yarn in a charcoal gray color. I am very happy with the way it turned out and I'm on edge to see pictures of how it looked with Christina's gown. I was pleasantly surprised at how well it came together. The weight was nice and it actually seemed a cute way to cover up a sleeveless formal gown.

Anyway, this post was originally to show off my newly made curtians, this weeks project #2. My boys have been getting up increasingly earlier with the sun, much to my dismay (I am not a morning person and poor Josh is still getting up at 4:30 to leave for work so I'm on my own with the boys in the morning). I was in Walmart and happened to notice that they had bolts of denium for $2 a yard that got my wheels turning. Eventually I made my way back and bought 3 yards of it with the scheme to make new curtains for the boys room our of it. Well, a few hours later (not consecutive hours mind you) and Wahla!!! We have new curtains that make the room practically dark even at midday! In all they cost me around $10 with the addition of large plastic buttons. Well worth if for the hope of more sleep, especially come summer when the sun actually rises around 4AM (I miss Utah's mountains for blocking the insainly early surises).

I also, at the suggestion of a friend, went to the dollar store to check out some wall stickers they have. I snatched up the cute robots you see in the picture above and did an easy border pattern around the boys room. I love the look and it was super cheap and do able in an apartment. Now my gears are turning (ha ha gears) on what robot decor I can add to the room. I'm thinking art work, pillows, softies... I've been surfing around looking for various ideas. Here's a few I found. I'll keep you posted on what actually comes together.

• Cute Robot Pillow/Softies from Revoluzzza
• Gears painted on the wall of a darling nursery
• Robot Applique

Sam Sam the Dancin' Man

This morning Sam and I had fun dancing to our little toy piano. It's a little aligator piano made by Little Tikes that has a demo mode that plays random songs. It was Sam's idea to dance. He would hit a key to start a song and dance for a bit then run and hit another key for a different song. We danced slow, fast, on our toes, marching, like butterflies and planes; we danced ourselves silly. And after mom was all tuckered out and dizzy Sam did a solo show, that's when I ran to grab the camera. Somewhere Sam got the idea of rolling around on the floor doing dance moves. He dubbed it the noodle soup dance. (Warning: these are mostly for the benifit of the Grandparents, though I personally think they are super cute!)

You probably notice Sam is wearing a pull-up. The kid loves to wear them but he is not potty trained, YET. He goes pee pee in the potty probably 2 times a day and as a reward gets to wear the "big boy pants".

Now that I think about it, Sam might have picked up his floor moves from watching gymnastics on tv last Saturday. Hmm... interesting.

Gr-8 to be ME

LIST OF EIGHTS

List of eight tag:
1) Post rules on your blog
2) Answer the five '8' items
3) Let each person you tag know by leaving them a comment

8 Favorite TV shows:
LOST
Numb3rs
Clean House
Rachel Ray
American Idol
Curious George
Blues Clues
Masterpiece Theater


8 (+) things I did yesterday:
DanceDanceRevolution
Got the boys ready to go to the park
Put the boys in time-out and didn't go to the park
Picnic lunch in the living room while watching Curious George
Took Elijah to school and ran errands with Sam
Picked up Elijah and dragged him to the car
Talked to Christina and my Mom
Made dinner and ate with the boys
Picked up Josh from the bus stop
CRASHED


8 favorite restaurants:
Ali Baba Grill
Rumbi Island Grill
Hunan
Thai Kitchen
Papa Murphys Pizza
Inta Juice
Chilis
Cafe Rio

8 Things I'm looking forward to:
Seeing Christina
Going to Utah next week and seeing my family
Going to the Draper Temple Open House
Josh getting published
JOSH GRADUATING!!!!
Figuring out where we will be in 6 months
Summer and playing outside with my boys (husband included)
Getting the top three things on my wish list


8 things on my wish list:
House
Mini Van (Toyota Sienna)
Baby (a girl would be nice)
Dog
Family trip to So Cal
Live closer to family
A craft room and a back yard
More time with Josh

8 People I tag:
1. Anna
2. Mom
3. Christina
4. Ashley
5. Cami
6. Cammie
7. Celeste
8. Jessica

Question from the HEART

At breakfast this morning Elijah stops eating and says "Mom I have something to ask you." He then says "Mom, do you know I love you?" in the sweetest voice. Then Sam chimed in with "Mom... 'ove" and reaches over for a big sticky hug.

MELT MY HEART!

I love you too, Elijah and Sam!

The Grandson of two Engineers

Friday the boys and I watched Curious George (our favorite show that unfortunately has been stuck in a rerun rut, except for Friday -thankfully) and George was trying to make a bridge for some chicks to get across some water using toothpicks, marshmallows and playing cards. The show took George through multiple tries with each attempt building on the previous and getting better until he finally had a bridge that would support the weight of the chicks. Elijah was GLUED.

I try and get a project or activity going for Elijah to do by himself while I put Sam down for his nap. Friday he wanted to build a bridge with marshmallows. I pulled them out and he took off running. By the time Sam was down (we do some mommy-Sammy cuddle time) Elijah was well into making his bridge. With just a little reminding from me he managed to get the shape of the bridge just like Georges complete with triangle sides to support it.

In all it took him probably 1 1/2-2 hours to make his bridge, 85% by himself. We even tested it to see if it would hold up between two Tupperware containers and IT WORKED. Elijah was so pleased with himself.

Josh came home and saw the bridge and was overly impressed. What can I say, I guess it's in his genes.

And if you're wondering... Yes they did eat the bridge for dessert that night.

Happy Love Day to YOU!

I hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day on Saturday and put to use some of Chrisy's wonderfully creative ideas from her HOT blog Let Me Count The Ways. Saturday was actually a bumb day for us, Josh worked ALL day and got home late. Blahhh. He did redeem himself yesterday though with an amazing steak and shrimp dinner.

Elijah worked hard this week to make his Valentines for school. He decided to do the Butterfly Sucker Valentines from Skip to My Lou. We printed them out and I cut them out while Elijah got to work writing his name on the back --21 times. It took me a few days to coax him into doing all of them but he did make it. He then put stickers on the butterfly wings and glued eyes on the suckers. He was very excited about how they turned out and very proud when he passed them out to all his schoolmates.

Sam wanted in on the action while Elijah and I were working on gluing on the eyes so I cut out a heart for him to decorate. He had so much fun using the glue to put eyes and trinkets on his heart. He did it all by himself and was more than happy to let me take pictures of his finished valentine.

Thank you to Grammie and Grandma who sent packages. The boys loved their valentine surprises! We LOVE you very much!

another milestone *6000+ visits

My sister mentioned to me yesterday that she was my 6000th visiter (well she was my 5999th and then refreshed the page). It then occured to me that I haven't posted anything in awhile. It hasn't been for lack of things to say but I guess I've just had a lot of other stuff on my mind including -but not limited to- enrichment meetings, coupon clipping, learning to knit, exercising, cooking, digging myself out of my pit of a bedroom... you know, all the usual stuff.

I've got a few cute pictures of the boys on my camera I'll try and get posted later today. But for know I'm making a bee-line to the shower!

The BEST food with the BEST Boys!

For Josh's birthday we all went out to eat at our favorite Arabic restaurant Ali Baba Grill. The food there is heaven and we go there every chance we get. We both always order the King Combo which comes with a little of everything. I love the Kobideh kabab and the falafel. Mouth watering! I had my camera with me that night so I snapped some cute pictures of my dates.

We chose to sitt in the upper room with the couches and low tables. The ceiling is drapped with fabric and the walls are covered with intricate Middle Eastern art and decor. Elijah is lounging on the couch while waiting for our food. There is a fountain in the middle of the room that kept Sam occupied when he got bored with dinner. (Isn't the birthday boy just the handsomest! I love that man!)

Family Outing: Museum Free Day

Josh took the afternoon off on Monday and we headed down to the Nature and Science Museum for their free day. I was worried that the museum would be mazo but really it wasn't that bad and we all had a wonderful time. The museum is HUGE! We went with my mother in November and saw maybe 1/3 of it. I think we only got to see another 1/3 of the museum on Monday. We saw their gem collection, the north American wildlife exhibit, and the prehistoric exhibit. The boys loved the buttons that made the animal sounds in the wildlife exhibit. The dinosaur bones were pretty interesting too. They even had a skeleton of a pteranodon (Elijah's particular favorite).

Throughout the wildlife exhibit they had long benches down the middle of the room. The boys enjoyed "resting" on them. It was pretty amazing to be so close to the animals and really get an idea for how big the actually are. Walrus' are HUGE, moose are MASSIVE.

The deer exhibit had rubber ears you could play with the see how they funnel the sound. They also make you look ridiculous.

They also had phones where you could listen to information about the exhibit. Sam thought they were pretty cool.

If you look closely there is a pteranodon (not sure if that is technically correct but Elijah has labeled it such) hanging above their heads with massive fossils behind them.

The had a chart on the wall that compared the sizes of a T-Rex and a Bronciosaurus to a measure stick. Elijah didn't even make it to their ankle.

I would recomend the museum! There is so much to see and do and getting in FREE made it all the better. We had so much fun as a family. They are great people to be with.

Other Museum Free Days in 2009

Wednesday, March 18

Sunday, April 19

Sunday, May 31

Wednesday, June 10

Monday, July 13

Wednesday, August 12

Sunday, September 13

Sunday, October 4

Monday, November 2

Sunday, November 22

The Birthday Boy's Cake

Josh celebrated his birthday this past weekend. He has now breached the 30 mark. It's pretty crazy to think about. Anyway, he requested a German Chocolate Cake so I went to http://www.tastespotting.com/ and did a search. I found the most HEAVENLY cake recipe! I have never had a cake turn out so perfectly and it didn't call for any random ingredients I didn't already have. I had to take a picture of them still in the pans. I was amazed that they rose straight up without any little mound in the middle. AMAZING! I froze them over night and then let them sit for 20 minutes or so before I cut them in half horizontally to get four layers. The frosting recipe that came with the cake recipe was also really good. I took a liberty and toasted the rest of the coconut left over in the bag and used it to garnish the top of the cake. The result was an easy and quite stunning looking cake. (I am a bit proud of my self but I give most of the credit to the recipe)

Just writing about it I can still smell and taste it. MMmmmmm.

We had friends over to help us eat the cake. Josh had 4-5 kids helping him put his 30 candles on the cake. There definitly were enough to go around. Then it took us 5 minutes to light them all -Look OUT!







My attempt to get a picture of Josh blowing out the candles resulted in me getting a picture of the cloud of smoke. It was ALOT of candles.



Happy Birthday JOSHUA!




I am so grateful for Josh and that we get to spend our lives together. Every year gets better. I look forward to growing old with him.