Pizza, Park, & Playing!

Last night we had pizza at the park for family home (away?) evening. There was a little girl there named Alex, who was probably around 4. She was about the same size as Sam, which just about guarantees that she was a year older. They played together the whole time, and they had so much fun. It was really cute to watch them play follow the leader and take turns going down the slide. She had to leave at the same time we were leaving, so she said goodbye to Sam, and even gave him a hug. I hope we see them again some time.

So Nice

We ran out of bread, so I made some this morning. This was my conversation just now with Sam.

Sam: Thanks for the delicious bread Mom.
Mom: You're welcome. Thanks Sam, that's so nice.
Sam: You're welcome. Can I have another piece?

If there was ever a way to get what you want...

Currently...

Lilly is 2!

My family came over on Sunday for dinner, and we celebrated a couple of birthdays. Hyrum is older than me, but Lilly turned 2! And we're all very happy for Kimbur that she can fix Lilly's hair a little bit now. Too bad Lilly and Will can't switch hair.

Will has a serious snaggle-tooth issue going on. That darn tooth just won't come out and stay out. Poor kid.

Learning to self-feed. Except that mom isn't nice enough to give him a spoon and let him go to town. Not in church clothes anyway. Okay, not at all...yet.

In Honor of Beth

It was just cookies...

Private

Okay, I'm finally doing it. I got one of the famous weird/creepy comments on one of my posts from someone I don't know. Leave me a comment (with your email if I don't have it) if you want an invite. I'll be going private in a week or two. I'm really sad that there are creepy people out there who ruin it for everyone else. This has been a really fun way to get back in touch/meet/keep everyone posted on life, but I don't want weirdos looking at my babies.

It's a Sambrero!

It's not often that Mike considers my bad puns funny, so when he laughs I know I've struck gold. Both of the boys love it when Mike balances them on his head. He asked if Sam wanted to be a "Sam hat." I said he wanted to be a Sambrero! When it was Will's turn I asked Sam if he (Will) should be a Sambrero too. He said, "No, he wants to be a Willbarrow!" Clever boy.

I love these brothers!

We managed to get breakfast all over Will's face. Still cute. Incidentally, the only food so far that he doesn't like is Cream of Wheat. I think he really hated the texture.

Sam got in the big blue tub, and Will was very upset he couldn't get in by himself. Will really needs a haircut, which is strange because Sam's first haircut was at 18 months. I'm sad, he's more wiggly than Sam was, so I'm not sure how it's going to get cut. I can't bring myself to pay for a real haircut. It's getting so long though, so I guess I better just bite the bullet.

Sam got in the tub during Will's nap (because he wanted to!), but when Will got up he was quite upset that he wasn't invited. He LOVES baths. The other night I walked past the bathroom as the tub was filling, and he started screaming. I went back to the bathroom and then he was very happy.

Eric dropped a piece of ice on the floor, and Will was all over it. It was fun until he couldn't hold on anymore. Then we had frustrated Will.
Our new favorite thing is The Office on DVD. We borrowed the first two seasons from our neighbors, and last night we started Season 3. So funny! I've never seen Mike laugh so hard as when Jim was explaining all his pranks on Dwight. The nickles in the phone. Genius. We don't watch a lot of TV anyway, but putting it on DVD is the best idea in the history of earth. I love no commercials. You can watch any time. You can pause it when the teething baby starts screaming for Tylenol (out of a dead sleep). Will's teeth have been killing him. He's only getting 4 (Sam got 6 at once), but they keep going in and out. There's one left, but it's murder on the poor kid. And Mom.

Groan

It's snowing.

Nothing stuck today (thankfully), but it snowed 4 times today. And that was just what I noticed. Is Spring ever coming?

April 15th

Happy Tax Day.

The single most depressing day of the year. Especially this year.

Play Day

Sam's new friend came over to play yesterday because her mom just had a baby and some of us in the neighborhood are helping out for a few hours every day. She's in Sam's Sunbeam class at church. It was great having her over, Sam was more mellow, and they sat at the kitchen for a couple of hours doing different activities. I was able to get a lot done while they played. My favorite part of the day was coloring. I printed some coloring pages off the computer, and when they wanted more Sam just took care of things. He got on the computer, opened new coloring pages, and printed them...all by himself. I had no idea he knew what the printer icon was. Jennifer wanted to print her own page too, so Sam walked her through everything, "Click on the printer, right here. Now click OK, it's right here." He's 3 and he can navigate a computer better than some adults. Scary. I also enjoyed the Play-Doh. Sam knows girls like pink, so he insisted they play with pink play-doh today. What a gentleman!

Good Helper

We have a huge pile of dirt sitting in the front yard that's slowly making its way to the back yard garden. Sam helped Mike with his trusty plastic yellow shovel, and by properly weighting the wheelbarrow.

Just the right size to sit under the table and play with a Nalgene bottle.

Sam was feeling a little left out, so he dove to be in the picture.

Sam always makes the goofiest faces for pictures. I think he hates the camera as much as his daddy. They're good sports though, which makes mommy happy.

Oh, Good News!

I saw a dog today! Ha ha, I love that part in the movie Elf.
The real good news is that Spring is finally here! It was warm enough that I didn't need a jacket today! Heaven! The high was 79 wonderful degrees. I was dumb and didn't put sunblock on Sam, and his arms got a little burned.

So the forecast is AWFUL, but at least we had one day of bliss. And at least Sunday is ugly, so people won't do their gardening. We like bad weather on Sundays because then we know people aren't shopping at Walmart for plants when they would otherwise be shopping at the Garden Center (which is closed on Sundays).

Cowboy Will

I guess he was underdressed, so Sam tried to help.

Funny Boys

Sam was jumping over the "mud" apparently trying not to get his socks "dirty."

Safe!

I vacuum just about every day, sometimes twice a day. Sam really loves crumb-prone food, and it almost always ends up all over the floor. Will loves to play with the vacuum, so it's just one exciting cycle...every day. Will made a break for the vacuum, but when he got to the cold tile he got up on his hand and knees from his army crawl position. He crawled over the tile, and then once he was back on carpet, it was back to the tummy. What a slacker.

Cute face!

He's just about to drop back to the tummy for more efficient crawling.

???

It snowed last night, but the high on Sunday is supposed to be 71. The high today might reach 50, which would probably make it the warmest day of the year so far. Apparently we're skipping spring this year, and going directly from winter to summer.

Let's Play!

Sam made up a new game last week called "Come Back Ball." You throw a Spongebob soccer ball at the door to the garage, and then it will come back. Best played while mom is making dinner.

Funny

Deep Breath

Life has been incredibly busy lately, but today has been a little more relaxed. Will is napping and Sam is downstairs playing with Ryan. Now they're sitting on chairs watching me type. I'm afraid to go downstairs and see what they did. It sounded fun. Luckily Sam came and got me when Ryan dumped a container of paperclips in someone's forgotten (very large) cup of water.
I have a lot of pictures to catch up on, and there's a chance I may get to do it right now.
These pictures aren't in order. If I have time I'll fix it. It might just have to stay though.

Sam and I made a Play-Doh truck. Notice the skill with which the truck was crafted. Amazing.
Sam added the funnel to the top. Trucks don't normally have funnels, but this was a special occasion.
Sam wanted me to take a picture of him. Goofball.

Last week when Osie was here they wanted to play in the snow, but Sam's favorite mittens were still in Mike's car from skiing. These were the only gloves I could find, so they each got one for holding and throwing snow in the back yard.

Kiddos playing in the back yard with Katie while I embroidered like a mad woman.

It is almost impossible to change Will's diaper alone. When you put him down he's instantly on his stomach. It's kind of amazing. But hard. Mike thinks he's got a bright future as a wrestler.

Sam and I made rocky road cereal bars. They were yummy! Sam is a major taste-along-the-way cooker.

Will followed Sam hoping for little bits to fall on the floor.

We went on a walk with Osie. I was waiting for Osie to catch up. That little dot at the end of the sidewalk is Sam on his trike.
Osie was really excited about riding Sam's Spiderman scooter on our walk, but it wasn't as much fun as she thought it would be. She wasn't very happy that I made her push it the whole way. There wasn't much choice though, I was pushing Will in the stroller. She walked it nearly the whole time.
They had lots of fun with their masks. Osie's was the princess mask with two mouths, and Sam's was the bee mask.
They went outside to play while I was embroidering (one of the reasons I've been so busy), and when I looked outside I saw Osie pushing Sam. I love to see cousins playing together!

Will and Sam have formed a cracker bond. Sam asks for crackers, then takes the whole package, sits on the floor with Will, and they eat the whole thing.

Sadness

A couple of months ago I wrote about a sweet Burmese family we had the opportunity to meet. They were kind and generous and humble, and now they are grieving. A neighboring Burmese refugee family (they lived in the same apartment complex) lost a seven-year-old daughter a week ago. As I was driving Sam up to Solitude to meet Mike I saw the Amber alert on the sign at the mouth of the canyon. I thought to myself, Oh, no. The little girl was playing in front of her apartment. She was taken by a neighbor on Monday, March 31 and killed in his apartment, just 50 yards from her front door. She was found the next day. Another ward in our stake had adopted her family and had been collecting donations and visiting them, just as we have been doing with ours. Even though we hadn't met her family, it still felt personal because they are a close-knit group, and we knew how much of a loss they would be experiencing too. I can't imagine the anguish this poor family is feeling. It makes me cry to think of the terrible loss for her family, and also for the family of the accused (as I understand it, another refugee, only 21, who just recently arrived here). It makes me even more grateful for my little family. I feel extremely blessed to be able to stay home and play with my little boys every day. We talk, we laugh, we pretend. Such a blessing.

Blah

These pictures were taken THIS MORNING. Puke. When is Spring coming?
At the risk of sounding insensitive and being politically incorrect, I'll take the global warming this week. I don't want all my flowers to die!