September 30, 2013

Charlie has been taking the boys on lots of "runs" in the evenings lately.  Sometimes I go with them.  Isaac & Luke both like to hold flashlights.  Luke has pretty incredible stamina and literally runs for about 3/4 of the first mile.  Then he slows down a bit for the rest, but he insists on walking the entire 2 miles himself.  Tonight as we were passing the tennis courts he noticed the dozens of bright green balls alongside the fence.  I'm sure his little heart did a pitter patter as he has always had a thing for balls.  Unfortunately there was a really tall fence standing in his way.  Then we went home and ate homemade donuts for dessert.  Yum.

September 29, 2013

This evening we had some friends over for dinner.  Charlie worked with Jason in Toledo years ago.  He and his wife Bridgette moved to California about 5 years ago when Jason came to work at Bradshaw with Charlie (but Charlie left there a few years ago).  Whenever we get together Charlie & Jason inevitably end up talking about cookware.  And Bridgette and I usually talk about our kids.  Tonight's menu was "Paris" chicken, potato gratin, kale, homemade bread, and a salad.  I love this beautiful Nambe salad bowl that my mother in law gave me.  Thanks Janelle!  

September 28, 2013

Charlie took the boys on a bike ride this evening while I went to the Relief Society broadcast.  Our stake was having a light dinner afterwards, but I was feeling anti-social and opted to go home.  I hadn't planned to make dinner so we loaded up in the car and drove to Sonic.  It's not close so we don't go there often, but we love their drinks.  The diet cherry limeade in particular.  Isaac wanted to come up front, and then Luke did too.  Charlie pulled the car seats out and put them in trunk so that he & I could sit in the back seat.  Everyone was happy and we had a fun little family date.

September 27, 2013

I'm not quite sure what age it is when children are able to eat simple non-messy foods without making a mess.  It is not 6.  At least not for Isaac.  A few Jo-Jos (Trader Joe's Oreos) later and his face looked like this.  He also has a stye under his left eye.  He's never had one before so it's funny it showed up just a few weeks after Luke had one too.  I got a call from the nurse's office at school yesterday saying he'd been sent up three different times by teachers/aids thinking he had pink eye.  

It is always fun to see the papers that Isaac brings home in his back pack.  This one in particular brought a smile to my face.  They are just simple doodles, but Isaac has never been fond of coloring or drawing so I've seen very little original artwork from him.  I thought these ones were cute and funny.

After living here for over six years with ghetto apartment style vertical blinds, we finally switched out the window treatment in the living room.  I'm not sure why it took us so long.  I think you just get used to seeing ugly things in your own home and stop noticing them after awhile.  These curtains are a long over due improvement.

September 26, 2013

I got to watch little Easton for a bit this afternoon while my friend took her older son to a music class.  I had to pick Luke up from an OT appointment, so we did a little car seat swapping.  At first Luke was really mad when he saw me putting Easton into his seat, but then when I told him that he got to ride in Isaac's seat he was super excited.  And poor Isaac got squashed in the middle.  I confess to being a law breaker for 8 minutes while we drove home.  I need a bigger car.  Isaac was making all kinds of silly faces and sounds for Easton to get him to laugh and Luke was joining in too.  It was a noisy but entertaining drive home.

September 25, 2013

When we left to walk Isaac to school this morning Luke noticed this car in our parking lot covered in post-it notes and pink streamers.  He got a huge smile on his face and told me "Silly car!  Cool!"  It was still sitting just like that when we got back.  Luke couldn't get enough of it.  He wanted to look out the window every five minutes to check on the silly car.  Still there when we went to run errands, and when we came back from picking up Isaac.  After lunch we went to Lowe's and Target.  The car was left untouched.  Luke was obsessed.  He was begging me to ride in it.  I'm not sure what this person was doing all day and why they never left their house (I am getting seriously sick of living in a condo with random college students moving in and out all the time).  Anyway, when we went out again this evening the car was finally cleared of it's decorations.  Luke burst into tears.  "The silly car... all done." He was so sad.

Isaac has been asking to buy Lego Chima racers.  He wanted to use all of the money from his piggy bank to buy them.  He had $21 and the set was on sale for $24 so I made up the difference and we went to go get them.  He was thrilled!  Luke didn't care that he wasn't getting a toy.  I picked up a package of orange Tic Tacs at the register and Luke was over the moon.

September 24, 2013

This afternoon we met up with my friend Vivianna that I met at the gym, and her two year old son Fransesc (not pictured).  Bill Barber Park is fun but it's a little hard to watch the kids because it is so big with a massive playground structure that breaks off into three different areas.  Luckily after the boys had checked everything out they all ended up in one spot.  The water table.  There were a handful of other kids playing and no one was very wet, so I'm not sure how my boys ended up totally soaked (seriously, you can't tell from these photos but both of them are drenched).  They had a blast though.

September 23, 2013

Luke is now doing preschool twice a week.  It is a great little program and I'm so happy this worked out for him.  We are using his therapy hours from Regional Center, but because he is doing so well we opted to move him up into the preschool program at ICEC.  I suspect he may no longer qualify after his next evaluation, but for now he is loving it.  I tried again this morning to get some good photos of him but the neighbor's dog was running loose in the courtyard and Luke was much more interested in the dog than my camera.

While he was at school I stopped by a local nursery to look for a new tree for our front porch.  I've manage to kill two English Boxwoods in the past two years, which has made me really sad because I thought they were so cute.  I obviously do not have a green thumb.  This time I'm going with a Ficus (sans Spider plant).  I think they are pretty hard to kill and I've always loved Ficus trees.  He's a small little tree, but I love the braided trunk and I'm hoping I can help him grow to the perfect porch size tree without killing him.

Tonight our FHE lesson was about Enos and about prayer.  I made some Fudgy Rocky Road bars for dessert, and then Charlie took the boys out for an evening walk while I cleaned up the dishes and the house for bed.  They were both excited to get to carry flashlights and go out in the dark.

September 22, 2013

Today was Stake Conference.  And we didn't go.  I think the Lord understands.  Entertaining two little boys, quietly, in the dark, for two hours just doesn't leave a whole lot of mental capacity for actually listening to the meeting.  We'll try again someday.  Instead we went to the beach.  Not a play in the sand and water kind of beach day.  We just spent a couple hours enjoying the gorgeous weather and let the boys play on the playground for a bit.

September 21, 2013

We spent a good part of the day cleaning out the closet in Isaac's room.  Very little of what is in that closet actually belongs to Isaac.  Since we don't have a garage, or attic, or even a coat closet in this house Isaac's closet is used for all kinds of random storage.  And it was getting out of hand.  Like hard to open without things falling.  Anyway, we didn't get out much other than Charlie making a trip to Goodwill, and then we had an early dinner at Souplantation.  We were back home by like 6:30, the boys were running wild, and we still had two hours until bedtime.  I suggested the park and Charlie countered with the idea of a walk.  The boys were excited, except Luke didn't want to walk - he wanted to run.  He kept telling us "go for a run!"  When Charlie & I go out running we always say "Goodbye, I'm going for a run."  I guess Luke thought that sounded like a better idea.  And he did run, for probably the first 3/4 mile of our 2 mile walk (run).  Pretty impressive for those little legs.

Here's an after photo of one half of the closet.  I wish it looked more like something out of a Container Store catalog, but it's a whole lot better than what it looked like this morning.

September 20, 2013

Luke and I went to Trader Joe's this morning.  Two times ago both boys had little carts and they were terrible.  So last time neither one got a cart.  Today I gave Luke another chance.  He wanted to wear his (empty) backpack to the store.  The first 10 minutes or so were pretty cute.  And then he was tired of the backpack and threw it on the floor.  When I picked it up he got mad.  So I offered for him to wear it again, and he threw it on the floor again.  Things quickly went down hill from there.  Luke was laying on the floor having a full on tantrum and I had to pick him up and carry him out to the car.  When he was finally calmed down, I sat him in a regular cart, went and picked up our food from the little cart and finished our shopping trip.  The little carts... though they look adorable and fun, have really been more of a curse for me and my boys.

Tonight Charlie took Isaac to an Angel's game.  When they were getting ready to go Charlie mentioned that Isaac needed his hat and a jacket.  We'd already broken the news to Luke that he wasn't going, but he wanted a jacket and hat too.  I took him to get frozen yogurt instead and he insisted that he wear his Angel's hat and a jacket because, as Charlie had told Isaac "it will get cold!" 

September 19, 2013

It was picture day for Isaac today at school.  Isaac is such a handsome boy with a great smile, if you can just get him to look at the camera and act natural.  He usually freezes up and looks away.  I have to find creative ways to make him laugh and look in my general direction.  So today I prepped him with a funny thing to think about when it was his turn for pictures.  A few nights ago Cracker got ahold of a dirty Kleenex that Isaac had dropped on the floor and shredded it to pieces.  Isaac thought it was hilarious, so we planned for him to remember that and it would make him smile.  Hopefully it worked!

Today was Luke's second day of preschool (just one day a week for now).  This all kind of just fell into place within the last week because the new therapy program was not a good fit for him.  I need to get a better "first day of school" photo for him... even though he already had a first day.  Anyway, today I sent him with a backpack for the first time.  It was an extra we had in the closet, but it is shaped like Lightning McQueen (not sure why it is blue... a friend sent it from Taiwan).  Coincidentally Luke has recently started watching the movie Cars and loves Lightning McQueen (he is also holding a die cast version in his hand), so this was perfect.  He is absolutely in love with the backpack and wants to carry it everywhere! 

September 18, 2013

Luke is a smoothie stealer.  And actually it's not just smoothies, it is pretty much everything that I put into my mouth.  If he sees me eating he comes running and demands to have a taste.  It was cute when he was a baby and trying out all of the new foods.  It's not so cute anymore, but I still oblige.  And okay he is still really cute.  Also he is still wearing his shirt from yesterday in this photo because he wanted to sleep in it last night.  He says it is his "favorite one."  I had no idea he had a favorite shirt until yesterday when he picked it out of the closet and declared it to be so.

September 17, 2013

It never gets old.  Luke can hear a trash truck from a mile away and every time he insists that we go outside to watch it.  "A trash truck!  I hear one!  It IS here!" (Sometimes he hears them from a block or two away and I tell him "No, it's not here."  But he always insists that it is.)  Isaac used to be equally obsessed with trash trucks when he was younger.  Then he got over it, and now because Luke gets so excited, Isaac is on board again too.  Tonight they were doing arm movements to imitate the grabber arms and dumping action of the truck.

And then because the trash man was taking soooo long, they decided to just take a seat.  We've had the same trash man for years and he gets the job done quick.  But lately there is this other guy that comes sometimes and he is unbelievably slow.  It takes him at least twice as long as the other guy.  It drives me crazy!  I'm always standing out there thinking he is incredibly inefficient and I am tempted to get out there and do it myself.  Okay, not really, but the slowness is irritating.  There are four dumpsters and we must watch the dumping of all of them.

September 16, 2013

As much as my kids can drive me crazy, they also give me some pretty good laughs.  Today I took Isaac with me to the Container Store to get some DVD boxes.  He was fascinated by these "robot" trash cans.  They are the Simple Human ones that have sensors so when you wave your hand near the lid it opens automatically.  He would wait until they both closed and then wave them open again like a magician.  I was cracking up.  

And then tonight he lost his second tooth.  He actually pulled it out himself.  It has been super loose the last couple of days but he wouldn't let me pull it.  I was surprised he did it himself and he said it didn't hurt at all even though he was bleeding a bit from it.  And speaking of the tooth... I had better get to bed so that the tooth fairy can come.  

September 15, 2013

A few months ago one of my Facebook friends mentioned an app she had been using to help her kids brush their teeth everyday.  It's called Chomper Chums and it's free from the American Dental Association.  Anyone reading this who has little kids, get the app!  Isaac has always been drama when it comes to teeth brushing and this app is MAGIC.  It is kind of silly and I thought for sure he would be tired of it after a week or two, but it has been a few months and he still loves it!  He is actually asking to brush his teeth so that he can check in on his crocodile and make sure that he is healthy.  Luke likes it too but he doesn't get as excited as Isaac does.  They also both got new toothbrushes this week - Ninja Turtles for Isaac and Cookie Monster for Luke, so they are excited about that too.

September 14, 2013

Late this afternoon Charlie decided he wanted to take the boys to the pool.  Unfortunately the "season" is over so the association has stopped heating and cleaning most of the community pools.  There are a handful that are open year round so we went to one of them tonight.  Isaac loves the diving board and will jump off it over and over again.  Charlie took them once earlier this week and told me that Luke jumped off too!  Tonight Luke was being a party pooper and kept saying he wanted to go home.  But then he found the extra pair of goggles in my bag and wanted to wear them so he could be just like Isaac.  And he wanted to jump off the diving board like Isaac too.  He looked so tiny up there.  But he only got this far and then turned around and wanted to get down.  Maybe next time.  

September 13, 2013

We went to Lowe's a lot when we were remodeling our kitchen and Luke has not forgotten the shopping carts.  Lowe's is in the same parking lot as Costco so every time we go to Costco Luke always begs to go drive the shopping cart that is a car.  Today after his OT I announced that we were going to Lowe's to drive shopping carts.  He was ecstatic!  When we walked into the store Luke immediately spotted the display of Halloween decorations and this giant blow-up thing.  He excitedly started telling me "Mommy!  A guy!  A big guy!  A mask!  Really tall!" and then very matter-of-factly and with a little shiver: "Scary."

September 12, 2013

Three photos today.  First, my handsome boy on his third day of Kindergarten.

Luke & Isaac sampling some white grape peach juice at Costco.  Isaac exclaimed "I love it Mom!  Let's buy it!"  Also, I am so thrilled that Luke can drink out of a cup.  That might seem weird, but Isaac could not do it at this age.  He was about 3 1/2 before he could do it.  He didn't have the muscle strength or the ability to coordinate the muscles in his mouth.  We practiced for months and months with different kinds of cups and different consistencies of liquid to help him learn.  Watching Luke grow & develop has been such a different journey than with Isaac.  As a parent, you experience so much joy from the simplest little things that your child learns or accomplishes.  Each discovery or development is so exciting!  But on the flip side of that, when you have a child that is not developing on track the amount of heartache, worry, and despair you feel with each missed milestone is just as great.  We had some really rough years when Isaac was younger, but we are so thankful for how far he has come.  He did eventually meet most of those milestones - just on his own time.  And to see Luke learn simple things that required so much effort with Isaac, brings such a huge feeling of relief.  

Tonight my friend Jodie invited me to a huge Lululemon warehouse sale in LA.  The sale doesn't start until tomorrow but tonight they had an event for employees only, and they could each bring a guest.  I felt so flattered and lucky that she chose me!  Charlie came home from work a bit early so Jodie & I could make it up there in time and be there when the doors opened.  It was kind of overwhelming and definitely a bit of a treasure hunt, but I found some great pieces.  I went a little overboard.  You know when people start going all crazy the hysteria can be contagious!  Anyway, I got a few things for myself, a few for Charlie, and the rest I will sell on EBay.

September 11, 2013

We have to wait to pick up Isaac on the Kindergarten playground after school.  But kids (younger siblings) are not allowed to play on the equipment without teacher supervision (liability reasons I'm sure).  So poor Luke is just dying to go play on the slide and instead I have to hold him back and listen to his pitiful cries.  Hopefully it will get easier as the year goes on.  Today I promised him we would go to the park instead.  They both liked that idea.  

Later this evening I was mixing up some cookie dough (I am bringing cookies for a funeral luncheon on Friday - tragic death of a young father who was the son of a woman I used to VT), and Luke was sitting on the counter watching.  When Charlie came home from work he decided to hose off the front porch and that was suddenly much more interesting than the cookies.  Isaac wanted to watch too.  

September 10, 2013

Today was Isaac's first day of Kindergarten!  He was mostly excited but a little bit nervous because he is worried about having to do lots of "paperwork" this year.  (His preschool teacher told him last year that there would be a lot more sitting and writing when he went to Kindergarten.)  I assured him that he probably wouldn't have to do much paperwork on the first day and that seemed to ease his mind a bit.

His teacher is Mrs. Hurwitz.  I was able to meet her a few times last year and I really like her and am glad that Isaac got to be in her class.  I had to say goodbye to Isaac at the door and didn't get to go into the classroom.  Instead Luke & I had to go to a Back to School parent meeting.  I hope they didn't say anything too important, or that's not in the packet, because Luke kept trying to run away (he wanted to play outside) and my best attempts to entertain him with toys, snacks, and the iPad were simply not working.  We left early.  

When I picked Isaac up after school (he apparently hadn't spotted me yet in this photo), he said that his first day was "awesome" and he loved it.  But as I started asking him more questions he quickly changed his tune and decided that he didn't like it after all.  Oh no.  He said they made him sing nursery rhymes and he doesn't like nursery rhymes because he is not a baby!  But luckily the only "paperwork" was drawing a picture of a bear.  Overall I would say the first day was a success.

September 9, 2013

This photo is kind of embarrassing, but I apparently forgot all about 365 today and it is the only one that I took.  Well actually there is one more that shows even more bites, but it's also a little more revealing.  I was snapping this to send to Mikael to show the millions of mosquito bites that I have all over.  When we were standing at the start line waiting for the race, we were attacked by huge swarms of mosquitos.  Like hundreds or maybe thousands of them, everywhere!  Even with constant swatting and smacking I could not keep them off of me.  And for the first four or five miles there several more swarms that I had to run through.  When I got home tonight I counted 52 bites.  So gross!  And itchy.

September 8, 2013

I wish we had taken this photo in better lighting (and maybe with my camera instead of my phone) but with 5 kids and a dog all holding still for 10 seconds, I'll take it!  We went to Chris & Carly's house for dinner tonight and then the kids all played together for a long time afterwards.  Ginny is really great with Luke.  Isaac & Lucy played together really well on this trip too.  And both girls love Cracker.  Asher is a little scared of him, but Cracker likes to follow Asher around because he quickly figured out that Asher drops food!  

September 7, 2013

When we came to Utah in July I started talking with Chris (Charlie's twin) about some of the races he had done because I was thinking of running a 1/2 marathon sometime soon.  Last year he and another brother Tyler ran the Little Grand Canyon 1/2.  It sounded like an awesome course so I put it on my calendar and then decided I probably wouldn't be going back to Utah that soon and forgot all about it.  When I double checked my calendar this week to make sure I wasn't forgetting anything in California I noticed the race I had marked on Saturday.  Could I do it?  I had not been training, but I have been running regularly and felt I was in pretty good shape, so why not?  I registered on Tuesday night to run on Saturday morning.  I was nervous about it, but in the end I am so glad I did it!  Chris was so nice to drive me out there and wait at the finish line to cheer me on.  I finished in 1:48 with an 8:16 pace, and 5th place for women.  I loved the race and am tempted to do it again next year - but to maybe actually train for it next time.

September 6, 2013

Is Utah the only state that has fry sauce?  My favorite fry sauce has always been at Taco Amigo.  It's a whole in the wall little drive-thru in Pleasant Grove.  I think what makes me love it so much is the nostalgia of going there with my Grandma.  My family moved to Utah the summer before my Senior year of high school.  I spent a lot of time with my Grandma that summer and one of the fun things we would do was to drive to Taco Amigo and get a root beer freeze.  Anyway, I wanted to go here for lunch today and my parents, my sister Lisa, and my Grandma came along too.  When we arrived we were pleasantly surprised to see my aunt Kay & my two cousins already eating at a table.  It's a family favorite!

September 5, 2013

Usually when we go to Utah we are pretty rushed trying to see all of our family in every part of the state.  This trip was nice because I had a little more time and was able to see some friends too.  It was really last minute, but Erin and I figured out a time to get together and then we thought it would be fun to invite some of our other old roommates over too.  Melissa & Alena were so great to drop everything and come hang out!  Rebecca was teaching her pre-school and couldn't make it, and everyone else lives out of state.  But it was so fun to get together with these girls and catch up.  Thanks for hosting us Erin!

September 4, 2013

After a really long long day in the car, these boys needed to burn off some energy!  After dinner we drove over to a park near my parents house to let Isaac and Luke play.  They had races down the slides and ran all around on the grass.  My parents haven't spent a lot of time around my boys and they seemed a little surprised at the energy (and noise) level, but they had fun playing with them.  

September 3, 2013

Today was a little crazy.  Since I decided last night to leave for Utah tomorrow morning, I had lots of packing and getting ready to do today.  Charlie dropped me off at the airport this evening to pick up a rental car (van) and then came home and started the dinner.  This is an easy meal that my mom used to make when we were kids - little pizzas on English muffins.  Isaac is a weird-o and doesn't like pizza, but if he helps make it then he will sometimes eat it.  Both boys always like standing on a chair in the kitchen to help with or watch anything that's being made.  They especially like watching the popcorn popper.  We had that for dinner too.  Popcorn and pizza.  Why not?