ADDIE

Our little Loula Bean is about 19 months old. She has lots of hair for pig tails that curl right under, but her hair doesn't seem to grow on top. People keep telling me if I cut the hair it will start to grow faster, but there is nothing there to cut! She loves all things girlie...shoes, makeup (she pretends to use mine), headbands, necklaces, etc. Jack is actually getting her to be interested in trains too. She loves to go with us to the depot to watch trains go by. She waves and squeals and says, "Hi cwane!" She'll walk around the house saying,"All aboard, woo woo." She is in to everything! The bathroom and bedroom doors are locked at all times. She likes to read books more now. She used to just run around while we read with Jack. Now she'll sit for some of it, and bring us books that she wants to read. She is a little daredevil at the park. She thinks she can do whatever the big kids do. It scares me a little. I'm trying really hard to let her try things out because I think I held Jack back a little bit, but sometimes its really hard to watch without freaking out.

Addie's words:

-Addie want nana

-(about Grammy going bye bye to TX) No bye texas!

-whenever she wants Eric, she'll say, Help my daddy.

-when she wants something you have she'll say, Addie's now, Addie wants, or Addie one (she says please too, but she has to be reminded)

-she can say anything you ask her to say, and she WILL repeat anything you don't want her to.

-My favorites are: bless you, love you (which sounds more like ya oo), taste you drink (i like when she uses 'sentences')

JACK

He is 3 years old. He started Sunbeams this year, and has already given a talk. He thought it was so cool and is dying to give another one. He's potty trained and doesn't use a juice cup anymore. He still sucks his thumb and loves his blankie. He likes to clean the bathroom toilet to earn money so he can give it to his cousins. We're trying to explain to him that he can use it for other things, but he really loves to have a quarter for Colse and Griff every time he sees them. He loves to play with friends and is always excited about the possibilities of meeting new kids at the park. He gets really sad when we are leaving and he realizes he forgot to say, "my name is jack, what's your name." He practices a lot. Still loves trains, but may be growing up a little bit. Some of you may not know, but Jack thinks he IS a train. He liked to be called real train or Puffer Pete. However, the other day he said to me, "Mom, my nap turned me into a kid!" And he told Eric, "You can only ride on trains, you can't be a train." He asks to watch Polar Express everyday (something that started a couple of weeks ago when it was snowing). I let him watch once, but something just doesn't feel right about watching a Christmas movie in May. He asked me last week if it was Christmas time again. I explained that we still haven't had summer, and snow doesn't mean Christmas.

Jack's quotes:

-Daddy, I like your money.

-Mom, come quick I need to show you something! (looking out the window -May 24) Winter!! (it snowed all day)

-Mom...( I say, what Jack?) I wasn't talking to you, I was talking to myself!

-Addie, can you say breakfast (Addie says breakfast) Mom, I taught Addie to talk!

2 Day Vacation

I hate Park City during the Sundance Film Festival. You have all of these people running around trying to see celebrities or trying to act like them and it is suffocating downtown. But, if you go when it is out of ski season in the middle of the week with your wife. It's pretty fun. We have been incredibly bad about taking pictures lately but did manage to snap off a few, none of which have us in them and they are kind of random. Thanks to Mom Asay for watching the kids so we could split for a night I think we both really needed the short break!

The Art of Manliness

Does anyone else tend to feel like the world is lacking men? I mean real men, not these Justin Timberlake types that are more concerned with the maintenance of their manicure than their tire pressure. You look around and the scene, at least as I see it, is pretty dismal. No one knows how to do anything in they way of skills - real skills, not video game hand eye coordination, but more like cleaning a fish or handling a gun or using a compass. No one has the gentlemanly manners that used to exist. The world is full of d-bag types who treat their wives and children like garbage and are perpetually concerned with the sole idea of what they can get or do for themselves. It is kind of ugly out there. And, I think is one of the reasons for the ultimate decline of our society as a whole.

I kind of stumbled upon a website that is founded for the purpose of solving these problems.

The Art of Manliness

It has some great articles about manly things - truly manly things. Most men's magazines are concerned with your next helicopter purchase or extravagant vacation or how to finally get those 6-pack abs. This is far more practical than that. By the way, I do not intend to make the statement that I am the answer incarnate to these problems. There are many, many things that I cannot do or know nothing about. Too many to list. I just thought I would pass this along.

Books

I remember vividly my mother reading to me often as a child. I honestly don't remember how she found the time to, things were pretty hectic in those days, but I definitely remember sitting next to her on the couch and reading. My Aunt Jeri (who is a librarian) has always given us books as presents for as long as I can remember, which books we are now able to read to our kids. I have always enjoyed reading but have never been much of a reader until the past couple of years in which time I've been trying to play catch up. (My amazon wish list is about to break 300 and I tend to add about a book every other day)

Sarah and I have talked at length about how we want to read to our kids consistently (we do a pretty good job), have our kids read well and enjoy doing it. I know that when our kids are school age things get increasingly busy and time for reading is scarce. Since many of you have children that are older than ours I was hoping that you would share your insights on how to help kids have a self-sustained love of reading. Also I am trying to amass a Thomas Jefferson quality library which will also include intermediate level books. What books do you think should be on the list? What did you love reading when you were in school?

Funny Video

They're making fun of church but really this could pass for any SNL episode or night show.

"Sunday's Coming" Movie Trailer from North Point Media on Vimeo.

Happy Mother's Day!

This is my darling baby girl...

Like any parents, we think she's the cutest little girlie ever. I love her chubby little cheeks and how squeezable she is. And even though I complain that she's not growing any hair on top of her head (just a sweet little mullet down the back), I secretly love it because I can fix her hair the same way every day...I'm not that creative.

So, with such a long blogging hiatus (I haven't posted since October), you're probably wondering...why are you posting again? The purpose of this post is to document today's happenings while I'm in a good mood and able to laugh about it all. It helps too that I've read similar stories on everyone else's blogs, so I know we're not alone.

I was determined to have a lovely, stress-free mother's day, so yesterday I made Eric give Jack a haircut and I set out his Sunday clothes so that he would look super handsome on Sunday when the Primary kids sang to their moms (he did so great, by the way. he was beaming and looking so proud, and he actually knew the words to the songs!). Then I chose my favorite dress of Addie's because she looks so cute in it with her chubby little legs and bouncy little pig tails. I even went shopping and bought a frozen dinner so Eric could cook ;)! This morning, I had the kids all dressed and I was just fixing my hair when Eric got home from his meetings. He gets home just in time to pick us up and go back to church. Usually, I'm running a little behind and we are a little late for church, but today I made sure we were all set. I heard Eric ask Jack...Where's Addie? Jack says she's downstairs, and something in me just didn't believe it. I told Eric he better look in our room (which is usually locked, but I didn't lock it again the last time I left because Addie hadn't gone near it all morning). He walked in and I hear a pause and then a calm...Addie, you are in so much trouble. Little missy had emptied a bottle of black paint (non washable) all over the carpet, her dress, shoes, our clean sheets, some other clothes, the wall, the baseboard, and the craft boxes...


Eric managed to get a lot of the paint out of the carpet (which really amazed me...thank you resolve!), and it came out of her shoes too, thank goodness because they are her favorites. But the dress, clothes, and sheets are ruined.

The really frustrating thing is that while we were cleaning up her mess she got into my makeup, then climbed on the kitchen table, then ate my receipts, and on and on. I had to put her in her crib so we could finish cleaning up, and hopefully stay sane. Thank goodness that girl is so dang cute, it makes it easy to love her just as much as we always have.

How well do you know your geography?

Sometime in the middle of the week I usually go on a bunch of inspections for work which usually means several hours in the truck with a co-worker, Rob. Today that meant 12 hours in the truck (Wyoming is quite spread out) and he asked me if I could name all of the states. I felt pretty confident that I could and even bet him next week's lunch over it. He whipped out his laptop and started typing and counting all of the states that I said. I got to 49 and hit the wall. (I never learned the stupid states in alphabetical order so I was going by the map in my head) I couldn't come up with Wisconsin. Anyway, it frustrated me so I came home and found this quiz

http://www.lizardpoint.com/fun/geoquiz/usaquiz.html

I got a perfect score when I took it and could see all of the states in front of me. One of my fears is that one day I will be interviewed by someone like Jay Leno when he is "Jay Walking" and be that total idiot who can't say the pledge or name our first president or something. How sharp is your American geography? There are other quizzes at this site too for other parts of the world. It's pretty embarrassing for me, especially in the Asia quiz. 

I'm confused

There is a store here in Evanston where you can buy chickens, ducks and rabbits in the spring time. I really thought this price tag was misleading.