Eli at 8 months!

He's growing fast...too fast! He wants to walk and be off his knees so bad. I think the motivation comes from his desire to keep up with  his older sibling OR keep away from them! Either way, he's a skinny little thing that looks way too little to be pre-walking!

I love how his right leg always makes a statement...it's such a huge step!

If he's close enough to latch on to my pant legs than watch out! He'll pull up quickly to a standing position and beg for help, which isn't always convenient. Sometimes I find myself in a predicament with him latched to my legs and my hands full- and just stuck until he decides to move... I am trying to decide whether having him walking soon will make things easier or harder. I just don't know if I am ready to have 3 toddlers!

But we sure love him. He's so happy and so great to have in our family!

May Fools

Have you heard of May Fools' Day? It's kinda like April Fool's. We were the only ones in on it this year......

This is the view from our backyard:

 See that building behind us? This is the church we attend. This is literally the walk we make each Sunday:

Just a little stroll. The kids love it. It's so nice being close! 

We had it nice, until yesterday when we were told our ward is getting moved to the stake center to make room for a new singles ward to meet in this building. 

So for kicks, Brian- and his great sense of humor- put this outside our house in the front yard as people were headed to work this morning: 

We had a bunch of calls from people in the ward wondering what was going on, worried about us and all....until I told them it was just our way of celebrating april fools' day a month and a half late! They laughed. I love how Brian still makes me smile over things like this! 

Backyard Fun!

It's finally completed! The kids are just ecstatic about their new play fort and swing set. The squeals and laughs of happiness are music to my ears! I hope they get plenty of playtime on it this summer. So far  it's the first thing they want to in the morning (before breakfast and while still in p.j.'s) and the last thing before going to bed...."just one more slide?!?" Zoey woke up from her nap the other day and this was the first thing from her lips, "I want to swing." They LOVE it.

Hopefully they know how much their dad loves them, because he built the whole thing (and how much their mom loves them, because let's face it, it was my idea :) .

We thought we could have it done in a day or two, but it took more like two weeks! Weather dampened the progress and Brian travelled in between nails, screws, and posts....but it finally is completed and we are all the happier for it! You can't see it in these pictures, but he also put together a teeter totter (it's in the shape of an airplane and really cute). The blue baby swing (hanging in the wrong direction for now) was a purchase I made back when Jack was a baby- we lost the tree I intended to hang it from. But I kept it all these years and now we get to use it for Eli and any others after him!

Easter

Easter was fantastic. Sacrament meeting was wonderful. We had a lamb dinner and did the Easter Story on a flannel board (it had taken me all week to pull together). As always, the Easter story was so touching.  Easter is as big around our house as Christmas in the respect to the importance of it all. 

 Saturday was spent doing the egg hunts at the grandparents' and enjoying time with family. It was a great occasion!

Mock Emergency Week

I was browsing the web, looking for something for Primary, when I came across a website that suggested going on a "mock emergency week." I decided to give it a try. Two rules: you couldn't go out grocery shopping to "stock-up" beforehand (simulating a disaster where you cannot make it to the grocery store OR you find the store has been looted prior to you making it there), and you could only use what you had in your home (fridge, freezer, pantry, food storage).

I had bananas on my counter. I had in my fridge 6 eggs, 1 1/2 gallons of milk, sour cream, some cheese, a green pepper, carrots, green onion, potatoes...not a whole lot. My freezer had some baby food, ground beef, frozen veggies and other random stuff. The pantry had basics, cereal, crackers, pasta, etc. The bulk of my meals came from our food storage.

Brian and I had spent a lot of time working on our food storage a while back, but we never really gave it a trial run....this was the perfect opportunity. Although, I do have to say that we had all the conveniences of electricity and gas to be able to cook our food as usual. Maybe next time I try this we'll go off the grid for an added challenge!

Our menu consisted of items such as whole wheat pancakes, cornmeal pancakes, wheat bread for sandwiches, chili, chicken tetrazzini, hawaiian haystacks, shepherd's pie, peach cobbler, jello ice cream, and chicken soup.

It was pretty easy the first few days. I heard comments like: "This is a food storage meal?" The kids liked everything I made, which is good to know. It progressively got harder as the week wore on. By Thursday night, we ran out of milk. It was hard to hear my kids ask for more milk or for a drink of milk and not be able to give it to them. I also noticed how fast we went through produce and cheese. I was craving fruit more than I thought I would. And I really wanted some cheddar cheese. I guess that's why the saying goes, "You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone"

The thing we learned from this experience is that 1) we have an awesome 3 month supply and a fairly good 1 year supply of basics 2) we know how we ought to scale our recipes in the future to feed the right amount of people 3) we are more aware of what we want to bulk our food storage up with (I'd really like to learn how to wax my own cheese, so I can store it on the shelf!).  It was a great time of year to do this too: end of the winter when our produce put up from last fall was low, and we didn't have the convenience of our garden to supplement our meals....it gave us a good idea of how things "might" be should anything disastrous happen.... Give it a try!!

Jackson's 4th Birthday

 Jackson asked for a Thomas the Tank Engine Party this year. This was the cake we made him; my sister came over to help decorate it and we had a lot of fun putting it together! Complete with trains, village, train tracks, bridge, mountains and a waterfall. I printed the village off on cardstock and stuck it on the frosting at the very end. 

 He had a wonderful day. I asked him what made him feel special and he said the balloons... because they were a surprise. He liked them so much he wanted to go to sleep holding his balloon. A few hours later, I went back in to check on him and he was still clenching his balloon!  (I snuck the balloon away at that point for safety and he got it back this morning).  

He asked for "red mountains" for his birthday, so we found a gorgeous picture of the St. George temple with the red mountains as the backdrop...he loved it. He also got a kid camera, a couple of lego Thomas trains, the Lightning Mcqueen shirt he is wearing, a plane and some cars for his birthday. He was so excited for his birthday and enjoyed having the family over to celebrate with him. 

I can't believe he is 4 years old! I feel like I have been a mother longer than that! But then again, it feels like he was born not that long ago. 

We LOVE having him in our family and adds such a special part to our lives. He is beginning to be very helpful around the house and will do most things he is asked. He loves his brother Eli to pieces and loves to make him laugh. He is very smart and social and loves Primary and school.  He is also very sneaky and a negotiator, and this can get him into trouble at times! But he is mostly very tender hearted and can get his feelings hurt easily. Although he loves TV, he gets scared very easily too, so I have to be careful of what he watches (even Disney can get a little intense at times for him).  He loves things to be "just so" (very routined and doesn't like disruption from that), cornmeal pancakes, the lower case "j'' instead of the uppercase "J", keeping all his schoolwork, sleeping with the light on, hiding from dad when he comes home from work, building things, and making messes :) 

Thanks for making me a mom Jackson! 

Snow Canyon

We took a trip to snow canyon this past weekend. It was a lot of fun and now Jackson is asking for "red mountians" for his birthday....hmmm, I'll have to think about how that wish can be fulfilled!

Zoey and Jackson just had a blast, and we loved hearing comments like these throughout the trip:

"I have loved these mountains all my life!" Zoey
"Those are the mountians I love, those are the mountains I have been looking for!" Jackson, upon seeing the "red mountians" for the first time.
"I am a rocker climber!" Zoey
"It's morning! I hear birds outside, it's morning!!" Jackson at cerca 5am
"I want a smarshmellow" Zoey
"Mom, I peeded!" Zoey- after which she drug her pants arund her ancles through pee-mud to show me. yuk!

We were so busy having fun that we were all worn out and ready to get home. Nothing feels better than a good nights rest in your own bed, especially after camping! I can't remember when the last time I slept so well!

Here are some pictures of our fun:

We had so much fun, that I frequently forgot my camera, so these are just a few shots I did manage to get. But jackson went rock climbing in a full body harness and he loved it! They also went caving, to the sand dunes, hiking and scrambling. They were never bored! 

Eli's 7 month update

Well, almost 7 months. He's a week short of it officially, but he has had two major accomplishments this month. As a proud parent, I'm excited to share all things that make our life so fun at this stage...as small as they may seem to anyone else!

Crawling and sitting alone!! I love how simple things like a spoon can be so motivating....

 oops....missed the mouth!




 Oh..there it is.

Way to go Eli! I'm still wondering where your top teeth are?!? Anyway, these were taken first thing in the morning, so the light isn't very good and the house is not picked up...but oh well!

Just for fun, here is a video!

Lake Las Vegas

We had an awesome family vacation at Lake Las Vegas last week. It was so overdue! 

if you asked Jackson, he would say his favorite thing we did was ride a boat. Zoey would say the 

poo-wa (pool). For me, it was seeing the kids so excited over all the little things. I think we could have stayed longer. The kids didn't want to go home, and Zoey woke up this morning determined to wear her swimsuit (yes, even with snow on the ground). She settled for walking around the house with her floatie instead :)

So, a lot of pictures, and not a lot of writing. Just know that we are tanner than when we left! The weather was in the 80's and 90's and we LOVED every minute. It was nice to have a fun place to go that wasn't too far away, and the resort was really family friendly. All we needed was right there on site. We didn't have to go to the strip once. 

We took an excursion to see hoover dam and the new bridge. It was really impressive. 

 We did a lot of swimming. The kids didn't want to do much else! The resort had 2 pools, water slide, and a white-sand beach, sports court, minature golf, bike riding, boat rental, etc.. This was the view outside our room:

happy family = happy mom!

The kids looking up at a tall palm tree

This was where the kids liked to start their day...the white sand beach. Zoey thought it was snow :)

It was a perfect place to get hot before jumping into the pool. The lake is swimmable, but it was still a little cold for the kids. I'm sure it would be perfect later in the year. The pool was just the right temperature for us. Even Eli took his first swim..it took him a bit to get use to it, but he did end up really liking it.  

A lot of swimming led to a lot of this:  

We wore them out! 

 We stopped in St. George for lunch on the temple grounds and for a break on way home and in between sessions. It was a great vacation. Can we do it again?!?! I can't wait for warm weather!

Eli is 6 months!

I love this photo because in my mind I can hear the sound coming from his mouth and it makes me happy! If you look (really) close, you can see budding teeth coming through!

This month has been a month of big "firsts" for Eli. I will try to record a few:

1) first big illness (RSV) followed by his
2) first trip back to the hospital!
3) first tooth... followed by his second, third and fourth (all on the bottom row!)
4) first taste of avocado, mango, salmon, broccoli, prunes, (and sadly to admit...ice cream). He loves them all! A little non-traditional baby food items, but he just begs for solids of any sort, and sometimes this is all I have to give him when a hunger craving hits.
5) first family vacation...lake Las Vegas.
6) first time to meet Elmo and Judy, he loves them too!
7) first crawl! yup, he has the crawling thing down (backwards, but hey....he will soon get the forward thing. I can see he is very close)!

He is a great little boy and we love his skinny booty to pieces!