1,2,3,4

Like I said, yesterday was Williams birthday. I can't believe he has been here four years already but then at the same time it is really hard to remember my life without him. Here are some picture of him at every age.

0

1

2

3

4

There are no words to describe what it has been like to watch this boy grow so I won't even try. He teaches me everyday and has made me grow so much as a person. Plus he makes me laugh a lot - like when he was climbing off the bathroom counter and did not realize the toilet lid was up. I heard him yell out and ran to the bathroom to find his leg in the *clean* toilet and his hands on the ground. Luckily he did not get hurt and after we cleaned him off I started to chuckle (because it is kinda funny). When he asked why I was laughing I told him I thought it was silly that his foot was in the toilet and he got a very serious look on his face and said, "we don't put legs in the toilet - that's gross." and walked out of the room. At least I taught him one thing right.

Thank you for loving me and telling me (unprompted) everyday. You'll never know how much I love you back - until you have a child of your own.

Today...

...is William's birthday. Russ is in Prescott hunting and I am in Snowflake attending the sealing of my Grandparents. The kids are at Russ' parent's house. Don't worry - we celebrated William's birthday yesterday and his birthday party is next week.
Let's hope Russ will have more success hunting this weekend then he did last weekend. All he caught last weekend was a lot of dirt in his eyes from riding the quad. (He is 95% sure he shot a quail but could not find it anywhere).And this is what they looked like the next day. Let's also hope that this is his last hunting trip EVER!

Happy Halloween

from Batman, Robin, Poison Ivy, and Catwoman

Adventures in Carousel riding

Today we went to ride the carousel. William - excuse me, I mean Batman - wanted to ride the tiger again. And Gracie, who had only ever wanted to hug the animals while in my arms, rode a zebra with no complaint. Wait - that is not true she would complain if I tried to touch her. So my arms had to hover behind her where she could not see.and she insisted on riding with her left side lower than her right. If I tried to straighten her she would stiffen her whole body in protest and slide right back to this position. She rode the whole way the way.We also got some Nielsons custard (I got a veggie grinder and I highly recomend them).SharingSo happy.
Today has been a good day.

Welcome to the planet

Mr. Matthew
Isn't my newest nephew adorable with that double chin?

Hows it goin'?...it's goin'.

I realized I haven't posted in awhile and not just because I am busy (I am busy) but because I have not felt like there way anything I needed to post. This last week has been a crazy whirlwind and I thought I should have some sort of documentation for it. So here it is, the brief overview of the last week.

• Friday - Russ finished his internship at the outpatient Kempton Physical Therapy. It was a place that he really liked and it was nice that is was close enough to us that he could get there in 3 min. on his bike. I spent all day on the phone with moving truck companies and stressing over how we were going to move all our stuff down from Flagstaff. When Russ gets home at 7:00pm (something I will not miss about Kempton PT) we decided that Connie would watch our kiddos and we would leave that night to go to Prescott.
• Saturday - Wake up in Prescott after an enjoyable late night of catching up with our friends Chris and Brittany. Russ and Chris are already gone scouting and the rest of us go to the swap meet and I got a few treasures. After watching Trenton's soccer game and lunch Russ and I head off to our apt in Flag and start packing.
• Sunday - we wake up and pack some more. Then we went to our first ward in Flagstaff for Sacrament meeting and realized how much we loved that ward. Then we went home and packed until we were done. I was getting really nervous that all our stuff was NOT going to fit in a 12' truck and some stuff would get left behind.
• Monday - wake up and start cleaning the apt and packing some more. 10:00 we go to pick up our Penske (recommended) 12' truck. The guy brings us a 16' truck and I feel some excitement and am tempted not to say anything but when it is brought up that it is the wrong size truck the guys says that this is all they had some when got it for the same price. I walk around feeling extremely happy and blessed. Now packing can go much faster with out the stress of arranging everything just so, so that it will fit. And that is what we did the rest of the day. Load! We left around 6:00 pm I in the car and Russ in the truck. On the way home I got call about some scary news about my sister in law and the baby she is expecting in 20 weeks. I had a prayer in my heart the whole way home. (She is now home and on bed rest praying that she won't get an infection). When I got home my feet hurt and both my kids were asleep in their beds.
• Tuesday - I woke up to see my kids! I missed them. My brother and mom and dad help us move out into the house we hope we will be renting. They are letting us keep our stuff there until we find out for sure, I will post about it when it is more sure, but lets just say I am real excited. I also witness a crazy police chase that ended up on my moms neighborhood. Crazy.
• Wednesday - We return the moving truck, did rearranging, errand, and Pushing Daisies - ahhh refreshing.
• Thursday - we went to the mall, watched my niece Vaeh, got Russ' scrubs for his next internship (highway robbery what they charge for those things) and I worked some more on my Halloween dress.
• Friday - I go looking for second hand scrubs and other things and buy stuff so Russ can take off around 1:00 to go to Prescott to hunt (no comment). I take the kids to Ikea for lunch (we were close to it because I had to drop Russ off at the car he was taking to Prescott) and found a great duvet cover in the as is section that I will be using to make something really fun, but that is for another day.
• Saturday (today) I just got back from making and taking lunch to the band and crew for this benefit concert. Then we are headed off to my moms to work on some stuff and then I am leaving my kids there so I can go to this concert all by myself.

*funny how at the beginning of this post I used the word "brief".

**my favorite part of this week was the time I spent alone with Russ. Even though, it was not a relaxing vacation, I like to work with him and it was nice just to be with him.

Hello Curly Q

Here is a video of one of Gracie's new words.

And look at these cute little curls. They don't stay too long. As soon as she lays down, rubs her head on me, or plays in the cloths hanging in my closet they almost disappear. Only a small curl on the end remains. I still love trying to do it everyday though.

Look at these cheeks!!!!

Carvey

(photo by William)

Meet Carvey, our Jack-o-lantern. We carved him a few says ago. I love that William named him Carvey, I think it is quite creative. I got some more pumpkins. I can't help myself I LOVE them. We will see if I get around to carving them. William wanted a happy pumpkin and Russ obliged.

I especially love this one. It was called a fairytale pumpkin - I had to buy it. I love it so much I am thinking of shellacking it so I can keep it forever. Would that work?

Never Fear! Batman and Robin are...

...playing Candyland.
Russ tried on the Robin costume to make sure it fit and William was already in his boots and mask (like always). William got so excited he started to jump around and said, "Okay Robin, should we do something?" "Sure", said Russ, "What should we do?" William then said very excitedly, "should we play candyland?"


Since these guys are going to be Batman and Robin, Gracie and I are going to be Poison Ivy, and Cat Woman (which basically means and black kitty, which works out well cause the LOVES kitties). And don't worry this Poison Ivy will be wearing a dress, NOT a leotard. Actually I need to go get sewing on that dress right now.

A long day

Last Thursday was a long day and because we also had a long weekend and I was sick for part of it I am just posting about it now. The day started off with a trip to the mall to ride the carousel but it was broken so we went down to the book store.

Here is William with Carter reading Batman books, they are both going to be Batman for Halloween.
Here is Gracie collecting as many stuffed animals, or "sha" things, as she can find...then piling them on my lap and laying on them.After Russ came home from work we decided to go to the Temple visitor center. I think the kids really enjoyed it. While William was looking at the statue he said, "Jesus takes care of us." Then he followed with "but he doesn't take care of our sunglasses", the item he was holding in his hands at that moment.Why daddy loves overallsThen we left to go thrift store shopping for Halloween costumes. Now that William has decided on Batman (by decided I mean that it is one of the MANY costumes he has said he wanted and since I have an adult Robin costume to my disposal that is what it will stay.) We got lucky. Below is a picture of him in our findings. We also found a suit, but it is too big so I will have to take it in. I don't think he cares about the suit though. I think he would be happy with just a "cipe". He can't for the life of him remember that it is called a cape.

Here he is driving the Bat mobile while watching the movie and using what I got for my costume as a steering wheel. Any guess who I am going to be?After our successful trip to the thrift store we stopped by Russ brothers house to drop of some poster board so that my talented niece could draw some posters for William's birthday party. Then we headed down the street to visit with Russ mom and let the kids play with toys for awhile. Here is Gracie getting her hair all nice staticy.Like I said, it was a loooong, but happy day.

Playing with Penelope

This last weekend we spent mostly at my parents because my cousin, Chris, and his wife, Darcey, and their little girl Penelope were in town. The kids had a great time and I loved seeing them too. Penelope is such a doll.

Chris about to play rock band holding Penelope but discovered that would not work
Luckily she discovered the extra microphones with William.

And when they got tired singing, Chris picked right up and we learned how well he can multitask.
I wish Idaho was closer.

Oh my Grace

I decided I had to sit down and write about the change that I have been seeing in our little family. The change is this little Gracie girl. Remember when she used to look like this? (photo taken by Jamelle, thanks!)

It is no secret that children grow up fast - way too fast. Many times the change is gradual and since it is always right in front of your face sometimes it is hard to see. You just look at an old photo and think of an old memory and wonder where the time went. Well the past week or so I have seen the change. Gracie is starting to talk and the words she can say are more everyday. She says Mama, Dada, Whi-wa (William), qwa-qwa (cracker), ma (milk), nana (banana - or any other fruit in the fruit bowl), ho-do (hold you), sha (soft), ni-nite, bee (blankie), choo-choo, sh-shoe (shoe or other articles of clothing), diap-ee (diaper), peese (please), ah-dah (all done), and probably more that I can not think of right now.
It is amazing what a difference it is that she can communicate with me with words and body language. Man is she a spit fire. She squints her eyes when she does not like something and hits and waves her arm about hitting anything in her way. The other day when I told her not to get huffy she bowed her head and sobbed. Now when she starts swinging (it is usually at my face while I am holding her) I say, "soft". Then she repeats me and calms down.


She brings me books to read to her all the time and she always backs her little self up to my lap, she HAS to be in my lap while I read her a book. She says "mow mow" when she sees a cat. In one of her stories it says that the mother bear kisses her baby bears head and Gracie always leans in and kisses the book.
(Here she is after backing herself up into my lap that is loaded with all the animals she could carry and a couple of balloons and pointing out the bears "no", you would probably call it a nose)

The other night during a family pre-bed wrestling session I realized that our family would be so incomplete without her little pop belly on top of the dog pile and without the sounds of her little squeal. Squeal on my dear.

New Buddy

My friend Amanda called me up last week and told about a kids club that meets at the mall and gets to ride the big carousel on Thursdays for free. This is a pretty huge carousel so it is kinda a big deal. We decided to go and it was a lot of fun. William really wanted the tiger and luckily no kid got on it before him. Here he is getting ready to go.Pure Joy.Amanda has a little boy named Carter that is Williams age and they have become good friends.The next day Carter and his sister Kiley came over and they brought worms!
They got them for their garden and the kids had a lot of fun looking at them and counting them. Carter did most of the picking up and William would poke at them a little. They all liked watching them squirm. You can see a cute video here.Today we went over to Carters house and then did a little thrift shopping for some holiday books, ate lunch at chick-fil-a and just had a fun day. William DID NOT want to go home and told me that they whole way home and Gracie zonked out in the car. It has been a good day.