Gavin and "The Girls"

It may not seem like much now, but Gavin carried this bag with the now popped balloon EVERYWHERE for the last several days.

He had been having a couple of rough weeks of not wanting to go to nursery for some strange reason. Although with the playdough in there I know I would have wanted to stay!!!

So his sweet nursery teachers decided to come during the week and let him see them outside of the nursery environment to see if he would get used to them and want to come again. They brought him this gift bag with the balloon, crayons and a Spider-Man coloring book. He wouldn't look at them and when he did he was embarrassed and would only smile and stick his tongue out(he does that when he's embarrassed). As they were getting ready to leave he snuck over and looked in the bag to see what was in there and LOVED his gift.

For the next several days that bag did not leave his sight - whether we were at home or in the car! It was a fight to get him to keep it in the car while we went into the store!! Now the balloon is popped and the bag is flattened but he still loves that bag.

Now you're wondering where "the girls" phrase comes in. Whenever Steve and I asked where he got that bag, he'd say "From the girls."

"Well, where do you see the girls?"

"Nursery."

"Are you going to go play with them on Sunday?"

"NO"

This went on for a few days with always the answer of "the girls" and an emphatic NO to the prospect of going to nursery.

Well, the results were positive and he went to nursery today! He did hold on tightly to Daddy's finger for a second but was thrilled to see the bubble machine and life was good! He was happy and grinning when he came to me after church. So thanks to his sweet teachers that went out of their way to get my little boy to nursery!!! Next on our list? Teach him their names. ;)

Blue Bunny

Now that I've gotten the "our basement flooded again" out of my system, I have some really fun pictures to show. We were in St. George last weekend and went to Blue Bunny for ice cream. We were there with Steve's sister and her family. We had lots of fun and lots of messes to clean up - mostly coming from Gavin's sundae!!

Steve enjoyed his banana split!

Jakob had a sundae with chocolate ice cream and chocolate sprinkles

Andy had about the same thing, only not as much chocolate

Poor Ashley was getting a cold so she was a little miserable but sure enjoyed her "1 scoop" anyway!

Ethan even got in on the action and enjoyed my bananas. He yelled at me when I wasn't getting the bites to him fast enough!!!

And then there's Gavin. Oh how he LOVED his sundae!!! So much that he couldn't wait to get the spoon into the ice cream and up to his mouth - so he just shoved his face into the bowl!!! These are my favorites of the pictures I took that night! Although everyone else was fun too. :)

Oh What a Day

Today started out like any other day. Wake up, pull the wire off your finger. Oh wait, that's not normal. They had me do an oxygen test for sleeping because I'm always tired. I'm a mom. What more do I need to say?!

Anyway, so we went from breakfast to letting kids play at friends houses, to getting my fruit from a neighbor, to the playground and back home before going to get the kids again. Then we went out and did stuff (yes STUFF) in the yard. Oh and I played lightning with Jakob and Steve. Too bad I can't hit foul shots in a game like I was hitting today!!!

So Steve, Jakob and the rest of the kids (except Ethan who just wanted Mommy) wanted to wash the car. They got everything ready and headed outside and started washing. I was going to get ready to go to enrichment even though I wasn't feeling that wonderful and noticing a loud humming from the nursery.

I knew there was a computer in there and figured one of the kids had turned it on so I was looking all over for the switch. I think my brain was only working at about 1% because it took a while to remember that there IS no switch to the computer since Steve had taken the power supply out. SO suddenly it clicked that they had the faucet on that was just outside that room and I had the impression I better run downstairs. And boy am I glad I did!!!

There was water in the boys room so I ran outside and told Steve we had flooding and ran to the front. My neighbor noticed me running for the faucet and asked how things were. She rushed over to see what she could do to help and her husband came over to see why there was flooding. I wish I'd gotten a picture of the water dripping from the siding!!!

Steve got to work with the shop vac and gave that up and went in with the steam cleaner(thanks Mom and Dad! We love that vacuum!) to get the water out. While he did that I chased kids around the yard getting them away from the things that had been left out in our rush to fix the basement. Finally I got them in and got to soak up the mess in one room while Steve did the other.

We had two guys from the ward show up with fans and they managed to find out where the leak was from and cut a hole in the wall to get the pipe out. Steve rushed to Home Depot( and had to wait for a train) to find the right part. He got us pizza for dinner and then within minutes of him getting back we had our new pipe all ready to go!! What amazing neighbors we have!!!!!!!!!!!!

So here are a couple good to know hints. 1. don't have neighbor kids that like to come by and turn your faucets on at random times. 2 don't leave the hose on your faucets during the winter or they'll FREEZE. I must note that we only did that because of hint #1!!! We figured if they turned it on, it wouldn't go into the basement... so instead the water from the broken pipe will! 3. If you have the problem from #1 and #2, don't keep the handles on your faucets... 4. Always have a shop vac and/or steam cleaner handy. Oh and fans. You never know when you or a neighbor might need them!

Anyway here are a few pictures. They're not the best but you can at least get the gist. I'm just so thankful to my friends and neighbors that jumped at the chance to help us! We feel loved and blessed!!!

Watch Out World, Here Comes Ethan!!

My little boy decided to grow up. I'm not sure I like that... I've been happy with him hanging out in one spot, not getting into trouble, not finding me when I leave the room, and not being a human vacuum. But alas, they all grow up sometime!!!

The last few days he's been working hard at crawling everywhere. He has a couple bumps on his forehead to prove it!!

Today he took that big step into heading off to find Mommy. He knew I wasn't in the room anymore so he crawled that very long (all of 10 feet) hallway to come and get me! I was proud and knew I was doomed all at once. :)

While I was washing dishes he was playing quite peacefully in the living room before deciding it was time to go find Mommy again. He found me! And the blueberry muffin Gavin dropped on the floor, and the pencil he liked banging on the floor... Its a whole new world for Ethan!

These are pictures of Ethan crawling out of the laundry from "helping me" fold the laundry. Sorry they're so blurry. Maybe someday I'll upgrade to a real camera instead of just the one on my cell!!!

That One Poll

Hey,
So the poll ended and 75% were in favor (3 out of 4 votes) of the bookstore. Someone wasn't but I don't know who. :) I'm looking into land (well, more a building) and grants to try and figure this thing out. I also found out that the booksellers convention I wanted so much to go to is the same weekend as Jakob's baptism! So I'll be missing it there as Jakob's baptism is much, much more important. Like, not even on the same scale. I am bummed about not going to the convention though. Just a little. ;)

We got to tear out the surround on our bathtub downstairs today. We'd tried this one a year ago and it was so warped that nothing we did would get it to fit right. SO I finally called the company and they sent one to me free of charge! This one looks like it will work better. However, we found out one of the studs that Centex put in is NOT level and therefore is messing a few things up so Steve gets to fix that before we move on. LOVELY! I'm very excited to get the bathroom done sometime though. Hopefully very soon...

OH and I'm an aunt today! Yay my sister! I'm excited to see my new little baby boy nephew soon.

So those are just a few of the ramblings of my day. I could add more but then I would want to add even more and this post would be 10 pages long. :)

What I Want to Be When I Grow Up

Today Andy and Ashley were discussing their future plans. I think I changed my plans a million times growing up. I was going to mention one of them but decided not to. Another was being a nurse that takes care of the babies in the nursery at the hospital(which still sounds fun). So here we go:

Jakob: a paleontologist and a basketball player. Apparently he'll hunt for dinosaur bones on the off-season. And hey, he's a pretty good little ball player!

Andy: a substitute teacher and a soccer coach. Why set goals high right? He knew just what he wants... I asked what he'd do when he's not subsituting. He said he'd watch tv and sleep...

Ashley: A cowgirl and an astronaut and she'd have ponies. Oh and a ballerina. So I decided she'll be a dancing space cowgirl... easy right?

And Gavin? Yeah, Gavin wants to be a princess... we'll work on that one.

Which leads me into my next thing. I already tested the waters on facebook and not a lot of my neighbors check my blog(I think) but I decided to ask anyway. MY dream job that has been my dream for years is to have a bookstore. I LOVED You've Got Mail not for the story(although I loved that too) but because of her bookstore. I even had a name picked out and everything while watching the movie with my cousins.

SO I'm having a poll. Do you think a bookstore (with a copy center attached) would do well in the Lehi-ish area? Meaning, is it something you've wanted that we don't have? The poll is on the side bar. Check it out please!

Thanks so much! And watch out for dancing space cowgirls. :)

My New Hobby

About 2 years ago Steve let me get an artist's easel and paints from Costco with the promise that I'd use it. Well, 2 years later I finally got a chance, a room and a bit of time of my own to try it out. I decided to try the watercolors first since it seems a little more forgiving. What do I know?

So it started out as a cool picture from Thanksgiving Point I'd taken during the summer:

I decided that the whole thing might be a little hard with water colors so I decided to cut out the hills and the sky, etc and just concentrate on the stream which was my favorite part... Well, after learning how to REALLY watercolor(gotta love the internet), I managed to get the grass to look okay and the water to look like water... but I still didn't have it right and by that time it was rather late.

It must have still looked okay because Andy asked if I'd won it in a contest...

Anyway so on to tonight. I decided that I WAS going to make the rocks and trees look right. The painting had other things in mind however. I decided there was just too much green and not enough anything else so I pulled a Bob Ross and added some "happy little trees". Those were fun! I've decided we're destined to live in the woods somewhere because Jakob and I for some reason both love to draw and paint pictures of the mountains and forests. Anyway, after all that babbling, here is my finished project - until I decide I want to add something else. Oh and those brown things are a rabbit and a squirrel. The deer died a painful death in a nice white blur now considered a green bush(which covered the white blur). :)

My Baby's 1st Tooth!

Okay, so I wish I had a picture of his first tooth but as its small and he's still trying to get the other one too, there's no way he's letting me get a picture of his mouth!! So I'll just show this picture instead. Ethan had been playing with this toy until he got his toy keys. It slid down his chest and landed next to his mouth where he promptly chomped down on it - while still playing with his keys!

Ethan popped out a tooth on February 3rd(I'm a little behind...) and Mommy CHEERED and probably cried just a little. It took SO long for that little tooth to come out and for 3 days he'd had a fever! I felt so bad for him and couldn't do anything!

He's also clapping and loves to laugh and clap when you say yay... And when he's filling his drawers- gross but I'm totally serious!! Hopefully this means early potty training...

He's working on the crawling part and will stretch as far forward as he can without actually moving his knees. He'll roll to get something he wants if he's in an especially adventurous mood...

On to Gavin. He's quite the talker and has been for a while. My favorite sayings have come from the last couple days. He went up behind Ethan and gave him a big hug and said "you're my best friend!" Talk about giving Mom something to tear up about. :) It was so sweet!

Another one was when Ashley and Andy were playing Chutes and Ladders and he wanted to play. He came in said "I NEVER get to play" Yes, he is 2 1/2 !!! He's said many other whacky things but those have just cracked me up.

I would say more about each child but then what would I do for Christmas cards? I'll leave the rest for a little later. :)

Pictures of Ethan and Ashley

Its really late but I got these pictures from my friend that she took this last week and they were so cute I just had to share them!!! These were taken in my house and they turned out so cute! I had a really hard time getting them down to just these few but she did a great getting it all ready to print! What little cuties I have. :) Enjoy!

Pay It Forward

I saw this on a friend's blog and thought it would be fun--Here's how it works-the first 3 people to leave a comment on this post will receive, at some point during the year, a handmade gift from me. What it will be and when it will arrive is a total surprise! The catch is that you must participate as well-before you leave your comment here, write up a pay it forward post on your blog to keep the fun going. Then come back, let me know you're going to play and sit back and anticipate the arrival of your gift! Remember that only the first 3 comments will receive a gift from me, so be quick!