Saturday, October 31, 2009

Happy Halloween!

My little superheroes!


The boys went to Halloween festivities on 3 different nights this week - downtown festival, trick or treating with friends, and church trunk or treat (we were all worn out by today so we bummed out on the festivities tonight). They got quite the stash...

The trunk or treat activity was also a chili cook-off. Apparently I make a tasty chili, because I won first prize (for the 2nd year in a row, with different judges!). We decided we should move so that someone else has a chance to win next year... :) Chili wasn't the only part of the competition - I loved the baked potato soup and the pinto bean fudge and chocolate balls. (They don't taste like pinto beans). The pinto bean recipes were part of the food storage competition, in which people brought samples of creative ways to use their food storage.




It was a beautiful day today, so the boys spent most of it outside. While we worked on our guest bathroom remodel (before & after pics soon), we put them to work raking the leaves...




Big O was having a great time "smashing pumpkins" and doing a little pumpkin dance.

Monday, October 26, 2009

lovin' fall

My favorite season is fall, with all of its beautiful colors. I just can't get enough of the tree in our front yard. The yellows, reds, and oranges draw me to it. I also love the cooler weather - not so cold that you don't want to be outside, but cool enough for a jacket. Chilly in the shade, but just perfect in the warmth of the sun. Fall is perfect for soups and chili, for pumpkin bread, apple cider, mint hot chocolate, and cinnamon rolls. It's great for snuggling. And Thanksgiving is just around the corner - can't wait for my favorite holiday - good food and family.









Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Hypothetical situation

Okay, so hypothetically speaking, let's say you're in Wal-Mart with your potty-trained son and you notice that he needs to go to the bathroom (maybe even for the 2nd time in 20 minutes). Once you get to the bathroom, you realize that he has done quite the #2 in his underwear. You didn't bring the diaper bag in the store with you, so you have no change of clothes and not even any wipes. What do you do?

A. Pull his pants back up and make him sit in it, hoping it won't run down his leg and leave a trail along the way. I mean, he was already sitting in it before, so why not a little longer?
B. Open the door and yell for help. Really, they have lots of underwear and wipes in the store...
C. Carefully strip off the soiled underwear and toss it in the trash. Try to wipe with toilet paper and wet paper towels. Put the pants back on and let the kid go commando until you get home.
D. Notify the store that you found a lost kid with poopy underwear in the family restroom and then take off running, hoping that they don't realize that he looks just like you.

Hmmm...

Maybe D? Well, I'd hate to waste that time I'd spent shopping by abandoning the groceries...

A just doesn't seem right and I'd hate to get poo poo all over everything else. Besides, it STINKS.

What about B? I think it might be embarrassing and I wouldn't want to wait any longer for the screaming 10 month old that is strapped on the changing station.

I guess I'd go with C.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Second borns



I wanted to do a post on Jared and second borns, since it seems that he gets forgotten sometimes. He's not the firstborn, who hits all the milestones first and is the "leader," and he's not the baby, who gets alot of attention. Being a second born myself, I can understand what it's like to be a middle child. I really have to work hard at being a leader, since my whole childhood was spent following in my brother's shadow (which wasn't a bad place to be, since he was such a good example most of the time. The times that he wasn't, I took note and learned from his mistakes... but that's another post in itself :) )

I'm such a good follower - you tell me what to do and I'm there. I'm loyal, obedient, and somewhat stubborn (or determined as my mom says) to accomplish whatever I'm "told" or asked to do. What I struggle with is taking the initiative and being a leader. My dad could especially tell you about this weakness I had growing up. He was always encouraging me to be a leader in sports and school. And he would always tell me that I am a leader, but I just seemed to be "wired" to be a follower. I didn't want to be a leader, but I knew I had the potential to be. I think I still have "scars" from this internal struggle, because it still doesn't come naturally.

When a third born comes along, you're stuck in the middle. You're not the leader, but you're not the baby. You just go along for the ride, you're the helper, and sometimes you just get in the way. You have to be fairly independent and adaptable - you just don't get one on one attention very often. And I don't like change, but I am highly adaptable and I get along well with others. At the same time, I think second borns often get spoken for as well, and we just look to the "leader" for what we think, say, and do. (Luckily, I developed some leadership and other qualities from being the oldest girl and having 3 younger sisters. This helped me be responsible and reliable in helping out with whatever needed to be done. Being a second born of 5 is probably quite a bit different than a second born of 2 or 3.)

Anyway, I have seen several of these qualities in Jared too. He's an easy going kid, although I have seen his frustration when he's supposed to "give in." He's a great follower, a good helper, quite independent, but at the same time he relies on Nathan so much for what to do. Nathan often answers for him, and he doesn't know what to do when Nathan is not around. This picture was taken shortly after Nathan went back to school. Jared was just leaning over the toybox, and just didn't know what to do with himself.


I know that he doesn't get a lot of attention during the day because of Owen. I'm trying to work on giving him one on one time and making sure that he feels loved and important. At least I feel like I understand Jared in many ways. Here's a few fun pictures of Jared:

He can be quite a bear in the morning - just like mom. Let us get warmed up before you even attempt to communicate with us. Jared's a deep sleeper and can also fall asleep in the middle of a video or just about anywhere (that's another post).


He's got a sweet tooth (like me) - bring on the cookies and ice cream...


Being a ham...showing his muscles.

Playing with Big O in his fort...

He likes being outside and likes ladybugs, butterflies, and caterpillars.
He squashes the other bugs and spiders.




We love Jared!

Monday, October 19, 2009

Kid Reporter

One of the kids in this video, Brodie, is at Nathan's school. He was on the Today Show this morning as a semi-finalist in their Kid Reporter search. His clip doesn't do him justice - I saw him do his thing in person at a school assembly...he's awesome. Go vote for him at Todayshow.com. Enjoy!


Sunday, October 18, 2009

Friday, October 16, 2009

10 months!

I'm not sure when an infant becomes a toddler, but Big O is toddling around... so I think we've got a toddler on our hands. He stands well with no assistance and he took his first little steps this week. He's trying so hard to keep up with those big brothers. His big eyes and smile are hard to resist.









Sunday, October 11, 2009

Goldilocks and the 3 bears



I never imagined how protective I would feel towards my children. There's that natural instinct to keep them safe - I would do anything to protect them. You just don't mess with a "mama bear" and her "cubs"...


But I also didn't imagine how I would react to protecting my own cubs from each other...
I feel particularly protective of my "baby cub." This week my Jare Bear was being mean to Big O and pushed him down and started "wrestling" with him. Without thinking, I quickly yelled "Get off him! Don't push him!" and gave him a little push. He fell down and started crying. I immediately felt guilty. Here I was doing exactly what I told him not to do. I tried to comfort him, but he ran off to find Nathan for comfort. I listened to their exchange. It went something like this:

Jared: "Mama hurt me!"
Nathan: "I can't help you." (He wouldn't give Jared a hug.)
Jared: "But Mama pushed me down!"
Nathan: "That's what they do. You pushed Owen, so Mama hurt you. You have to be nice to Mama. You don't want her to leave, do you? Who is going to cook your food? Who is going to read books and tuck you in?"

I'm wasn't sure what to think of that. I guess he knows that you better not mess with the baby, and he knows that we need Mama (you can tell we've had a conversation before about why we need mama - that was "Daddy Bear"). But what about that statement, "That's what they do"?? They're not supposed to hurt you. I guess I need to work on that one - I know that I reacted before I thought about it - back to that "protect your cub" instinct. Luckily kids are very forgiving.


I may act like a bear sometimes, but I sure do love all my cubs.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Conference weekend

We enjoyed most of conference... By the end of it, this was going on:

Applying the talks during the talks - Good quality family time.
We love these boys and they know it!

And I had to include this one (it looks like he's listening to the prophet- never mind that he was getting a kick out of playing with the computer...) See, even a 10 month old can listen...

It's amazing the technology we have today to listen and watch a broadcast over the internet. Maybe I'll do a real post on some conference thoughts later.

Friday, October 2, 2009