Utah Day...

I spent April Fools Day on the BYU campus.
Without the boys.
Not joking.

The neurology department paid for the hotel room and the faculty spent the entire day talking with Nate (and five other candidates) about the graduate level neuroscience program. Simply said, Nate was in academic world bliss. We will know if Nate has been accepted to the program by May 15th.

And about my cute cute boys. They had a fabulous time playing with family. It had been eleven months since the boys had visited Utah. They. loved. it. In the words of Caleb, it was "Utah Day!"

I love Utah days.






But seriously.... who wouldn't love a trip that included an uncle with a mullet?

And if you happened to smell anything funny... "Conner [just] farted in Utah."

happiness is...

Discovering bark for the first time and refusing to let it go.
Happiness is found in gluing eyes on bark and watching Caleb carry his "bark friends" around all day. One of them is named "daddy"... I am just not sure which one.




Paint card friends.
Happiness is Caleb re-learning his colors.







Drawing on paint cards.
Happiness is Conner's writing on each card.




Butterfly Walls.
Happiness is displaying the artwork made by my boys.












Baby food jar rainbows.
Happiness is mixing water and colors.






Cardboard Guitars.
Happiness is watching Conner make up his own songs as he plays along with Dad.






Apple-cinnamon-oatmeal baby food.
Happiness is a baby with a full tummy.




Reading books.
Conner today told me that he loves me to the temple and back. Talk about melt my heart.





Happiness is all of this and so much more.

Soy Milk Soccer Mom

Winnie the Pooh and the Blackberry Surprise is one of our favorite books.

In this book, Pooh and Piglet are wandering through the forest when Piglet notices that Pooh is still wearing his sleeping cap. Startled by that fact that he forgot to remove it, Pooh calmly takes the cap off his head and decides to carry it in his hand. When they happen to notice a large blackberry bush covered with delicious blackberries, Piglet and Pooh are delighted. They quickly decide to pick as many blackberries as possible but are confused as to how they should carry them. Suddenly, Pooh realizes that his nightcap is perfect for carrying blackberries. They gather blackberries and as a result, everyone is able to enjoy blackberry pie.


Caleb always has to leave the house with a toy or object in hand. Yesterday things were very chaotic as I quickly packed the kiddos into the minivan for soccer practice. So crazy that I failed to notice that Caleb had removed a carton of soy milk from the refrigerator and carried it to the car with him.

As I unload the kids from the car, I realize what it is that Caleb has in his hands. I quickly try to remove the blue carton from his hands and he starts to cry. Like any mom in true survival mode, I cave in and let him carry the carton to the field with the argument that it will be a lot easier to keep him on the sidelines if he has his carton of milk.

Conner starts stretching out on the field and Caleb is following him. Carton in hand. The practice starts, and Caleb will not put the carton down. Examining the blankets and bag that I somehow managed to carry to the field with one arm, I quickly realize that Conner's water bottle was left in the car. Unwilling to leave him on the field (we parked too far away from the field) and unwilling to remove Conner from the practice to walk to the car, I panic.

Suddenly, I see Caleb with his carton of milk.
The coach blows the whistle for a water break and Caleb instantly hands Conner his carton of milk. They both drink from the carton, and I am instantly the soy milk soccer mom.

Soy milk may not taste as fabulous as blackberry pie, but I am soo happy that Caleb thought to bring his carton of milk. It was the perfect "nightcap" to solve our problem. I just might let him carry a carton around with him more often.

Funny soccer moments:

• Before the practice, Conner starts stretching his back out. When I asked him what he was doing, he told me he was "adjusting" his back so he could play better. He is totally a chiropractor's son.
• During the practice, Conner ran over to the side lines multiple times to reassure me that he still had two shin guards on. Man he loves those things.
• He is very precise. When dribbbling the ball around the orange cones, he had to take his time and do it perfectly. So cute.
• He was very confused on why he could pick the ball up at certain times and not during others. We are going to have to work on that.
• He wants Dad, Caleb, and Colton to paint their tummies like this for his first soccer game in two weeks.
  
• He will not stop talking about soccer. Love it.
  

faith...

The faith this little boy has in me is humbling. Regardless of my inadequacies as a mother and individual, he is always there to greet me with his amazing smile. Wow. Being a mom is amazing.

St. Patrick's Day

I really enjoy St. Patrick's Day - primarily because green is an awesome color and I like the idea of being allowed to pinch anyone who is not wearing one of my favorite colors.


I kind of made a big deal about St. Patrick's day at our house this year, probably to make up for the fact that I completely missed Groundhogs Day. I still do not know if that little hog saw his shadow or not.

Anyway...

We started our St. Patrick's Day festivities out early with green painting, green sensory bins, and a Leprechaun trap.





We baited our own little Leprechaun Pete with gold coins, rainbows, and a tree house for him to play in. We woke up to find green footprints in our tree house,



an empty Leprechaun trap, and a little treasure hunt. We found clues in our shoes, gloves, and cupboards. In the end, Leprechaun Pete left us a little pot of gold coloring books.



Colton spent most of the day pulling himself up.
I am so happy that I finally caught a picture.



And despite my grand plans to spend the afternoon playing with green balloons, green streamers, green playdough, green baths, celery painting, shamrock hunts, "green green yellow," and green eggs...



we spent the day cutting grass with scissors.
I guess the grass should be green.

Happy Green Day!

The Apricot Trap

We are hoping to catch a Leprechaun tonight with our magical trap.



Leprechaun is kind of a big word.

Conner continues to call them Apricots.



We are going to catch a little mischievous man who is required to grant three wishes... or jam.

Either way, I am happy.







On a completely different note, look who pulled himself up to the dishwasher yesterday. This kid is going to be walking before I know it.

I missed the picture moment, but you can still see the red spot on his forehead from the little crash that occurred when he lost his balance.



I love that drool that is always hanging from his mouth.

church ball

Nate loves to play basketball with the men at our church. Games are usually held at night after bedtime, so the boys have never had an opportunity to watch dad play. When we discovered an earlier evening game, we decided we needed to go cheer dad on.

First you must understand that boys do not carry cheerleader pom-poms.
Encouraging posters? Destroyed in ten seconds flat.

We had to be a little creative.

The stomach message worked really well, except for the fact that Caleb wanted to stand by Conner which resulted in the stomach message of "ADD" or "DAA."

Oh, and if Caleb was not showing his naked tummy, he was busy hanging from the door.
That kid is strong.