I think I have H.A.D.D.

Do you ever have days when you can't concentrate on anything for longer than 5 minutes? Today was one of those days. I have several different things I want to get done around the house but I don't really want to do any of them individually. It seems like all day today I hopped from one thing to another. Turns out spending 5 minutes cleaning my room, then 5 minutes putting Christmas decorations away, then 5 minutes organizing the disastrous toy room, etc. adds up to a full day feeling like you did nothing because nothing gets finished. So, I've diagnosed myself with Housework Attention Deficit Disorder. Maybe that is why my house is seldom clean.

Christmas

We have had a fun few days of celebration. On Christmas Eve we went sledding. It was fun. The boys loved it. Eli loves sledding. Isaac likes the actual sledding part but he doesn't like that he as to wear snow clothes. This is my favorite picture from the trip. Chris snapped it right as Eli was crashing. You can see his sled flying and is legs. It was pretty funny. You can also see a smile on Isaac's face. (Click on the picture and it will get bigger and you'll be able to see it better.)And here is Eli after the crash covered in snow.

Here are the boys on Christmas Eve in their new pj's. This isn't the best picture but it's the best we got. Isaac didn't want to sit there so this is actually the only one we got with them both looking at the camera.This is Christmas morning after we had opened presents. Isaac has a couch full of new presents and what does he choose to play with, the Christmas tree and ornaments.

Santa brought the boys their own snow shovels. Isaac was helping me shovel the sidewalk.

Isaac is showing off his new hat and scarf made by Destiny (Chris's sister).

Guess who came last night....

SANTA!! He stopped by early to deliver a toy to Eli, Isaac and their cousins, Joel and Anna. It was a lot of fun. Both of my boys were afraid of him. Eli hasn't wanted to sit on his lap for a few years now. As soon as Santa walked in the door Eli ran to me and sat on my lap. After watching his cousins sit on Santa's lap Eli was brave enough to do it. He also really wanted the present. As you can see in the picture, he even enjoyed it.


Santa brought him a Rock'em Sock'em Robot game. He and Joel played with it all night and again this morning. It is the best game for two boys. They can fight and punch all they want. Both of them were sitting there saying "You'll never get me dude" and punching like crazy.
Chris and I even got a present from Santa and had to sit on his lap to get it.

This is about as close as Isaac got to Santa. He wasn't interested. He liked the toy though.

Thanks Santa (and mom). It was a great time.

Washington DC

Chris and I were able to spend last weekend in Washington DC. It was so nice to have some time away. It was cold while we were there but it was still fun. I consider myself a very patriotic person so there is much there that interests me. Here are some pictures of our trip.
This is a statue by the Vietnam Memorial. I think it is a part of it but I'm not sure.

Chris and I at the Korean War Memorial. This is a cool memorial. I really liked it.

A flag by the Korean Memorial.

Part of the changing of the guard ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. I liked seeing the guards in their winter gear.

More at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

View of downtown DC from Arlington National Cemetery. I think this was right outside of Robert E Lee's house but I'm not sure. I love Arlington. It is amazing to see the rows and rows of white gravestones. We have so much to be thankful for in this country.

Chris's grandparents live outside of Baltimore so we drove up and spent some time with them. It was nice. They have come to Utah twice since we've been married but both times Chris was gone with the Army. We were also able to see his uncle and some cousins that Chris hadn't seen in 18 years.

Chris told me I would sound snobby if I put this on here but I'm going to do it anyway. We rented a car and it had manual windows and locks. I couldn't believe it. I haven't seen a manual window in a long time. You also had to reach over and unlock the door with your hand. It took me back to my childhood.

As the days go by

You know how most days are the same and seem to go by without much excitement. Today is NOT one of those days. I woke up to several inches of snow which is great. It makes it feel more like Christmas and it put me in a good mood. I took the boys out and started shoveling. Eli decided that he would help me by building a snow bank in the middle of the driveway. I decided to just let him. At least it was keeping him busy so I could shovel other places. It didn't take long to realize that his gloves were left in the car which Chris had at work. So, needless to say the shoveling didn't last long. We have half of the driveway cleared off and that half has a big mound in the middle of it. Here's a picture to prove it.

Shortly after we came inside my sister called and asked if I had heard from Chris. Umm, no, I hadn't. It turns out the National Guard Headquarters (where he works) was evacuated because of an anthrax scare. Not an everyday occurrence. The good thing is that they just sent them home early.

When we were eating lunch I met a parenting milestone that I was hoping to avoid. Isaac put a pea up his nose. I tried to get it out and couldn't. He kept trying to get it out and ended up pushing it farther up. I could hardly see it. I tried to suck it out with the shop vac but he wouldn't let me get the hose that close to his nose. So, I packed up the boys and headed down to the urgent care. Luckily we didn't have to wait long for the doctor to not see the pea in his nose. We don't know if he ended up swallowing it or if it's stuck so far up in his sinuses that we can't see it. The options are to take him to the er and let them sedate him and look for it or call an ear nose and throat doctor and see if they can get us in. I chose to just come home. I hope he swallowed it. I'll keep an eye on it for the next few days.

And last but not least, I am now a great aunt. That makes me feel really old. Chris's niece Taisha gave birth to a baby girl today.

So, no, today is not a normal day. And it's only 2:30.

Nutcracker 5K

I ran in the funnest race on Saturday. It was the Nutcracker 5K at UVU. It is a fundraiser for the ballet and everyone wears a tutu. They also had a 1/4 mile kids race in the halls. Eli ran it and had such a good time. I am planning on making this a part of my Christmas tradition. Next year I'm going to make my own tutu and it's going to rock. So, all of you, plan on joining me next year. I think it's the first Saturday of December every year.

Lena, Heather, Lindsey and Emilee

So I also have to say that I finished in 27:10 which is my best time ever. I'm not much of a runner but I'm getting better.

Christmas Trees

Whenever we go to Montana for Thanksgiving we always go up in the mountains and cut down our Christmas tree. It is such a fun tradition. We went this year and once again had a great time. We had a little mishap with the dog locking the keys in one of the cars but it turned out to not be so bad. Isaac and Ben. Isaac loves his uncles so much.

Our family after getting our tree. (It was pretty cold up there)
Cute Isaac

The boys warming up in the car.

Much to be thankful for

Here are a few pictures of our Thanksgiving break. We went to my sister's house in Montana and celebrated with family. It was fun and there was a lot of good food.

Isaac's new do. (It's a ball that popped but I think it makes a much better wig.)

On Thanksgiving morning I though it would be fun for us to run a 5k. Since there wasn't one in the small town where my sister lives we decided to just go out and run on our own. It turns out the loop we did was 4.5 miles instead of the 3.1 of a 5k. Maybe we should measure it before we run next time.

Those of us who ran. Chris, Heather, Heidi, Lindsey, Sydney, Ben and Emilee

The best news of the week came on Wednesday when Chris was offered a job. He will be working for the National Guard full-time. It is what he wants to do and he has been trying to get a job with them since before he came home from Iraq. For those of you old USU ROTC friends, he is actually working with Major Roberts which should be good. We know this is a great blessing and we are so grateful.

2 Years Old

Isaac turned 2 on Tuesday the 25th. We had family over on Sunday to celebrate. It was fun. This is Isaac enjoying his cake and the attention. He was smiling so big because he was saying "cheese" for the camera and everyone got a kick out of it. He was a little freaked out though when everyone sang to him. He just stood there and looked around apprehensively. He didn't know what to think of that.
On Tuesday we opened presents with just our family. It was low key and nice. (I did try to put pants on Isaac but if you read the last post you should know why he doesn't have them on.)

This is what most of the present opening looked like. It's hard to keep a 4 year old away from presents.

Isaac with all of his loot.

Here are some highlights of Isaac right now:

- He weights 32 lbs and is 36.5 inches tall.

- His favorite thing to say is "No, me"

- He only says that because he HAS to do everything by himself. He even climbs to the top of the rocking chair to turn the fan in his room on by himself. (it make me nervous every time)

- He jumps a lot. He will just jump around the house. It's really cute.

- He loves his dad. I was concerned that he would be a momma's boy since Chris was gone for so long but he usually prefers Chris, especially when he gets hurt.

- He recently started learning his colors. He gets so excited to tell you what color everything is.

- He is a little charmer. He loves attention and making people laugh. Whenever we have visitors he acts so funny and puts on a show.

- He has the BEST SMILE EVER!! (and always has)

- He knows how to get mom to say yes to almost anything by saying "pease" and giving me one of those can't turn it down smiles.

- He organizes and lines everything up. He likes to take the wash clothes out of the drawer and put them in a line on the floor. He does this with everything that has three or more of them, markers, cars, toys, etc.

- He is such a sweet little boy and I can't imagine life without him.

Dressing themselves

Getting dressed each day (or several times each day) is interesting around here lately. Eli has finally decided that he can do it himself which is great. I figure that I decide what clothes go in his drawers and he can wear them however he wants. Sometimes the combination is great and other times it isn't. I've found that there is one pair of pants that if they are in the drawer he will wear them no matter what. And he will wear whatever shirt with them. I took some pictures as evidence.Here are the boys cracking walnuts. (As a side note we have a walnut tree and there were a ton of walnuts this year. If anyone wants some let me know, we have plenty.) I took some close ups to better show the point I'm making.

These are the pants that are by far Eli's favorite. They are fleece and too big. I'm sure they're super comfy and that's why he always wants to wear them. I don't blame him, I choose comfort over fashion any day. His shirt is also on backwards. He seems to put it on backwards all the time. Like I mentioned before I just let it go as it isn't a big deal. But this shirt has a stripe across the front and not on the back so it looks kind of funny when he wears it backwards.

Isaac's issues with clothes are far harder for me to handle. This kids seems to have an opinion on everything lately. He has to choose his clothes and he will not wear anything else. He also has to put it on by himself or he will take it off. The only problem with that is he can't do it by himself yet. Some pants he can get on but he can't ever do shirts. I have to trick him every time we get dressed so he thinks he did it by himself, or distract him with something. In this picture he is wearing a pajama shirt that we wore to bed the night before and polyester church pants. He would not let me change any of it. Of course he also has on his favorite red shoes. They are almost too small and I don't know what to do. He has worn those forever. It will be a sad day to put them away.

This picture is of a miracle day last week when Isaac actually let me dress him in what I wanted him to wear. It took a few times of trying to get him to wear the vest. I thought he looked so cute I had to document it. Plus, it could very well be the only time he wears the vest and I think it's so cute.

Speaking of shoes, Isaac will only wear crocs (or imitation ones, he doesn't care about the brand). I don't even try other shoes anymore. I just bought him black lined ones that we can wear all winter. They seem to look better for church too.

Share the knowledge

I was at a little party last night for the Sunday School class that I teach at church and we made the easiest, yummy treats. I wanted to share the recipe with everyone. They are a great thing to do with kids.

What you need:
pretzels
Hershey kisses
M&M's

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Put wax paper on a cookie sheet (this isn't necessary but it will really help in the clean up process). Lay pretzels out on the cookie sheet. Put one kiss on each pretzel. Put in the oven for like 2-5 minutes just long enough for the kisses to get soft. Take it out of the oven and press an M&M on top of each kiss.

These are really good and so easy, not to mention fast. We used carmel and plain kisses and both worked great. You could use any of the flavored kisses and it would be good. Plus you can use holiday color M&M's to make it a holiday treat. I hope you enjoy them.

Prayers

Tonight Eli decided that he wanted to say our family prayer. This is how it went, at least the first part.

"Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this night. Let it be St. Patrick's Day so that I can wear some green. Or if I don't have any green clothes then I can get some and if I don't wear green then mom and dad will pinch me..."

Or something similar to that. He seemed to be going on forever about it and I was trying not to laugh and may have missed some. Then he continued on with a normal prayer. Chris and I were dying. Then when he was done he kept asking us why we were laughing. Apparently he thinks it is normal to pray about not getting pinched on St. Patrick's Day even though it's November.

Oh and by the way, I paid $1.78 for gas at Costco tonight. WAHOO!!

Halloween 2008

A picture documentation of how we spent Halloween 2008.

Eli and I carved a jack-o-lantern. He designed and I created.

Isaac played in the leaves.

We played football.

Then dressed up and went trick-or-treating. Notice Eli's shoes. It was so warm. Eli chose his costume all by himself. He was dead set on the idea of being a tomato. No Spiderman, pirate, ghost. Nope, a tomato. What an awesome kid.

Isaac all dressed up. He was a farmer to go with the tomato. (the red fleece is not part of the costume. He wanted to wear Eli's hat so I made him his own and then he would keep his farmer hat on. Other wise he took it right off. )

All ready to go.

Isaac wouldn't put any of the candy he got in his bucket. He would hold on to it and try to eat it all. He was so cute though. He would say trick or treat and thank you. It didn't sound much like either one but was cute none the less.

Fall Fun

We have been having lots of fun lately. There is so much fun stuff to do in the fall. I love it. Here are a bunch on pictures from just the last week.

The boys eating toast on the front porch. It looks blurry because it was taken through the glass door which was obviously very dirty from small dirty hands.

These next ones are all from Cornbelly's at Thanksgiving Point. We went for FHE on Monday and all had a good time.

Playing in the corn box. I think this was Isaac's favorite part.

Walking through the corn maze. Eli loved it. I was really bored.

Riding the cow train.

My legs were so crammed in that thing I'm surprised I got out.