15 Things I Love About My Kids This Week

1. I've been told by fellow church members that Dallin is their favorite child to watch in the music numbers because you never know what he's going to do.

2. Ethan thanked me for his apple juice, and I thanked him for thanking me, telling him that it makes me happy in my heart to hear him say 'thank you'. He responded that it was because apple juice makes him 'happy in his tummy.'

3. When I sing, Malynn will join in with me with no words or melody, but a sweet pitch nonetheless. I love it.

4. The first thing Dallin asked me this morning while wiping the sleep from his eyes was,"Mom, when can we ever buy a flute?" Just one of the many random things that he comes up with.

5. Ethan asks several times a day to watch family videos and to see his family pictures on the computer. He seems to love seeing all of us together.

6. Malynn can wag a finger at her brothers and give them a mouthful of babble when they are going to do something I told them not to do.

7. Ethan will literally do anything for chocolate.

8. Dallin will literally do anything for money, yet won't ever spend it on anything.

9. Malynn will smile, wave and say hi to every stranger we pass in the grocery store.

10. Dallin loves to share anything he has (or anything Ethan has, despite his loud protest) with his beloved sister. "Because she wants it..." is the reason he gives.

11. Ethan will loudly say "Iwuvyou, mom," several times a day for no apparent reason.

12. Malynn loves to jig, and her jig is to die for cute.

13. This week Dallin has begun to create his new invention he calls his "Do Anything For Me 3000" which apparently will have a button called 'fix food' as well as buttons for flying and making him invisible. He's already drawn up the plans. (He woke up yesterday asking me if I had any metal.) Can't wait to see it.

14. Ethan will not give kisses freely, so I've had to conjure up different ways to 'kiss' him (e.i. butterfly kiss, Eskimo kiss, polar bear kiss and cheeky kiss. The last two are uniquely ours.) Although he will spontaneously lay his head on my lap any moment he feels particularly happy.

15. Malynn loves to growl and uses that sound with a smile to name any animal or insect.

All of these photos were taken this afternoon after we headed to our local zoo's water station to escape the 111 degree heat. We had the place all to ourselves. The water felt wonderful.

I'll Decide

Okay, so this is so funny to me. Ethan and Dallin were having a gay 'ol time riding in the tube until Dallin notices that Ethan isn't doing the 'thumbs up' gesture quite right. So, being the good older brother that he is, he tries to show Ethan the correct way. Ethan, being the Ethan that he is, totally ignores Dallin and continues with the pointer finger. It was serving it's purpose just fine by making the point that he wanted to go faster. Dallin gave up eventually. I had to laugh whan I noticed Ethan sitting by himself today working with his fingers, figuring out how to get that dang thumb up there. All on his own, he figured it out. Reminds me of his father, who's classic comeback for everything is "I'll decide."

Here are a few more pics of our trip to Bear Lake for your viewing pleasure.

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Miss Malynn

The older this child gets the more comments I receive about her looking like me. I'm not sure if I agree, although I have always seen something very familiar in her. As she has grown older there have been other traits- her love for music, her sway and head pop anytime she hears a beat, her twirling when she has a skirt on, and then I must mention her strong ability to protest any harassment from her brothers (something I am still quite adept at, I must say). Well, she surprised me for the first time. While we were at Bear Lake, Cody brought his dog over to hang out. I was shocked at Malynn's reaction. She was drawn to that dog like you couldn't believe. I couldn't help but remember the times at Liz's house in Salt Lake when we were little girls jumping on her tramp. Pepper, the Blundells' harmless dog, would jump up on the tramp and run around excitedly on the pads. I don't know what I thought, but all I could do was run crying into her house praying that Pepper wasn't on my heels. Which of course takes me back also to the memories of jumping off the school bus at Rackers' house and frantically running for my life with the Butlers' dog Brittany (who wasn't so harmless) barking, nipping at my heels and hair all the way up the hill to my home. I hated that dog. Now, here is my mini-me with not only courage, but an absolute adoration for animals- all animals, it seems (even bugs, or dust particles that fly through the sunlight that she thinks are bugs). It's not that I don't like animals, I just don't have that certain gene that makes someone whine awwwwww when one is around. It might be due to my father's highly sensitive allergies of all animals with hair, fur and feathers-- which is the reason we never had a pet (okay, Cory had many various reptiles over the years, but I never claimed them as my own.) Maybe there's something wrong with me (I think Amanda's used the word 'cold' in the past when referring to my relationship with her feline that loved to smell my feet.) All right, so here's my first lesson of many that my daughter is her own person completely separate of myself. I get it.

Happy Father's Day

For the last ten days, my family has been enjoying a little time in Bear Lake, Utah. Some of you may know that Jamie's family has a cabin on the lake and that it happens to be my husband's favorite place on the planet. Honestly, I don't know if he could have made it through med school without spending most of his summers up there. It is even more fun to go there these days with these little kids of ours. Our boys love it! For the last eight months, Ethan has been waking up early every morning (like 5:30) to come downstairs and wait on our carpet (with his blanket) until he hears Jamie's alarm clock. Then he gets in the shower with him and sits on our counter while Jamie gets dressed for the sole purpose of talking about Bear Lake. They have the same conversation every morning describing in detail all of the things they will do when they get to Bear Lake again. Tractor rides, play on the beach, sailing, four wheelers, roasting marshmellows, jet skiing to Sweetwater for an ice cream, over and over and over... This year he has added to his list of favorite activities since he tried being pulled behind the boat on a tube. I thought he might be scared, since Jamie was going quite fast, but the brave boy only smiled and then wouldn't get off without tears every time. Dallin also loved it and practiced standing in his surfing pose on the tube. I will definitely post some pics when I get home next week. We had a wonderful time catching up with some dear family and friends while we were there. It was perfect!

Our Summer Begins

Today was Dallin's first day out of school for the summer. I must say I have mixed emotions about it. I have to resign to the fact that my small afternoon snooze must go for now and any extra time for myself to read, scrapbook, brush my teeth will also be very hard to come by. He's just one little boy, but he sure makes a big impact. On the other hand, I'm excited to have my whole brood with me all day too. I plan on jam packing our summer full of fun days out exploring kid-friendly things in the city, as well as spending many hours in our backyard pool. Sleeping in is never an option, and with time for myself dwindling, I spend way too many hours up late. (Do I feel a sore throat coming on?) I'm happy to say his first day home went remarkably well. I started a little summer morning routine for him with an actual list for him to follow. I always hated those from my mom, but this kid loves that kind of stuff. He asked me if I would make him another one for tomorrow morning,then... are you ready for this? He actually thanked me for being his mom. Yeah, I know. I thought I was dreaming too. I absolutely love the age that Dallin is right now. He is so eager to learn anything and asks a million questions. Yet, he is still enough of a little boy that he doesn't know that it isn't cool to kiss your mom. I know the day will come very shortly when he won't climb up in my lap anymore, and I'm dreading it. You know, it really is true. You think they are going to stay small forever, but really, from the moment that umbilical cord is cut, they move further and further into their own separate lives. Truth be told, I will always have days alone in my future, but only now can I enjoy every day with them.

Sour Lemon Gelato

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Just wanted to see if I could figure out how to upload a video clip. I'm not sure how I got this groovy music playing in the background. This video was taken in January on our weekend excursion to California. We had a blast. I think it accurately portrays how our little Ethan keeps us laughing. He just turned three last month.

So what does one write about in a blog? I'm sure that's a question bloggers ask themselves every time they sit down. Or maybe their lives are so much more exciting than ours. It's not that my life is boring, by any means. Just busy with things that seem unworthy to write about, unworthy to remember. Yet, I know that down the road when my children are looking at me at eye-level, I will be alarmed by how fast the time has gone and wish I had just one day back-- one day that wasn't so busy. To sit on the grass and watch bugs, to read a book for the fifth time that day, to listen to Ethan sing the same verse of 'Baby Beluga' in the car over and over again...I'm sure that's what I will wish back.


Quote of the day: A couple of weeks ago, Dallin and I were talking about how beautiful the mountains were behind our house. He said, "You know, Heavenly Father really should live here because the mountains are so beautiful." I told him that Heavenly Father already knew that the mountains were beautiful because he is actually the one that made them. Dallin looked at me incredulously and asked, "Heavenly Father made those mountains with hot glue?"

The four loves of my life

here I go

Many months ago, I was so inspired reading through Becky's blog and the cute stories about her children. For a moment, like a split-second moment, I thought, "hmmm, I'd like to do that too." Then I realized that under no uncertain terms would I have time for that. Later, looking through Rebecca's and then Liz's cute blogs, I thought about it. I still don't know where you girls find the time, yet I am becoming much more aware of my own inefficiency in time management. Would it really take so much time? After all, I used to be an avid journal writer, and I always found it wonderfully therapeutic. I also mourn about how bad I have been about keeping in touch with people that I care about. Maybe a blog could be an on-line method of doing both. Keeping a journal of the extroardinary and the mundane even if for only me to keep, and also a way to keep my loved ones better informed and connected to my life. So I'm going to try it. I'm quite certain that very few will even care to read about the going-ons in this particular house, but since I enjoyed my three friends blogs so much, why not give it a shot?

The title of my page "I love you pi" is a direct quote from my 5 1/2 year old Dallin. Someone once told him that pi is the longest number, and him being the mathmatician that he is, equates this with being the highest possible number, the last number, the biggest and best number. So when he expresses his feelings for us, he uses the phrase, "I love you pi." It's quite a compliment. And although I have tried to tell him that pi is really only a little more than 3, he looks at me like, 'no mom, you just don't get it.' I never was very good at math.