Progress in the Pool

The backyard pool is finally open! It's finally warm enough!
Last year Isaac refused to get in the pool and preferred to walk around while everyone else swam. Even this summer at another pool he did the same. Luckily Taylor is patient and persuasive and was able to coax Isaac into the pool. This is his attempt at getting him to "jump" in. Cracks me up because if they were on dry ground and Isaac was 10 feet in the air he'd not hesitate to jump to Taylor even if he was several feet away. But not in water!
Isaac finally agreed to ride in a float but only for a few minutes and then only stayed in the water if he was on Taylor's back. Progress at least though. We'll take it. At least he's IN the water.
Ethan is on the verge of being a good independent swimmer. He can make it across the pool solo but he looks more like he's drowning than swimming. Almost there though!
And so proud to show off his floating and swimming skills.
Miles is easy in and out of water. He's the perfect baby what can I say? He sat contently in his float for almost an hour. He let Taylor dunk him and he held his breath on his own and didn't even sputter when he came up for air. No fussing or complaining! He laughed and giggled and had this grin on his face the whole time.
What a good bunch of boys I have!

Party of 4

It was Taylor's dad's Birthday this weekend so he left for 3 days which meant me entertaining the kids solo for 3 days. My theory was party til you drop and then they'll sleep a lot. And they did!
Thursday we spent at the Children's Museum. Building. (love the styling construction hat Ethan is sporting)
Drive-thru grocery shopping. Isaac was undetered by my protests that he could only drive OUTSIDE the store. He kept climbing out and putting food in the back of his truck and then getting in and driving to the next food.
Blowing bubbles.
Taking a break from the stroller in the only clean floor "baby" section.
Riding rocking horses down the ramp (in the baby area). Isaac is taking the road less traveled.
Friday: Picnics at the park. This is my only picture as I had to intervene and save Isaac's juice box from Miles' quick hands. We spent Friday night with Taylor's mom at the REAL Soccer game. Miles literally bounced on my knee for the full 2 hours- he loved all the drums and chanting.
Saturday: Climbing rocks and wading in Provo Canyon with Uncle Jeff
Whenever Taylor's out of town I always make a point of visiting my brother in Provo. He loves the free meal and I love seeing my boys with him. He's always so sweet to them and they adore him.
This situation was a true dilemma for Isaac. Daredevil who wants to climb and jump off of everything- but there's water underneath and he's a fraidy cat around water. He settled for holding Jeff's hand.
Even Miles tried out the water although it was a little too cold for his liking.
The kids went to bed late every night and slept past 8 every morning. Yeah! Successful weekend if you ask me!

Today's Project: Play dough

Okay so I totally wimped out on my plans. I was going to let them help me make homemade play dough and then play with it together, but I had lots of laundry going and several other household projects so we just used the play dough we already had. I did sit down with them and played for almost a half hour though. I got a little addicted and made an awesome gingerbread girl. They seemed to enjoy it too so I was glad I took a few moments to spend time together.

Let the Projects Begin!

This is the first summer where I've had to adjust to having a child back home from school more often. It hasn't been too hard except that I feel guilty that I'm not doing more with them. When Ethan was in school every morning, Miles would take a nap and Isaac either played well by himself or watched a movie and I could get almost everything I needed to done during that time. Then the rest of the day I felt like I really was spending good time with all 3 of them.
So a few weeks ago when I started feeling like a bad mother I put a plan into place. I set some basic goals of things I wanted to make sure got done every day with them (read scriptures together, read books together, spend time working on school things, etc) and then I searched the internet for fun, short activities we could do together so that I wouldn't always be cleaning or doing projects and feel guilty for sending them to play outside or downstairs.
I only picked 20 activities so we won't do one every day but I figure on days when I have lots of house or personal projects I need to do, I'll first get all the must-dos done, then do a project together, and then I won't feel guilty for ignoring them while I do my things and they play. I typed up a list of the activities and cut them up and put them into a jar so we'd randomly pick one out, then I collected lots of supplies- glue, paper, glitter, etc, and lastly printed off explanations of how to do each activity so I'd have easy directions to follow.
It worked great today. We read scriptures at breakfast, got dressed, cleaned up, played outside a little, did some school workbooks, and then I let Ethan pick a paper out of the project jar to see what our "surprise" project would be. He picked fireworks so that's what we did! I'll try to post each activity, the items you need, and how to do it in case you want to copy.

FIREWORKS
Need: straws, black or dark construction paper, glue, glitter, old newspapers

Give each child an old newspaper to keep the table cleaner, then a piece of black paper and a straw. You can let your kids put large dots of glue on the paper (I didn't cause I'm a mean clean-freak kind of mom) and then show them how to blow the glue to make it bigger and then use the end of the straw to make the explosion part. Let them add glitter and let dry.
One suggestion: my kids (both surprisingly) would get one end of the straw sticky with glue and then decide they wanted to blow again so they'd flip the straw over, stick the glue side in their mouths, and then blow. Maybe Elmer's glue is not bad for them but it grossed me out, not them apparently.
The finished product! Very cute and festive and done in under 20 minutes but a nice together project. After this I went off to cleaning out closets and washing windows and they happily played together. Here's to hoping this will make the summer easier and less guilt-inducing.

Poor Isaac

The price of being a two year old daredevil is sometimes this:
and this...
And sometimes even this...
But will that stop him from running, climbing, or jumping? Absolutely not!

(if you're wondering he tripped on the base of the sliding screen door and fell into the metal door frame. He had a pretty black eye for several days and it was mostly swollen shut for 1 day. That's not really blood- just scraped off skin which 4 days later has turned black and looks bad. Luckily his eye wasn't hurt and he didn't need stitches. Can you imagine trying to stitch a 2 year olds eye lid? He won't even let me touch it!)

By the way- anyone know any good ways to keep kids from pulling bandaids off and then pulling their scabs off? There's a serious epidemic in our house with this. And then of course there's the resulting crying after you pull your scab off because it hurts again.

The Milo Mohawk

When Miles was first born the only hair on his head was on the very back just above his neck (basically a mullet except short) and it was flaming red. He quickly lost all of that and was pretty bald. When his hair did start growing in, it was blond and only grew on the top. He's 8 months old now and the only hair with length that he has is right on the top in a mohawk. AND IT'S CURLY!
Several people have asked me if I curl it and I think this is an absurd question. How realistic or wise would it be to take a hot iron to his little head. Are you kidding? He moves that melon around so frequently that he'd get burned for sure! And he'd likely pull out any curler I tried to stick in within 10 seconds. So no, this hair is 100% Milo.
When it's humid the curls turn into little ringlets and when it's not they're a little more fro-like. From the top you can even see how little other hair he has but for some strange (and cute) reason it's long on the top.
Love it!

"We want Miles"

Now that the weather is finally warming up, my boys spend A LOT of time outside. They ride scooters, skateboards, bikes, kick balls, throw balls to Oscar, hit golf balls, climb and jump off of rocks, dig in the dirt, squash bugs, and who knows what else.
The other day I walked out onto the balcony to check on them and was surprised to hear Ethan say "mom, we want Miles". Ethan is especially kind to Miles- brings him toys, tickles him, feeds him rice cereal, etc. but really what was he going to do with him outside?
At first I protested there was no place to leave Miles and I was working on things inside (Miles USED to stay on a blanket but now rolls anywhere he wants and likes to eat dirt, grass, and sticks he finds so that's not an option). When Ethan kept begging, I finally thought of Taylor's mom's playpen. So I drug it outside with a few toys and left Miles to watch the boys.
After a few minutes I came back out to check on them and THIS is what I found.
Apparently they truly did want him out there with them and if he couldn't be riding bikes, they would join him in his playpen. What sweet brothers. (love the 70's colors on the playpen by the way)

Our Primary Party

Last summer when we moved into our ward, Taylor and I were both called to be Nursery teachers. This was somewhat of a let down as Isaac was finally old enough for Nursery just one week previous and we had been looking forward to being able to actually SIT in Sunday School. It turned out to be a good thing though. We got to meet all the other parents of small children as they dropped off/picked up/stayed to calm a crying child. We also got some one-on-one time with Isaac which we loved. And really we only had to teach every 3 weeks so it was pretty easy.

Two weeks before Miles was born they released BOTH of us so we could "focus on our new baby". Those were the second counselors exact words. Only in Utah! And Fabulous might I add!

When Miles was 2 months old they called us to teach the 11 year olds in the Primary. Taylor was more excited than I can tell you. He LOVED teaching Primary in DC and LOVES our class now.

There are many wonderful things about teaching this class. First, they LOVE Miles. They call him our class mascot and fight over who gets to hold him. Second, we get to teach together which is really nice because we have to sit down and talk about the scriptures together. It's really been a great experience. Third, we team teach with another sister so we still get to attend Relief Society and Sunday School half the time. And lastly, because they're 11, they phase out of the Primary as soon as they turn 12 so we still get to teach them a Sunday School lesson, but the number we have to watch during Singing/Sharing time is down to just 2. By August we'll be free and clear (which will work out perfect since Miles is starting to get loud with his talking and I'll be able to just take him into the Nursery to hang out- they don't mind since there's only 3 kids there and one of them is Isaac). One final plus, Taylor got called to be the Elder's Quorum Secretary and they let him keep his Primary calling (doubling up in Utah? unheard of!) because he loves it so much and it doesn't interfere with Priesthood because our kids are phasing out.

The only downside to our calling is that our kids are so chatty. They love each other and really get along well, but reverence is sometimes a hard thing. So a few months ago we dangled the promise of a pizza/ice cream party in front of them and they earned it in no time.
So Tuesday night they all came over, along with our cute team teacher and we had a blast. Taylor made homemade pizzas, Kathy brought homemade ice cream and cookies. We ate, played Mario Kart, and then had water balloon games.
Seriously love these kids. (Taylor, Kathy, Andy, Josh, Kennedy, Rachel)
Ali and Nathan are especially sweet to my kids. At first all of them were sitting around the table in the above picture and Ethan and Isaac were over on the chair and the step. Nathan and Ali on their own went over and were talking, laughing, and playing with them.
Kathy was a genius to make balloon catchers out of empty milk jugs and the kids loved it. Of course it deteriorated into a full on water fight but really, can you expect anything less of kids- or adults for that matter.
We love these kids and just wish we could keep them forever. At the end of the party we announced "okay it's time to clean up and go." Ethan's reply to that was "where are we going?" These kids were so nice to my boys that Ethan truly thought he was part of the group and would of course be going wherever they were. Poor fella. Bedtime was a sad thing that night.

Father's Day

We had a lazy Sunday morning (carry over from Friday night movie) for Father's Day. A few gifts, homemade sour dough French toast, and since it was Father's Day I let all my boys eat their breakfast around the computer so they could watch the World Cup Soccer game.
We got to have dinner with Taylor's parents and with his grandfather who lives just down the street. A nice day to be together with some of the best fathers I know!

To the Drive-in we go!

Taylor has been begging for a while to take the kids to the drive-in movies and we finally found an open Friday night followed by an open Saturday (necessary for the recovery time). It just so happened that Toy Story 3 came out so all 4 boys were ecstatic.
We were disappointed when we first got there and saw the entire lot full of minivans. Disappointment turned to joy though as we were waved through to the very empty front of the lot where only the short cars get to park. YEAH! We've been borrowing Taylor's parent's Volvo for the past year since they no longer have teenage drivers and just haven't gotten rid of it yet. It has a great rear-facing backseat that folds down flat so after it got dark we just put Miles in there and he slept the whole time. We sat out front on lawn chairs, ate popcorn and drank sodas and had a fabulous time. No bugs, no humidity, cheap family entertainment. We love Utah!Can you tell Miles is excited to be up past his bedtime? And to show off his mad clapping skills?
And in honor of the movie the boys wore their Toy Story jammies. They both seriously giggled through the opening credits. So excited!
Isaac loved the whole thing. Ethan got scared by the monkey with the cymbals and spent the rest of the movie on Taylor's lap. A good night and lots and lots of sleeping on Saturday.

Wheeler Farm

Who knew there was a free farm just 10 minutes from our house? We had a great morning last week with Alicia Derr and Henry and her sister and kids. Cows, pigs, chickens, horses, ducks, rabbits and even a tree house. What more could you want?
Okay if you're Isaac you'd ask for a wagon ride and since none of Alicia's sister's cute kids wanted to ride in their own wagon, Isaac got to. And the kids were nice enough to pull him the whole way. He seriously didn't get out the whole time- not even to get a closer look at the animals.
And since the opportunity presented itself we took the time to snap a few (thousand) shots trying to get a good one for Father's Day. This is the best I could get. Oh well.

To die for cupcakes

Almost too good to give away. Lucky for my visiting teachee it's her birthday or else these little puppies might be in my belly right now.And so easy so I had to post the recipe. I just used a regular cake mix so that's boring- and easy. Thank you IKEA for the cute cupcake wrappers- seriously what don't they sell???

The frosting is 1 C heavy whipping cream (beat until it makes soft peaks), 1/3 cup sugar (fold into the whipped cream gently) and 4 Tablespoons of pureed fruit (I used raspberries and it took about 4 oz of raspberries. Puree and then fold in gently to the whipped cream and sugar). Top with a raspberry for added cuteness. That's it! How easy! And really to die for.

Not-so-lazy days of (a very chilly) summer

My boys definitely do not believe in being lazy so we've been going places almost every day just to keep the boredom (and fights over toys) at a minimum.
Normally we'd just swim in Taylor's parent's pool but since it's still very chilly here (and the pool hasn't even been opened for the season yet) we were happy to go to Taylor's uncle's house where they have an indoor and very heated pool. It helps that his cousin and I get along great and that she has 4 adorable boys. Look at the gloomy day in the background- 60 and rainy AGAIN but who cares!
Of course Isaac wouldn't even step a toe in the pool. He walked around and shot people with squirt guns and dipped noodles in the pool but refused to get in. He loved every minute of it too.
Ethan is so independent now. He can swim about 5 feet at a time although it looks more like drowning than swimming but he makes it up for air and somehow gets to the side of the pool. Miles LOVES the water. He kept dunking his face in and then spitting out water. I had to be careful how deep I got with him because he'd bend in half to get to the water and if I was too deep he'd keep submerging himself.
Another gloomy day we went to the aquarium. We LOVE the penguin exhibit- especially since they are so active, always swimming and jumping. See how annoyed Isaac is that I made him turn around so I could get a picture and that was after several minutes of me begging.
Happy to climb on anything- even a frog.
Miles comes along for the ride everywhere we go and doesn't seem to mind it. His new skill is clapping which is pretty adorable because he's so focused that he's either staring at his hands or looking at you with the Bugsy eyes. And he does it on command too so it looks like it's time to start teaching him sign language.

There and Back Again

A recap of the week would not be complete without a description of how I survived 3 1/2 hour plane rides twice with just me and 3 little boys. Going there was actually easy. The boys were in a good mood and Taylor lectured Ethan before we left on his "duties for helping mommy". He was very focused on being good and really helped out. He held Miles in security while I folded up the stroller and got all the jackets, shoes, bags, bottle, sippy cups, and other liquids out and pushed down the belt. Isaac meanwhile ran through the metal detector and luckily the security lady just held his hand and made him wait for me. It was nice that there was literally no one else in security- seriously we were the only ones in line. After security we went to the play areas that are at the beginning of each terminal in Salt Lake. I love this airport. There's free toys in a walled off area and even benches and tables for parents. Boarding the plane was a little tricky as I again had to fold up the stroller which can't be done one-handed so Ethan had to hold Miles again who was wiggly and fussy but some nice lady saw what was happening and helped Ethan hold him. Then the stewardess was really nice to us and when she came to "remind" me to put on my oxygen mask before the kids, she laughed and said she'd send help if needed. Ethan and Isaac watched movies and Miles slept and then ate cheerios. We're guessing that Miles must somehow be severely affected by air pressure because on each of our flights to London and Dubai and back he had diaper explosions- which he never has at home. And once again on the flight to Chicago he exploded. Amazingly both Ethan and Isaac stayed in their seats the whole 5 minutes I was gone changing Miles which was good because there really wasn't another way to do it except to leave them alone. The flight there was actually a breeze.
Coming back was not. It all started at 5:15 that morning. Friday night I went with my dad to the temple while my mom put the kids to bed. She somehow hit something wrong on the white noise machine/clock that Ethan uses to tell him when it's 7am and he's allowed out. The sun comes up in Chicago at 4:30am and when Ethan woke up at 5:15, his clock said 9:30 so he came running out and was very confused when we told him to go back to bed. Of course by then both Miles and Isaac and I were also awake so the morning had started.
We got to the airport a full 2 hours early which was good because we needed every minute. Because Miles didn't have a ticket the Southwest people wouldn't let us use the kiosks and so we ended up waiting in line for over an hour to check in. This was really hard for Ethan and Isaac who were bored and kept wanting to lay down on the dirty floor. They let my mom help me through security which was wonderful since it was really busy. We made it to our flight and squeezed in. It's actually okay space wise with the 3 boys because they're so tiny that all 3 fit into just 2 seats. Miles enjoyed laying behind Isaac or sitting beside him and eating snacks off the tray table. Miles exploded out of his diaper again so I had to leave the boys to go change him. But this time Isaac decided he wanted to join us so he came along- he was also stinky and needed to be changed which I hadn't noticed. After waiting in line for 15 minutes for the bathroom, I discovered that there was no changing table in the back (thank you less-than-helpful flight attendant man who stood and watched me try to hold wiggly, stinky Miles and try to corral crabby, energetic Isaac for 15 minutes with wipes and diapers in my hands outside the bathroom without thinking to mention I was at the wrong bathroom) so I had to go to the front. Which was of course already occupied so they made me stand behind row 3 just in case I was a terrorist planning to break into the cockpit- all the while holding a very stinky, fussy baby and holding onto a crying, trying-to-escape 2 year old who kept throwing himself on the floor. Yes the people beside me in row 3 seemed very annoyed I was there. Now imagine the tiny bathroom with me standing, Miles on the changing table and Isaac squeezing himself around me begging to be let out. His particular phrase of choice was "no like it, no like it" which he kept repeating the whole time we were in there and all the way back to our seats at a very high pitch. After I changed Miles I threw Isaac up onto the table too and changed him next to Miles. Again continuous screaming from Isaac and fussing from Miles who was now very squished against the wall. Of course I had to do my own business by this point so I left both boys on the changing table which is just 2 feet above the toilet, somehow squeezed myself in with my forehead on the door and got it done. (At this point you're all laughing and being thankful you're not as crazy as me to attempt flying with 3 little boys solo) There was again much screaming as I dragged both boys back to our seats and got resettled. There were lots of dirty looks and loud exhales from other passengers that I chose to ignore. There were very few children on the flight and mine were by far the loudest and smelliest. As we were landing I felt Isaac lean on me and looked over to see that he had passed out. I looked down at Miles on my lap and he had also finally fallen asleep. Classic. Once we landed the guy in front of me stood up, turned around, and said "oh, of course now they fall asleep." I had a few choice things I thought of saying to him but didn't and actually wished I had let Isaac sit behind him and kick his chair. Which I hadn't done. Mostly the boys just watched movies and ate snacks. I actually thought they were pretty good, just a little crabby and tired and then the one bathroom screaming trip. Oh well. The boys soon woke up and we managed to get all of our things and ourselves off the plane. Whew! We survived!

Jean's House

One morning we went to visit my mom's friend Jean who has a fabulous house and backyard on a lake and 2 grandsons living with her. It was seriously fabulous. My sister Kristina and her son Evan stayed with us for the week we were there so we all got to hang out.
We set up sprinklers for the kids and Ethan loved them. There is no picture of Isaac because he refused to go within 10 feet of them. The child is seriously afraid of water.

Miles enjoyed his towels.
And what would be better to finish off the day than a motorized John Deer tractor.

Week in Chicago

One of the major reasons for visiting my parents was so that my boys would have one-on-one time with my dad. They get to see my mom a lot since she travels here frequently (yeah!) and they see both of them at reunions but then there's 10 other grandkids to compete with. So it was great for them to get some real grandpa Pat bonding time.
My dad: always willing to fall asleep during a movie.
And he's great at chasing the boys around the playground- he'll even go down the tube slides with them.

My mom loves the kids but is much more in love with the babies. She got lots of holding and loving and tickling with Miles and he loved every minute of it.
Life is pretty good.
Running the bases.
And then they introduced us to man-made sledding hills. How cool is that? There are fenced off sides so you can drag a tube or sled up in the winter and then ride down. Apparently this one is set to get a heated waiting area at the top. I'm seriously jealous. My dad was kind enough to carry Isaac up- twice and then they all ran down like maniacs.
This is not a staged picture. Miles was playing with toys and decided the bucket was supposed to be on his head.
He's getting pretty good at sitting up.
Until there's a toy he wants to put in his mouth and then that inevitably knocks him over.