Chim-chimney-cha-roo

So we have a chimney. It someday might even have a woodstove hooked up to it but that is living in our garage until we figure out what to do so that our house doesn't burn down when we use it. But the thing about chimneys is that they get dirty and with the condition that the rest of our house was, we wanted to make sure that the chimney was clean before we even tried to hook up the wood stove. So rather than hire someone we rented the brushes and did it ourselves! By ourselves, I mean Chris did it all. 

Dallin desperately wanted to help and I always had to keep an eye on him or he would start to climb the ladder. 

In the end though, the boys did get to help. Tristan really wanted to carry one of the poles but he kept digging it into the ground and not moving so Chris helped him help himself. But its very nice that we have two little boys so willing to help. Hopefully they stay that way!

The first snow

I don't know why but there are some crazy people out there who don't like snow... I don't understand it. And I am sure they were all very disappointed when we got about an inch of snow on the ground last Saturday! I, on the other hand, was ecstatic. I woke up and saw it and quickly ran back to the room and told Chris it was snowing. He told me to go away.. but that is okay. He was happy about the snow, just not being woken up. 

Dallin looks so blissful as he would go full tilt down the hill. 

It took Tristan a few tries but he eventually got into the swing of things and if you look at his face (as much of it that you can see) he was a super happy little boy! 

We bought the most awesome sled last year. It is super light hard foam with awesome stuff on the bottom that doesn't get scratched. Even when you only have a very light dusting of snow as you can see we have in the pictures. The snow eventually covered the grass but we had to get out early because you never know how long it will last here in Maryland and so we have to get as much fun in before it goes away. 

Halloween!

Chris really enjoys going all out and getting into the holiday spirit, whatever the holiday. Give him a budget and he will blow it every time because he just gets so excited! And the same for Halloween. Last year as we were driving home from Trunk-or-Treat, we thought it would be a lot of fun to be Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach (me) and Bowser. So that is what we did!

Now, my husband left it all up to me, which is totally okay. I am definitely the more creative out of the two. But he said he wanted me to do it cheaply. So that was my goal. I went to Good Will the first week in October and bought this:

This pile had 2 pink table cloths, 6 t-shirts and 2 belts. Also some quilting batting. I turned it all into this:

A Mario costume, a Luigi Costume, a Princess Peach skirt and shirt (I figured my baby belly would make it harder to make a dress) and a stuffed chest for Bowser. We also added a soymilk box and a diaper box for his shell. 

We wound up only going to Trunk-or-Treat, which happened to be in the building due to snow that day. The boys enjoyed it. They both loved the apples (especially Tristan) and lolly pops. 

Dallin kept trying to unwrap candy and I kept trying to have him wait until we got home... It didn't work... 

Mario kept finding lollypops and would just stick it in his mouth with the wrapper. When he realized that it wasn't as satisfying that way, he usually stuck it back in the bowl and got a new one... What a cutie!

Anyway, we had a lot of fun and we looked awesome. The Sister missionaries even got pictures of us to send home to their families in their weekly emails. And it only took me about 10 days of evening sewing and occasionally nap time sewing to make it all. 

I wonder what we will be next year...

Date Night

So, I was supposed to go on a date tonight. I called up my friend Alisa and asked her to go out with me and I was leaving Chris and the boys home alone for the night. Then her husband had an emergency at work and then her baby sitter cancelled on her and so here I sit... I am not upset or mad or anything, just bummed that I didn't get to go out. Though I will admit after going to Sam's Club today and spending lots of money, it might be a good thing. We bought 2 mattresses today! And lots of food but I am excited about the mattresses. Back in May or sometime around there I bought a nice hardwood cherry bunk bed that can be 2 single beds if desired (and until I can trust Tristan to not kill himself going up the ladder, 2 beds is desired). It is a very nice bed and it has been sitting in boxes in my room for months. But we finally did it and bought two mattresses! And we even set up the beds tonight! I will have to take a picture of Dallin's room, in a few short months, Tristan's room as well. 


Anyway, so I am feeling a bit bummed about my date falling through. I have been feeling like my sister lately and being a huge grump. I think eating has a lot to do with it some days. I have been noticing my body just drops in sugar really fast after I eat and so after lunch I start hitting a low and I get head aches and I get really grumpy with the boys and Chris. It might be that or maybe I just get grumpy in the afternoons. Either way, it does me good to get out once in a while. Alisa and I rescheduled our awesome date for next weekend when it won't be quite so last minute but I am still feeling down tonight. Chris is feeling pretty good though. His brothers came over and they are playing games downstairs and will be, late into the night. But I have such a good husband. He keeps checking on me and brought me some pizza that they were eating and a soda and just wants me to be happy. It is very sweet of him, especially when I feel bummed about my date. 


This post is mostly about me... complaining... but I am okay with that. Chris told me I should do a blog post and so I will. I will do some other ones but I felt like I needed a moment longer to be grumpy. Now, on to the happier posts!

Apple apple apple

Last Friday the boys and I went up to Baughers to pick apples and we had such a good time. We don't get out of the house very often since we don't have a second car and so my friend Camie picked us up and took us! It was wonderful! The boys had such a good time picking apples and eating them. 

 Dallin would eat a little of one apple and then throw it away and find a new one. He was so funny. Always being so particular about which apple he would eat.

I gave Tristan his apple as soon as we got there and he ate the WHOLE thing. I do think I got it away from him long enough to be able to rip out the stem but otherwise he ate the seeds and all the tough middle part. He was so cute walking around eating his apple. He makes me happy.

Plums anyone?

Sometimes Dallin gets up on the counter and gets into things he shouldn't. Like the fruit that lives up on the counter. And sometimes he likes to share his "finds" with Tristan. My boys love plums and Tristan especially. And so Dallin gave one to Tristan and then he got one for himself and then Tristan decided one was NOT ENOUGH!

Look at that face. That was right after he took a big bite so his mouth is stuffed full of plum. He walked around until bed time with his plums eating them and ate about 1 and 3/4 of the 2 plums. They are so funny, how Dallin gives Tristan stuff and Tristan just takes it and runs... And then Dallin totally blames it all on Tristan! He has learned young to try to not take the blame....

My good lookin' boys

I like to do the boys hair on occasion. Chris thinks it looks... silly... I think they look adorable when I give them little faux-hawks. This was just after I had cut their hair and I was lamenting the loss of Tristan's long fluffy hair and wanted to do something cute with it. We were going out to a ward activity and let me tell you, they looked good! 

Tristan is a little finger sucker and he was unhappy about getting trussed up in his carseat and so he was sucking his finger but he was sure cute! He looks so much older since I cut his hair and when I do his hair I feel like he is even older. But oh-so-cute!

Dallin wanted to show all how stlyin' he can be with his hair and sunglasses. He is such a stinkin' ham some days but I sure love him!

Sleepy time for Dallin

Dallin doesn't always enjoy going to bed at night... Sometimes he fights it. He isn't in a crib and we don't shut his door anymore because he can open it up. He is so funny about it because at 10 at night when Chris and I go up for bed Dallin won't be in bed... he will be in the hallway! So cute! I started taking pictures of him when I find him in the hallway and I think it is so funny. 

One of these days he will stay in his room when he is going to sleep... I am sure of it... Maybe when he is 10 or so... But by then the hallway might be full because I am sure he will have "taught" Tristan to do it too...

We have more yard!

I am here to argue that it is possible for a place to be too green, that things can grow too well (mostly weeds) and that you can feel overwhelmed and closed in with too many trees and greenery. I didn't think that a place like that existed until I lived in Maryland and owned my own house. Now I realize how incredibly well things grow here, too well I might even say.


Can you see it all there in the background? Would you believe me when I say there is a fence in there somewhere? There is also a part that didn't have a fence that we didn't discover until we had cleared a huge portion of that back corner, which took Chris 5 hours to clear out, probably more if our back-up hadn't offered his help.


Our house was unoccupied for at least 3 years, probably closer to 5 years and unmaintained for the lats 8 years before we bought it. It lay neglected and the plants took over the yard. We have been fighting a losing battle with the greenery in our yard. But happy to say it, we enlisted (he offered) our neighbor, Don, to do some work in our yard. Chris was out there one day, feeling motivated, and decided to weed whack his way towards the fence. He feels like a bad neighbor when our weeds start to encroach on Don's lawn. So he was out there and Don happened to be out there. And Don said stop doing that! Let me come over. And he proceeded to work for 2 hours, clearing out with his little loader the entire portion of our yard that is next to his. It would have taken Chris 12 hours a day, for probably about a month straight to clear out and do what Don did in one day. Then a few days later Don came over with his skid loader and proceeded to level it all out so that it would be pretty and pack down the dirt so that we can put seed down.


This is a picture of the back corner where there was a shed, many years ago, and wood and rocks and trash was left there. And gravel. And the plants grew over everything and it took us hours to get the wood out from under it when we first moved in. Now it is a lovely flat place that we are thinking about having a bonfire soon.


This is another picture of the corner with the boys walking in the nice clean area. They like to walk back and forth in it. Dallin looks for trash and picks it up and puts it in the bag we leave down there for such a purpose. They are about 15-20 yards from the fence, a long ways away!


Dallin likes to mosey along and other times he loves to run as fast as he can or he will push Tristan on a little fire truck at full tilt. They both love having a huge flat place with nothing on it. And we gained about 15-20 extra feet in our yard since we did this! Flat space in our yard! We don't have much of that...

Anyway, Don, is amazing and I wish I knew what we could do for him to say thank you because it was just so much help for us. But he is too nice and won't even let us pay him for the gas he used up to clear out our yard. I do know though that he enjoys our boys and we walk over once or twice a week and talk to him and Don really seems to get a kick out of Dallin and how attached Dallin is to him. Maybe we can just lend him some grandkids? Anyway, it is awesome that that huge project is now done, and it only took 2 days to complete!

Week 11 and a half

So, I finally went and had my first midwife appointment! It was wonderful. I loved Kay when I had Tristan and I totally lucked out that she was the one to deliver me and now I am excited to be able to have her on board with me this pregnancy again! I was waiting until close to 12 weeks before I went in because sometimes you get a talking-to if you don't go in until after that and I would just rather avoid any talkings-to. It has been almost a whole year since I last went to the office, I went in for my six-week check-up after I had Tristan and haven't been back but I knew we would be there sometime this year!

Anyway, I am looking forward to finally moving out of the first trimester soon and have an increase in energy again. I have been DYING! It is so hard to have the energy to stay conscious enough to be aware of what the boys are doing. It isn't just sitting down and not moving, it is that I am always mentally exhausted! Thankfully though in a few weeks I shouldn't be dealing with that as much... hopefully... Then there is the whole issue with diabetes that since it runs in my family and I had a big baby (Tristan was 9lb 3oz) that I have to do the glucose test right away, rather than at week 32 or whenever they have you do it.

Also, I got to hear the baby's heart beat. It took Kay a good 8 minutes or so to find the heart beat since the baby is only the size of a lime right now, but she did it. It was so neat. I don't know why but I felt like it was a bigger event to hear this baby's heart beat than it was to hear Dallin or Tristan's. I don't know why that is. Kay said that the heart beat is fast and maybe that means it is a girl, not that that is an actual scientifically proven observation or anything, but she thinks I need a girl. I think I do too. I would love to have two little girls after having two little boys. We will see what the Lord blesses us with though!

What to eat...

So with the first trimester of this pregnancy I don't really like food, but that isn't much of a surprise though. But it does make it hard to find things that ever sound appealing. I have decided smoothies are the way to go but I am avoiding dairy because when I am pregnant it does horrible things to me. I had a brilliant idea the other day though. I don't know how many of you have been to Jamba Juice, but they make my favorite smoothie of all time. It is no longer on the menu but you can still ask for it. You ready for it?

Berry Lime Sublime

It is full of raspberry goodness and sweetness and tartness and wonderfulness. Unfortunately I live in Maryland where the only Jamba Juice I know if is at the airport... behind security. So, I could buy a $59 dollar plane ticket to where ever Southwest flies so that I can get behind security to buy myself a real Jamba, but since it isn't a "real" one, they won't make it. I asked last time I was at the airport. Because of that I had my brilliant idea. I decided to look up the recipe online! Supposedly someone who worked at Jamba Juice posted the recipe. I haven't made it but I am really excited to try it! But because I think it is the most amazing drink ever, I decided I would share it with you!

16 oz (sixteen)
8 oz Raspberry juice
2 small scoops of lime sherbet
2 small scoops of strawberries
1 small scoop of raspberries
1 scoop of ice

24 oz (original)
12 oz Raspberry juice
2 big scoops of lime sherbet
2 big scoop of strawberry
1 big scoop of raspberry
1 scoop ice

32 oz. (power)
14 oz. Raspberry juice
3 big scoops of lime sherbet
3 big scoops of strawberries
1 big scoop of raspberries
1 scoop of ice

The biggest problem is that I am not sure where to get raspberry juice at. It doesn't seem like something that would be in the juice aisle. I did some reading from another website and they say use frozen juice concentrate and use half the recommended water and that way you will get the right consistency for your smoothie. So, I am hoping I can find some frozen raspberry concentrate this week so I can make myself a much needed Berry Lime Sublime.

One year old!

Want to know what my favorite thing about when our boys turn one year old. They get to be forward facing little munchkins! We went to Massenutten Water Park which was like a 4 hour drive and it was Tristan's first time being in the car forward facing and it made such a difference in our very long car ride! Ahh if only we had a van now...

"ice"Phone

Dallin is a very technologically advanced two year old. He loves to play on the icePhone or as we would say the iPhone. And another thing that he loves to do is run around in his undies and then another thing he loves to do is to play on my bed. This picture just shows him doing all three things at the same time. I love his smile too!

Potty training

So we have been potty training Dallin and we have done a great job if I do say so myself. He has been so good about it lately and he has been wanting to help others with their lack of training. He tried to help Tristan for a while but I nixed that in the bud, if for no other reason than Tristan likes to play in the potty and I don't like that so I have taught Dallin that we always need to have the bathroom door shut. So he stared looking for a pupil elsewhere. And he found one! He loves Baby and likes to feed and burp change Baby's diapers and now even try to get baby to go potty in the potty! So funny!

New posts

I was talking to my sister in law Bethany yesterday and she motivated me to do some blog posts. I haven't updated in quite some time and I have been having a very hard time with motivation lately. Just in general, not just with my blog. So, Bethany told me that I should try to just do small ones rather than huge comprehensive ones. So here is my goal, at least one post a week! Just something fast from the week that we did. So now I will go ahead and do one or two posts of things that have happened in the last few weeks.

Finger Painting

Some days it can be really hard to come up with things to do with Dallin and Tristan to entertain them throughout the day until Chris comes home to take care of them. Haha! I am kidding. It is very difficult some times to come up with things to do but being outside is always wonderful and then I thought it would be fun to try out this neat recipe I found on this blog post. It was a great idea because Dallin had a lot of fun.


I followed the recipe on that blog post and even had baby food jars on hand and was able to take some pretty pictures before Dallin made it all gunky.


Tristan liked to try to open the jars and also to eat the insides and push the paints on the swing.


Dallin saw me taking pictures of Tristan and started to say "ME!" and "cheese" because he really wanted me to take some of him. So this is him before we got started and before he got messy!


Here is Dallin in action! Painting and havings oh so much fun! He did really well. The stuff is kinda goopy so he started getting too much out at the end but he had a lot of fun and it took up time. Which is always my primary goal!


This is what Tristan did most of the time. Climbed up the stairs and then climbed back down. And played with the dead plants...


"Do you want to try it Mommy?"


Dallin's awesome artwork.

We had a really good time doing it and the paints are super easy to make. I was surprised how quickly the cornstarch got gooey. I will admit I was expecting it to be more paint-like in texture rather than a goo, but meh, who cares! After we were done we went and hopped in the pool and got all cleaned up! It was a good day for us.

Let sleeping babies lie

It doesn't matter if it is hot or cold or if he is clothed or in a diaper, this is how Tristan always sleeps.

He is so cute and I love how he ALWAYS sleeps on his pillow. He has been sleeping on his pillow since he has been able to move around enough to be able to sleep on it! He looks absolutely adorable in his little frog position. I am happy he sleeps on his tummy now too because I hated it when he would stop breathing if he ever got a little stuffed up and was on his back because of his adenoids. That problem will be fixed soon though. I do hope he continues to sleep like a little froggy for a few more years though.

He fights injustice...

He is PRODUCE MAN!

He watches over the kitchen to make sure all vegetables are treated partially and fairly. That they are not thrown around and trampled upon the floor by careless males in my kitchen. He upholds my law!


That sucker weighed 5.2 pounds and made lots of zucchini bread and zucchini pancakes and zucchini fries!

Poor Dallin...

Chris took Dallin outside this evening for a little bit and after being outside for about 15 minutes I made Dallin come inside. The poor poor poor boy had probably about 25 bites all over. We tend to let Dallin run around naked all the time... who needs clothes in the country! Anyway, he came inside and I started to put benadryl rub all over him.


He swelled up like crazy wherever those mosquitoes bit him and hopefully he will not be too itchy tomorrow. We did find out today though that Tristan has strep and maybe Dallin has it too so here is hoping that the itching and possibly the strep aren't a problem tonight!

And she is outta here!

I am so excited. And nervous. And full of lots of other emotions. I am going away for a week. I am leaving my two boys and man behind. I will be child free for a week! It is going to be pretty awesome staying up late and not having to deal with boys and going out and eating all the foods I miss from Rexburg. Wingers... Jamba juice... mesquite seasoning from Broulims. Ahhh I can't wait!

First word!

So today I was sitting in the hallway with Tristan while Dallin was running around and Tristan kept saying something, over and over again. I figured he was just talking and being repetitive like he usually is so I didn't think anything of it. And then I noticed he was pointing too. Then I realized he was saying his first word. "Light". Wow... I can't believe he chose that to be his first word, but he says it all the time if you pay enough attention to his talking! Dallin says it all the time too but its just funny that Tristan says it before mommy or daddy or moo (Dallin's first word). Oh well! Maybe the third child will decide to say mommy first... But it is really neat that Tristan is starting to understand words and can now say them, like light! Chris plays a game with him all the time to get him to turn the light switch on and so I think that is a big reason why he likes lights so much. He is growing up too fast...

Pee pee in the potty!

So, I just had a WONDERFUL experience with Dallin! I was sitting here, typing up the last little bit of my previous post when all of a sudden, I heard Dallin going pee! We have been working on potty training the last week and a half and let me tell you I have cleaned up a LOT of messes! No poopy ones thankfully! BUT! He has never gone to the bathroom unprompted so when I heard him going pee I was scared for the mess he might have been making. But NO! Dallin was going pee pee in the potty all by himself! He knew he had to go pee pee and so he ran over to his potty, sat down and did his business! It was amazing! I heard him going and I stood up to tell him to go sit on the potty but he was already there! I seriously wanted to cry tears of joy. He has never sat on the potty and gone pee without me right next to him, telling him to go pee! I am SOOOO STINKING HAPPY! Now if only he can keep this up we might be moving out of diapers for him in a week or two! Think of the savings!

My responsibilities

I gave a talk in church on Sunday on the topic Accountability and Responsibility in the Family. It was actually a very difficult subject for me to get started with. I had a hard time the first... three weeks of preparation! I don't know why but I just didn't feel confidant and able to talk about the topic. Maybe it was the Lord's way of telling me that I need to better understand what my responsibilities are? Dunno!

Anyway, while I was pondering the topic I thought that there are some things Chris and I need to be better, be more responsible about teaching to our children. A big one that I thought of is prayer. Chris and I have rarely ever missed a night praying together as a couple since we first got married almost 4 years ago. But we rarely say nightly prayers with the boys. I have been trying to always say prayer before we eat and this morning Dallin sat in his chair and I put his food in front of him and went back into the kitchen to get Tristan's food ready and Dallin stood up on his chair and kept saying "pair". I looked over and he had his hands folded and was looking at me! I was amazed that he was waiting to eat until we said prayer because honestly, he usually starts eating his food while we are saying prayers!

Another thing we need to start teaching our boys is reading the scriptures. I think it would help me and Chris a lot in our own scripture study if we started reading a verse a night with the boys. So I am hoping to start implementing that this week. It is just so hard to remember to do it! And along with that, I have been wanting to have family home evenings more regularly. We are not the best at it at all. But I was looking in a box of books yesterday and I saw the book Standing for Something by President Hinckley and thought that would be a good idea. There are 10 virtues he talks about that if we live them, we will become better families and a better nation. So, I thought that every Monday night we will take 5 minutes out of our night, sing a song, say a prayer and then talk for about 1 minute or less on the chapters virtue. Last night was love and I found a quote that I liked and we talked about it. "All of us need to learn that life is a mission and not simply a career."

So here is hoping that I become a more responsible parent because I don't want it to be a sin upon my head for not teaching my children all they need to know to become righteous individuals!

Bath time!

How can an ordinary mixer make two little boys oh so happy?


When it is used to create mountains of bubbles in their bath time!


This was their first bubble bath ever and the bubbles in bubble baths disappear too quickly, or it was just the brand of bubble we got. Either way, Dallin was very disappointed when the bubbles were almost gone and so was I so I had a brilliant idea to get the mixer and whisk the water and make those bubbles come back!

Look at that happy face. Bubbles can only make it cuter.


I gave them my mirror so they could look at themselves covered with bubbles but they only wanted to put bubbles on it!


Such happy little boys in the tub. That is what we do on the nights we need to burn time before bed time! Ahhh we love bath time!

Strawberries!

Two or three weeks ago we went up to Baughers U-Pick farm and picked strawberries. We got about 8 pounds worth of strawberries and I made about 3 quarts of strawberry freezer jam. We had a lot of fun out picking. It was the first cool day in a long time (it felt like that to me) and it was cloudy out which was a good thing since I forgot the sunscreen for my fair-haired little munchkins!

Here we are on the tractor ride on the way to the strawberry fields! Dallin doesn't look very happy about it...

This is Dallins first strawberry of many. He ate one and then...

Another and another! He was a very happy boy.

This is Tristan just out of the backpack and crawling around. He was also a happy boy. Look at all that stuff he can put in his mouth!

Oh wait! He saw the strawberries. He crawled over to see what he could see.

The strawberries! So many strawberries! But poor little Tristan couldn't ever get them off of the stems and so he would grab one and turn it into strawberry mush in his hand in his attempt to get the strawberries into his mouth.

After a while he looked like he was starting to enjoy himself!

I was definitely the star picker! I picked most of them and Chris just kinda kept an eye on the boys, making sure Dallin didn't steal my basket and making sure Tristan got a real strawberry to eat every once in a while instead of the mush he made.

This is what it looked like most of the time. Dallin next to me, stealing the strawberries out of my basket and Tristan sitting in the middle of the row, playing with something he found or a strawberry that Chris would give him.

Me and messy-hands Dallin! He saw Tristan mush up the strawberries and he had to get in on the action and made a huge mess!

Thankfully we had some wipes and were able to get Tristan cleaned up a bit, his mess was mostly dirt by the time we left.

"Why no, Sir, I didn't eat a single strawberry while we were out picking!" I am sure that is what Dallin is trying to convey with his guilty smile.

"I been caught red-handed!" Good thing they expect you to eat some strawberries while you are out picking! At least I hope they do or else they probably added some more onto our bill when we left...

It was a lot of fun going out as a family and picking strawberries and coming home and being able to eat the fruits of our labors! Maybe someday I will get adventurous and made something other than strawberry freezer jam. I doubt it though because it is just so yummy!