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!

My big boy!

Dallin just had his birthday a few weeks ago. He is two now! I can't believe how time has flown. We are so happy to have him in our family though! I would post pictures of how much he has grown but that would require getting up off the couch and getting the external hard drive so maybe I will do that later... Right now I am just trying to do this before I should run upstairs for a shower before church.

Anyway, he is such an intelligent little boy and is oh-so helpful! These are some of the things he can do/likes to do.

-Knows all his colors except orange, it's a hard one!
-Knows how to count to 5 by himself and 10 with a little help
-With visuals can get to M in the alphabet
-Loves to "shoot" diapers into the trash can
-Playing with Tristan
-Helping in the kitchen. He knows exactly what goes into Mac'n'Cheese.
-Sleeps in his crib with the side off and has only fallen out twice!
-Still takes naps!
-Loves to destroy towers or anything we have built
-Runs everywhere
-Understands "no" but also knows how to push the limits
-Can hold his pee until he has a diaper on again (grrr)
-Jumps on the trampoline like no ones business
-Loves to ride down our big hill in his car
-Loves to watch t.v. especially Thomas the Train and Phineas and Ferb
-Does not know how to turn on said T.V.
-Can't open doors still (naptime will be fun when he can!)
-Can use the iPhone better than most adults
-Hates wearing clothes


These were his birthday day pictures! Chris worked super late and he was having so much fun in the mud that I didn't have the heart to bring him in and put him to bed.

"I may be 2, Mommy, but I still eat dirt!" And wear it too...

Who needs rain boots? Just run around in undies!

He looks so big and grown up in this picture to me. I remember when he was 7 pounds 9 ounces. Now he is 26 and a half pounds. But Tristan is gaining on him! He is 22 and a half pounds!

Grandma Peggy and Dallin share the same birthday so she came over for a dinner with us which was nice since Chris was still working. When she left though she took her cat back (yay!) who we had watched over the weekend for her while she was out of town. Though now every time Grandma comes over Dallin always asks for the "neenee" which is the kitty.

Man... What am I going to do when Tristan turns 2? They get so big and old and independent so fast!

My big helper

So I have posted pictures of Dallin helping before but I felt that these were some good pictures of him when he was "helping" Mommy. I don't remember what I needed the cookies for but I needed them and so early one Saturday morning we made cookies.

This is Dallin making sure that there was still enough flour in the dough, because as you can see, he spilled a LOT on the counter.

On the counter? Change that! He got it everywhere! I even found it in his diaper later on, which I am still trying to figure out how he got it down the back of his diaper. That poor chair used to look nice and clean and then Dallin came into its life.

After trying to shake all the flour off of his head into the bowl he had to make sure the dough was as delicious as it looked. It was...


And of course, our day wouldn't be complete without Tristan. Dallin thought he was being left out so he made sure Tristan had some chocolate chips to snack on while we did the hard work!

He does make quite a mess when "helping" me in the kitchen but he is so cute and can be so much fun with his excitement over something so small that I quickly forgive him. I do look forward to the day he can be a little more cleanly in his helping.

Bulk Trash

A few weeks back my friend Cammie called me up and told me about bulk trash night in her neighborhood. Now, I have never been to a bulk trash night in Maryland, or the U.S. in general but I remember in Germany that Schpermuling (sp?) happened once or twice a year, can't remember, and my family would load up and go driving around the German neighborhoods looking for treasures in the trash. So when Cammie told me about bulk trash I was excited! I talk Chris about it and left the kids with him for the night and I went out cruising the streets for my treasures!

On this side of the car you can see the hose I got, the ironing board, a beach chair, a guard rail for a bed and an umbrella stroller that I can keep in the car.

To this side I got some plastic chairs, the next step up in car seats for Dallin (he has a long way to go), the lid to an storage ottomon, a nifty little 3-legged "table" thing for Tristan that has buttons on it and makes noise, a wagon, and a basket ball hoop.

In the trunk was a filing cabinet, another beach chair, a second base for the infant car seat (can always use two of them!) and a little fire truck toy for Dallin outside.

All in all I feel like I totally made out like a bandit. One mans trash is another man's treasure and I definitely felt like I found and saw so much treasure! I am hoping to go to another bulk trash night soon but we will see if I do. I love getting free stuff!

Vroom vroom!

Dallin loves riding in things, on things, with things and on us! He is so funny with the ideas he comes up with sometimes to make slides or cars. A while back I took his Cozy Coupe outside because I thought he would enjoy running around with it like he does downstairs. I had no idea how well it would entertain him!

First he grabs the back of it and pushes it up the "hill" to the high side of our driveway.

He has a hard time getting it to stay still at the top of the hill and sometimes it takes a minute or two of positioning until he finds the right spot.

Next he has to make sure his juice is secured in the back compartment and turns the car around so it is facing downhill. Then he climbs in...

And he is off! He will stand up and walk a little ways to get to the "hill" and then sits down and lets motion move him!

Yay! That was fun! Let's do it again and again and again!

He did this for about an hour the first day I took the car out for him and he had a blast. Since then he has enjoyed having the car out but he has become more adventurous and now goes down the big hill in our yard. He has some guts, this kid does! Lets hope it never results in a broken appendage or head.