We are a circus act

We provide a lot of entertainment at church. Today was classic. Ethan walked off the bench, bonked his head and started crying while Cole turned on a loud McDonalds toy that he promised to not turn on (it got thrown in the church bag at the last minute, lesson learned.) Matt was sitting next to Cole and did not notice the toy until I pointed at him while dragging crying Ethan out of the room all during the middle of the Sacrament. Nice.

I think we have a record....

Between Matt and I we changed 7 poopy diapers on 1 baby today!

THANKSGIVING!

For Thanksgiving this year we were invited over to Kami and Alex's house.  We were thrilled to have an invite and not have to do all the cooking.  I showed up a little early to try and whip up some gravy because the turkey was going to be fried.  The experimental project with turkey necks turned out great. I also got to bring our traditional English stuffing and yorkshire pudding so it tasted a little bit like home.  All the food was delicious and it was great company.  Matt, Ethan and I all enjoyed the meal and ate way too much!

Cole ate this for dinner.....sure wish he would figure out what he is missing out on.  Apple Jacks just don't cut it.  He also only licked his chocolate pie whereas Ethan ate the entire slice!

We went to the after Thanksgiving party at Seth and Amy's house where we ate more food and played RockBand and Guitar Hero World Tour.  We had a great time rocking out.

Ethan got a little tired and fell asleep next to me as I played the drums.

Cole watched a movie with the girls, of course!

My grateful journal truly helped me to be grateful this year and I was very happy to spend the day with my family and friends.

Grateful day 6

Today I am grateful for playgroup, lunch at McDonald's with friends, Matt coming home early from work to finish up installing trim, going to the grocery store without children, health insurance without any co-pays for prescriptions, hanging out with Shelley, classic spaghetti for dinner, my sister Becky who had a birthday today, snuggling on the couch with my hubby watching Oprah and impromptu hot tub party invites.

Grateful day 6

Today I am grateful for conversations with little children; it went like this:

Cole: Mom, I am in my Batman outfit and Macy is coming over. (excited giggles)
Mom: Cole, I think Macy has seen your Batman outfit before.
Cole: Are you sure, I don't know? (Mom is positive, all of the Eastside has seen his Batman outfit including people in airports all across the nation)
Mom: Maybe you could ask her when she gets here.
Cole: Macy, have you seen my Batman outfit before? (he is asking this right in her face)
Macy: Huh?
Cole: My Batman outfit, I have it on.
Macy: Huh?
Mom: Macy, Cole wants to tell you he has on his batman outfit.
Macy: Oh

I am also grateful for being able to help my very pregnant friend by watching her kids, gas at $1.95, impromptu playdate with Macy, emergency chiropractor appointments, Cole singing along to "Godly Sorrow", packages from my sister with some cute new things for me, Cole and Ethan, getting some sewing done, making dinner for friends, and having the children in bed before 8pm again.

Grateful day 5

Today has been a great day. It is one of those days that really make you love being a mom and make up for all of the other days when crying is heard more than laughter and tears are readily accessible. Everyone was happy and things went smoothly. I was able to get things accomplished, I even had the house tidied and made dinner. I feel that I need to add an extra thanks today because I believe todays success was due in large part to a book I have been reading, "Receiving Answers to Prayers" Simple prayers can make a big difference and I am grateful for that today! I am also grateful for my running partner Amy getting me out of bed to run today, the 30 minutes of silence I had this morning before the boys woke up, visiting teaching with a great partner with a great lesson from Pres. Uchtdorf again about prayer, a doctors appointment that confirmed that I don't need surgery on my feet (even though my mother and husband have been telling me for years that they thought I do!), an insurance company that will pay for orthotics, leftover chimichangas for lunch, a good phone conversation with Anna and Mum, a trip to Target to get some stocking holders on sale, randomly meeting a woman at Target that has two boys exactly my kids age with birthdays within days of my boys, getting her phone number to have a play date, giving Ethan and Cole a bath and putting them both to bed before 8pm, and blizzards. (Yes, we are on a roll with blizzards but they have a yummy pumpkin pie flavor right now that is delicious!)

Grateful day 4

Today I am grateful for Cole trying a chocolate chip banana muffin and a roll (there might be hope for him eating bread), church, a friends help during Relief Society so I can lead music, antibiotics for Ethan's double ear infection, ibuprofen to help the ear infection, dinner invites, ice cream for dessert, and 24 coming back on TV.

Grateful day 3

Today I am grateful for sleeping in (Matt woke up with the kids) especially because I had a late night, good phone conversation with my sister Becky, a headset so I could clean my bathroom while talking to my sister, a place to watch the BYU/Utah game, the kids going to bed early so I could go to the grocery store by myself, and Dairy Queen Blizards.

Grateful day 2

Today I am grateful for boys who sleep in, antibiotics that help Cole's ears, the chiropractor, taking my kids to a friends house so I could get my hair cut and colored, helping a friend out while out of town by watching a few kids, eating Taco Del Mar for dinner, and going out to see Twilight with some friends!

Grateful journal

In honor of Thanksgiving I would like to revisit something I did on my mission. Everyday I wrote down all the things I was thankful for which helped me with my life perspective. So, I am going to break with blogging protocol and spew out everything I am grateful for until Thanksgiving. Forgive me while I indulge myself in hopes to be truly grateful this Thanksgiving!

Today I am grateful for little one year olds that wear backpacks way to big for themselves, drink their milk from the side, always bring me their shoes and coat to put on to go outside,
play dates with friends who all got to dress up in the Halloween costumes I got on sale,
friends who let me escape my house to watch Oprah and fold laundry, Cole for actually eating cheese and cucumbers for his first dinner in six days, getting through two last minute hair cuts that don't look to shabby, a borrowed trainer so I can test ride my new bike inside, chocolate chip mint ice-cream, and a little TV (go ER's final season).

Visitors and one bathroom

For two weekends in a row in October we were lucky to have visitors in town! The first weekend we had one of my companions and friends from my mission, Adrienne and Dora (or better known as Richards and Espinoza.) We started out the night with a trip to the Cheesecake Factory were we were overloaded with chocolate! The next day we spent our time exploring Seattle. It was meant to be a girls day out but Matt had an unfortunate bout of a stomach bug so Ethan got to come along. He insisted upon standing on the stroller the entire time.
We went out to Seattle Center and visited the Music Museum. Then we took the Monorail down to Pike Place Market. We were very entertained by the street performers particularly the older lady dancing away to a man beating a bucket which sounded surprisingly similar to a drum. It was a perfect day and the sun was even around all weekend. On Monday we got to do the Seattle Duck tour. If you have never done one of these they are very cool. You are in a WWII military vehicle that can go on land and water. We drove right into Lake Union in Seattle. Cole and Ethan both fell asleep on the trip apparently they weren't as amused as we were..
The next weekend my brother came into town. We went out to Snoqualmie Falls which is a beautiful waterfall.
Then We hit Seattle again where we did the same route but this time Cole and Ethan got to come. We had a great time in Pike Place Market and Byron even bought a fish! Here they are throwing it!My brother Byron and his wife Monique on one of the famous pigs in Seattle.
We love visitors and if you don't mind sleeping in bunk beds and sharing one bathroom you are invited to come!

Honey anyone?

We haven't slept in four days. Cole has been coughing for about 96 hours. I took him to the doctor because I thought something had to be wrong when he was not only coughing but coughing so hard he was throwing up multiple times a day. No such luck. The only advice the doctor gave me was to try and give him some honey. So, I started out with it in a little medicine cup and told him the doctor gave us some more medicine. He wouldn't take it. I whipped up some milk with a LOT of hot chocolate and slipped some honey in it. He wouldn't touch it. Then I tried to warm up the honey and put it in cold milk and he instantly said, "That is making me sick." I even put it in a different sippy cup so I could at least get two sips out of him, but he wasn't fooled by my trick.

As the kid only has about five foods on his menu it isn't an option to spread it on top of anything. If you have a miracle cure for a cough or a tricky way to get a picky eater to eat honey let me know. I already had to bust out the chocolate chips this afternoon for some sanity and that just isn't cutting it. Especially since Ethan has come down with the same cold.

Farm Tots

One of the things I love about living in Seattle are all of the great programs for kids. There is a farm that runs a tot program every week. You make a craft, go for a wagon ride, feed the animals and pick some produce. This year we hit the last week of the fall and had a great time.

Cake and Salsa

Cole has been a little bit slow to discover yummy things as he is very hesitant to try new foods. However, I got him to lick a cake pan and there was no turning back!

Ethan on the other hand will eat and try anything! This is him licking salsa because dipping it just wasn't enough!

Halloween!

This was the first year that Cole loved Halloween! We had a great time all day. He was thrilled to be wearing his costume. We started out by going to Microsoft to trick or treat where Ethan quickly figured out what it meant with the buckets of candy sitting out. It is amazing how quickly the second child catches on. I don't think Cole even knew what candy was until he was 2! I tried to get the boys to pose for a picture, but it was a pretty hopeless cause! Here is the best I got.



That night we did some customized trick or treating and then went home! I let the boys eat all the candy they wanted the day of and then it mysteriously disappeared the next day! We had a great day.