Brian's latest

In General Conference in April, Elder Ballard told a story about being in church with his kids and the "cheerios got away" from him. Well today, the cheerios got away from Brian. He tried to bring me the whole bag, but he grabbed it from the side/bottom and it spilled all over the floor. I cleaned up about half, then took a picture of what was left.



We started working on transitioning Brian to the "big boy bed" in his room upstairs this week. Brian typically doesn't sleep well anyplace other than his crib. After several attempts each day, he's now napped there two days in a row. When he finally fell asleep Friday I braved the possibility of waking him up and took some cute pictures. Here's one of them.



He's such an angel!

One more thing...
Aaron:
Mom, what is tuba plus tuba?
Me:
I don't know, what is it?
Aaron:
Fourba....hahahaha!

Fun weekend with Friends

Gotta love the three day weekend!

Our friends Amber and Warren and their 3 daughters visited us from Kyle, Texas and we had a great time! When they showed up Saturday afternoon we made some of my home-made strawberry banana ice cream (turned our pretty good if you ask me) which won me a prize at our church end of summer party last year. Unfortunately for my waistline, I think we've eaten over half of the batch already! Paul was at a baptism at the church, so we went to Mary Jo Pecham Park in Katy near the church so he could meet us there and play. Silly me, I forgot to bring my camera, but Amber took a few great pics so check them out on her blog referenced above.

Amber and Warren brought us dinner Saturday night from Papa Murphy's Pizza. There aren't franchises here in Houston, but there were in Logan where I went to school and I miss it! I don't know whether it was a gift to get it again, or just mean since I can't have it again for a while! Delicious though! That night we stayed up late playing games (kazink and killer bunnies), chatting, and having fun.

Sunday was church of course, and Aaron (4) and Taryn (6) sat very nicely on the pew next to each other reading The Friend and doing puzzles. Brian (1) and Haleigh (3) were a little more all over the place, but it was a good service with great talks on family history and the new website the church has put out to help us with it. My mom and I plan on working on dads genealogy so I'll have to check out the site soon.

Sunday night we had some emergency home repairs of replacing our garbage disposal (Seriously Amber, it WASN'T your fault) but luckily Paul and Warren are both really handy and were able to fix it all after 3 trips to the Home Depot. Silly us though, we set the delay start for the dishwasher when we thought the disposal was fixed, then later took it back out and while we played games that night (more killer bunnies) the dishwasher ran and water filled the bucket we luckily had placed under the sink, then overflowed in on kitchen floor. It's all cleaned and fixed now, so no big deal!

Monday we had plans to head to the museum of natural science, but Brooklyn (2) wasn't feeling so well so they all headed back home.
Memorial day Paul ended up playing volleyball at the church with the missionaries, I started cleaning the house a little, we went shopping at Target for nothing special, then we had some other friends, Julie and Justin over for dinner and more game playing (pinochle) and chatting.

Now life is going to have to get back to normal, I've got 5 loads of laundry to do today, Aaron still has 3.5 days of preschool, the house is still not really clean and dinner will need to get made like always. Thank you Amber, Warren, Julie and Justin for helping us have a great Memorial Day weekend. It's always nice to visit with friends and I hope more people come to visit us soon.

A Million Dollars

Aaron randomly asked me at lunch today, "Mommy, what would you do with a million dollars?"



He's totally Paul and my son...we talk about stuff like that all the time!

I responded that after paying 10% to tithing, I'd pay off the house, buy 2 new cars, buy new clothes for me, give some to each of mine and Paul's siblings and save the rest.

Aaron said he'd buy 3 new cars...one in yellow, one in orange and one in red!

Paul later said he would pay tithing, pay off the house, buy two new cars, heavily invest in college funds for the kids, then save the rest.

We're pretty boring I guess...but what would YOU do with a million dollars?

Busy Day

I am the only one awake at home...my 3 boys are all asleep. I should be asleep too since I have had a very busy day.

I just typed a nice long blog explaining everything exhausitng I did today but then decided no one really cares what I do all day, so instead I'm going to discuss some stuff that's been on my mind.

Via my Google Reader I routinely monitor about 50 of my friends or family members blogs. Sometimes I check my reader multiple times a day and read one or two new posts here or there. I didn't check it for about 2 days and there were over lots to read today. Several of my friends had very interesting entries which I left comments on. That brought up a thought about a discussion Paul and I had lately about this blog.

Paul started this blog about 2 years ago for the purpose of sending information to his family in Utah. Since then (and against Paul's wishes) I've kind of hijacked the blog and my audience is more of my friends from church and school who are moms too and who we all read each other's blogs. I TRY to keep it describing the kids and stuff that my extended family would enjoy reading, but sometimes I just want to vent my thoughts, feelings, frustrations, or excitements about whatever goes on in MY life (church, teaching classes, kids driving me crazy, fun things I've done with Paul or other friends). I know Paul doesn't approve (and probably won't like this entry either...then again he's asleep right now!) but getting comments on my blog makes me happy and my girlfriends in the trenches comment (and probably read it) a lot more than my family or Paul's so I feel justified. Keep those comments comin' girls!

Anyway, there's my post...ramblings and all. I really should get to sleep though since it WAS an exhausting day!

Bunnies, Bunk Beds and Brian

For those of you that don't know, our house backs up to the pipeline easement, so we will never have neighbors directly behind us. Instead, we have a grassy field or sorts behind our house. My father suggested we plant a vegetable garden back there, but I think that would be weird and think our vegetables might get eaten by others such as...



This bunny, (maybe there's several bunnies, we don't know, we only ever see one at a time) shows up in our front, side and back yards on a regular basis. The boys and I went out to see it in the backyard on Monday and he stayed long enough for me to get several pictures of it. I'm sure he was scared of us, but I was pleased my boys weren't scared of him at all. As long as it's a bunny and not a snake I'll be fine.

Our fun news for the week (so far) is that the bunk beds arrived. Last Thursday we went to Star Furniture because we had gotten a coupon for 10% off which was only good on Thursday. We bought Aaron a set of bunk beds, a chest of drawers, and a nightstand for his room. We later went to The Mattress Firm and bought two new mattresses. Everything looks great and we are very excited! I can't wait to go shopping with my mom to buy some new bed linens! Aaron's old furniture is now in Brian's room upstairs and we plan on moving him from his crib to a big boy bed in about 2 weeks. Please wish us luck!



Lastly, Brian continues to learn how to do new things all the time. He is now tall enough to turn on and off all the light switches and I either see things flashing or just find random lights on now. He's been able to open door knobs for a while, and has even wandered outside the house by himself before (luckily it was moments before Paul arrived home from work!) The cutest thing he can do though is verbal. Not only does he have a good grasp on the alphabet, both recognizing and saying, but he'll randomly be heard around the house saying "I love you" and even says "I love you Mama" or "I love you Dada." Is there anything better in life than that?

Mother's Day Weekend

We had a busy weekend, but it was great!

It started with Friday night where we chatted with some family friends, Derle and Marjene Thorpe, until late in the evening. They were in town visiting Mom Fuller from Cache Valley, Utah and we really enjoyed their visit. Derle Thorpe was an engineering professor at Utah State University and was one of Mom's college Bishops. Simultaneously, he and Farrell Edwards, a physics professor, befriended Dad and lovingly taught him about the gospel through their examples. We are all eternally grateful to Derle and Farrell!

Saturday though, we got to work. Our goal was to hang the microwave in the kitchen and hang one ceiling fan. We out did ourselves though and not only hung the microwave, but hung 3 ceiling fans and purchased the new mattresses needed for Aaron's bunk beds which will be arriving on Tuesday. Thank you President Bush and your economic stimulus check! We've stimulated the economy alright! Here's some pictures of our handy work.



Paul did MOST of the work, but I helped and handed him things as needed and even helped lift the microwave which Paul thought would require asking for help from the neighbors!

We then put the kids to bed, had a relaxing dinner, and veged on the couch!

Sunday was a great Mother's day. Paul let me sleep in, made french toast (yummm!) and didn't have early morning meetings so he was able to help me get the kids ready for church. We had Mom and Derle and Marjene over for dinner and sat around chatting and opening our present. Unfortunately, Aaron wasn't feeling very well, and had a little bit of a fever, but that makes him extra cuddly with we love. I kept him home from school on Monday and he's already feeling better.



My favorite present was from Paul and was an addition to my Willow Tree statuette collection. It's of the mom and her 2 boys...which I think look A LOT like my 2 little guys. Love it!



I hope the rest of my week is as good as my weekend was!

Computer Time

I love my computer. I love the things that I can do on my computer. Technology amazes me, and I don't understand a lot of it, but I love it. My children watch me. They watch how much time I spend on the computer and they both love to play on the computer themselves. With Aaron, when he first got interested in the computer, we gave him an old broken keyboard to play with, then later we would just let him type on a word document. We'd put up a large, fun, colorful font and just let him type for fun. Then as he got older we moved up to starfall which is a great learning program. Now Brian loves starfall too. He's too little to move the mouse or touchpad, but he loves to watch us do it and even will sit and watch Aaron play on it.



They both are mesmerised. I feel as though I can already start to relate to my friends with teenagers who worry if their children are spending too much time on-line.

Likewise, I feel as though I probably spend too much time on-line. I love all of Google's products. Gmail, Google Reader, Google Calendar, Google Documents, Google Maps, etc. It is very addicting...checking to see who has updated their blogs...checking to see who has sent me e-mail...checking to see who has played me on facebook in the latest scrabble game. There are lots of legitimate reasons for me to be on-line too. My work as an environmental consultant, helping my mom sort out the medical insurance bills from my dad's last year, my job as a baby sign language instructor, paying bills, etc. but I feel as though sometimes I sit here in front of my laptop too much. Do you ever feel that way?

In April, our church had what is called General Conference. Twice a year the leaders of our church speak from Salt Lake City, Utah to give us counsel, advice and doctrine. Elder Ballard, one of the Twelve Apostles, gave a great talk about women and spoke to the mothers of young children in particular. Part of what he said was a wake-up call to me.

"Third, even as you try to cut out the extra commitments, sisters, find some time for yourself to cultivate your gifts and interests. Pick one or two things that you would like to learn or do that will enrich your life, and make time for them. Water cannot be drawn from an empty well, and if you are not setting aside a little time for what replenishes you, you will have less and less to give to others, even to your children. Avoid any kind of substance abuse, mistakenly thinking that it will help you accomplish more. And don’t allow yourself to be caught up in the time-wasting, mind-numbing things like television soap operas or surfing the Internet. Turn to the Lord in faith, and you will know what to do and how to do it."

That last line about not being "caught up in time-wasting, mind-numbing things like television soap operas or surfing the Internet" was directed right at me for sure. I'll admit...I watch soaps. I have 4 soaps that I've watched for years. I now try not to watch any of them during the day, but I set my DVR to record 2 of them and I have one or two story lines on each show that I watch and fast-forward through the rest. I often wait 3 days or so and watch 6 hours of programing in about 1 hour. Does this qualify as being caught up in time-wasting behavior? What about checking to see who has commented on my blog? Is that a waste of time? I am trying to be more conscious of my time...not having the TV on...not playing on-line as often...reading more and checking on-line less. Hopefully it'll make me a better mom and a better person. I'll let you know!

Buzzzzzzzzz

For my birthday I requested, and received, a set of clippers so that I can try to learn to better cut my sons hair. On Wednesday we had an extra hour before I had to go to my Young Women's activity, so we tried them out.



I know that it's not perfect, and hopefully I'll continue to learn as I do it, but I don't think they look terrible. They definitely look different than they did Wednesday morning though! Hopefully these will be good summer haircuts! (sorry to those in Utah still dealing with snow, but it is summer in Houston most days!)

While it's been a busy week of birthday parties, play dates, lots of cleaning and shopping and baby showers, there hasn't been much new to really report. We've gotten a lot done, but I still feel like there's tons to do. We're trying to decide what to purchase next...ceiling fans for the upstairs bedrooms, garage door openers, landscaping stuff, bunk beds...when we decide on our next project we'll let everyone know!