Happy Birthday Dad!

Happy Birthday dad!

In the very near future my birthday will arrive and I’ll be turning the ripe ole’ age of 26. And I’ve got to be honest, I’m just not all that excited about it. There’s literally nothing special about the age of 26. In fact, there’s nothing special about any of my next four birthdays (26-29). I’m in no man’s land. We often associate our birthdays with important milestones, right? At 16 you can date, and get your driver’s license. At 18, you’re suddenly ready to be labeled as an adult in society because you’re so much more mature than when you were 17. Twenty one’s a biggie. If alcohol and gambling are your thing, then you've got the legal right to do both. At 25, you get to finally rent a car without paying the dreaded “at risk” fee. Thirty is a biggie too, but it's kind of a mixed bag. At 30 you're entering the beginning stages of your inevitable “physical breakdown.” Your ankles and knees start to wobble a little more and those joints start hurting for absolutely no reason. But on the flip side, at 30 you also start entering the “veteran phase” of life, where you’ve lived long enough to start “lecturing society” and saying stuff like “back when I was young...” “Can you believe the things kids do these days? I never would have done something like that….” And on and on and on.

So, again, what’s so special about 26? I say nothing, but my son said otherwise. You see, as we’ve raised Lucas the last two years, I feel like I’ve had to bite my tongue on occasion. Okay, not just on occasion, I’ve had to bite it a lot. I had to bite it the first time Luke started showing an abnormal propensity for singing and dancing. I had to bite it the first time he strongly iterated to me he’d rather listen to Taylor Swift than any of dad’s famed music like Weezer, Collective Soul, or his instrumental movie soundtracks. The first time he went from walking to prancing majestically around the house on his tippy toes (all in one motion), I almost fainted. Sometimes he flails his arms dramatically while running and it takes every bit of my man control to not think of him cheesily running toward the girl of his dreams on an episode of the “Bachelor.” I bit my tongue to the point of bleeding when he made it very clear that his favorite movie and soundtrack is “Mamma Mia.”

I know what you’re saying: “Why keep biting your tongue?!” “Do something masculine for that boy before it’s too late! And my response is to tell you that I’ve tried, but I want my son to develop his own interests in his own ways without daddy’s overbearing influence. We’ve tried unsuccessfully to play catch, hit a baseball, shoot some hoops, and kick a soccer ball. I figured it just wasn’t his thing. Or so I thought. Daddy got a big surprise recently when he came home to find his son doing…..well, watch the video to see for yourself.

I know, I know. He was half-naked and still prancing/jumping on the bed, but my little boy was shooting hoops! On his own! Long before dad had come into the room to play along. It was a surreal moment, folks. One of the few moments in my adult-life where the the tears could not be contained. And it gets even better. Since this experience Luke and I now shoot hoops around the house for fun. He recently sat down with daddy to watch golf and some basketball games. This morning he threw his container of vitamins through the air, across the entire kitchen, into my waiting hand. The tide is turning and the timing is perfect. Thanks for the birthday present, Luke. No. 26 will certainly be one to remember. But I think what gives me ultimate satisfaction is that you’re you, kiddo, and I’m lucky enough be with you every day.

Kids say the darn-dist things

Last Sunday we had a family dinner with Matt's family. Matt's brother just got back from officer training for the Air Force, and him and his family moved about 3 days later. So we all got together and had some fun. But my very favorite part was what the kids kept saying to me. They have 3 kids, Andrew 6, Emma 3, Olivia 15months (I think those are the ages -forgive me Becky if I am wrong). Anyway, I was in the other room with Andrew, Emma, and Lucas, watching The Jungle Book. Now, I need to preface this story by saying, Andrew never talks to me, I think I scare him. But he was totally not afraid on this day. :) Andrew looks at me, with this pondering expression, then looks at my tummy (since it is gigantic at the moment), and said "you have a big belly" I replied, "Yes I do." The conversation then proceeded like this"
Andrew: It is even bigger than Balloo (the bear on Jungle Book)
Me: Oh....thanks.
Andrew: It is even bigger than mine. Look when I stand, my tummy is flat, but when I sit it goes almost to my private.
Me: (well I couldn't say much, I just laughed)
Through out the movie Andrew kept making comments about how big I am, and how I am going to have a baby. Then Emma decided to join in the fun. So she asked "Do you have baby?" I said yes. And then she asked asked if she could touch my tummy, I said yes, then she asked if she could see the baby, as she is asking she is reaching for my shirt to pull it up. I had to explain to her the baby is in my tummy, and we can't see it yet. It made me laugh, especially since I have had that very same conversation with two other three year olds. All of them asking to touch, and then if they can see the baby, and yes all of them were about to expose my whole tummy. Now it is Luke's turn. I doubt Lucas understands what is going on. He sometimes acts like it; whenever we see a baby, he gets confused and touches my tummy and says "baby sister". It is almost like he is trying to figure out if the baby is still in my tummy. There are random times where he will come up and hold my tummy and say "baby sister", like he is hugging her or something. It is quite sweet....until he wants to lift up my shirt to see baby. We were at out side the other day, and he came up to me and started pulling my shirt, this time it was down, not up. I stopped him and he was very upset, saying he wanted to see baby sister. I told him my tummy is right here. His response, "no, I want the other tummy." Again I was left speechless, how do you explain to your two year 'that' is not a tummy? I tried to tell him where my tummy is again, and then I just distracted him. This has happened 3-4 more times. I am trying to figure out a new way to explain it to him. I know this is a little too detailed for some, but I needed a pick me up moment so I decided to write about these, since they make me laugh! Right now my kid is driving me crazy, he has been crying all day, and has been in his room for over an hour and still hasn't fallen asleep. I am very frustrated, so I decided this would make me happy. I hope it cheered someone else up too. :) (Joel and Becky, I am sorry to use your kids for this post, but their comments were too funny to pass up).

hmmm....

I have been meaning to put some stuff on the blog, but haven't gotten around to it. Now, I am too tired to actually write about each thing, so, this is have to be enough. :)
Easter/Conference:
Lucas loved finding his eggs, but once he realized there was candy in them, he had to stop at each egg and open it before moving on. But then of course opening it, led to eating it. So his breakfast that day consisted of chocolate, jelly beans and peeps. Who wouldn't love that for breakfast?


(ignore my make-up-less face, it was first thing in the morning)
Fun with Friends:
Lucas has really grown close to his friends, he loves them! Every week we do "Toddler Time", it is kind of like preschool. Lucas looks forward to it all week, and when it is time to go, he literally runs out the door yelling his friends names. The other day the kids did finger painting with pudding. Most people don't know this, but Lucas does not like being messy. He gets it from me. :) When ever his hands are too dirty for comfort while eating, he will insist on being "done" until we can wash his hands and then he will try it again, or he will ask us to help him so he doesn't have to get messy. One day in Nursery they had cookies with frosting, Lucas had 2 bites then insisted on his hands being wiped off. One of the leaders in the class mentioned it to us when we picked him up, and said "your son is obsessed with clean hands. He does not like being messy." Of course while saying this, he was laughing pretty hard - what kid doesn't like to get dirty? Just me and Lucas I guess. Anyway, Lucas did not want to do finger painting, so instead he would dip one finger in at a time and he just enjoyed eating the pudding. What a goof. Then this week we went with some more friends to the Gale Museum in South Jordan. I had never been, and was pretty excited since it was free! There is a section there for kids to play with some toys, and the kids just loved it!!



Baby Stuff:
I am so excited to have a girl! I love my boy, and I would love to have more boys. But, boys don't get to have "cute/girlie" things. I am loving getting stuff ready for our little Ladybug. I did a post a while ago about the bows I made for baby, but now I needed somewhere to put them. So, I made a wall hanger for them. I still don't know what I am going to do with the headbands, but at least I have somewhere (cute) to put the clips and bows. I have the room all set up, I know it is a little early, but I have been nesting, and really I couldn't wait since the girl stuff is so cute! Here are a few pictures of her half of the kids room and of the hair-clip hanger. The hanger was so easy. I just got a board from DI, for a buck, and then mod podged paper on it, and painted the frame and mod podged some paper on the frame. Then, I just hot glued some random ribbon strips at different angles across the board. The ribbon is what holds the clips. Super easy and I think it is pretty cute!

St. George

As part of Matt's work, he has the opportunity to earn points and these points can go towards a free condo in St. George. So We decided with Spring Break coming up, that we should do it! We haven't been on a vacation in a VERY long time, and we doubt we will be able to go anytime in the next 2-3 years. With a new baby this summer, and Matt starting his program (see my post below), this fall, we couldn't see a better time. So we went. The condo was beautiful! We were really lucky! Though the weather was kind of cold and windy, it was still nice to get out of Salt Lake. We didn't do a whole lot, mostly just spent time together. Matt's brother Dan, and his wife Amber, and baby Hunter came with us. We had a lot of fun. We visited the outlets, went swimming, played Wii, walked the temple grounds, went for a bike ride, played on the park outside, and just had fun. It was funny to watch Luke's reaction to swimming. He loves the bath, but he was terrified of swimming. He would barely put his feet in, and just having Matt in the water scared him. He kept yelling while crying "Daddy get out!" I didn't get many pictures, mainly of the temple and playing at the park. Thanks Dan and Amber for coming with us, and Thanks Matt for getting the condo! We enjoyed it!! :) Lucas woke up one morning with a shiner on his eye, we have no idea where it came from. Then, the next day, he had a big red bruise on his cheek, again, we don't know where it came from. Then the poor kid got heat rash from sleeping in a parked car (a few times- since that was the only way we could get him to nap). So, in some of these pictures, he looks like he was beaten up, I promise you don't need to call Child Protective Services on us, we really have NO idea where the marks came from. They didn't last long, thankfully, but every time I looked at him, I just felt sad for the kid, he looked terrible. Anyway, point is, don't be alarmed if you can see these marks in the pictures. :)

Our BIG News!!

We have some big news: Matt was accepted into the Speech Language Pathology Masters program at the University of Utah!!! Matt has been worried sick about this for months. Last summer when he decided to go back to school, it was a tough decision for me. In fact I told him no. But after much prayer I realized he was right, and Matt needed to go back. This last year, as Matt has been taking the prerequisites for the program, and taking the GRE to prepare, it has been stressful and scary. We didn't know if he would get in the program, we didn't know what or where we would be living, then we found out I was expecting, and we were terrified. Even though this last year has brought a lot of surprises, we feel like things are falling into place. I know Heavenly Father has a plan for us, and it has been fun to watch His role in everything. Now I just want to brag for a minute: Matt talked to a professor on the board who told him, that normally they have 70-80 applicants for this program, but this year, they had over 150! He said the competition was much more intense than it ever has been, the average GPA score and GRE score were much higher than normal. This man told Matt that they really had to pick the "cream of the crop" because of how high the competition was!! I am so proud of Matt, not only was he accepted, but he was called "the cream of the crop". He has worked so hard for this, and he deserves it. I love you Matt! We are so excited for this to start. Now, next year, when I am complaining about never seeing Matt and having to take care of two kids by myself and all the cleaning, and cooking, and shopping, remind me that I am excited for this. :)

What we've been up to

Well I have to warn you, this might be pretty long. I haven't posted in awhile, and we have had quite a few activites going on at our house. :)
1- Chuck-E-Cheese: Wow, Matt calls this "the night from hell." I hadn't been to this place since I was about 12 years old, I couldn't remember much about it. But we had some good coupons, and so we decided to give it a shot. We invited my sister and her family. It was crazy!! I felt like we were in a herd of cattle, there was no breathing room! Everyone knows how shy Lucas is, so being around this many people was difficult for him. And a lot of the rides scared the kid. There was one ride that Luke and Graci (my neice, 4 months younger than Lucas), were on together. It was this truck that went up and down, and Licas was terrified of it, well either scared of the ride or of Graci who kept trying to push him out of her way. Finally she decided she should just sit on him. It was funny! We had a lot of fun, but will probably never do that again. :)


2- Wheeler Farm: Some of Lucas' friends wanted to go to Wheeler Farm, having never been there, I thought it would be fun for Lucas. We fed the ducks and geese as soon as we got there. Lucas didn't quite understand the concept of throwing the food. So, a goose came right up to him, and bit the bread out of his hand, and bit Luke's finger in the process. It was hysterical. He turned to me and had the most pouty lip ever, and said "scary, hurt." Then he started to cry. After that, he wouldn't get out of the stroller, he was too scared to get that close to the animals, until it came to the chickens. My sisters family has chickens, and every time we are there, Lucas loves to watch them. So when we found the chickens, he was ready to get out. We had a lot of fun, thank you to everyone to invited us, and for everyone that came and made it fun!


3- Gateway with Aunt Heather and cousin James: My sister in law Heather told us about a free day at the children's gateway museum, so we decided to go. Of course that day, every single thing that could go wrong did do wrong. So we were over an hour late (sorry again Heather)even though we live about 15 minutes from it, and Heather who lives in Lehi was early! So by the time we got there it was incredibly busy! It felt a lot like chuck-e-cheese. So, we decided to go for a stroll around gateway instead, since it was a BEAUTIFUL day. Thanks for the invite Heather! I think the favorite part for both boys (or at least Luke's) was the fountain, Lucas was pretty amazed by it.


4- Reggie Miller night: For those who don't know, Reggie Miller is a retired NBA player who played for the Indiana Pacers. He now does broadcasts NBA games for TNT. And he is Matt's very favorite basketball player. ESPN has been doing these "documentary" specials, and they had one about Reggie Miller. It wasn't really about Reggie Miller, more of how big of a punk he is. He had this rivalry with the New York Knicks, and he just calls them on. It is pretty entertaining to watch. Matt has been looking forward to this for months and it has been on our calendar for months. So the big night came, and I was cleaning up dinner. I went into our bedroom to find this:
Yes that is Matt wearing his Reggie Miller jersery from when he was 12 years old and wearing his Pacers shorts. What a nerd. :) He then decided to start the brainwashing now on Lucas, so he dressed him up.
We had a lot of fun watching it, and I enjoyed teasing Matt about it. :)

Silly silly Lucas

A while back I made a comment about how it is near impossible to get Lucas to smile and pose for the camera. Well, things have changed. His new obsession is taking numerous pictures of himself. He thinks it is hysterical - and it is! Here are some of my favorites:





Now, don't I have the cutest little boy?!