The Dinosaur Museum

Finally, Finally we went. I have been wanting to go to the Dinosaur Museum for ages and ages and all four of us went, that's right, we had a family outing, and I can barely remember any drama. I love it when Ty is out of school. He is so much more relaxed. He had some free passes so we finally used them and the boys loved it. Can you tell? They actually smiled for some pictures.

I think we'll have to get a pass, just so that Jackson can go play with the sand or more technically the "erosion" exhibit. This was Ty's Favorite part. Seeing the human being smooshed by the Mammoth.
And now Ty is back in school (obviously) but it was so nice having him home. When the boys would wake up they would ask for Daddy to get out of bed, not Mommy. They learned not to come to my side of the bed in the morning. It's amazing how much happier we all are when I don't get dragged out of be before I'm ready. Sadly, that wonderful event is now gone. They are asking for me, and only me. Even when Tyler's home. I've got to retrain them.

Way Overdue

So now that Christmas is long forgotten I thought I should recap my Christmas of 2008 for my own blurbing purposes. I've been delaying because all my good pictures are on my dad's camera. (Mine decided to shut down 50% of the time, so I have some pictures, but not many)

Christmas Eve we went to my Grandma Johnson's house. Jackson spent weeks practicing singing "Jingle Bells" to sing to my Grandma Johnson. He was convinced that she didn't know the words and that he needed to "teach" her. And he actually sang it to her in front of my large extended family. Granted, it was very soft and the whole time he was rubbing his eyes so he wouldn't have to look at anyone, but he did it. I have some of it on video. It made me proud though. He loves my Grandma and Grandpa Johnson.

Jackson, Hayden, and Madison love my grandma's collection of, I don't know what they're called exactly, but they are little mini holiday decorations that have little people and play music and have ice skaters, etc. Is there a shorter word for them? Anyways, I got most of their pictures from the back because they were playing with them.

Can you tell he's excited?And here is my dad reciting his annual Christmas poems. That's right, I said Christmas poems, and they're awesome. Different yes, but awesome. My dad's grandpa used to do the every year and my dad has taken over. Usually he's dressed up with a crazy nose and glasses and coat and scarf. This year he even added awful teeth from halloween and he has authentic sleigh bells that he rings to scare the crap out of everyone. But this year he forgot his outfit, his fake nose and glasses (which were his grandpa's) got run over by a car, and Hayden hates the bells so much because they are SO LOUD. He heard them for a second a couple weeks ago and it took me half an hour to completely calm him down. Then he yelled at my Dad the next time he saw them and every once in a while he still talks about "Grandpa's loud jingle bells." I've never heard anything like them. But at least he still did his little performance and then it felt like Christmas.

Christmas morning we were at home and Jackson woke up before us all. Surprise surprise. He came in our room all excited and began telling us exactly what Santa had brought him in his stocking. At least the stinker didn't open present without us. I have one picture of Hayden:

Can you tell we woke him up? And I didn't get any of Jackson at home. I have an awesome video that I have been trying to download for weeks and it won't work. But he made it fun to say the least.

Then we went over to my parents, opened some more presents and hung out with all of my family for the rest of the day. I loved spending time with my sister and her brand new baby Taylor. (Pictures of her on my dad's camera) She was born on December 16th, but I felt really bad when at about 6:00 Jackson laid down on the floor and turned a light shade of green. We then packed up and went home and spent the rest of the night trying to prevent puking. But it was great and we had a great Christmas and I am sad that it is over.

Merry (Late) Christmas!

I have been in pajamas since Thursday and on the BRAT diet since Friday. We all had a great Christmas, even though Hayden got sick Christmas Eve, and Jackson got sick Christmas night. I followed on Friday and I'm pretty sure Tyler is catching all of our "fun" . . . right now. (Sorry to everyone at my Grandma's house Christmas Eve.) The boys still had a great Christmas and did not disappoint with their reactions. More pictures to come (for the Grandparents) as this is all I can manage for today. And now I'm going back to bed. Peace out.

It Snowed

It snowed this weekend, and we hibernated. What better thing to do when you're hibernating than decorate a gingerbread house?

In every single picture I took, Hayden was eating something off of the house and Jackson was stacking his "stacking cups." They put every piece of candy on all by themselves. Hayden ate half of the candy though. Next year we'll get two gingerbread houses so Jackson won't be upset that there are not more gumballs to put on the other half of the roof. Did I mention it snowed? It's snowing right now actually and the boys love it. They wanted to make it snow inside, and they did.

Here they are making snow out of packing peanuts. And they had a blast. Did I also mention their new favorite thing? If you didn't notice the two very large mostly naked boys in the pictures, let me enlighten you on the new happenings of our household. My boys love to run around "nakie". They love love love it. It is usually just after dinner. (Today they ran around "nakie" all morning, so I guess it's happening more frequently.) Hayden asks to be "nakie" which means to take off all his clothes (besides his diaper) and run, jump, and go absolutely crazy all over the house. If Hayden has his clothes off, Jackson takes his clothes off, except for his underwear, and sometimes his socks, and they both run up and down the halls, jump on the couches, and just go particularly nuts. I don't know why they want to do this in the middle of winter though. I am freezing with sweatshirts and blankets on. But they seem to enjoy this and since we haven't been spending much time running around outside, I guess it's the next best thing. Needless to say I now have a lot of pictures of then half naked.

I hope you'll take me seriously now when I tell you the winter is driving us all crazy.

Why You Should Never Give a 32 Year Old Man A Dart Gun

Hayden got him back though. Not 1, not 2, but 3 times.

Jackson tried to get him back too.

Babble, babble...Congratulations!

I had to restore my computer back to the ORIGINAL FACTORY SETTINGS. Uuuuuuuuugh. Luckily, it is now working better than ever and I did have all my documents and pictures backed up. Tyler and I have learned from buying 3 computers during our married life that our computers like to FREAK OUT on us and just stop functioning to the point that they cost less to replace than to fix, which is hopefully

UNLIKE

my WASHING MACHINE which is currently not working. Please please please be able to be repaired fairly easily. Please be less expensive than buying a new one. The guy is coming on Wednesday. So I'm praying that Jackson has enough pants and underwear to last him until then. I really really don't want to go to a laundry mat. but I might have to because I'm getting to the point that that might be way faster than doing laundry ALL DAY. I'm really having fun with emphasizing things in ALL CAPS and making them LARGE today. I should turn them different colors too.

I think I'll do just that to emphasize that RIGHT NOW husband is in his first grueling all day job interview to be an administrator for the Jordan School District. Hopefully he's doing well. I'm sure he is. We played interviewer interviewee last night and he'll do fine. I guess I am biased though. But since this really is his personal legend (I'm sure of it) He'll do great.

And, Congratulations to one of my best friends who emailed me AND called me a couple of days ago, but I didn't have email and I didn't get back to her until today and I'm trying to make up for that by leaving you messages on your phone and congratulating you on my blog, but I won't say your name because one time someone else I know had their "announcement" announced by their friend on their friend's blog without permission and I don't want to do that directly, so indirectly I'm saying CONGRATULATIONS!

The end (of my babbling and run on sentences for the day).

This weekend we kept busy. Friday we saw this:

Madagascar 2, and can I just say...I loved it. I don't know if I was just in a good mood or what. I remember that I did not like the first one, at all, except for the "I like to move it move it" part, which my boys do exceptionally well. But I really enjoyed myself, even though I was sitting in the front row, which is something I will do again, especially if Hayden is with me. Right at the 45 minute mark he gets up and runs around in circles. It was fine until he started throwing an empty popcorn bucket at the screen, other than that, it was great. I loved it and they loved it.

Then Saturday we went here:

I had never taken the boys to temple square before, and I thought they would love it, but apparently they are like their dad, and mom a little, because they didn't love it that much. There were so many people! And it was completely orange. All I remember is orange, orange everywhere. I ran over at least 4 poeple's feet with my double stroller. They weren't moving, so I did what I had to do, Ok? Don't judge me. It wasn't intentional, not really.

But it was nice for the boys to see it. If we go again it will not be on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, or a Saturday at all. (But thanks mom and dad! We loved being with you! :) )

And then I got these:

And my feet are in love. SLC half marathon, I'll be ready.

It was a good weekend. How was yours?

Thanks

I didn't take any pictures of us at the feast today. I didn't want to because I felt like I was "suppossed" to. So not taking them is my way of rebelling. Wierd, I know. Why do I need to rebel on Thanksgiving? I just did. The boys had a blast though.

Jackson was so excited for Thanksgiving. He's been counting down the days until he could have "Thanksgiving pumpkin pie." Today he also announced he had a "Thanksgiving yogurt." He's really festive and loves holidays. Anyways, he woke up super early because I actually set my alarm this morning, and guess what? I didn't hear it at all. Shocker, I know. Jackson came in and said, "MOM!" And of course I heard that, why that and not blaring music or and alarm? I guess it's just the mom switch that is turned on.

I then headed out for our annual Cedar Hollow Turkey Trot. And oh man, this was a hard 4 miles. Usually 4 miles is a standard run and doesn't phase me much, but my hamstrings were sore from last Saturday's workout and I was hurting. It's a little hard to run when you can't fully extend your legs. My main goal was not to be last. I left that to my dad." Hee hee - sorry dad. You did great, your really did. My second goal was to catch this ten or eleven year old kid that was 20 yards in front of me the WHOLE time, and he was wearing shorts and skater shoes! And did I catch him? Uh, no. Oh, I can't even tell you how painful it was to run, and not to be able to catch this kid. Everything was just off. I did a 5.2 miler 2 months ago and it was cake, it was actually fun, but this...hopefully I'll do better next year. It did help me feel justified in eating all the pie that I ate today. That part was great.

Anyways, back to Jackson and his pie. He was so excited. Jackson and Hayden were helping my dad make rolls this morning and Jackson said, "Grandpa, what are we making?" My dad said, "We're making rolls." (his rolls are so good and famous around our extended family) and Jackson said, "Oh, I want it to be pumpkin pie." My dad told him that my Grandma Johnson would be bringing the pumpkin pie and when she got there he said to my grandma, "I love you for bringing the pumpkin pie." What is it with the pie? I think he hasn't had it since last Thanksgiving, but apparently it made an impression that I wasn't aware of.

Well we had a great day and a great meal. The boys went to bed early because of course they're not going to nap with cousins around and noise everywhere. So now they're sleeping I'm enjoying my peace and quiet. Aaaaaah. I think now I'll go eat some more. I'm so thankful for all my food. Should I start with my thankful list? Yes, I think I owe it to .... ? Well, I'm just going to.

I am so thankful for:

Thanksgiving dinner, and especially thanksgiving with the grandma who is a meat broker. The turkey was soooooo good. Grandpa Johnson knows what he's doing.
My caring husband, his ambition, his ability to keep it real and make me laugh, every day.
My perfect children. That's right, I said perfect. They're sleeping now and there's nothing more perfect than that. They've been so good lately and I can't believe how wonderful and smart and beautiful they are. They amaze me every day.
My opportunity to stay home with my kids. I never thought I would say this. I never thought I would do it, but they love it, and I love it. I really do. I love that we can go anywhere, anytime. Or just stay home all day. We're flexible and it's all about their needs and having fun while they're still here. I love how they love me and that I know them so well. I love being their mommy.
Books, books, and more books.
Movies, movies, and more movies.
Living in America, even though now we have president-elect Obaminations and it scares me.
My education.
My home, tiny as it is, I love it.
My family.
My Church.
The fact that my children sleep so well in their own beds, and that tonight after some serious goofing off all day I could come home and put them down in 20 mintues or less.
My computer.
Friends who keep me sane.

There's definately more and the list should go on for miles, but this post is long enough. Happy Thanksgiving!

Better Late Than Never

Jackson loved Halloween and I had the best time because he was SO EXCITED. At our ward Trunk or Treat, Lisa asked if he had eating a lot of candy, but no. He hadn't had any. He was just ecstatic about being in his dragon comstume. He really made it so fun, and he would smile for every picture! Hayden, on the other hand, was slightly ridiculous. He would not smile for any pictures. He just kept looking around like, WHAT.THE.HECK are we doing? And I know he thought Grandpa was scary. I think he ended up liking it though. He definately liked his candy. Orginally, he was suppossed to be a cow, but he found Jackson's pumpkin costume and said, "NO COW!"

Obviously.

One Week Later

I haven't been downloading pictures lately, but I finally got around to downloading some from Hayden's Birthday.

This boy loves balloons. He carried these around all night, and they are still floating around our house. The only place he doesn't have the balloons with him is in his room when he is sleeping. They are not allowed. Other than that, Hayden and his balloons are inseperable. He even eats with them at the table. How much high float stuff did they put in there is what I'm wondering?

Hayden was so excited to get his "helicopter" from Grandma Jones.

Right here he was saying, "Open it."

It was a fun day. We had a little party at my mom's and my whole family came. Thanks guys! Hayden loves you all!

Happy Birthday Hayden!

My baby is two! TWO! How did this happen? He is officially a little boy. I miss him as a baby, but he is such a funny thing, I can't get enough of him.

Here are some things I've learned from Hayden:

Some kids like to go to sleep. It is possible for them to ask to go to their bed, and lay down peacefully, with just themselves and a blanket for comfort.

Whatever Jackson is doing is a cool thing to do, especially in the bathtub. If Jackson stands up, Hayden has to also. When he sits down, Hayden has to sit. When he's drawing on the walls (in the tub) Hayden also has to color. Jackson's just cool, you know?

Smiling for the camera is optional and mostly frowned upon during holidays, special events, and during sessions with professional photographers. It is much more appropriate to make serious or dumfounded faces when Mommy says to smile.

Some kids don't need to watch TV for more than a minute If you want to occupy them, give them a ball or a book, not a show.

Balloons are better than presents.

Frosting is better than the rest of the cake.

Loud noises are not acceptable, nor are loud people. If a high pitch shriek from Jackson is heard, it is then alright to yell, "Nooooooo!" with incredible force until you are shaking from head to toe and your face is the color of fruit punch Kool-Aid.

If you take a toy away it is then mandatory to wind up and hit you in the back with an open handed slap. That is the most effective way of dealing with the situation.

If Jackson is laughing hysterically, you are also required to laugh hysterically so that you don't look (or feel) that you're being left out of anything.

All food, besides brocolli and cooked peas, (frozen peas are perfectly fine) is wonderful and should be eaten with gusto, most importantly, spaghetti.

It is important to always announce when you are "All done."

When you are happy, laugh. When you are sad, cry. When you are excited gasp the most excited gasp you are capable of.

If someone asks for a hug, always give a kiss instead.

When you're mother tells you she loves you, it is the cutest thing in the world to reply, "I luh boo too."

I love you Hayden! Happy Birthday to my sweet boy!