Trains and Strollers

Does anyone else remember the Noah's Ark segment of a show done by Michael McLean in the late 80's or early 90's? There are two separate songs that keep echoing in my head. One repeats the lines "Stir crazy, yes we are. Stir crazy, yeah!" and the other has a chorus of "It's raining, it's pouring, the animals are snoring and it's raining, it's pouring, how long will this go on?"

So while it's not raining here, it's snowing and blowing and we're stir crazy! My boys have decided that anywhere we go is a great place run like crazy men, yell at the top of their lungs, and announce to the entire universe they need to "Pee in Potty!" (Hunter is doing a stellar job with his potty training-he loves the toilet-seriously loves it. He'll sit on it forever- to the point of driving me crazy forever. Henry likes it about every other day- today not so much) Needless to say, trips out have turned into more stress than they're worth. It seems by 9am I'm wondering how we will ever survive the remaining nine hours until Daddy comes home.

Yesterday as I was upstairs gathering laundry, Hunter and Henry were playing in the basement, and Hunter began his now favorite yell, "Mom, Mom, MOm, MOm, MOM, MOM, MOM..." It drives me crazy that he doesn't even wait for me to answer in between "Moms", but he just wanted me to come see what he and Henry had built.

As I came back down the stairs and saw how proud they were of all their hard work, I couldn't help but be proud of them too. Sometimes they fight like crazy, but sometimes they really pull it together and cooperate. I am constantly grateful they have each other; now I can say I wouldn't want it any other way.

Tonight they campaigned to keep our double stroller that I felt they were too big for and even posted on craigslist. They ate dinner in it and watched 30 minutes of Max and Ruby ( a new favorite for all but Jordan in our house), so it must be worth keeping.

We're not sure why Hunter chose to make his monkey face for the picture, but we're not sure of the reasoning behind most of what the boys do lately. I can't wait to see what they'll come up with for tomorrow.

February Finds

Here is a little randomness from the second half of our February. We never know day to day if we'll have snow, sun, ice, or a combination thereof. Jordan and the boys went sledding in our back yard on the snow/ice combo. It was super cute to watch the boys try to walk on the ice crusted snow- as long as they stayed in their Dad's footprints, it was somewhat manageable. It reminded me of a Mama Duck and her ducklings. Towards the end, Henry gave up trying to follow and just started to crawl. When even that failed to work, he just started rolling around on the ice in the general direction of his goal. Very funny!

Ice or not, the boys had a blast!

Henry loves his baby doll (he also has a baby- plastic head, no hair-that he loves from Grammie Higham). Just recently we've been able to sneak into the boys room and tuck them in after they're asleep. Super cute to find Henry cuddling his baby doll.

Our handsom little men. All dressed up for church- too bad they didn't look quite this nice after the three hour wrestling match that is our Sunday. They're cute little devils though!

Boo for Mud Puddles!

Hooray for a sunny (if yet still cold) day to swing on the playground. Boo for mud puddles!

My poor sweet Hunter; he was so happy to be outside playing in the sun. He and Henry have missed the playground and the swings. Too bad as Hunter was playing airplane on the swing, he slid off the front and landed face first in the mud puddle. Yes, he's screaming in the first picture. No, he's not hurt; he's angry that he's so dirty. "Get this stuff off of me" is what kept coming out between screams. I'm glad the camera was right by the door, Hunter laughed and laughed at the pictures- after his bath.

Aunt Jen

A few months ago, Jordan gave me an amazing gift: a visit from my sister. So now after 10 weeks of anticipation, my sister has come and gone and it was a week to never forget. Jenifer lives in Idaho with her husband and five boys (ages 12, 11, 10, 7, and 10 months), so you can only imagine what a sacrifice her family had to make for her to leave them for six days and come stay with me. I am forever greatful to both my husband and her family.

How much can you cram into six days? From sushi to the Statue of Liberty, we did it all- mostly.

Rubba Dub Dub, three babies in the tub. There is equal spacing between all three boys (Hunter and Henry are 14 months apart; Henry and Paxten are 14 months apart). My boys loved having Baby Paxten around.
Jordan arranged for me and Jen to spend a day in New York City; he kept all three boys while we had a girls day out. At first I thought it would be a relaxing day of sight seeing. We quickly discovered how wrong I was. Our 4:30am cab didn't show, the lines at the airport were crazy long, and they called "Final Boarding" for our flight before we were even through security at the airport. Have you ever seen those movies where the crazy people are running full speed through the airport yelling, "hold the plane"? Yeah, that was me and my sister. We sat down (no shoes, belts, our carry-on bag trailing gloves, scarves, hats, ...) and before we could even catch our breath the plane was off. But we made it and our day of adventure had begun.

New York subways are not like other subways through-out the world. But it's much cheaper than a cab, so we decided to travel the city by subway and foot. The wind was super strong and the Staten Island Ferry was no where in sight, so we opted out of our planned ferry ride and admired Lady Liberty from the water's edge.
I'm not sure what I expected from the World Trade Center site, but I felt more walking away from it- down the same streets I remembered from the news broadcasts - than at the site itself. I'm sure someday when the memorial is complete it will be powerful, but for me it was hard to see it as more than a construction site.

I love Grand Central Station. It's so sparkly and polished. I'm sure it's much busier during rush hour, but early on a Saturday it was pretty mild.

We found our way to Times Square a bit before our scheduled time, so we explored the three story ToysRUs (kids need proof that mama really was in NYC), complete with a full size farris wheel. Standing still in the middle of mayhem was fabulous- everybody in a hurry, everybody with somewhere to be (Chinatown was the same way!), and us two stary eyed Idaho girls just soaking it in. We shared a hot dog from a street vendor- not recommended. $2.00 for a silly hot dog on a bun with ketchup and mustard- what's so special about that? I somehow thought that a NYC street vendor hot dog would be magical.

Jordan got us tickets to see Phantom of the Opera; it was magical! The music was stuck in our heads for days.Rockefeller Center and St. Patrick's Cathedral were beautiful. We didn't actually make it to the Chrysler Building, but we could well see it in the skyline-it too was beautiful.

The Empire State Building. We road to the top and somehow were surprised at how much colder and windier it was than down on the street. I have a crazy strong fear of man made heights, so a quick look at the view from each side and I was good to go- no need to linger some 82 stories above ground when it's windy and cold anyway!

Our return trip home (subways, air trains, and flight) was much more relaxing than our previous journey some 16 hours before- I was asleep before the plane took off. A day in the city- what a great day it was!

Even though we could hardly move Sunday morning, Jen and I loaded up the three boys and headed for Niagra Falls. (We thought Jordan could use some re-coup time) It was so cold and windy that we didn't last long at the falls, but my boys loved throwing ice chunks over the fence and into the water. We were all amused by the thick ice that covers everything from the mist off the falls.
Before Jen had to leave, we made the trip to Palmyra. It was too cold and slushy/icy to make it very far into the Sacred Grove, but it was very interesting to see the Joseph Smith homes. My boys were most awed by the fact that the missionaries were girls. Henry, " Girl missionaries?" over and over the whole time we were there. The Hill Cumorah is very pretty even in winter and without all the pagent galla. Sometimes I forget how close I live to our churches founding location- so much deadication and sacrifice and it all started in a place about 30 minutes from my little apartment.

"The Boo Babies" (Jordan only had one mis-hap on his day of the boys- a lost binki for Paxten, that turned out to not be lost after all. So my boys adopted the new ones he bought, but just for a little while. Surprisingly, Hunter re-latched on much more than Henry) We were very thankful to have Aunt Jen here for Henry's birthday. It's always fun to share with family and friends. My boys miss having baby Paxten to play with and Aunt Jen's magic bag of toys. I'm so greatful that Jen got to come visit; it was a great mid-winter boost for my soul! Thanks to all our friends and neighbors who made our mid-day habachi and late nite sushi runs possible!

Happy Birthday Henry!

Henry turned two on Monday! I can't believe how quickly these past two years have gone by; our lives would truely be uncomplete without our "Little E". Henry is the heart melter- there's just something about him that is unresistable. Henry has the honor of being born in SuperBowl season, but this year the pull of Mickey Mouse was stronger than that of football, so a Mickey Mouse cake it was. Luckily Aunt Jen was here (see next posting for more info on that) to share some cake with- Henry mostly just liked to squish it with his little hands- some things never change.

At age 2, Henry still enjoys the feel as well as the taste of his food; from pancakes to mac and cheese (two of his favorites) as much ends up on his face as in his mouth. He can use a spoon and fork, he just prefers his fingers.

Here is a bit of trivia about Henry at 2:

Loves: Cars, trains, baby dolls, broccoli, chocolate milk, coloring, singing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star", swinging, driving dump trucks, wearing big boy underwear like Hunter,his blankies, and most of all his pillow. Henry always wakes up with a smile and a lovey.

Not a fan of: Bananas, peanut butter, naps, sitting still for stories

We are so thankful that Henry decided to join our family when he did- we'd be lost without him!

So it begins...

I'll spare you the pictures of the final results, but don't kid yourself- I took a picture! Hunter is very excited to be wearing big boy underwear. Henry gets to wear it too, but on the outside of his diaper. We're a long way from being completely trained, but we're on our way!

A Trip to the Whee-oo Whee-oo Barn

What is a Whee-oo Whee-oo Barn? Why it's where the firetrucks live of course. All vehicles with flashing lights and the possibility of sirens are "Whee-oo Whee-oos" in our house. The boys don't get to see or hear nearly as many as they did in Seattle, but they still love all firetrucks, police cars, and ambulances. It was a fun trip to the fire station and the boys loved "driving" the trucks, seeing the lights, and getting their very own helmets and coloring books.