Kisses, Smiles and Finding Mother Russia

Our weekends are normally pretty low key. Wrestling tournaments for Levi (though some have been cancelled), cleaning up around the house, running errands, getting ready for Sunday. Hanging out with baby.

Levi giving kisses

No Max is not praying, just working on something Lego-y. In costume of course, like always. This is VERY normal in our house.

This too. Kid back rubs.














 The boys were watching Dispicable Me 2 again. They get SO freaked out when the evil minions come out. It's kind of funny to watch. Kind of.

On Sundays Nese comes with us to church and then comes home and everyone strips down and gets some grub. She is awesome and usually has the boys down with her and Gram watching a show (last week they watched Short Circut which the boys talked about for DAYS. "Johnny Five, Alive!") or she does long reading sessions with them. After the big boys go back up to play Legos, which they always do, she usually has some time with Davis. She's an awesome grandma.

Davis is a champ at church so far and usually sleeps a good portion of it. He might get a little fussy when he gets tired, but heck, so do I.

The boys. Jason was rolling his eyes at me for taking these pictures. Sometimes I just can't help myself. We've got things simplified for Sundays during Sacrament. No big bag full of toys and snack and such. For them I just bring colored pencils and paper and occasionally a couple of Friends for Levi. It is one of the few times they'll just sit and draw so I figure I'd take advantage. Now I'm sure once Davis gets older I'll have to restock the Sunday bag with things to keep him busy, for now he just likes to look at people and lights.

My grandma made up this blanket with the planets on one side and on the other a map of the world. Whenever we need to locate a country we pull it out. On this occasion Max was looking at the different earths because there were a few and said, "This is the Earth we live on and THIS is the Earth Heavenly Father lives on."

I think we were looking for Russia for some reason.......

Fridays

 This is just random. I'm trying hard to get rid of things and I found this on my desk. I have been carrying it around since I was at BYU not because I'm so sentimental about BYU, though I kind of am. I loved it and it was an awesome 4 years. But I kept it because it is the only official picture (like on a license or school id) that I have ever actually liked. I've never had another that I like or that I'm not completely embarrassed of so to have one that I really did like was hard to throw away. So I settled for taking a picture because it's time to move on. Maybe one day it will happen again.

I love love love Fridays! Not just because it's the beginning of the weekend but because both boys are off from school and so we have turned it into Friday Fun Day which doesn't happen until after they do their homework and chores. Have to be a little bit responsible right?

One of my friends (Miss Becca Meeker, one of the coolest ladies in the world) loaned us her Bumbo because I got rid of our old one because my other two either didn't like it or if they did kept getting out. I wanted to try it with Davis because I know of babies who love it as well as parents, I just didn't want to buy, then store sometime I didn't even know we'd use much.

Anyways. Max has claimed it. We'll see how things go in a few more weeks when Davis can really sit in it.

 Cute face as always. And the bubbles. So. Many. Bubbles.

And something I see every day. Lego building. My living room needs a sign that says 'Lego Construction Zone'.

For this weeks Friday Fun Day we went to the new movie theater at Wunderland. They have older new movies. So after they hit the theaters but before they are on DVD. This one was Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2. Max got scared a couple of times but was fine if I had my arm around him. I'm glad we did it during the day on a Friday because there were only 3 other people there besides us which I planned on because I wasn't sure how Davis was going to do. He did great for his first time!

 

 Note: Becca also hooked us up with a couple of free Columbia coats for Levi, one is the green one he's wearing. We're lucky enough that he's the sample size and that she's the designer for the kids clothing so was able to get her hands on some samples. I love that gal. 

Schooldays

Max definitely has his own opinions about anything and everything. One thing he has taught me is to pick my battles and one of them I don't really care about is what he wears to some extent. I do say no to shorts in the winter and coats when needed. Other than that anything goes.

Normally he loves wearing long sleeved shirts with shorts but again I make him wear pants when it's cold so when I told him to go change into some pants this is what he came back with. For some reason he really wanted to wear his church vest. So he wore a tee shirt, church vest, athletic pants and coat and cowboy boots.

Oh and a hat and sunglasses. Naturally.

A little nose pick and then he realized I was taking pictures.

The boys LOVE to dress up. Mostly it's superhero stuff but we have a huge box full of any and all boy costumes. So when Max's friend Caden came over for a playdate and dinner they just had to show him all the costume choice. And then it was battle time.

Caden is extremely silly like Max. It was so much fun to see them play together.

For Christmas I had some money I had received from various people and so I decided to get a kindle. First off I love to read. I could read all day if I could and used to back when I didn't have kids and had a day off. I always thought I wouldn't like an e-reader because I really do enjoy the feel of a good book. The weight of it, turning the pages...it's just so satisfying. But I thought this might work well because while I love to read I haven't lately for various reasons. I don't get to the library as often as I'd like (for me at least, it's usually a quick trip to grab the boys books but I don't have a ton of time to browse for me). Buying books is expensive and even then I normally only read it once or twice and then have to store it because I feel to guilty having spend such and such amount only to give it away. Also I hate to say it turning pages is a bother. I like to read at night before bed and it's loud and I know has kept Jason up despite my best efforts to be quiet, the same goes for when I'm feeding Davis not that I'm trying to be quiet but it can be awkward feeding and holding a book and turning pages. Such a first world problem.

I love it so much! I have already read a number of books and just can't wait to read every day. I'm such a nerd but books make me happy. And so while Max was at preschool, I was feeding Davis and Levi was sprawled out reading his own book. He was very excited when I told him it could store 1,000 books. When he's old enough we'll probably get him his own. He's turning out to be quite a bookworm and I love it.

When Jason comes home he'll usually take a moment and play with the boys before things have to get done. This time he was with Davis and he did a pretty good job at dodging drool bombs. This kid has definitely been my drooliest and most spit-upy baby. I just made those two words up.

Photo Shoot

This was a very very imprompteu photo shoot (not even with my 'good' camera dagnabit!) but Davis looked so handsome while we were in my room and I couldn't resist.

Levi came in and he wanted to hold his baby bro so I let him and took a few pictures. Levi loves him so much and is so cute with him. He's always trying to get him to smile or 'talk'.

Then in walked Max and he wanted in on the action as well. Of course he was in full costume as he is most days. This time he was showing off his Chima claws.

My favorite picture. Look at Davis' face!

Random Awesomeness

My brother is always leaving strange notes everywhere. This one made me and everyone else laugh. As a note these are mannequins I recently ordered and had boxed up in my office so I could take pictures of jewelry on someone because I have almost no time during the day on live models, so I figure I'd try these.

One of the gifts the boys got from Santa, a Lego Hobbit game. While I put most of it together I still don't quite understand how to play.....

For MONTHS I have been working on trying to get the chairlift removed. I really didn't want to have it after baby came. So I did research on it trying to get in touch with the company it was purchased through because off hand I had no idea what you needed to do to get one removed. They said they'd take it out if we paid them. Yeah right. So they said I could try selling it, so I decided to try and had it posted on Craigslist for months at various prices but no one would take it. Then after that I finally just put it up in the free section because I needed it gone and surprise surprise there were dozens of takers within the first hour.

The person who ended up taking it was getting it for his grandparents who were getting older and really needed one but couldn't afford one (cause this ones total cost was more than our last almost new car). So while it would have been nice to get some money out of it, which would have gone to my grandma for the new tv and washer dryer set that broke during the holidays, it was so, so, so, so nice to have it gone. I can't believe the difference it has made and that we lived with it for 5 years. It wouldn't have been so bad dealing with it but my grandma only used it one time in almost 5 years and that was right after we moved in.

So good bye bruised ankles, so long to getting dresses and skirts caught every time, adios worries of kids falling down stairs and hitting a sharp metal bar! I will not miss you one bit.

Me and my prince. He looks good in stripes.

Chubby cheeks. I love this kid so much!

See, he looks awesome in them. While the boys were gone I got a lot of time with him and his cute face.

New Years

With both of our boys being gone, me still recovering from everything and everyone recovering from Christmas we kept New Years pretty low key.

The White's were here and celebrated and their boys went to bed early because who really wants to keep their little ones up to midnight? It might seem fun during the night because kids get crazy funny but the next day is not usually pleasent, at least in my own experience. So most of us grown ups went down to watch the Lone Ranger until midnight. Then we watched the ball drop.

It was easy going, filled with lots of tasty food and good movies and shows (Sherlock!). Can it get better than that? Not so much.

This wasn't from New Years or anything but I caught Jason pouring over the boys Legos while he was working on his work Nike Lego thing I made him. That and I am sure the Lego's were calling out wanting to be played with, they were used to being taken out on a daily basis.

California Adventures

The day after Christmas we went to my dad's to celebrate Christmas there along with his birthday. How not fun would it be to have your birthday the day after Christmas by the way?  After hanging out we left the boys in the care of my dad and step mom for a whole 10 days while they went off with them to California. Levi went with them two years ago but this was the longest Max would be away and I was a little nervous. Not as nervous as I would have been 6 months ago but since he has been in preschool he has gotten a lot more confident and so have I in his ability to be away from me. 

They were going down to LA for Rhonda's (my step mom's) dad's 70th birthday among other things. I only have the pictures they sent. I'm betting there are more out there but this is all I have seen so I'll go with it.

Here you can see Max and his great grandpa, Sienna is front and center as well. The other people I have no idea who they are.

All the great grand kids (or grand kids for some of them)

My dad, Levi, Max and Dillon all dressed up and ready to party (for New Years I think?)

The boys got spoiled, I mean how could they not with grandma and grandpa? I didn't see any pictures, this might have been a result of Max's hatred of pictures, but they went to Disneyland. And the place I heard about the most LEGOLAND!

A part of me is kind of sad because I wanted to be the one to take them there and to Disneyland but realistically it wasn't something we were going to be able to do financially for a while. I guess we could have but it was probably more important to pay off student loans right? Oh the responsibilities that come with being a real adult. But we get to do lots of fun things with our boys and maybe we will take them in a few years. All I know is we are lucky to have family who are willing to take them off on fun adventures. I remember some of the funnest trips were with my grandparents and just us kids.

Though this picture might not show it, I was assured by all that Levi and Max had a blast at Legoland. Lucky ducks!

On the drive home, it was a long trip but they made it.

I am thankful my dad and step mom took the boys. While we still had a house filled with guests while they were gone it was nice to have some extra one on one time with Davis and know my boys were being well taken care of. Also it gave me a week and a half to really recover from everything. I had a nasty cold and stomach flu as well while they were gone. I sure missed them and were so happy to see them when they got back!