And I'd Do It Again

I did it. It was passed his nap time and I didn't want him to fall asleep during the 20 minute car ride home so I . . .

gave him a chocolate chip cookie. He stayed awake and made quite the mess. But I would do it again in a heart beat to preserve my 2 hours of peace, the nap.

Do We Dare?

Andy has been drooling over power wheels since about the time he could walk. When we go to the toy store he splits his time between the Thomas the Tank display and sitting in all the power wheels. Well the other day, his wish came true and Kent let him ride one of the neighbors. He rode the thing for 2 hours. It scared me to death but he actually did a good job of turning and didn't run into anything. He figured out how to change gears and I about had a heart attack as he was flying down the street. Now Kent wants to get him one for Christmas and all I can imagine is going from chasing him most of the time as he runs down the street to chasing him all the time as he is flying down the street on one of these things.

A 5 minute phone call + a 2 year old =

I'm glad the call was only 5 minutes. When I came in he was just starting on the closet.

G&G

Its always such a treat when my parents come into town. Andy decided about a week before the came that Grandma was going to play trains with him and Grandma was going to play trucks. He held them to it.

Usually he wakes up in the morning yelling for milk. The last few days he woke up yelling "Grandma, Grandpa!" He just couldn't wait to play with them each day.
We are always sad when the go back to Cali but can't wait for the next trip! Maybe it is our turn to go there.

Fun at the Fair

We went to the fair last week and had a great time. We went on $2 day (I think $8 is a little steep for the fair), went on a few rides, saw lots of animals, played on lots of truck, ate a little food and went home. Andy loved riding the horse. I am glad there is another horse lover in the family. I still haven't given up my dream of having my own horse someday.

Kinda scary billy goat.

Andy loved the big slide. He would just run up the stairs on his own.
He even convinced his grampy to go for a ride with him. As soon as he got to the bottom he would take off running back up the stairs again.
Andy likes most little boys loves truck. The fair had lots of trucks and motorcycles for him to sit on and pretend to drive. This digger was one of his favorites.

Gardens

We went to Red Butte Gardens and it was beautiful. I would love to go back in the spring when all the flowers are in full bloom. They had a great children's garden. My only complaint was the little water splash area. They had way too much water coming out for such little area. Andy was drenched in the first five minutes of getting to the garden. I really should have learned by now to always have a change of clothes for that kid. He seems to get into something in the first five minutes of going anywhere.

Andy is such a boy. This is how he gives kisses. He puts his cheek up to things and expects the kiss.
Its hard to take family pictures cuz Kent is always being goofy and Andy doesn't sit still for 2 seconds, let alone look at the camera. Thanks Jo for this attempt.
Andy decided this was a whale. He loves the whale part in the book the Grouchy Ladybug. He has been asking to go back to the garden to see the whale for the last week.

Coming January 2009

I can't believe I have almost forgot to post this. We are having a little girl! We are so excited but I'm already worried how she will survive with Andy-man as a big brother.

Wedding, Boston, & NYC

Kent and I just got back from a whirlwind trip to the east coast covering Boston, Albany, and NYC in a week. The reason for this trip was. . . .

my brother Brian married Christina. The wedding was perfect and they both looked amazing!

My 4 nieces looked so cute. They were probably smiling because Andy wasn't around to pull their hair.
I loved Concord and Walden Pond. Unfortunately we were running from a very big storm. About one minute after this picture was taken lighting and thunder where hitting at the same time and it was pouring buckets of water.
Boston was spectacular! The city was amazing and I loved all the history.
In NYC we stayed with Kent's cute cousin Jill and her husband Brandon. It was so nice to spend some time with them and see all the sites and eat at so many yummy restaurants. We had a great week but were happy to see Andy and once again drive our own cars.

One Giant Zuc!

Our neighbor brought this giant zucchini over to us last night. Any one have some good zucchini recipes?

Church

Andy started walking at 9 months and running at 11. Unfortunately he hasn't stopped running since then and church is an absolute disaster and doesn't seem to be getting any better. Every week I pack a bag full of great quiet activities from magnetic books to sticker books, slinky's to snacks. I don't think I have high expectations. He doesn't have to sit on my lap, but just stay in our row. I am ok taking him out to the hall but can't we stay in the meeting for 10, 5 or even 2 minutes. Lately he starts getting rowdy during the opening song. That is about 20 seconds into the meeting. This last week we hadn't even made it to our seats and he had started screaming. Within about 12 minutes he managed to pull the woman's hair in front of us (hard), throw his crackers all over the ground and jump on them before I could even grab him and then while we were trying to clean up his mess he slipped past Kent's hands and ran up to the front stand. Kent went after him and Andy decided it was a game, Kent would go one way, Andy would go another. It took him about 2 minutes to get him off the stand. After this he was banished to the hall for good. Kent and I come home totally exhausted, sweaty and ready for a nap. I need to take some before and after shots. They would be hilarious.

Silver Lake

This is the best little summer walk/hike with little kids. Its beautiful, the air is cool, the trail is flat, and easy fishing access.

Andy amazingly didn't even get wet!
* Jo & Niccole this is where we should have come last summer when we went on our "little hike" with andy man!

A Great Library Find

Andy and I stumbled on this great book while at the library. I think we picked it up because it had a car on the front and was next to a Thomas the Train book. Well the story is about a little girl that wants a bike and ends up getting her first low rider car, complete with flames, from her grandpa. She even wins a low rider bouncing competition. The story is accompanied by lots of Spanish phases that I butchered. It was a great change from our usual truck, train or airplane books and is guaranteed to put a smile on your face.

Who Doesn't Love a Rolly Polley

Andy has discovered bugs. With all the time we spend outside he finds a lot of them. His favorite are the rolly pollys, but is quite taken with worms, snails, spiders and bees. I am just happy he doesn't try to eat any of them.

This day the bugs stayed outside but he has started to sneak them in. I am sure I will find a snail in his or my bed one of they days.

Lost & Found

A few days ago I had been out plant shopping with Andyman. Getting to the car is often the trickypart (as many of you moms can relate to). I was trying to juggle andy so he doesn't take off running, the plants I had just bought and my purse while trying to dig my keys out of my purse. At some point I put my wallet on the top of my car without realizing it and drove off. About 20 minutes later I got a call from American Express saying someone had found my wallet (I didn't even know it was gone at this point) and had called them to get in touch with me. Amer Express gave me this girls cell phone number who had my wallet. I called her and was able to go pick it up. She had found it a few blocks from where I had been, in the middle of the street, in a construction zone under an overpass and it was about 6pm. Talk about a major disaster diverted. I am so thankful for all the good honest people out there, and this girl in particular.

California Dreamin

My parents recently made a quick trip to Utah and so Andy and I accompanied them back to Cali. In case you were wondering Cali rocks, especially when it is winter in utah. This trip was as great as always which makes it hard to leave. We have been back in Utah a few days and it has already snowed 3 times. We miss Cali and can't wait to go back!
Andy making pancakes with grandpa. Andy adores my dad. He loved helping my dad feed the birds, go for walks around the yard and reservoir. Andy has recently become obsessed with fires and my dad would let him help make fires in the fireplace even though it was in th 80's.

Maybe next years easter egg decorating will work out a little better.

Andy loves his cousins so much. From the second he woke up in the morning to bed time he would play with his cousins. We are excited that these 2 cousins are coming to visit next week!

More cousins! Andy and Trent are like 4 weeks apart in age (though Trent is like double andy's size). They are a little competitive but I know they will be such good buddies as they get older!

Friends Forever

10 years ago, my freshman year at BYU, I met this amazing girl from Georgia named Erica. She loved to dance, flirt and have fun as much as I did and had this great southern accent. We became great friends and we still remain close to this day even though we haven't lived in the same state for like 7 years. We recently met up in Cali and braved 2 days at Disneyland with 2 1-year olds and a 5 year old. I laughed for most of the two days straight and we had a great time!


Thank goodness for our harness backpacks for andy and carolina!

Best part of the day :)

Brian + Christina

My brother Brian has officially popped the question to Christina. They are getting married the end of this summer in Boston. We are so excited he found such a cute, fun girl to be our sister in law (and his wife). And we can't wait for our trip back east! I haven't seen the sparkler yet, but I hear its a beauty. Good job Bud!

And he is going to. . . .

PERU!!!!! My brother Mike got his mission call and we are SOOOO excited! Its crazy cuz it seems like he was this adorable 5 year old kid like yesterday.

Mike, Brian, Christina, and our cousin Wil came to our house to open the call. We set up the web cam with the rest of the fam in cali so everyone could be part of the occasion.

My little bros aren't so little any more!

Andy has this special connection to his uncle Mike. He adores him. It is really cute.

Firestation

A few weeks ago we went with some friends to the firestation for a tour. The kids had a blast and the firemen were so cute with them. They made sure to only show the "cool stuff".


Lots of bribes involved to get 8 kids sitting still in front of this sign.

Andy loves wheels and was absolutely captivated by the fire engines giant wheels. They are still a topic of conversation.

Not so sure about driving the fire engine.

Most kids wanted to hold the hose, Andy wanted to put his fingers in it.

GO JAZZ!!!!

So anybody that knows Kent knows he LOVES the Jazz. And he has definitely passed that onto Andy. One of Andy's first words was Jazz. The games are always on TV in our house and Kent is often giving tutorials to Andy. Kent goes to Jazz games all the time and I go quite a bit but I have not been too excited to bring Andy. All I can imagine is 2 1/2 hours of trying to keep Andy in a confined space which sounds like church (church often doesn't go so well). We finally decided to take him last night and was I wrong.

As soon as we got into the stadium, Andy knew exactly where we were. He was so excited he could hardly contain himself. He just kept clapping, dancing and yelling "Yeah" and "Go Jazz". He was very entertaining and didn't even try to jump off the bleachers or run away once. I was shocked!

Kent and Andy are both sporting their jerseys. Andy loves his jersey and wears it about every other day.

And to top the night off the Jazz won after a pretty close second half. GO JAZZ! (Lakers are still the best!)

a good day

So today Andy and I had just finished storytime and we were driving in the car on a pretty busy street. We looked over and saw 2 deer leaping through the grass along the side of the road. It was so cool and then out of the trees came 4 more deer. It was funny because people were on the sidewalk really close to the deer just frozen watching this herd running. You'd think we were up in the mountains and not driving along a busy city street. I tried to take a picture but couldn't manage since I was driving. I was way more excited about the deer than Andyman. And to top off the day, it is actually sunny and no one in my house is sick.

Waffles!!!!

So we knew Andy was feeling better when at 2am he woke up screaming WAFFLES!!! Nice try. He got some milk which satisfied him until about 5:45am when "WAFFLES" could once again be heard. He finally got his waffles. I guess little kids get cravings too. Kinda funny.

Will The Crib Last Til July?

At somepoint I got July in my mind when I would move Andy to a toddler bed. That would put him at 2 and a few months. Well I am not sure I will make it. This is how a found Andy a few mornings ago, straddling the side of his crib. I have to get him out of his crib as soon as he wakes up otherwise he tries to get out himself. A few months ago he fell out of his bed and knocked himself out. Your probably wondering why he is still in a crib after that. For any of you that have never met my child, he is wild. I cringe at the wild nights and days ahead when we make that leap to toddler bed. For now the crib stays.

I Am So Grateful For . . .

. . our amazing washer and dryer! A-Man has the stomach flu and I have done 38 loads of laundry in the last 3 days! I am not kidding but this does include our normal wash day loads.

our little picasso

This past weekend we all went to the Museum of Art and had such a great time. There was a children section set up while we were there and the kids were supposed to walk through the museum for inspiration and then could come paint their own bag. So we had to let Andy in on the fun. I didn't bring my camera but the event was hilarious. Andy was wearing this big t-shirt they provided to keep paint on clothes to a minimum. Kent and I were on either side of Andy trying to contain him and he was just diving for the paints. By the end, Kent and I had paint all over our hands and arms and Andy had it on his hands, arms, pants, sweatshirt, face and in his hair. To say Andy was proud of the finished product is an understatement.

The museum had a Native American Art section. Kent and I loved it and it reminded us of all the neat Native American Art we saw on our super fun cruise to Alaska this summer. We've decided when we have an extra $15,000 lying around :), we are going to have a totem pole commissioned in our backyard. We can hardly wait!

Not the Nose!

Little did I know that after giving birth, I was not done sacrificing my body to my child. Over the weekend, darling andy decided to give me a monster head butt and broke my NOSE! What a punk and it was definately on purpose. The sad thing is I have never had any issues with my nose. Why the nose? Luckily it isn't really out of alignment but I have this really nice little bump that the doctor said may or may not go away. The joys of motherhood.

a day of bones

We are trying to find all the kid friendly activities to do in utah to help pass these never ending snowy days. (you can only go sledding so many times) so today we went to the natural history museum and andy man loved digging for dinosaur bones.


If you put a coin down the dinasaurs mouth it will talk and roar. Andy would growl right back at him.