Playing Catch Up

We have been pretty busy around here as most of you know. This is kind of a long post . . . WARNING . . . but full of all the fun things our cute little family has been up to. We had a wonderful visit with Ian's parents and sister last week. After Jim had to head back to work in Portland, Denny and Aly stayed another few days before driving home. We had a blast. We went to the mall to let the boys play and expend some pent up energy (well, mostly just Weston had that need). Here they are at the dino playground. Weston loves to hold Davin these days and really Davin seems to like his brother's attention. It's adorable.
One of the rare moments of us out and about without me behind the camera.
Weston's first carousel ride. It made me nauseous, but Weston loved it and didn't want to get off.
Grandma Denny took this picture of our sweet elfin baby. What a grin, huh?
Weston playing blocks in his room. He is superman every day now. He even sleeps in his cape. Then when he wakes up he says "Superman needs his boots." What a dork. :)
Grandma Denny with her grandkids.
I liked this one of Grandma and Davin.
Ooh big milestone while the Bowles' were visiting . . . Davin started reaching for stuff! He really started going for the toys on his toy bay on the bouncer. It is hard for me to realize that at almost 4 and a half months old we are going to have to bust out the high chair soon and he is learning so many new skills!
"Good morning to you, good morning to you, we're all in our places with bright smiling faces and this is the way we start our new day!"
Playing ladder ball at our neighbors' house during their Pioneer Day party (it's a much much bigger deal here than anywhere else in the world but a good excuse for a party and fireworks). Weston couldn't get enough of playing with the big boys.
Happy 24th of July! Weston loved getting to do sparklers and poppers again so soon. Amazingly enough he lasted until 10:30pm in a fairly decent mood.Father and son. They are a handsome pair.
Today we met up with Dawnie and Mason for lunch at the park. Dawnie is loaning me her bumbo for the next several months (THANKS AGAIN!) and Davin loves it already. After we got home from the park I put Dav in the bumbo to watch the end of Sesame Street with Weston and Weston was jealous of Dav's new chair, so he had to sit in his chair too. My little couch potatoes. ;)
Weston and Mason playing at the park.
This is the first 2 minutes of Davin trying out the bumbo at the park. He was so pleased to be sitting up like a big boy. Plus he loves to watch Dawnie talk. She is very pretty, he has good taste. :)
I am so grateful for my wonderful boys. We really do have fun together and like each other.
We had a bit of a rough time this morning. Weston threw a massive tantrum and I really didn't know what to do. I ended up letting him scream it out in his room, giving us both some time to calm down. While he was in there I tried to figure out my next move and came up blank. My go to solution failed (calling my sister to see what she does with her kids) and so I had to go it on my own. I think it turned out ok. I just hope some of our discussion post tantrum about choices and consequences/apologizing and forgiveness will stick. If anyone has any other parenting of a 2 year old advice, please let me know. I would love to have some tricks up my sleeve for when he won't listen/obey and can't be reasoned with. It has been fun catching up on your blogs. I'm not even halfway done yet though, so be patient with me. OK, back to catching up on So You Think You Can Dance. Don't tell me who got kicked off last week . . . I'm getting there!

Back . . . Sort of

Well the computer is back in the house and hooked up, but it doesn't have any of our stuff on it yet.  Ian will be restoring it to it's former glory tonight/tomorrow, so I won't have pics to post or anything like that for a few more days.  Thanks for all your comments!  I miss you guys too.  It's going to take me a bit to catch up on what y'all are up to but I'm excited to read lots of new posts! 

It's kind of sad that I was without the computer for less than a week, but I was having serious withdrawls.  I was actually kinda depressed.  It really helps me feel connected to all my friends and family and I had really missed that.  I also missed having my music on all day.  I did, however, focus on some serious reading and got through Twilight and New Moon.  I'm taking a little break and then I will read Eclipse before Friday, when I will be attending the midnight launch party for Breaking Dawn (I think is the name of the new book) with my friend, Dawnie.  Wahoo for a girls night out . . . I am so looking forward to it!  

Check your blogs for my comments starting . . .  NOW!

So Sad . . .

that I have no computer until Tuesday. Luckily I am in the midst of re-reading the Twilight series before the 4th book comes out next weekend, so I am keeping myself occupied. I miss seeing all your blogs every day though. I will check back with you all next week and update you on what we have been up to. I am at the library and I am seriously disabled on this keyboard (I am very used to our laptop sized keyboard at home) so I apologize for any typos. I am backspacing every 5 seconds. Anyway, hope y'all have a good weekend! See you on the flip side. :)

iMac Out of Commission for the Moment

Well, the iMac is having a hard time getting over its cold. Its actually probably more like a fever... The thing just gets super hot. It will all be covered, it just means potentially being without a computer all weekend. (Can I survive.... I guess we'll find out...). Anyway, I am sure Shannon will be back with a post as soon as possible. This will most likely include: Deets about the remainder of Aly and Mom's stay, Taking the boys to get their pictures taken (because clearly we don't do enough of that), and other pioneer day fun (the non-holiday holiday).

Well, I best get back to work.

In other news:

Times Ian has seen (and loved) Batman: 2

Number of bug bites on Ian's right hand that keep itching: 1

Episodes of "This American Life" listened to this week: 8 

Number of Running applications on my work computer right now: 14

Number of Running applications on my work computer that I am using: 13 (Didn't realize preview was open).

Cans of DP today (so far): 1

Number of Bowls of Corn Pops eaten today: 1

Number of emails sent today: 1

Number of Text messages sent to Mobile phones via an Instant Messaging Client: 1

Ian's Birthday Family Fence

We have had a busy long weekend. We started building the fence on Thursday night. Friday was Ian's 27th bithday, so I let him spend the entire day working on the fence. He loved it. :) He actually did enjoy working on it and seeing it come together. Luckily we had some help (THANKS ALANN!). At dinner time Ian's parents and his sister, Aly, arrived from OR/Rexburg to spend the weekend. We ordered pizza and had cake and opened presents.
Here is the birthday boy looking pretty dirty and tired opening his new 1GB something card for his phone. I don't know, I just got what was on his list. :) He also got a couple movies, a new belt, grill brush and money to go towards one of the items on his expensive toys list. Aunt Aly playing with Davin during the birthday fesitivies.
Here is what the boys got done on Friday morning. They got all the posts cemented in and did the beams.On Saturday they again got an early start. This time they also had the help of Ian's dad and Weston. The girls+Davin went shopping for wedding stuff (Aly is getting married in Sept.). We were very successful, finding a mother of the bride dress, Aly's getaway dress (for $10 no less!), bridesmaid shoes and doing some scouting for jewelery and groomsman ties. While we were gone, the boys were also very successful in making good progress on the fence. Here is the almost finished product. It still needs latches on the gates and to be stained, but it looks amazing and makes the backyard seem so much nicer all private and fenced in. I love it and I'm hoping it will up our property value (or at least the curb appeal).
Here it is from the front yard. Doesn't it look great?!?
Saturday night we all went out to dinner for Ian's birthday at Olive Garden and then saw Batman. It was way too scary for me, but Ian loved it. Sunday morning we went over to the hotel Grandma and Papa were staying at and took a little dip in the pool (we hadn't had any other time to do it). Davin was a cutie pie and such a good boy all weekend and hanging out down at the pool was no exception.
Sunday afternoon/evening we grilled kabobs (kababs, if you've seen Flight of the Conchords) and then Jim had to leave to head back to Portland for work this week. We are bummed he couldn't stay longer but loved seeing him and appreciate all the help he gave us with the fence and for treating us to dinner and the movie! :) Anyway, later Grandma and Weston baked a little chocolate cake. Weston is the biggest nutter ever. I really don't know what to do with him sometimes. He was being Mr. Buckethead. What a dork. Davin, however was just being happy and adorable.
So things are settling back down this week. Grandma and Aly are with us until Wednesday . . . then they will be driving back to OR. In the meantime I am loving having the help around the house and with the boys. They are both so good with Weston and he loves having someone willing to play with him all the time.

The Fence-Day 1

Over the last 6 months we (meaning Ian) have been slowly tearing down the old fence that was already falling down when we moved into this house. This weekend we are finally building the new one! It is going to be a weekend long project, starting tonight. Tonight they dug the holes for the posts, which was a big job since apparently boulders count as soil filler in our yard. Alann and a couple of Ian's young men, Elliott and Oliver, helped out.
This is the digging beast, I mean the hydraulic auger. It is invincible against dirt, not so much against large rocks.
The scene in our side yard. It's kinda dark since this was taken at 9:30pm. They had only been at it for 3 hours!
This picture makes it look like a wimpy little hole, but these holes are about 18 inches in diameter and are about 4-5 feet deep.
. . .did I mention the presence of several mini boulders in each hole? This is why, even with a digging beast, it took 4 hours to dig 8 post holes.
More to come in the next few days. Also, Ian's parents and Aly are coming into town tomorrow evening, but the bulk of the work should be done by then.

Brotherly Love

I was making dinner the other night and Weston and Davin were watching Alphabet Elmo in the living room. I poked my head in and saw Weston playing Pat-a-Cake with Dav. It was so cute. Weston can always make Davin smile and laugh and Weston is happy to oblige, making silly faces and noises. This morning Weston was "in charge" of Davin during my shower. He read him books and sang "Itsy Bitsy Spider". What a good brother.

Reminiscing . . .

1. Leave one memory that you and I had together, as a comment on my blog. Anything goes.

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll check to see if you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

Videos

This one is pretty belated, but I just barely pulled it off my phone and it's still kinda fun.


I just took this today. Davin was being so cute just talking and cooing away in his room. I had to sneak a little peek. Isn't he just the most fun baby?!? I think so.

Firsts

Yesterday was a day of firsts for Weston. It wasn't supposed to be an eventful day, but sometimes you can't plan these things as well as you might like, therefore I didn't have my camera.
1. He held and played with his first roly poly. For some reason we don't have roly polys in our yard, so while playing in our friend's front yard (they weren't home, but we had some time to kill, thanks for not caring that we trespassed Miller's) we found one. It was a stubborn one and didn't want to roll up into a ball, but Weston loved having it crawl all over his hands and up his arms. He thought it tickled. :)
2. Weston got his first chiropractic adjustment. I went to the chiropractor (our friend, Jared Miller) because I have been having really sharp horrible back pain. Blah. Anyway, it is feeling better, not gone, but better. After he was done adjusting me he did a little on Weston. He said "Jared fixed my back!" for the next 10 minutes.
3. He was really hungry for dinner and ate a normal portion amount for his size! Ok, I'm sure this wasn't a total first, but it's pretty darn rare, so I was stoked. He was hungry because he pretty much refused lunch and therefore didn't get anything to eat or drink (except water) until dinner. I'm attempting to teach him that mealtime is when we eat, not snacks all day long. Ah parenting...
4. Weston got his first bee sting, or more accurately, wasp sting. Poor kid. We played at the Burton's house after the chiropractor appointment and as we were leaving Weston got stung. I didn't see it happen. He just started crying and I saw the wasp right next to him then fly away. It was kind of funny because he really didn't understand. The first thing he said when he stopped crying was "What happened?" I explained that the wasp stung him because he was scared since Weston is so much bigger than him. Weston seemed to accept that, but still commented the entire way home. . . "that stinkin wasp hurt me" "he scared of me?" "I scared of him" "I try to hold that stinkin wasp". It was an ongoing thing. He calmed down pretty quick and didn't even leave the bandaid on the whole way home. Here he is showing off his battle scar. You can't really see it, but its just a little red dot on his palm.
Happy news and sad news from the life and times of Shannon:
Sad news first, as always. I like to end on the happy note. Ok, it's really not that tragic, but I stupidly attempted to cut my own bangs. I know what you're thinking "didn't you learn your lesson in 7th grade?" Yes, well it had been awhile and I really thought I was much more capable 12 years later. Alas, this is not the case. I got my hair trimmed on Saturday but I didn't like the way my bangs looked. They kept falling in my eyes and it was driving me crazy so I thought that if I trimmed them a little then they wouldn't be so annoying. Well, silly me. Here's the damage. I keep reminding myself (and Ian) that they will grow out quickly. Ugh.
I know, you're on pins and needles about what the happy news is. Well, it is also pretty trivial. I just am such a nerd and get such a thrill doing my fun bargain shopping. I got a better deal than I even realized today. I went to Target to return yet another dress that shrunk much too small for me to ever wear again (after only wearing it once) and also to do a little shopping for a certain someone's upcoming birthday.
I always scan the sales racks when I'm at Target (or any store really). They had some jeans on sale. I grabbed a pair that was in my size and was on clearance for $6. I figured if they were remotely cute I would by them. Then I found another cuter pair on sale for $20. Not too bad, so lo and behold they were both really cute and fit! As I finished up my shopping I debated with myself if I should even bother trying to return the dress. Since usually, shrinking the clothing item in the wash is not a valid reason to return something, but I finally decided the worst thing they could say is no. Sure enough they let me exchange it for the jeans!
Wait for it, wait for it. I got home and went to re-try on both pairs of jeans and I looked at the receipt and discovered the $20 jeans were also on clearance for $7! That means I got two pairs of jeans for $13. I'm so proud of myself. Plus I returned the dress, so really I didn't spend any additional money for them. :) Don't you love my shopping logic? Thanks for that Mom! Anyway, sorry my bargain hunting story is so long winded. I will try to be more concise next time. It has been a good couple of days and we are building/putting up our new fence this weekend. I can't wait for it to be done and have a private backyard finally!

Someday....

So for those of you who aren't aware... the latest iphone came out today...Along with a pretty killer update to the existing iPhones.

All I can say is "someday....." and sigh.

What?!?

Could it be? Is it possible? Apparently, yes! I got a cute shot of both the boys smiling and looking relatively cute. Weston's hair could use a comb (this was post-nap), but other than that, this is a classic. I'm so excited.

Well, it has been just me and the boys again this week with Ian working late every night. Blah. Someday things will simmer down, in the meantime we will deal and hope for a nice big raise at his annual review later this month. I have been keeping fairly busy. We had friends over today to play, which was great fun. We all went to the park for free lunch and played in the pool. Tuesday night we went and had dinner with Ian at work and played guitar hero. Last night we had a water fight with the young women.

To be honest, and I still totally love Ian, I have enjoyed having quiet evenings. I started "The Host" finally and I am totally addicted. I can't put it down. I have been being super careful to make sure the boys nap at the same time so I can read. I don't even try when they are awake. I will probably stay up late finishing the book tonight.

So here's to good pictures, mostly happy kids and uninterrupted reading time.

Dinosaurs and more . . .

Today I took the boys to the Utah Museum of Natural History. It is free the first Monday of each month, so I had to put it on the calendar so I would actually remember to go. Anyway, I was kinda bugged that I had to pay for metered parking when I first got there, but then when we got our stickers for entrance they gave me a parking pass. I still had to leave with both kids and walk back to the car to put the pass in there, but at least I didn't get a ticket (since I had all of .20 cash in my wallet).

They had a really cute kids room that was adjacent to the lab where they do the cleaning of real bones and fossils, so that was cool. Weston enjoyed flinging small rocks everywhere. He also insisted on being Superman today.
Next we went to the dinosaur room with the big dinosaur bone displays. I thought it was awesome. Weston didn't really get it. I kept explaining that dinosaurs don't live on the earth anymore but that we have their bones. . . yada yada. He wasn't overly thrilled. He liked the sign about the dinos better than the creatures themselves.

In the biology room they had a ton a stuffed animals. Checking out the pheasants.
The best part about the museum is that most of the displays had buttons to push! The special exhibit at the moment was the one about DNA, which I would have loved to read all the info from, but instead Weston insisted on pushing ALL the buttons. It kept him pretty busy. Here he is checking suspect's DNA against crime scene DNA (or at least that was what the display was supposed to do).Ahhh . . . this is the "green dinosaur." Weston loved this guy. He was near the entrance and he eats money. You put change in his mouth and he says thank you and some other phrases in his growly dinosaur voice. We cleaned out my last 2 pennies feeding the green dinosaur.
Anyway, it was a fun outing, but I'm glad it was free. I don't know that I would have been willing to pay $10 to go. We will have to go back on another free Monday with Daddy. In the meantime, I got tagged a little while ago by Jenny. Sorry it took me so long! :)

A. A Joy
Reading a good book for as long as I want without interruption. Preferably by the pool or in the shade at a park.

B. A Fear
Wow, a lot. Most of them revolve around my kids, their safety and my parenting skills. Something that people probably don't know is that I am still afraid of the dark. Clarification: more what is out there in the dark, especially outside. I do not like to turn off the lights at night. Perhaps that's why I always go to bed before Ian, so I don't have to turn off the lights. I also keep my cell phone light on all night plugged in and there are nightlights in almost every room.

C. A Goal
I am trying to get my exercise on 5 days a week. I want to be able to keep up with my kids for the next 10 years. After that they might leave me in the dust, but I'm pretty sure I'll be ok with it by then.

D. A Current Obsession/Collection
Swimming. I have always liked it but I'm back to LOVING it. I seriously don't think I could drag myself out of bed at 5:30am for anything else. We have also been "fun" swimming a lot lately as a family, which is awesome. Weston loves his new star shaped innertube, by the way. Not such a fan of the goggles though. :)

E. A Random/Surprising Fact about Me
I do not like most citrus: orange, lemon, lime, etc. I don't like them plain or as juice or whatever. I do like pineapple.

Happy 4th of July! - Annotated

We had a fabulous fourth weekend! It was so nice to have Ian home the whole time. He even was able to come home early on the 3rd, so it was an extra long weekend with him, yay! We spent the morning/afternoon of the 4th getting stuff done around the house and relaxing. That evening we headed to some friends' house for a bbq and to do some little fireworks. Weston was so excited to do his own fireworks (aka: sparklers and poppers).

The sparklers made him nervous at first, but when he figured out where to hold it and that it would stop burning before it got his hand he thought they were awesome. He also liked the sizzle noise when he put the burnt stick in the water. We will have to do sparklers again on the 24th when it is dark outside and get some better pics of them.

After the bbq we headed off to stake out a spot to watch fireworks at Murray Park, our old stomping grounds. We LOVE watching fireworks there. It is easy to park, we found an awesome new spot this year, it is easy to get out afterwards and it's a beautiful park with plenty to do right by the river/lake with the ducks. With 2 kids and 3 hours to kill before the fireworks show, it entailed bringing a lot of stuff. Here is our little entourage.
Right by our spot was this little bar for doing exercises along the trail. Weston is very into hanging on things right now and is always asking if he can hang on the doorknobs in the house ("I hang on this?"). NO! Anyway, this bar kept him occupied for a good half hour.
Hanging with the boys pre-show. It was actually really nice out with lots of cloud cover and a good breeze; so much more pleasant than the 102 degree forecast made me think it would be.
Look at all those smiles. Daddy helped out a ton keeping the kids entertained and happy.
At little before 9 the Matagi's showed up with their 2 kids. It was fun to hang out and visit for a bit. Also, Weston and Makenzie were so adorable together. They can finally understand each other. They held hands all the way over to the playground and chatted. It was so stinkin cute. Plus Kenzie shared her glowstick necklace with Weston so he was set.
Watching the show. Davin finally fell asleep about 5 minutes into the show and was out for the night. Weston stayed awake the whole time and all the way home, so it was a long day for him.
The conversation right when the finale ended:
S: The fireworks are all done.
W: Why?
S: Because the show is all over.
W: I watch it again?
S: (laughing) um, no.
Apparently he thought I could just push the magic button and make it start again. :)
After we got home Ian was messing around with the camera and Weston's glow stick. He calls it light graffiti. This one's my favorite.So we had a great time and the fun didn't end there. Today we spent the morning at the pool playing in the water. We will go back after dinner. I got Weston an innertube and goggles, so I'm hoping that will mean he likes the pool a little better and will be less cling-to-me-like-his-life-depended-on-it-ish.

We are also excited that Natalie and Joy had their babies this weekend. My new niece, Rachel Liberte, made her 11 lb. 1 oz. debut on Independence Day. She is doing great despite being in the NICU due to low blood sugar.

***************

So, I call it light graffiti because, that's what it is called. If you think that shot is remotely interesting, do a google search for Light Graffiti. You can do a ton of cool stuff with a couple flashlights and the right settings on your digital camera. I particularly liked this page I found here but there are tons out there. Over the past few months, Sprint has been using light graffiti in some of their ads, and you may have thought, oh thats kind of a cool effect done with computers, but its really kind of analog... you could even do it with a film camera, its just easier with digital because of the immediate results.