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.

Randomness

Well we have had an interesting time lately. On Saturday I drove out to Springville for my friend, Jillian (Green)'s, baby shower. It was very fun to see her and visit and chat. Ian has been working crazy hours for over a week now. It is no fun, but on Friday one of my YW came over after the kids were in bed and I went to Ian's work. We got to go out to eat and it was nice to reconnect.

Yesterday Aunt Aly came into town on the Rexburg Express shuttle. :) We picked her up at the airport and she spent the night with us and babysat so Ian and I could go see Wall-E. It was a cute movie and nice to have a date. Yay. Today we went shopping and out to lunch then I dropped her off to catch her other shuttle down to St. George to spend the long weekend with her fiance.

In other news it is a billion degrees and I am starting to be really uncomfortable. It is supposed to be 103 this weekend. Ugh. In case you were wondering, no we don't have AC or a swamp cooler, just fans and a kiddie pool. Hopefully we will be able to beat the heat on Friday and Saturday at the big pool or the sprinkler park. Hope everyone enjoys their 4th of July, especially Joy who will mostly likely be giving birth! Can't wait to meet little Rachel. :)

Weston had lost his sunglasses and I couldn't find them anywhere so I had bought him a new pair, then sure enough his old ones surfaced. He was pretty stoked to have 2 pairs.
Aly with the boys.
Aly with Davin. Wow he doesn't look happy but he really was.
I told Weston to make his happy face and this is what we got.
I just barely took this one of Dav and I think he looks so cute, even with his shirt covered in spit up and drool.

24 and 16

I'm not as well read as I thought and honestly I have zero desire to read some of these. Others I have meant to read for years and I just haven't gotten to them yet. I have to finish "The Host" first. :) I finally got it from the library yesterday. Also, if anyone is looking for an interesting summer read, I just finished "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd yesterday. It was amazing writing. I loved it. At least I am above the average adult (although I find it hard to believe most people haven't read more of these books since I read several in high school).

The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed.

Look at the list and bold those you have read.

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austin
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkein
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible - New Testament
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres -
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones' Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte's Web - EB White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo


Here Is Ian's List:
1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austin
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkein
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible - New Testament
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres -
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones' Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte's Web - EB White - ok it was read to me... does that count?
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo