Cookin' Up Some Fun

Yesterday was a busy, fun day. I started off the day with discovering Davin's new ability.
He can pick up Weston's stool in the bathroom and move it over to the sink, then climb up. He still can't really reach anything, but it does give me one more reason to lock him out of the bathroom. Cute though, right?

We ended up going on a marathon outing yesterday too. I decided to give the Noah's Ark fountain at the Thanksgiving Point Children's Garden one last chance. Success! It was working! The boys really enjoyed it. Davin more so than Weston. You can't see much of the fountain part in the pics, but there were streams of water squirting out of the sides of the boat in the middle and from the elephants on the sculpture. This spot was on the outskirts of the fountain. The water was cold, but felt really good in the heat of the day.
When we were ready for a break from the fountain we went and visited the bear cave and went to the Discovery Station to see what the craft was. Weston made these adorable bug wings! He was so excited about them. He is still wearing them today actually.
(The stick was his wand. Apparently bugs and butterflies have wands.)
After we left we decided to use our Chipotle coupons we got from finishing the library's summer reading program. I hadn't been to Chipotle since we lived in NYC way back when. My carnitas taco was delish. I will have to go back again soon. Right next door to Chipotle is a little bakery called Nothing Bundt Cakes, so we stopped in and got a mini red velvet cake to take to Ian's work and share with him. We went and visited and enjoyed seeing Daddy for a few minutes. We didn't get home until around 2pm. Davin crashed, but Weston decided he didn't need a nap.

As some of you know, Ian has been working crazy hours for weeks, or maybe months, now. He hasn't been home for dinner much this week. I feel very little motivation to cook when Ian isn't home for dinner. I also realized that I had never made pizzas with Weston, so last night we made english muffin pizzas. They were a big hit. Weston loved putting his together himself, eating the cold pepperoni, then watching them bake, AND he actually ate his whole pizza and a couple bites of Davin's! It's a miracle.
***I just used Prego as the sauce. It's OK, but does anyone have any other suggestions for good pizza sauce? Preferably something I can buy at the store?

He liked them so much that he asked to make them again for lunch today. Since we still had all the stuff for them I said yes.

So, yes things have been fairly busy and fun for us. Ian is supposed to be home on time tonight and we are looking forward to the weekend. We don't have church on Sunday because of the Oquirrh Mountain Temple dedication. We will go to the morning broadcast of the dedication and then hopefully have a quiet, calm Sunday.

My other thing right now is that I am slightly obsessed with finding us a family dog. I think Ian has always been ready for a pet, but I've been hesitant. Now that we have decided a smaller dog will work for us, I decided that now is a pretty good time to get a dog. I don't have to worry about potty training Davin for at least another year. We won't have a new baby for at least that long either, and Davin is hardly a baby anymore. I started researching breeds of dogs that are good with children, smart, easily trained, etc. I'm pretty much hooked on getting an Australian Shepherd. They also have mini and toy Aussies. I already talked to the lady who has these toy Aussie puppies and I really want to go check them out. I'm fairly positive though that if we go look, we will come home with one. Seriously, would you be able to resist? I think not.

Picture Perfect

My life is perfect. I'm sure that most of you can barely stand to read my blog because it makes you so jealous of my perfect life.

I have the perfect Mom. She is generous and fun. She spent lots of time with me and my boys this summer. She is learning to quilt and is really good at it. She has made both my boys the cutest quilts.
I have a perfect sleeper. That's right, he will fall asleep almost anywhere and take nice, long naps (when he naps). He also sleeps most nights for 11 hours.
I am an amazing cook. My beets came out perfectly. Well, mostly my mom cooked the beets, but still they were cooked in my kitchen where everything turns out perfectly.
My kids have perfect imaginations and entertain themselves for hours at a time throughout the day. I rarely have to help them find something to do or play endless games of hide and seek with them.
I am perfect at balancing time at home with time out on fun and educational outings. Since it is summer we explored the ability of a one year old to fill his clothes and diaper with wood chips, and the effects of gravity on water.
Did I mention that my kids are perfectly cute? Or that I am dressed, showered, and ready to head out the door by 10am every morning? I am. Also, I have the perfect marriage. Bet you all can't claim that, huh? My husband is handsome, successful, affectionate, and funny. There's nothing he could do any better. My house is always perfectly clean and tidy. I am always pleasant and patient with my children. I never yell.

Why wouldn't you be envious of all that? I am envious just reading about my perfect life. I forgot to mention one more thing. My child is going to grow up to be a tattoo artist. Perfect.
***Please don't be offended by this post. I have employed quite a lot of sarcasm.

Reviews

MOVIE
Last night Ian took me on a date. It was lots of fun. We had dinner at Cafe Rio, where there was a nice long line, so we got to talk a lot. Then we went and saw Julie & Julia. I loved this movie. It was so down to earth. I identified with it. I love Amy Adams and thought she did a fabulous job. The way Julia Child was portrayed was very sweet. She and her husband appeared to have a very supportive and loving relationship. I need to go look up some actual footage of the real Julia Child just to compare Meryl Streep's performance, but whether it's spot on or not, I fell in love with her. I left the movie realizing that I have never eaten, much less cooked, French food. I should. I also felt inspired, like I could actually do something hard, like cook an entire cookbook in a year. Not that I intend to set that particular goal because of this movie, but it was inspiring nonetheless. Go see it. Now.

BOOK
Like I mentioned in a previous post, I read The Book Thief. It was really amazing. From the very beginning I was sucked into this book with the rich imagery. It really paints pictures for you. Not all of them pleasant. This book follows the story of a pre-teen girl in Nazi Germany. The book is narrated by Death. I found this to be a really fascinating take on World War II. I was riveted by the story and also the way it was told. I generally really enjoy WWII stories anyway, but seriously this book was well written. It used lots of color images and unconventional metaphors. Very interesting and engrossing read. I certainly recommend it.

Before I Was a Mom . . .

-I was organized.
-I could shop and actually try stuff on whenever I wanted to.
-I got dressed every day.
-I had a busy social calendar (heck, I HAD a social calendar).
-my hubby and I went out to dinner when I didn't feel like cooking.
-I slept 9-10 un-interrupted hours every night.
-I got annoyed when there was a screaming child in the waiting area at Applebee's. (Ok, I still get annoyed about that, even when it's my own kid)
-I thought snot, vomit, and poop were personal and disgusting.
-I didn't appreciate my body.
-I took Friday nights for granted.
Now that I am a Mom I try not to take the little freedoms for granted. I also try not to let the sweet moments pass me by. I read stories, give snuggles and kisses, clean, cook, do laundry, tidy (oh the endless tidying!), play blocks and rolly ball, teach, and love. My life is so much different than it was before I was a Mom, but so am I.

This post is part of the August Group Writing Project on mamablogga.com. Go HERE to participate.

Playing and Walking

Last night for FHE we all went to the park together. We have been having such nice, mild weather, so it was a perfect evening. Weston practiced riding his bike all the way to the park. He is getting better. He insisted on wearing his helmet, even when we got to the park and he was just playing. Davin practiced walking. He is doing it pretty much all the time now and getting better every second. On Sunday afternoon he literally was doing laps around the kitchen table. It's so fun having 2 walkers.

SO excited to be riding his bike to the park!
Weston has been too scared to do this ladder all by himself forever. Last night he did it while no one was watching then was so proud of himself. He climbed it several more times.

We went to the aquarium this morning and then met up with Ian for lunch. I managed to keep both kids awake on the drive home by singing songs the whole way. It was worth it though because they both napped for 2+ hours. Now I have a nice clean house today. Go me for not wasting all that beautiful quiet time. I am feeling all good about myself. Not only did I get my house clean, but I went to the gym this morning, I have a roast and veggies simmering away in the crock pot for dinner, and I am halfway through an intellectually stimulating book (The Book Thief by Markus Zusak). I'm sure all kinds of chaos will break loose as soon as Davin finally wakes from his looong nap. Oh well. It's nice while it lasts.

I am thoroughly enjoying getting back into my routine. The only bummer is that Ian is SO swamped at work. It's hard to enjoy the nice summer evenings when Ian is working practically every one of them. I really hope that things settle down for him soon. I mean, having lots to do is great! It means job security, but I think they are getting to the point of needing to hire back a person or two that they laid off a few months ago. This is the first time that I feel like the grind is really getting to him. He has always enjoyed his job. I'm not sure he's a big fan right about now.

High School High

This last weekend we traveled to Oregon for Ian's 10 year high school reunion from Sam Barlow High School, Class of 1999. It was a very quick trip for us. We didn't bring the kidlets though, so it was probably good that it was quick. Poor Davin is getting used to abandonment by now. Weston understood that he was having 2 sleepovers and then I would come get him. The boys were very good for Natalie and Nicole, and I am grateful for that.

So, back to our trip. We were really bad about taking pictures on this one, so not much documentation. We flew out Thursday evening. After grabbing a quick dinner we headed to downtown Portland to visit with Adam, one of Ian's good friends from HS who wasn't going to the reunion. We had a nice time catching up with him. He took us to a little coffeehouse called the Pied Cow for some dessert. It was delicious. The weather was perfect too. Nice and cool. It felt great after the 96 degree weather we had left. We ended up getting home pretty late.

We sort of slept in the next morning and took things really slow. My FIL had recorded the finale of SYTYCD for me, so I watched that. I was happy with the winner. Good stuff. I'm glad that it's not really over since the next season is this Fall instead of next summer. Once we finally got going we went with Denny to the furniture store to see the new stuff they had ordered. It's always fun to browse furniture. After that we went and all got pedicures. It was nice. I haven't gotten one since the last time Denny was here at my house. I got purple toes to match my dress I wore to the reunion that night.

Ian and I ate Subway then headed off to see a movie. We saw 500 Days of Summer. We really enjoyed it. It's always nice to do something fun like that when we don't have the kids and don't have to get a babysitter. By the time our little date was over it was time to go home and get ready for the big reunion!

The reunion was held at the Persimmon Country Club. It was a pretty standard Conference/Event room though. We got there and started visiting. That's really all we did. After the dinner, the committee did a little general questioning to see what everyone was up to. You know, who was married, for how long, how many kids they had, who worked in what fields, etc. There was supposed to be dancing, so the music was really loud after dinner. Only about 5 people were dancing though, so it was mostly just really annoying. The loud music was our main complaint though. Ian had fun catching up with people and I knew a couple people, so I wasn't completely bored. Here's Ian with his friend, Becky. I spent a good part of the evening visiting with her too.
***Addendum: I grabbed a few more reunion photos from Facebook.
We didn't stay too late. Ian finished visiting with everyone he wanted to talk to and then we left around 11pm. I would say we had a good time, but not an $80 a person good time. Oh well. The next morning all of Ian's siblings and their spouses came over for breakfast. It was really fun to get to spend some time with them without the kids running around. We ate and talked and played bananagrams. We also got to hold baby Ivy.


Later that afternoon we met up with Becky again for lunch. After that it was time to pack up and head for the airport. We had an uneventful flight and got to Nicole's house at about 8:45pm. Both the boys were asleep, so we visited for a little bit then got them all bundled into the car and came home. We were all pretty tired yesterday, but Davin only napped for 45 minutes. What a punk. It is nice to be home for good and know I have weeks and weeks before I have to get out any sort of luggage again. Today has been catch up day. We had no food in the house. We had no library books. I have YW at my house tomorrow, so we are plenty busy. Weston and I just finished watching Charlotte's Web together while Davin took a real nap. Time to get a little prep work done for YW tomorrow. Watch me go!

Photo Corner

I am finally posting the fun pictures from Aly and Ryan's reception in Oregon last month! The reception was gorgeous and they had this really fun photo corner set up for all the guests to have their pictures taken. We were there early, of course, so we hammed it up. This was pre Davin's meltdown too, so we even got a cute one of the whole family!
You have no idea how much Weston loved this. We had to pry him away so that other people could get their pictures taken.
With Aunt Mo. Her hubby, Carr, was taking all the pictures.
Weston made friends with this cute little girl, Lucille, at the reception. They ran around holding hands while dancing and getting their picture taken. It was very cute.
We also managed to get one of our whole family with the newly married couple. Never mind that Davin was a hopelessly screaming mess by then.
We are actually headed back to Oregon this week for Ian's 10 year high school reunion. He's so old! :) We are leaving the kids with our very helpful friends. I am feeling a little anxious about the whole thing. I am ready to just be home. This summer has been nuts. I am going to do my best to enjoy it though. I'm sure mid-way through September I will be all bored with my routine and wishing I could get away.