Video of Aidan Eating

Here's a little video of Aidan eating and signing to me that he wants "more." It's the only sign that I've been able to teach him and he's hardly ever willing to use it...he normally just prefers to yell and point, so I get really excited when he actually calmly puts his hands together to tell me he wants more.

Hungry?

Lately, baby Aidan has insisted on feeding himself, so as long as he just has a diaper on, I don't really mind washing him off when he's done. This morning I just had to take a few picture of him eating...he just looked so messy and cute! He kept trying to share with me!




This picture doesn't have anything to do with the eating ones, I just like it!

Titanic Exhibit at the the Museum of Idaho

We took a trip over to Idaho last weekend to visit with Jason's family and some friends. While we were there, we went to the Museum of Idaho which had this really awesome Titanic Exhibit. I actually got teary-eyed a few times looking at some of the pictures on the wall and reading some of the stories...some of heroes, like a lady that gave up her place on one of the boats to let a lady on who was crying that her kids were already on that boat and needed on. The lady who gave up her seat to that mother ended up dying when Titanic went down. Some stories were of villains who were men who slipped their way or bribed their way onto boats even though there were women and children waiting...one rich couple bribed their way onto a boat and then paid the employees rowing the boat to row away and not go back even though there was room for more on their boat. It's horrible. It really showed the good and bad side of the human spirit.
One really cool thing, was that when you bought your ticket to get into the museum, you actually got these Titanic tickets as if you're boarding the ship along with the name of someone who was actually on the ship and a little bit of their story. At the end of the museum was a wall with all the names of the survivors and those that didn't survive, so you would look up "your" name and see if you survived. Mine was a woman with two small children. She was supposed to sail off with her husband earlier on a different ship for his work, but she got sick so stayed behind with the kids and later booked passage on the Titanic. She was 3rd class so I knew it probably wouldn't be good. When it came time to look her up, I was really hoping she would have made it, but she and the kids did not survive. Connor's card is the one pictured below. His was actually of a priest who stayed behind on the boat to the end and quoted scripture and gave comfort to those on the ship before it went under. It was amazing how attached you became to these people by the time you were done looking at everything in the museum. It was really a neat experience.

A Friend Moving Away...

An old college roommate and great friend of mine, Alison, has lived in SLC for quite a few years now, so we've gotten to visit her and her family whenever we visited Utah, but now that we've moved here, their family is actually moving away. So sad...for me anyway! It's a good move for their family. They'll be moving to Connecticut so Alison's husband can get his Master's Degree. The other day, I went over to take Alison's kids out to the park and on a walk to Temple Square so Alison could pack while her baby was taking a nap. Then last Saturday they moved. I was in SLC a couple of days ago to bring Jason his suit and to have lunch with him and thought how weird it was that we couldn't just call up Alison and meet up somewhere too and have the kids play while we visit. We're really going to miss their family, but we're glad for their new adventures.

My kids with Alison's kids at Temple Square. Luckily, all of the kids stayed right by me and did really well. They all took turns piling on the stroller, but when it got to going back up the hill to their place, I had to ask some of the bigger kids to get off and walk...that stroller got really heavy really fast trying to push it up hill!
Don't the flowers make such a beautiful backdrop...that's one of my favorite things about walking on temple grounds are the beautiful flowers.

A little stop for a snack.

Gavin's Swimming Lessons

Today was Gavin's second day of swimming lessons. He LOVES it! Connor says he doesn't want to take swimming lessons, so we'll give him time to adjust to the move before we have him take any lessons.
Here's Gavin so happy and proud of himself. He's in a beginner class because it's been a while since we've done swimming lessons, but he's having so much fun. You know you're a mom when you actually get a little teary eyed just watching your son's accomplishments in a beginner swimming class. I can't help it...he's just having so much fun and making friends and so proud of himself that I can't help but feel proud of him too...proud in a good way, of course...in the happy kind of "I feel so blessed" kind of a way. I love my kids.

Here's Gavin with his teacher, Hannah.

Here I've circled Gavin in the crowd.

Here's a video of them playing a game of trying to get the person pretending to be the alligator and then run away from him. Gavin's the little guy with his head just barely above the water!

Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House

Last night, we met Jason after work at Applebees for a little family dinner before going to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House. It was so nice to enjoy a nice meal together, and the kids were being really good which just made it all the more enjoyable. I always tease Jason for ordering salads, telling him that he needs to branch out a little, but I think he had it right because his salad was really good...much better than my sandwich, but he was patient with me when I kept stealing bites of his salad...even after teasing him for ordering it...what a good man!
Before the tour through the temple, we sat for a short film about why temples are important to us and the eternal nature of families. The big boys were really good for the film, but Aidan kept trying to run off, then I'd grab him and try to sit back down and he'd give his big, goofy grin to the people behind us who kept giggling and commenting on his cute little teeth.
For the actual tour through the temple, we put Aidan in a little umbrella stroller which, luckily, he sat in just fine and didn't try wiggling his way out like he does sometimes. The temple was beautiful. I haven't been to the temple for a while. I have good intentions, but it is hard to go when you have little kids to find sitters for, but I should try to go sometimes just by myself after Jason gets home from work. Being there last night for the open house just really made me want to go back. I love it there. It's so peaceful and bright and the Spirit can be felt so strongly. It's a break from the noise of the world and a comfort to my heart. The kids all loved looking at the beautiful chandeliers and the artwork of Jesus on the walls. Gavin really liked the baptismal font with the twelve carved stone oxen below it. As we were leaving the temple, I just really felt like I don't want this to ever end...this feeling, this love for my family...this togetherness, and then I had the strongest comforting feeling that it doesn't ever have to end...that it won't ever end, that I can be with my family forever, and that means everything to me. No matter what little trials and hiccups I have that come along in this life, while still difficult, they're not what really matters. As long as I have my family forever, that's what matters, and I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful family.

Journals...

Jason and I were unpacking a box the other day and found our journals...hadn't seen those dusty things for a while! We looked to see when we wrote in them last...Jason's last entry was from 2004 and in my journal, my last entry was from 2005! So sad. Think of all the things that I never wrote in there that I wont remember now...all the cute things the kids were doing, even the frustrating days and how I coped, fun things our family had been up to, etc. So as I got to thinking about it, I realized that I'm not very good about sitting down with a pen a paper to write in my journal, but I do really enjoy blogging, so I'm going to make an effort to write more often on this blog about just about anything...the ups, the downs, the good, the bad (but more like a writing a letter...nothing too overly personal!) just so it's documented somewhere, and then I'll print my blog entries from time to time. Hope I don't bore anyone with all my writing, not that anyone has to read it! But, I thought it would be fun to give this a try. So I'll start right now by mentioning a conversation I had with Gavin the other day, it went a little something like this:
Me: "How old do you think I'll be on my next birthday?" (Okay, I realize this is a loaded question, but I thought it would be interesting to see what he said!)
Gavin: "How old?"
Me: "30."
Gavin: (shocked look) "Is that three numbers?! Blast! That's old!"
So funny. There's nothing like a child to keep you humble! I asked him what blast was supposed to mean. He said he learned it on the Star Wars cartoons.
And, before I forget, here's something funny Connor said the other day. We were just getting ready to sit down to dinner when I hear Gavin's plate full of food go crashing to the floor and Connor's arm stretched out and a very guilty, but trying to look innocent look on his face (you know the one!) I asked Connor why he did that. He said in a perfectly calm voice, as if this made the most sense in the world, "My hand wanted to do it and my hand just did it his-self." I tried so hard not to laugh...I was definitely NOT excited to clean up the mess, but he just looked so cute saying that like it just explained everything, like I should just say, "OH, OKAY, now I get it, that's okay then, carry on everyone!" HA! What a crazy little kid...even his bad grammar added to the cuteness of what he said, though!
Okay, other than that, we're just staying busy trying to keep our garden alive and playing outside enjoying the nice weather. Tomorrow we're all going to the Oquirrh Mountain Utah Temple open house. I'm really excited to spend the evening with my family and to be able to go inside and show my kids the beautiful temple and all it means to me about eternal families. I'll try to write more about that tomorrow.

Happy 4th of July!

To celebrate Independence Day, our family had a BBQ with Jason's brother, Travis, and his family and some neighbor friends of theirs. Travis just bought a new BBQ and was excited to try it out...he did a great job on the burgers and hot dogs. Along with all the normal sides for a BBQ, my sister-in-law, Trudy, introduced me to strawberries dipped in sour cream then rolled in brown sugar. It sounded a little strange to me, but I decided to try it...let me just say...SO GOOD! Yum! We also made homemade ice cream which was delicious. Later we let the kids play with sparklers and pop-its. Jason and Travis and Travis's friend thought it was hilarious to use a water-balloon slingshot and tell the kids to sit on a rock across the street while they tried to launch the balloons right at the kids...the kids LOVED it! They were screaming and laughing hysterically. As it started to get dark, Travis and Jason lit off some fireworks while the rest of us sat and watched from the edge of the garage.
Fun with the sparklers.




Poor baby Aidan didn't make it to the end of the firework show...one minute he was watching them go off...the next, I found him like this! So sad, but cute! He was obviously really, really tired to be able to fall asleep even with all the bright lights and noise of the fireworks!

Gavin's Star Wars Birthday Party!

On July 2nd, Gavin turned six-years-old! Crazy! He requested a Star Wars Party to celebrate the occasion, so that's what we did! The kids all got to pick out which Star Wars characters they wanted to be and put masks on...there were quite a few other characters to choose from, but for some reason, most of them wanted to be Storm Troopers. We played some games with some Star Wars music playing in the background. The biggest hit was when we killed the chalk Death Star by bombing it with water balloons...the kids really loved that!
From left to right it's: Taylyn, Gavin, Taydem, Connor, Taylor & Alex

Thanksgiving Point Splash Park

The other day, we went to the splash park/children's gardens at Thanksgiving Point with my cousin, Corinne, and her two little boys. The kids all had a ton of fun running around wild with their shirts off, splashing, jumping, being loud, and well, just being boys! It's so great when we have the chance to let them have a day to just run around like this.
As I was looking at these pictures I noticed how funny it is that my kid's individual personalities really came out in these shots:
Determined...

Adventurous...

Sweet...

Not that that's all there is to each one's personality, but some dominate traits anyway! So funny how they can all be brothers and all be so different!
Here's my attempt to get my one-year-old to hold still long enough for a picture with Mommy! HA!

Here's baby Aidan at the park we went to later that day...sure, he looks sweet here, but he was MAD when it was time to go and I took him out of the swing!

Makes my Heart Melt!

Okay, I just love, love, love this little baby smile. Aidan makes me laugh all the time...it's such a goofy little smile, but so sweet...wouldn't you agree? Aidan is finally getting his teeth in next to the top front ones, so his little gap there will probably start closing up a little bit, and I must say I'm going to miss it when it does!

Of Nightmares and Lights...

So, a few nights ago, I heard Gavin get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom...which is awesome...it's taken us a long, long time to get him to this point where he can get up on his own to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night and wake up dry in the morning...yea!! Okay, I got a little sidetracked...now back to the reason for this post...After hearing Gavin get up I fell back to sleep, then noticed that Gavin left the hall light on, so I got up to turn it off. Then I noticed that the downstairs light was also on, so I go downstairs and find Gavin sitting down...watching TV...at 2:45 in the morning! I was like, "Gavin! What are you doing? Go back to bed." He looked kind of sheepish and with his head down walked back to bed. I turned the TV off which had a commercial playing and went back to bed myself. About a minute later I hear Gavin say, "Mommy?" "What?" I say. Then in a tear-filled voice he says, "I'm scared! I accidentally watched a scary movie!" So I run downstairs to see what he was watching and it was some old black and white zombie film with the scary music and all. It was the same channel that his cartoons normally come on at 7:00 am...not the middle of the night. Apparently, he thought it was the morning and almost time for his cartoons to come on. So, feeling bad for the poor kid, I let him sleep in bed with Jason and me for the rest of that night.

The next night, he could swear that the zombie from the movie was just hiding in his closet waiting to get him. He could even quote from the movie that the bad guy said he could "read his mind." Which really freaked him out. So, Jason told him he could keep his bedroom light on that night. Unfortunately, that made it just a little too bright, so Jason came up with the solution to let Gavin keep the light on and wear his sunglasses to bed! Are we awesome parents or what! Luckily, it was just that one night that Gavin was scared enough to need the glasses and lights on, so now we're just back to his nightlight and good night sleeps. I told Gavin he is not allowed to turn the TV on until the clock says 7:00 am, and he agrees that that's a good idea. I don't think he wants to get scared like that again!

The Sweetest Thing...

Connor decided to pick some "flowers" for me and came inside to show me these (weeds!). Of course, I told him thank you and smiled at him and gave him a hug and told him that I loved them. The next thing I know, he's filling up a glass with water and carefully places the "flowers" in the glass and sets the glass in the middle of the table. How sweet is that?! So cute. I couldn't have had a better bouquet of "flowers." What a little sweetheart. I love these moments as a mom!