I'm a cool Mom too!

My sister was telling me about how she made letter pancakes for her boy and how she was a super cool mom (my words not hers). I was jealous. I think wow she makes pancake mix from scratch and fills metal cookie cutter letters with batter all for her two old. I am such a loser mom that's way too much work. Well guess what. It isn't. Water and mix and the trick is ziploc-bag-pipping letters. It was too easy and so fun. We had the Letter C, L, M and D. I bet you can guess why.

Thanks for giving me the cool mom tip!

I need more cool mom tips. Have any to share?

9 Months Old

Dear Landon,

You are so beautiful! Everyone assumes your a girl.. sorry I promise I do not put bows in your hair or dress you in pink. I think maybe it's your charm (or they see Carter and assume that one boy is enough). Anyways we love you.

• I love how you throw your one arm up and say "UH UH" I believe it means more than just "up" but "I want that" as well.
• You are not happy with cherrios at breakfast anymore you want what we eat you can tell it is different. Clever boy.
• You Love bananas and love going outside. When we shut the door before you can crawl outside, you start to cry.
• You only wake up once at night and usually at 5ish. I am so happy for that. Thank you.
• Crawling up the stairs is one of your favorites, for sure you crawl up faster when I start to call your name.
• You are such a wonderful part of our family.
• When Carter steals toys from you, you hold on tight and start screaming at him to quit it! I'm so glad you stand your ground.

Love you lots,

Mama

Carter's Letter

Puppy

Ryan spent the weekend in Amarillo, Texas. His little brother reports to the MTC this week. He is serving his mission in Guayaquil, Ecuador. While visiting Ryan fell for this little Jack Tzu pup. Her dad (Jack Russell) is 10lbs and mom (Shih Tzu) is 8lbs so she will stay tiny. Carter seems to like her. We need a name. Any ideas? Even I think she is cute, despite my animal fear/dislike.

Update: the Fort

Picture of the peek-a-poo floor from the top level down below

The tunnel entrance

I meant to have updates more often, but here are pictures of the fort as it currently stands. We have not seriously worked on it too often, busy with trips and other tasks, but now it is taking shape. It just needs the walls finished (complete with hidden doors), and the activities added. We are thinking about a steering wheel, marble maze, and Ryan want to do a bike peddle powered fan. Do you have any great ideas?

Happy Birthday Sister Dear!

do we look alike?

My sister is great we've been sisters my whole life.. and good friends almost as long.. :) We shared a room when we were young and a bed. She is one of those people on my short list of those that can make me laugh until I cry.

I remember laying on our brothers bunk beds (I think Grandma and Granddad most of been visiting and we booted the boys out of their beds so Grandparents could have ours) and Melissa would reading to me the silly parts of Anne of Green Gables and I would just laugh and laugh at how funny she is.

I am a lucky girl to have this sister the only down side is she lives so far away.. :( Our kids are the same ages.. hers are 4 months younger than mine. I am so glad that we have each other.

Every sister needs a sister.

Carter is driving me crazy...

..his toys are all across the living room.. we clean them all up and vacuum last night, you can't tell.

.. he has not been listening AT all this morning.. until just now.

me: "Okay Carter you are driving me crazy, I guess it is time for bed. You know to stay out of my drawers."

Carter:"you're kidding me, momma. You're kidding me." as he quickly puts my kitchen things away and shuts my drawers- suddenly all smiles.. charming me into postponing nap time some more.

20 hours

We made it all the way to Idaho Falls, Island Park and Back again. I really am surprised at how much better we are at the car trip thing than we were when we moved out here to Washington. We left here at 4 AM. That way hopefully the kids sleep a lot in the car.. We were pretty organized on the way there and Carter seems to get the hang of it. "I want something else." instead of "AHHHHH AHHHH HAHHHHHH AHHHH I'm Done!! AHHHH" like when we moved here.. Oh the joys of parenthood.
Things that made the trip easier
1. Mom sees a train and than Carter gets his play trains.. (thanks Aunt Melissa)
2. Notebook and ONE crayon
3. stack of magazines for C to read when he started to get tired (Auto Weekly and The Friend)
4. sunglasses
5. Apple for C Banana for L
6. Grams for L and a few baby toys (he was sooo good)
7. Latch Board (thanks Aunt Melissa) (we used this last trip too and than put it up until this trip and I will put it up again until the next trip) He loves it!
8. Mouse and Cheese Lacing block (thanks Aunt Ang) (we had this in a box of baby toys that C hasn't seen in a long time)
9. Jacob's Ladder (not sure where this came from but again it was in the box of stuff he hasn't seen in a long time)
10. Sticker book ($1 at Wal-Mart)
11. My own personal version of Sound Of Music's "The Lonely Goatherd"

and I believe this trip was the first time Ryan and I have ever finished a bag of chips before the bag went stale. We like French Onion SunChips.. I put all the chips in a gallon sized bag before we left so that the bag would not give us a headache (their bags are extra loud.. not good to go sneaking a chip when the kids are a sleep.)

any secrets to traveling with kids up your sleeve?

Patio

I decided that I wanted to build something. Ana White's blog is wonderful full of ideas and plans. We started out easy and just did the bigger kids picnic table this past weekend. It is mostly finished I still need to sand it a little more and than paint it. I got all the wood for the project for free! We have been watching Craiglist, and the Habitat Restore store (Ryan's coworker also gave us some leftover 2x4s). Why pay for wood?? I found a gallon of dark green mis-tint paint at Lowe's so I plan on painting it soon.

I wish I had sanded the boards before I but it together because I like the rounded edges better, and the inside boards are a little tough to sand now. I also wish our patio was level... but oh well. I think Carter really like his new table. We ate dinner out on it two nights ago. It was lovely.

8 Months Old

Matching

I think I see a lot of My family in this picture.. anyone else?

Blurry but I love it!

Dear Landon,

8 months! I feel like the baby days are over. You are a very happy boy and still very handsome. This month has been a busy one I can't believe it's already to this point. Your new favorite is to climb the stairs. If I don't have the baby gate up you can move pretty fast- which was very surprising to us. You go over and check to see if the gate is up because you like to practice. :) You and Carter play together, nothing makes me happier then when I hear the two of you laughing.

Daddy has been digging a pit in the backyard.. and you have a great love for fist fulls of dirt. I hold both your hands and and you just dive at it with your mouth. You crack me up. You still have only eyes for me and follow me around as best you can. Landon my love you sleep through the night! (You sleep better than Carter does actually). You go to bed around 8 or 7:30ish and wake up at 6:30. It is so wonderful. You seem to know what are baby toys and what are not and you prefer the non-baby toys.

I love watching you grow up! But I am afraid you are doing it too quickly. Slow down!

Love you Forever,

Momma

Super cute boy!

Carter is funny.

Lately when Carter is eating often he will simply use his mouth.. aka forget the hands.. "I can get my face down close enough to the treat and eat it." He thinks. We went to the park today. I try and be prepared. I had water bottles, cheese crackers and puff cereal, even a few toys. Clearly everyone else's snacks are always better. He and a friend were sharing his fruit snacks. They were feeding each other, cute in theory until someone gets bit. Maybe it should not have been funny. But I keep hearing little R say "hey!" as Carter accidentally nips his fingers.. I guess older kids are smart enough to keep their distance.. Carter opened his mouth and they threw their snack at him. I need to teach him to use his hands..

every post needs a picture

Landon, 7 months

fort

Ryan needs a project.. so he choose this one to fill his time. He says it's for me.. my sanity but really it's a project for his. Ryan is building a hexagonal fort for our boys. So I guess the project is for everyone. Here is the progress so far at the end of day one. We will see how it unfolds as the weekends/evenings go by.

weekend of fun!

Ryan's Mom, sister and Grandma came to visit us. it was so much fun to have some company. And it was a good motivator for me to get the house much more organized. :)

We spent a lot of time at the local parks playing and enjoying the Columbia River. Look closely at the pictures. See

*Madisyn with a handful of seaweed for Ryan

*Landon's eyes full of tears from laughing too hard

*Ryan's River Bath

*Spoiling in action..

Carter loved having his grandmas here. He loves them so much but he certainly missed having his grandpas around.

Carter

"He Fall down, Momma. He get wet"

"He fixed it"

Not sure what he is remembering I did have to reattach the petal the other day so maybe that is what he is remembering

"Building Momma! Helicopter, right here, Momma"

7 months old

Dear Landon,

I cannot believe that another month has already flown by! You are crawling around like crazy you can sit with your hands out to hold you up. You seem to know that baby toys arn't as cool as other things and don't really like when I give you baby toys. You would rather have Carter's toys or a shiny bowl but not a silly baby toy. :) You don't like being the horse when Carter wants to play horsey..

Food isn't totally down pat you seem to like sweet potatoes and applesauce. You gag on rice cereal (I can totally see why) and you don't really like green beans. You love the rice cereal puffs and Carter enjoys taking them from the tray and eating them for you.

You are doing better at sleeping through the night and it totally helps that you have your own room and your own real bed. Daddy sings this song to me often when he is holding you "I only have eyes for you.. " you follow me with your eyes and long for me when others hold you. It is really quite flattering We love you!

Love you Forever.

Momma

C's month 7 letter

The best life

I shouldn't be blogging. I've felt a little bit down the last few days with very good reason. We just moved in. I love our house. (I love our couches it's been over 2 months since I've sat on them and when the movers dropped them off it was bliss to sit on my couches!) Anyways we had an eventful weekend. Landon had a small fever last week and than Carter got it too on Friday but no big deal it's just a small fever. WRONG.. Carter suffers from Febrile Seizures which is not a big deal but it is when he has one at Lowe's. Long story shortened a bit we ended up at the ER and because he also had a collision with the tile floor earlier that day not only did we have an IV but we had a CAT scan as well. I felt pretty down on myself got a case of the should-ofs along with my own fever, and sickness. Ryan is pretty sick too. Hopefully by the end of the day we will all be feeling much better!

I read this today. This bloggers words on gratitude despite/because of trials really touched me. I also heard about an old friend's niece Preslee who is holding on to life despite drowning last week. Her parents are already at peace with the situation and are praying for their little girl with all their heart.

I know this isn't anything new but it was so nice for me to read these posts during my crazy life and realize that I need to just love my perfectly imperfect life!