I Love Weddings!

Last week I was fortunate enough to take a couple days off of being an insanely overtired mom and went to Utah to enjoy my cousin Beth's wedding. It was wonderful! Not only did I get to get a couple full night's of rest, but I also got to see one of my most favorite people in the world tie the knot with a wonderful guy! It was awesome! And seeing all the extended family that was there (including a cousin whom I haven't seen in 10 years and his wife and children, whom I had never met!). What a great couple of days! Can't wait for my brother's wedding in May...



Congratulations Beth and Mark!

Easter Eggs

Here is us dyeing Easter eggs. We weren't going to include Travis because we knew that he would just try to drink the dye or keep trying to pull the egg out, which is what happened. But, stupid us, we got it all set up and then Travis came out to say goodnight and saw the fun colors and eggs and wanted part of it. So, we let him join us. We only did 1 dozen eggs altogether, so everyone got to dye 2-3 eggs. I think the boys each did 2 and Corey and I finished the rest. I don't have pictures, but on Easter Sunday, we gave the boys each a new shirt, which they wore to church, and Eliza a pretty new dress (SO fun shopping for little girls' dresses, BTW), and they hunted for their little plastic candy-filled eggs. That's about it! We'll do more with Easter as they get older, for sure, but that's all we as far as the worldly celebrations. We did enjoy an Easter dinner with Corey's brother's family. Happy Easter y'all!

My Bright Boy

I know that every parent thinks their own child is the most brilliant around, but I really do think Westley is super-bright. I mean, the boy is already reading on his own (not perfectly, I admit, but he sounds out the words and can figure most of them out by himself), he draws the most amazingly creative pictures of animals, people driving cars and trucks, dinosaurs, and neighborhoods. Right now he is working on a "hidden picture" page for his own hidden picture book. He is also very creative in his play, how he always pretends to be superman, spiderman, soldier spiderman, or super football man, or whatever. This is usually based on whatever shirt or pants or a combination of both that he is wearing that day. When he wears his In-N-Out T-shirt with his red shorts, he becomes a "daddy worker guy". There is really no limit to his imagination. It's great!

I think he's absolutely brilliant. He loves books and loves drawing pictures. I admit he hates coloring, and that will be a disadvantage for him in school, but what use does coloring really have in comparison to the active imagination and artistic ability that he already has? Well, I'm anxious to see how he'll do in school. I'm not sure all the structure will be conducive to his talents, but we'll just have to wait and see...

We're loving this weather!

In the last few weeks, we've had GORGEOUS weather here in Mesa, AZ. It's been sunny and in the upper 70's and lower 80's--definitely too hot to call it winter! The boys have taken advantage of the sunshine by spending their afternoons (and a lot of mornings too) playing outside.Travis walks along with Westley behind him.

Westley LOVES zipping around the back patio on Uncle Austin's old scooter. He's really gotten very good at it. So much for ever riding a bike...

There goes Caleb on his tricycle again! He's pretty close to being ready to try a big boy bike with training wheels, I think!

Stylin' Child

Boy, is this kid stylin', or what?

An Eraser and a Bar of Soap

Where, pray tell, is the missing chunk of this strawberry eraser and this mostly-used bar of soap? Why, somewhere in Travis' digestive tract! Recently, my youngest boy has taken a liking to biting and swallowing just about anything that he can. Mostly, the results are less than pleasant--he usually ends up crying because whatever he's bitten out of tastes terrible (i.e. the bar of soap). But, lucky for me, so far he hasn't ingested anything poisonous. I'd better keep my eye on that one!

First Dentist Visit

So I took the boys to the dentist for the first time this morning. The whole way there, Westley was like, "It's going to be scary. I'm scared." He's been with me to the dentist several times when I've had x-rays and my teeth cleaned. Whenever he came with me (I really hate going to the dentist), I tried to act like it was no big deal and nothing hurt or anything, knowing this day would come.

I told him that they were going to take pictures of his teeth, just like they did with Mommy. I said they would put something in his mouth that he would bite down on and then they would take pictures. He seemed okay with it. I told him the dentist would make him open his mouth and he would look at his teeth with a little mirror in his mouth. Then he would clean his teeth with a special toothbrush and use the sucky thing to suck out all the slobber, just like the dentist did with me. He seemed okay with it.

Well, when we finally got him into the chair for X-rays, he chickened out. So we had Caleb go first. Caleb was perfect. After that, we got Westley back into the chair, and when she put the thing in his mouth to bite down on, he freaked out. So they took Caleb into the other room and the dentist looked at his teeth. Then the hygienist came and cleaned his teeth. He did awesome! When he got down, Westley jumped right up and said, "It's my turn!" He did wonderfully during the cleaning. So after that, they tried the X-rays again, and he did it! I guess he finally realized it was nothing to be scared about.

They also looked at and cleaned Travis' teeth. He didn't like it very much and cried the whole time, with me holding down his arms and legs. It sounds worse than it was. They had him straddle me and then lay back into the dentist's lap. Then I put my elbows on his legs to hold them down and his hands in my hands. He screamed, but that was okay because then his mouth was open.

All three boys passed with flying colors--good, healthy teeth and gums with no cavities! And they did great with the flossing, probably because I've been flossing their teeth for a couple years now...thanks to Lindsey who inspired me to start taking better care of their teeth. Of course, she's married to a future orthodontist, so she has to take care of her kids' teeth!

Ah, the Joys of Potty Training

So Caleb is still potty training. He started last June with it and seemed to be getting it, but then sort of went in reverse in August, then after his surgery in October, started getting the hang of it again. On Sunday, we ran out of the diapers he was wearing for naps and night, so we told him that he had to start wearing underwear to bed and naps. He stayed dry that day at nap, so we were excited to try the night. He didn't stay dry, but he didn't get very wet. The sheets weren't even wet, so we thought we were on the road to success...

Think again.

He went to bed last night in his underwear. Corey was at work, so it was just me to hold down the fort. I went to bed at 8 pm. At 1:30 am, I woke up suddenly. I noticed a light coming from under our bedroom door, so I peeked out in the hall to see what was going on.

Scene: The boys' bedroom light is on as well as the bathroom light. The wood blinds in their bedroom are wide open, exposing everything in that room to the street. And there sits Caleb right in the middle of the room, completely naked.

Mom: Caleb, did you pee in your bed?
Caleb (his voice low and croaky): Yes.
Mom: Why didn't you come to my room?
Caleb: Didn't want to wake you up.

I change the sheets and start to help him put clean pajamas on.

Mom: Go potty.
Caleb: No. Travis sleeping.

So the whole thing boils down to him not wanting to bother me or wake up his brother! At least he's thoughtful...

He's thoughtful, but I'm exhausted!

At least he slept until 6:30 this morning, instead of the usual 5:30. Amazingly enough, Westley slept through the whole charade.

Park Day

Last Wednesday, Corey was off work, and after we got a whole bunch of stuff done (check out my To Do List from that day!), we took the kids to a nearby park to play. The weather has been absolutely gorgeous here in Arizona (in the 80s) and we had a lot of fun just playing around. It will become even more fun as Eliza gets older and doesn't have to be held by one of us the whole time.

Travis had fun just exploring a little bit. He also seems to get a little camera shy...



Isn't he such a cutie pie? We sure adore our little Travis! I hope we can have a few more fun days at the park like this one this spring...