Just Like Grandpa...

Let me just clarify that the reason this picture reminds me of my dad is not because Luke is vacuuming--neither of them are exactly known for that!!! The "Steveism" exhibited here is the tongue. My dad is known for sticking his tongue out while concentrating on just about anything, and I've noticed Luke does it quite a bit too. I actually think Luke and my dad have quite a bit in common in terms of their looks and personalities--both can be a little grumpy but we love them so much anyway! Really my dad is a great guy. He's so supportive and I love him a lot. He always has good advice. He is also annoyingly well-read--he's the guy you want on your team for Trivial Pursuit. He's almost impossible to prove wrong--I've done that once or twice in my life--sweet victory. Love you dad!

Luke was tagged by his cousin Jaxon, so here are five things about Luke you may or may not know:
**Luke loves learning about animals. Just this morning he informed me that some turtles have beaks--it's true, and I'm not sure where he learned it. His favorite animal is the tiger. He acts like a tiger, ferocious roar and all, quite a bit. He says I'm the mommy tiger, Jer is daddy tiger, he's kid tiger, and Seth of course is baby tiger.
**Luke loves to play ball. He loved throwing a ball even as a little baby. Right now kicking is his favorite thing, and he will kick the ball back and forth for hours if you will do it with him.
**Luke is a great big brother. Although he likes to wrestle and be rough with Seth, he is always telling him how much he loves him and always sticks up for Seth when his friends are sick of him getting into everything. He always says he loves Seth's "soft cheeks" and calls him his "baby friend."
**Luke is hilarious. He has his dad's sense of humor and can be very funny. He imitates voices and copies all of the phrases his dad uses: "snap, that's just the way I roll, broseph"...the list goes on.
**Luke is very sweet, but he's got a mind of his own. Watch out if he's set on doing something (or not). I wonder where he gets that from?

Luke tags Carter, Cole, K'Lee, or anyone else who wants to respond.

Moms

Yesterday I had the best Mother's Day. Just the fact that it was Sunday and we got to spend all day as a family was great. My boys (that includes Jer) surprised me with a little present Sunday morning. It's the neatest necklace. Luke also re-gave me the present he made at preschool. He said he painted on a "thing he doesn't know what it's called" (a.k.a. flowerpot) for me. As Luke and Seth helped me with my card, and I had my whole family within hugging distance I was reminded how it's not really the things that matter. The presents were sweet but just being married to Jer and having my two cute boys is present enough.



We went to my cousin's mission farewell and hearing him talk about how much he appreciates his mom and how she has helped him get to where he's at really made me fast forward for a minute to when my boys will be nineteen and leaving on missions. I sure hope I make the same kind of impression on them. I also got to see both my mom and Jer's mom and feel so lucky to have them both in my life. They are amazing moms and grandmas.



I have been thinking a lot lately about my sweet Seth and his birth parents. The last few weeks have brought some really important anniversaries in our adoption journey. At the end of April of last year we heard for the first time that Seth's birth parents were considering our family to place Seth with. Needless to say it was hard to think of anything else for the next week until we got to meet them in person. We met them for the first time on May 3rd of last year. They told us later that day that they had chosen us. That was one of the scariest, happiest, most exciting, and most emotional days of my life.

With Mother's Day and Seth's birthday approaching I have thought an extra lot about his birth mom lately. I am thankful for her everyday and the choice she made to let me be Seth's mom. She is such an amazing person and I have learned a lot from her about faith, sacrifice, love, prayer...you name it. The day Seth was placed with us was one of the most bittersweet days of my life. I literally ached and was torn up inside about what she was going through and at the same time I was overjoyed that we had a baby. A year later I still feel very emotional about it, but I also know that everyone involved is happy with the decision. I can't really remember life without Seth. I feel he was always meant to be a part of our family. I find myself in some weird way being grateful for infertility because that lead us to adoption and Seth. My life has forever been changed in the most amazing way possible by her decision. She is going on to do great things in her life like graduating from college this past week. I am so proud of her. So Happy Mother's Day to all the moms in my life.

Random Thoughts and Book Tag

I have been totally unproductive today, but I figure that's okay once in a while. I took care of the kids and hung out with the fam, but usually when they're occupied I do "stuff." Not today. My house is kind of a mess but when Jer and Luke were gone and Seth was sleeping I totally wasted time.

I decided that I'd had it with the lack of music on my iPod and spent quite a while downloading songs and creating a playlist for myself. It really was kind of a necessity. Jer got me an iPod nano for Christmas and I still hadn't put many songs on it. For a while I only had several "Love and Logic" books on there. Jim Fay is pretty entertaining but not exactly motivating while exercising.

The final straw was a few weeks ago when Jer and I ran in a local 5K. I decided at the last minute to take my iPod. Once I got running I realized that most of the songs on there made me want to pull off the side of the road and take a nap. The only songs I had that were the least bit energizing (this is really sad) were Justin Timberlake "Bringing Sexy Back" and Eminem "Lose Yourself." (Quick disclaimer: they were both the clean versions and those are the only songs I own by either of those artists. Not my normal taste in music.) Needless to say when I was rolling across the finish line listening to Eminem singing about 'vomit on his sweater" for like the third time I decided something needed to be done. I have several upcoming running/biking things I'm training for (or should be) and I needed a decent exercise mix. So I guess that big story was to justify the time I spent this afternoon making a regular listening playlist and an exercise playlist for myself. Goodbye Eminem.

Now on to the book tag. Jami sent this to me forever ago and I kind of forgot and then went on vacation. Kimberlee and Mandy have also tagged me with other things which I promise I'll get to one of these days!
Here are the rules:

1. Pick up the nearest book (at least 123 pages).
2. Turn to page 123
3. Find the 5th sentence
4. Post the 5th sentence on your blog
5. Tag 5 people

Now, I'll be honest. I don't even have a book in sight. I had to go back to my nightstand and grab one from my stack of books I might get to someday. I actually did take this book on our trip to Florida though. In fact, on the way there it was in my carry-on. I'm not sure what I was smoking thinking I would have time to dive into a huge novel. It has 973 pages. Yikes! I've heard this is really good though, so one of these days I'll start it. The book is "The Pillars of the Earth" by Ken Follett. By the way -- on the way back this book was safely stowed in my check-in bag where it belonged.

Here's the 5th sentence from page 123.
"So it's just a traveling knight or a tinker every day or two."

What does that mean you ask? I have no clue. I haven't even started the book. I tag Kimberlee, Marie, Nicole, and Kristy.

I'll wrap this up but while I'm on the subject of books, here are a few I've read recently (meaning in the last few years) that I've liked: A Thousand Splendid Suns, The Twilight Series, and most recently The Thirteenth Tale. Any recommendations?

We're Back!!

For those of you who don't know we spent last week at Disney World. That's right -- 6 fun-filled days of pure Disney magic. My husband that swore he would never take his kids to Disney anything had to eat crow and enjoy. We really did have so much fun. That might sound impossible considering we had four children four and under with us, but we had a great time. Jer's parents were awesome and probably need a vacation after this vacation since they were chasing kids as much as we were. Thanks grandma and grandpa!

My worst fears were about the long flight but it actually went pretty well. In fact, on the way back my kids were amazing. Probably due to Seth's exhaustion and Luke's complete interest in his little set of animals from Animal Kingdom. So what if the guy behind him had to return the zebra about 10 times -- it kept him busy!

I'm pretty sure that we hit every kid attraction available at Disney World. We also were able to take turns and do most of the adult rides. Jer just can't get enough of that Tower of Terror. I think my personal favorite was the Expedition Everest ride at Animal Kingdom. Luke and K'Lee got to meet just about every Disney character that exists and get their autographs. Luke burned out on that pretty quick, but K'Lee was a go-getter and filled up her whole book.

I was pleasantly surprised that Luke liked all of the rides. He loved the goofy roller coaster and getting wet on the river rapids ride. The kids took every opportunity to get soaking wet in the fountains that are all over the place. Seth was my super baby and was such a trooper about riding, eating, napping, diaper changing....in his stroller for a week!!!

We had some meltdowns along the way but nothing six adults couldn't handle. We got to experience just about every "potty" in the place, ride every form of public transportation, eat enough chicken nuggets and mac 'n cheese to kill (kids only), and worked our way through a gallon of sunscreen. I wouldn't trade it though. It was so fun to be with family, watch the cousins play together, and see the kids enjoy it like only kids can. I took only my cheesy camera and the quality of my pictures is poor. Fortunately my brother-in-law was well prepared. He brought enough camera/video equipment to capture just about the whole trip in real time. I may post some more pics when I get copies of his stuff. Now I'm off to that mountain of laundry that is waiting for me!


You could have tipped me over with a feather when Luke came back from shopping with grandma and grandpa and had chosen this hat. Really? He was known as "Steamboat Willie" for much of the trip!


Seth and the giant ant.


We just kept them hopped up on sugar.


Hanging with Addison.


Seth was almost always this happy!


Jer and I with a view of Mt. Everest.


Thumbs-up for getting wet.

Does Anyone Have a Comb?

No, my kids have not been rubbing their heads on balloons. This just happened to be a bad hair day for both. I think Seth's hair wins the prize though. Maybe this is why I have boys!

It's A Surprise

Just a quick story:
Tonight I was bathing Seth and Luke was getting undressed to join him. Luke got ready to pee and then sat on the potty instead. Then we had this little conversation.
Me: "Are you going to poop?" (Why I needed to ask that I'm not sure.)
Luke: Silence, serious face...
Me: "Well?"
Luke: Big smile..."It's a surprise."

Oh yeah! A surprise for me. (It did turn out to be #2 by the way.) This little incident got me thinking about the countless ways my kids make me smile everyday. Now I know sometimes they don't make me smile but regardless of what they're doing they are mine and I love them so much. After I helped Luke finish up the paperwork he jumped into the tub with his brother, and I watched them play and splash together. Luke is this little skinny guy and Seth is so cute and chubby, and I just hope that I always remember what they were like at this age. I know occasionally my life seems like dishes, diapers, meals...start all over again but really I make memories with my kids everyday. I wouldn't trade this job for anything. I don't have any new pictures to post, but I thought I'd post one of my favorite pictures of my boys when Seth was only a few days old. This was taken the first morning we woke up in our new house.

Luke and Seth, May 2007

Second Time is the Charm??

Well, I started to set up this blog in November and then never looked at it again. I still can't say I'm totally motivated to do this, but I'm going to give it a try. Why not, everyone else is doing it. My kids are growing like weeds -- especially Seth. I can't believe that my baby will be one next month! He's cruising everywhere and babbles a lot. He also gives sloppy, wet kisses which I love. This month he has finally stopped spitting up so much. The bib is off. I am so excited. Seth really broke in our new house by spitting up in every possible location (multiple times). The doctor kept saying it would get better and now I'm finally a believer!

Luke is changing into a little boy. Ahh... gone are the days when he was my sweet baby. He's still sweet but he's got a mind of his own. He also has lots of Jer in him. He can deliver the one-liners just like his dad. I can't help but laugh when he tells me "that's just the way I roll" or "snap" (said in just the way his dad does)! He also gets lots of his material from movies. The other day he told me, "you're so weird." I later realized that came from Lion King. (A movie Luke loves after seeing it on VHS at my mom's house.) He just can't tell me enough about how those "hynenas" (cracks me up) "aren't very nice." He is a funny kid. His big advances these past few months are pedaling his bike -- I thought he may need special lessons or something -- but he finally just decided to do it and now rides everywhere. Another is peeing standing up. I know that's supposed to come naturally for boys but not this one. Now he gives me lots of information each time he goes to the bathroom about what exactly needs to be done and how he's going to do it. He also can recite the "Poop Book" by heart. (That book was his final inspiration to get potty trained last summer.) He knows every detail. Fortunately, Luke's humor (and sometimes downright sassiness) is balanced with lots of affection. He still gives me tons of hugs and kisses and tells me everyday (lots of time) how much he loves me. I'm sure that won't last so I'm enjoying it now. He also tells Seth he loves him a lot -- especially his "soft cheeks" -- you don't have to wait too long though for him to have Seth in the head scissors! (That's wrestling if you're fortunate enough not to know about UFC fighting.)

I am so excited for spring. We have had a few days in the 50's (plus yesterday it was really warm) and you would think it's downright balmy outside. (As I write this snow flakes are starting to fall.) We have taken advantage and gone to Baby Animals Day and the park several times. Baby Animals Day was much more fun this year. Last year Luke was really sick but I took him anyway and then was annoyed that he was whiny. Sometimes I need Parenting 101 (is there a class like that?) Also, last year the weather was warm and the crowds were crazy. I would bend down to pet some cute farm animal and have people literally on my back. I need way more personal space than that. This year it was chilly and not too crowded -- not a great day for the homemade ice cream vendor.

Luke's favorite play area is our yard which is just dirt. He has created a "slide" out of dirt and has been very creative in finding ways to climb, roll in, and bring inside dirt!! Seth is toughening up by crawling on pavement or dirt. He was on grass for the first time a few weeks ago and wasn't so sure about it. He is also learning to take steps with his little walker. He gets it out too far in front of him and then has to use his abs-o-steel to pull it back close to him.

I was looking at a friend's blog where her little boy had spilled a whole box of Cheerios and it reminded me of our own little mess last week. I found blue soap coming out from under the door in the laundry room and went in to find nearly a whole 110 load thing of soap had fallen, broken, and spilled all over the floor. I about broke my neck walking around in it and then Luke and Seth came to help. They weren't so helpful with the mess, so I put Seth in the dreaded Exersaucer and gave him some Cheerios. I could hear Luke getting more, but he assured me he and Seth were just eating Cheerios together. Well, 10 towels and about 20 minutes later I had the first layer of soap cleaned up. When I went out to the kitchen Luke had "fed" Seth about a half a box of cereal and most of it was on the floor. They were grinding it into a fine powder with their feet. I couldn't help but laugh. For some reason I didn't take any pictures. I guess that's what happens when you leave your kids unsupervised. Duh.

Well, I think I've been wordy enough for one day. I'll try to post again soon. (Those are famous last words in my own journal and then the next entry is six months later. I'll try to do better.)