Friends

Our close friends, the Wades, came all the way from Idaho to spend a few day with us and we HAD SO MUCH FUN!

We lived across the hall from Jordan and Bethany when we lived in Rexburg, and we are trying to lure them in to move near us again. Coralie is 3 months older than Patrick, and Aiden is 10 months.

Friday we went to the zoo. Coralie and Patrick had fun walking around with their "backpacks."

They even held hands a couple of times.

Patrick has been to the zoo so many times that he totally took charge this time. I had a hard time making him stay with the group because he wanted to run ahead to the next cool animal.

Aiden also had a good time looking at the animals. He is such a chill baby.

Patrick and Coralie warmed up to each other quickly. There were moments of not sharing and many timeouts, but they had fun playing together. They each had a black and blue bruise on their head, but thankfully not from each other. They are both just climbing monkeys!

Coralie loves to have here picture taken. What a ham!

Toddler kung-fu!

Aiden is a sweet baby, but his personality really came out when the two big kids were napping. He enjoys his quiet alone time.

Silly girl!

Coralie's second birthday was on Sunday, so we made her a cake and celebrated. I loved the way she would say, "It's my happy birthday!"

Patrick had to join in on the naked cake festivities.

It looks like she is stealing, but Coralie is actually sharing with Aiden.

After cake, we threw all of the kids in the tub. This is what Patrick does if he gets in the tub before I turn off the water.
Splashing!

Not as violent as it looks!

Coralie got to open her presents. She got a car seat for her Baby Abby. Patrick couldn't not figure out what all this doll stuff was about.

We really enjoyed their visit, and we hope to see them again this year. Hopefully next time they will bring a moving truck with all their stuff!

Spring Snow

You would think these were left over pictures from January, but this was the spring storm that brought us 10 inches of snow on March 22. Patrick had a good time shoveling the snow, but he won't leave his gloves on so his hands get cold quickly and then he gets mad. Today is sunny and 75.

Thinking Logically

My toddler is thinking. He is starting to get creative, which means I need to be more creative. This morning while I was blow drying my hair, Patrick figured out how to move the hamper (in the bathroom) so he could get to the toilet plunger that was sitting behind it.

He has also figured out how to move things in front of other things so he can climb and get what he wants. Like moving the stool or chairs in front of the stove. Or moving his high chair in front of the window. Or moving the diaper box in front of his bookcase to get he books down.

I'm still baffled that he hasn't climbed out of his crib yet. (knock on wood).

He is also slowly working on his words. He said "please" three times yesterday, and one time he said it after I said, "what do you say?" He says "this" and "that" after I say them. Our old TV is sitting on the floor, waiting to be disposed of, and I asked Patrick this morning, "Do you have to climb on the TV?" He said, "yes." So we are slowly getting there! All the boys we hang out with are a little older than Patrick and talk really well, so sometimes I think he needs to hurry up, but he just likes to do things on his own schedule. (Everyone remind me of this when I want to potty train!)

Miles talks really well, and Patrick now copies some of his sounds. While swinging today, Miles kept saying, "wee, wee" and Patrick would copy him. When Miles would laugh, Patrick would laugh. I told Becky than in six months Miles will probably get frustrated with Patrick copying him all the time!

Beautiful Day

Today is such a beautiful day that we spent most of the morning/early afternoon outside. We went to the park with our friends Becky and Miles. Patrick goes wild and crazy at the park and does a wonderful job of wearing himself out so he can have a great nap. He runs around, crawls under things, climbs, and goes down the slide (usually head first). He has NO fear, and usually doesn't cry when he goes head first down the biggest slide and crashes right on his face. Now he has a little rash on his cheek to go with the other bruises from yesterday.

We did some swinging, which he usually loves, but today he was distracted by a man who had 6 balls that he was juggling. Patrick really wanted to steal those balls. And I probably should have let him because later he little girl came and helped herself to our raisins and almost stole Patrick's juice box. :)

We are trying really hard to enjoy today because tomorrow it is supposed to be 30 degrees colder and snowing. Today we are wearing shorts and sandals, and tomorrow we will be in our snow gear. Today sliding, tomorrow sledding. Gotta love Colorado! Which I do, because I know it will warm up again.

Disney On Ice

On Thursday, we got FREE tickets to go see Disney on Ice with our friends, so we decided to take Patrick to see it, even though I wasn't sure if he would enjoy it or not. He ended up LOVING it. Well, the first hour at least. He was memorized for the first part, and he even danced a couple of times. Of course, he really liked it when the big stuff came out.

Another Productive Day

I don't have any pictures this time, but today was productive, again. I don't know how long I will keep this up!

I borrowed a rake from a friend and spent the afternoon raking up all the dead grass and leaves in our front lawn. It made a BIG difference. Now you can see the green grass (sparse as it is), and maybe with a little seed and some fertilizer our grass will start to grow!

I filled up seven bags in three hours (Patrick took a long nap). I'm a little sore right now, but I don't know if I'll want to get out of bed in the morning! It was totally worth it though. Compared to the muddy brown mess it was before, our lawn looks fabulous now. Or at least it is starting too.

Raking is usually a horrible job, but home ownership has given me such a pride that I loved doing it! I loved how good the end product was, and now I am super excited for our tax money to come on Friday, and then we will go to Home Depot and . . . well, I've got a pretty long list. I will post some pictures (I will try to remember before ones this time) so you can see the cute little fence we are going to put up (to keep out the not-so-cute dogs) and our greener lawn and the cute little flowers I want to plant and hang.

Can you tell I am super excited for spring and to have a yard? Of course, the back yard will wait just a little while because we can finish the front yard faster and cheaper, and Patrick will be able to play there for a while.

Productive Day

Today was a very productive day! My wonderful in-laws came over to help me clean up the basement because we have friends coming to say with us in 10 short days. We are busy this weekend and we work on school during the evening, so I just didn't know when else this was going to get down. Well, we got the storage stuff all shoved in to one corner and everything vacuumed, and since we had the paint already, we decided to paint too! I put my father-in-law to work while I did the cracks and edges, and in about three hours we had 75% of the basement painted. And in a couple of days when that dries, we will move everything over and paint the rest. Then I will be able to get the guest bed set up, but down a couple of carpet remnants, and we will be set! I am so happy to have this project (almost) done because now that it is painted we won't track all the dust upstairs and it will sweep up easily. Hooray!




Even though in the pictures the paint looks like cement color, it is a pretty grey/blue. I quite enjoy it.

Follow the Leader

I took this video last night during dinner because Patrick was in a really good mood and we had a fun game of Follow the Leader.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlibyXcaIRg

Another Eye

As I was putting my whiny child to bed tonight, I thought, "I wonder where my sweet happy boy went who I was playing with at the park this morning." Then I started putting his jammies on and noticed a little white sliver poking out of the right top side of his mouth! Another eye tooth popped through! Hooray! These eye teeth have been the worst for Patrick. For his others, he whined a little, but he mostly just drooled. But with these, it has been hours of nasally whiny when he doesn't really want anything.

On the bright side, it is warming up and we have fantastic parks near our house to go play and use up his energy so he sleeps really well. And we only have two eye teeth left.

Haven't Done Much Today . . .

I started reading this morning and I can't put it down.

The Time Traveler's Wife
by
Audrey Niffenegger