A Day of Firsts...

The last time I took my boys to the mall to get their pictures taken it was a NIGHTMARE! I'm not kidding. Imagine with me 2 hours of rowdy boys running circles around the studio, and every time the photographer would get them in a pose they would run away before she could take the shot, or one would push the other one off the bench. Finally we came away with this shot. It's cute huh?

Do you want to know why Christian looks so happy? Because he is standing on Nicholas, and Nicholas is saying "Owe! Owe! Owe!". Why are Children cutest when they are being naughty?

After that experience I was not looking forward to taking them to the mall today for Valentines pictures, but I had a good coupon, so I was willing to try. I did everything I could to prepare for the event. I stuffed my purse full of fruit snacks for bribes, I drilled them on what they were going to do..."Stand where the lady tells you to", "Don't move", "Smile nice like this", "If Christian gets up to run you stay put", "Don't go behind the curtain!" If they behaved then we would go to Barnes and Noble after to play at the train table. This time around it was a whole different story. They actually behaved (for the most part)! We got several good shots and were done in 20 minutes! Yes, you read that right, 20 minutes. A record! We did have to pull out the fruit snacks, and sill had a few pushes and escapes, but the photographer bribed them with a balloon when they were done, and that really worked well.




Feeling incredibly successful we headed to the See's Chocolate booth to get the boys a sucker treat and then to Barnes and Noble. I couldn't help but be amazed by the fact that I was actually enjoying our trip to the mall. I never enjoy the mall with my boys! As I watched the boys play with the trains I just tried to enjoy the moment. There was one other kid playing too, a cute 1 year old who could barely walk. After a few minutes Nicholas decided he wanted to look at a few books. He brought one to me and just as I started to look at it I heard the little boy start to scream. I looked up and Christian was saying "My trains!" I looked down and there on the cute little boys arm was a full on deep bite mark left by Christian! The kind that leaves bruises on Nicholas for weeks. The poor boy was inconsolable. I felt terrible! I apologized to his dad over and over, and made Christian say sorry too. We immediately packed up and went home. So much for an enjoyable trip to the mall!

Later today Nicholas and I were in the back yard playing with his friends. Suddenly Nicholas got the idea that he wanted to ride Johnny's bike. It doesn't have training wheels on it, and Nicholas has never ridden without training wheels before. I decided why not give it a try. The first few times I let go he fell almost right away, but after about 10 minutes of trying he was riding all over the place! I couldn't believe it! We tried to get it on video, but it didn't work very well. I was so proud of him!

Tonight for family home evening we made Valentines for the boys friends and for Nick's class at school. I have to say we got the easiest valentines ever! I found them at Sam's club. A big box of heart shaped fruit snacks. Each pack had a place to write "To" and "From" with a sharpe marker so it wouldn't rub off. It was great! I had all of them labeled in 5 minutes. As I was labeling them Nicholas came over and started picking up each one and reading the names on them! He was actually reading them! I had no idea he could do that! I was shocked and so proud!

What a crazy day!

Thoughts from the world of Nicholas

Sam-"Natalie why are you making cookies? It's 11:30, just make lunch."
Me-"Oh, that's true. Nick what do you want for lunch?"
Nicholas-"Oh mom, Daddy doesn't know what he's talking about. We need to make cookies!"


Nicholas and I went to tour an Elementary School today to see if we want him to go there for kindergarten next year. While sitting in the office waiting to meet with the principle, Nicholas noticed 2 older boys waiting to talk to the secretary. He looked up at the first with big eyes and said "Wow! Your a big kid!", eyes even wider... "Do you run FAST?" The kid looked at him weird and the quietly said "yes". Nick then looked at the next boy and said "You're a big kid too! Do you run fast?" Another weird look with a quiet "yes". Nicholas loved the idea of going to school with big kids who could run FAST!

Guess What!!!???

IT SNOWED TODAY!!!!!!!!! When I opened the window this morning, I saw a very unusual sight. A blanket of white snow covering everything! My boys were ecstatic! "Yea!!!! Mom Can we go outside and build a snowman with a carrot and throw snowballs and go ice skating?" It only snows here once or twice a year. Most of the time when it does, it melts as soon as it hits the ground. This is great because I think snow is fun for a day to play in, but I otherwise hate living with it. However it is a problem for the people who have lived here all their lives because they have no idea how to drive in the snow. Even though there wasn't more than an inch or two of snow on the road, there were 24 accidents in Durham before 10 am this morning. Since this is the case, they just shut everything down so that no one has to drive in it. That's right school was canceled today for the snow, and it's canceled for tomorrow because the snow didn't melt all the way yet. Being from Utah this is insane because we could have a foot of snow on the road and still have to go to school. But in a small way I was glad that school was canceled because I got to go out and play in the snow with my boys. We put on as many layers as we could since my boys don't really have snow clothes, and went out to play with all the neighbor kids. They had a blast throwing snow, making snow angels, pretending to ice skate by sliding their feet, and for some odd reason they really loved wiping the snow off of all the cars, all the while Nicholas was grinning from ear to ear saying "This is sooo fun!". My favorite though was that they tried to play like they normally do outside, you know riding bikes and scooters, which didn't work very well. After about an hour when my boys feet finally started to freeze (all they have is canvas shoes which got wet pretty quick!) we went in to warm up with a nice cup of hot chocolate and plenty of mini marshmallows. It was a great morning!

My little princesses!

I always wanted a baby girl. There is just something so fun about trying on jewelry and fluffy dresses, putting on make up, painting nails and playing with dolls. Since I only have boys, I was starting to think that this was something I wouldn't get to do with my kids. Boy was I wrong! We went to our neighbor's little girls birthday party last week, she was turning 2 and she got a bunch of princess dresses for her birthday. After she opened them her mom put one on her, and since there was only one other girl there she asked if she wanted to wear a dress too. When Christian saw the 2 girls all dressed up pretty, he shyly came to me and quietly said "I want pretty dress too!" In his innocent little 2 year old mind he had no idea why he wasn't asked if he wanted to wear a princess dress. I told him to go ask Brooke if he could try one on, so he boldly walked up and shouted "Brooke!!! I want to try!" Of course she had no idea what he wanted so I told her that he wanted to try on a dress too. When they put a skirt on him, he proudly walked around and showed it off! Since Christian was man enough to try one on, this opened the flood gates for all the other boys there! Before you knew it we had every kid all dressed up and twirling in the pretty princess dresses! They had so much fun! It's too bad they will probably kill me for sharing this 10 years from now!


Nick with his best friend Johnny at the party. Aren't they so pretty?

Heaven help me! I'm a grandma at 28!

My neighbor had a baby a few weeks ago. A few days later, I walked into my boys room to discover that they had balls stuffed up their shirts. Nick looked at me and said "Look mom! I have a baby in my tummy!" Then he dropped the ball, and grinned as he said "Now look! My baby came out!" for an hour we played taking them to the hospital, I was the doctor who got the babies out, and then we wrapped the balls up in blankets, and we admired their pretty baby girls. Yes, they both had girls, which surprisingly was their idea! I figure if they are going to make me a grandma when I'm only 28, at least I finally got some girls!


The proud Daddies!

Have you ever had one of those days...

When every time you turn around your kids are destroying something...





And then you sit down to lunch with them and see their chocolate milk mustaches and can't help but love them anyway?

Santa

A few days before Christmas we took the boys to the mall to see santa. It went surprisingly well. Last year Neither of them wanted to talk to him, and Christian screamed the whole time. This year Nicholas gladly told Santa that he wanted a Hot wheels race track set, and a play kitchen with food. Christian was shy as always but he did manage to squeak out a request for a train without looking a Santa the whole time he sat on his lap. They got what they asked for, and they were so excited!


In fact Christian didn't want anything else. We tried to give him another present to open, and he absolutely refused it. He thought he had to trade his train set for the other presents, and there was no way he was going to do that! It was probably 1/2 an hour before we could talk him into opening any more presents, but I think he was glad when he finally did!



Nicholas was happy to see that the hot wheels race track he got attached to his trick-tracks sets for even more fun!




They both really love the play kitchen they got from Santa too. They have been cooking up all kinds of good food for us to eat. Yesterday morning I woke up to Nicholas with a plate full of pretend french fries. "Here mommy! I made you a wonderful breakfast, eat it up!"