Nicholas' first time riding a bike

Nicholas has a little friend named Mackenzie who lives just a few doors down from us. She got this pink bike for christmas. While they were out playing Nicholas decided he wanted to try riding her bike. He got on and before he would pedal he insisted that he needed to wear Kenzie's pink helmet in order to ride. He then took off slow at first, but he was riding like a pro and even doing trick within 15 minutes! I guess we need to get him his own bike now (hint hint Sam)!

For the love of my boys

In the spirit of Valentine's Day, I thought I would dedicate this post to the loves of my life.

SAM

I love his big smile. I love it that he is so intellegent. He works all day with numbers, words and signs that most of us don't know or ever will know what they mean. I love that he is so dedicated to his church callings. He always does his home teaching, and never misses a church meeting even if his wife is in labor. I love that he does all the laundry. I love that he gave me two beautiful boys. I love that he will sit down with Nicholas and read "The Friend" Magazine. I love that he bought me sweat pants for valentine's day a few years ago (even though I cried at the time) because he really put a lot of thought into it. I love that he took me to our ward valentine's dance last friday because he knew I would enjoy it even though he hates dancing. I love that he recognizes my need to go shopping and does his best to accomodate it. I love that he thinks I took this picture just to show off the haircut I gave him. I love that he loves me.

NICHOLAS

I Love his white hair and blue eyes. I love his dimple in his right cheek that you can only see when he cries. I love his enthusiasm for life. I love that he LOVES learning. When we tell him that it is time for our family home evening lesson he get so excited and runs to sit down at the table. I love that he can out run almost every kid his size, and even some bigger. I love that he will sit and snuggle with me on the couch while we watch a movie. I love that he eats fruit and veggies like they are candy. I love that he has half of his books memorized and he will "read" them to me word for word. I love that he sings his abc song to Christian to cheer him up if he is crying. I love that when we play hide and seek, he hides in the same spot every time. I love that he is happiest when he is making me happy.

CHRISTIAN

I love his fat cheeks and nose. I love his long black eyelashes. I love the 4 ca-licks on his head, especially the 2 in the back that go opposite of eachother giving him a natural mini mohawk. I love that he takes 3 naps a day. I love the quiet way he toddles around the house keeping himself busy with whatever interesting thing he can find. I love that he has mastered Nicholas' evil laugh. I love his wordless communication. His eyes and is pointer finger say it all. I love that he sucks on his two middle fingers when he needs soothing, It looks like he is saying I love you in sign language. I love that even though he is shy he holds his groung and will not be pushed around. I love that he makes car sounds when he pushes toy trains and "toot toots" while he plays with toy cars. I love that you can see his heart through his eyes.

One man's trash is another man's treasure

Christain has 2 loves in life. Nothing makes that kids face light up like the sound of the bathroom door, or the kitchen pantry door opening. Why? Becuase he loves to play in the toilet, and he loves to play in the garbage, which is hidden in the pantry. He comes running the minute he hears them open. Today I caught him eating the leftover peanutbutter sandwich from Nicholas' lunch that I had thrown away. Figuring he was hungry I made him a peanutbutter sandwich, and put the other one back in the trash. He refused to eat it, and just made a mess out of it all over his chair. A few hours later I caught him eating Nicholas' old sandwich again. I guess it just tasted better because it came out of the trash? He's a strange kid.

SNOW??!!

Well here it is folks, the worst snowstorm I've seen in North Carolina! It was supposed to snow on thursday the 17th of january, so they canceled school just in case. It didn't end up snowing at all, so the kids got the day off for nothing. That's how it is here in North Carolina. The whole dang city shuts down if there is even an inch of snow. The one other time it has snowed since we've lived here, it all melted within a half of an hour, and still schools were canceled, the temple was closed, enrichment night was canceled, all because "the roads might be bad". It did end up snowing saturday the 19th though, and for Nicholas this was very exciting. He looked out the window and shouted "Mom! It's the first winters snow! Now we can build a snowman!" I didn't have the heart to tell him that there probably wouldn't be nearly enough snow for a snowman, an this was not only the first winters snow, but probably the last too. He was so excited to build a snowman that I finally put on his shoes, gloves and coat, and headed out with him to build a snowman no matter how tiny it was going to be. We had to go around and gather snow off of the cars in order to get enough for a tiny snowman. Once we had 3 bowls full we found a spot in the shade figuring that maybe it would help our snowman live longer than 1 day. We made the first lump of the snowman, and then the boys figured out that it was pretty fun to jump on the snowman, after my 3rd attempt to build the bottom lump of it,we finally stuck a carrot in our pile of stomped on snow, and called it good. Then Nicholas and his friend Johnny started to have a snowball fight. It was very fun! Nicholas was FREEZING by this point, so we went inside to warm up. As I exspected the snow was gone by the next morning, But that is what I love most about North Carolina, you get enough snow to have fun for one afternoon, and then the rest of the winter you can play outside with only a thin jacket on and not freeze to death.

What is wrong with these pictures?

I'll give you a hint. It's not that he is actually sitting down. It can't be that he got sick after getting a flu shot, because the doctors all sware that the shot won't make your kid sick. It cannot be entirely coincidental though that EVERY TIME I get my kids flu shots, they have a fever for at least 3 days, they cough, they have yucky noses they whine like crazy, and this time they are throwing up and have the runs. Last year Nicholas not only got sick from the shot, but he still ended up getting the flu a few months later. I have only gotten a flu shot one time in my life, and that was last year-my doctor practically made me because I was pregnant and she said that it would help the baby to get an immunity from the flu. As far as I can remember I don't think I have ever gotten the flu. Now isn't that strange? I'm curious, in med school, do they teach them to lie about this so that people will get them? Because honestly, if they warn you up front that your kid will be sick for a week, you probably wouldn't do it. I don't care what anyone says, FLU SHOTS DO TOO MAKE YOUR KIDS SICK!

Watch what you say

About a year ago Nicholas started saying C*R*A*P (spelt, not said), and when I heard it come out of his tiny little 2 year old mouth it sounded terrible, so we instigated the "no no" word. It really amazes me how much he listens to me when I don't think he does, becuase he was always the first one to catch you it you said the" no no" word. Sometimes I wouldn't even realize I had said it. After a few months we all got pretty good at watching what we say. Well a new problem seems to be arising. The other day Nichloas was putting on his pants, but he had them on backwards, and I kept on saying you need to take them off, turn them around and then put them on. Finally after about the 3rd time he listened and took them off, turned HIMSELF around and then picked up his pants and proceeded to put them on backwards again. Some friends and I do a co-op preschool, and today was my turn to teach. I was singing a song with the kids and I said reach down and touch your toes. Immediately one of the boys started to take off his shoes so he could touch his toes, I didn't mean actually touch his toes, the end of his shoes would be fine. So I guess my new problem is that I have to watch what I say, not because it's bad, but because it can sometimes be taken wrong. My sister Michelle called me this week because her 3rd daughter has serious 3rd child syndrome, which I admittedly had as well which means you feel left out, unloved, and everything is unfair, so you are as obnoxious as possible in order to get any kind of recognition. She asked me what I thought she should do because she didn't think she treated mackenna any differently than her other children. It remided me of something the Prophet Joseph Smith once said about the many people who claimed to be offended by him. He said that when someone accused him of offending them in some way he would always apologize becuase inevitably if he thought about it he could always see that there was some amount of merit to the accusation and weather he meant to or not he had offended them. It makes me wonder how many times I have said something that I didn't realize could be taken another way. Or better yet how many times I've been offended by someone who hadn't actually meant what I thought they said or did. I guess that is why we've been taught to forgive others, even if we feel like we have been wronged and the offender doesn't appoligize. We leave the judging to Christ who is the only one who really knows our hearts and intentions.

Happy Birthday Pam!

Today is my sister pam's birthday, and being out here in North Carolina I miss out on all of our family's birthday celebrations, which is sometimes depressing since I like cake and ice cream and I like parties. When it comes to eating cake, birthdays are perfect because you only have to eat one piece of cake. If you make a cake another day, without a party to share it with, then you have to eat way too much cake. Well, for Sam's birthday we discovered something truely amazing. THE MINI CAKE! You can get specialty cakes that are tiny, with only 3-4 servings, perfect for our little family. So not only can you enjoy REALLY yummy cake, but since it's tiny it's affordable. We got one from coldstone for sam's bithday for only $7 instead of paying $25 for a big one. So yesterday when I was at target I saw this one with chocolate and white chocolate mousse, I thought why not have my own cake for Pam's birthday? Which or course got me thinking, Why not have a mini cake on everyones birthday? So I just want thank all of you for having birthdays, because now I can have more excuses to eat cake! And just so you know Pam, your cake was really good!