Pics of my boys

3 solid meals a day...

does not bode well with little Samuel. He does not like solid food. He has been waking up more at night because he is hungry. I was used to my good little baby that slept from 8 p.m. till about 6 a.m. More recently, he would wake up at least 2 times a night and one of those times, he wanted to eat. It made for a tired mommy and daddy. I started him on solids last Monday. He started with carrots, then prunes, then applesauce...he did not like any of them. Here are some pictures.

I did find that he likes peaches and today we tried bananas. He liked those as well. It is funny to watch him eat. He makes me laugh. Most of the time, he seals his lips. Even if you try to make him laugh, he will keep his lips sealed. He hides his face, he turns, he wriggles. Samuel is a picky eater now...I don't want to see how picky he is when he gets bigger. :)

Samuel's 6 month check up

Well, Samuel had his 6 month check-up yesterday. All went well. He received 3 shots and 1 oral vaccine. Here are his stats:

Head: 18.18 in (97th percentile)
Weight: 18.72 lb (73rd percentile)
Length: 26.37 in (50th percentile)

Notice the head tilt? I mentioned to the doctor that his neck muscles do not appear the same on the back of his neck and that it leans to one side (like you see in the pic). Joseph had a similar issue. He called a Pediatric Physical Therapist and Samuel went in today. It appears that Samuel has moderate to severe torticollis. He won't need a helmet, but we have to do stretching exercises with him so he won't develop scoliosis in the future. He might need therapy for quite a few months. We have another appointment next week. Anyways...he is a cute and healthy little boy who loves to stick out his tongue and smile a lot. :)

After his therapy today, I was speaking with the receptionist to make another appointment for next week. She was excited for school to start because their office quiets down a lot. There was a mother there with her little boy who was Joseph's age. He kept pulling off his pants and underwear and running around the lobby. I felt bad for the mother. I mentioned to the receptionist that I need to find a pre-k for Joseph. The mother told me about a pre-k for kids with disabilities that is free. I think she tought one of my boys has some handicap. I guess torticollis could be considered a disability? She has another boy who also has developmental issues. It made me more grateful for my two beautiful little boys.

Haricuts and other pics

Here is Joseph "brushing" his brother's hair. He actually would place the brush on Samuel's hair and wouldn't leave him alone.

Samuel smiling for the camera. I like his haircut. He rolls over a lot easier now. He is usually only on his belly for about 5 minutes or less.

Joseph and Samuel smiling for the camera, showing off their new haircuts. They are soooooo cute! :)

Can you tell that Samuel is tired. This is right after his bath. His eyes are starting to look more and more brown. Some days, I think that he has finally gone from the pretty blue-gray color they were to a light milk chocolate brown.

Joseph likes to build things. On the magna-doodle toy, you see his architectural plans and in the foreground is his building. I didn't follow the plans, so he had daddy help him rebuild it later.

On Wednesday, we went to the Bean Museum. He got to pet a Honduran milk snake. He really likes to see the animals they bring out to show.

Here is Samuel. He didn't get much out of the reptile show. You can see his eye color a little more clearly in this picture.

Here is Joseph touching a skink. It had a blue tongue, but I couldn't get a picture of it. The blue tongue and its coloration are to fool predators into thinking that it is poisonous.

Here is a pac-man frog. We couldn't touch this frog because it would get too stressed and get sick.

And...

So, I get a call from my mom at 5:40 this morning. She called to tell me that my dad had a heart attack earlier this morning and that he was in surgery. Ironically enough, he had a bunch of heart tests run on him and I was told on Monday that everything came back okay. They put in a couple of stints more and say that he should be okay. I hope so. I don't want anything to happen to my dad.

Joe is probably having the worst weekend ever, or at least in a long time. We borrowed a tiller yesterday and when he went to use it, the pull cord snapped on it. Now we have to repair that one and rent another one. He went to rent one today, but it was too big for our car. Samuel was up at 5 a.m. He gave Joseph a hair cut and he screamed and cried the entire time. He was helping me give Joseph a bath afterwards and Joseph was throwing a fit, so we both got irritated. He just let to play soccer with a coworker and he left his phone here at our house. Well, I just got the text that soccer is a no go today. Joe will drive all the way there and find that no one is there. Yeah, not such a great start to the weekend for him. I guess he did get off around noon yesterday, but that may be the only high point for him. He has gotten nothing done that he wanted to.

Bowling video

We love our little 3 year old!

Nature pics

Back of Timp.

One of the views of Timp on the Alpine loop.

View of the mountains from the Alpine loop.

I think this is a dianthus. I liked the picture that Joe took using the macro feature on our camera.

Another look at the dianthus.

Wasp shot using macro.

Another macro shot.

Water under the bridge.

Monk's hood flower.

Beetle at the park near the swings. It is the biggest beetle I have seen in Utah. I am trying to find the name of this beetle, so if you are a beetle expert, please let me know. :)

Vaca with Jeff and Michelle part 2

Saturday was a lot of fun. We went up past Sundance and went to Cascade Springs. We wanted a short hike that would be easy to do with strollers. This hike has some nice cascade pools that are tiered. We left and it started to rain on us. We were afraid that it would be rainy up where we were going. It turned out to be a beautiful day.
Here is Joseph hiking up a mountain on his own. We were unloading our cars and he started to explore the area.

Here is a family picture next to one of the pools. There were brown trout inside. It rained on us a little, but it was so nice and cool.

Jeff and Michelle and Nathan. I like this because Nathan looks like he is thinking, "Seriously...another picture." It was just so nice up there.

Another picture of our family on a bridge that goes over the spring. It wells up a little ways up from where we are and is a natural spring that you can drink from. At dawn or dusk you can usaully see wild life around. I have only ever seen deer, but I don't think I would want to see a bear or mountain lion.

Joseph was fascinated by the stream. He loved to listen to the sound of it crashing on the rocks as it flowed down.

After our brief hike, we went to the upper parking lot of Cascade Springs for a short lunch. Here is my little boy eating his sandwich on a rock. What a cutie!!

Here is Nathan driving the car! He honked the horn a couple of times and startled himself. Joseph was running around the cars acting like a dinosaur.

Michelle carrying both Samuel and Nathan. Nathan finally smiled for me as I was taking a picture. Of course, this only lasted a moment before Samuel started to cry. He was so sleepy at this point.

Joe and I on the Alpine loop. We drove it after our hike. There were some nice views of Timp and the other mountains that are behind it. There were also some scary drop offs along the drive, but all in all, it was just so nice outside. I am glad that we went.

Joe and Jeff went to a soccer game and Michelle and I enjoyed a girl's night in. We watched a movie and talked. It was fun.

Vacation with Jeff and Michelle

Jeff and Michelle came over last week for a short visit with us. It was so much fun to have them here. Joe took a couple of vacation days so we could do lots with them. Thursday I didn't have my camera, so Id didn't take any pictures of what we did. On Thursday we went to BYU and had lunch at the Cougar Eat. Michelle loves L&T so she wanted a wrap. We then went to the BYU Museum of Art and looked at the Dan Steinhelber (sp?) exhibit which is the garbage art exhibit. It was nice to walk through again. There is a security guard who has seen me with the boys on a number of different occasions, so he commented on the regularity on which we have been to the Walter Wick and Dan Steinhelber exhibits. They are really great exhibits. Thursday night we played games at our house. It was a lot of fun. I didn't fair so well on any of the games. I did come in second in the Great Dalmuti after 2 rounds, but we then played Mill Bornes.

I will post what we did on Friday. This is in backwards order, starting with how we ended our evening on Friday. Friday was a busy day. On Friday night, we came to our house to play games. They played the Great Dalmuti and Mill Bornes. I ended up going to bed because I could hardly function by 10:30 at night (when I finally got Samuel to sleep). J.P. was there. He is a friend of ours since he and Jeff and my brother Ernest were roommates. He cheered Joe and Jeff's soccer team, Chunky Salsa, when they were on the same team. Thor, Joe and Jeff's cousin, was also there. Uncle David couldn't make it. My brother Ziggy also came over to play. All in all, it was fun to have so many people over to play.
Here is a picture of the group playing the Great Dalmuti. In this picture, Ryan was the Dalmuti.

Before games at our house, we went to the park to play frisbee golf. Joe won with a 3, Joe and Ziggy both had 4 and I had 6. I was close this time. I don't like hole 3. The water hazard always freaks me out, so I end up with 3 over par every time. We then took some time for the boys to play on the playsets. Joseph was climbing up and down the slide. He is getting braver.

Here are Michelle and Nathan on the playset. Nathan looks so excited. He loved being outside. He kept trying to eat the grass and anything else that came his way.

Here we are on the frisbee golf course. No one landed in the water hazard on pole 3. They came close, but missed it. We did have quite a few shots that made it into the trees.

Before we went to play frisbee golf, we went to the BYU games center to bowl. Here is Joseph with his bowling ball. It was a close game. I came in last and my little boy Joseph came in first. He bowled a 131. He got a strike and I missed videotaping it. He held out his little arms and said yes as he ran back. Michelle had a 129, Jeff a 127, Joe a 107 and me a 106. I might have mixed Jeff and Michelle's scores, but I can't remember.

Joe with Nathan. Nathan has discovered the joys of his nostrils. He missed in this picture. Waht a cute and happy little boy!

Jeff and Nathan. I can't get Nathan to look at me in pictures.

Michelle and Nathan. She is trying to get him to look at me with the camera. It didn't work. I am glad they were here. It was fun.

Tidbits

Yesterday was quite the day. Joseph was playing when he stopped and looked at me with tears in his eyes. He said, "my ear hurts inside." I checked him all day for a fever and took him to the doctor. His fever got to 101. He has the starts of an ear infection because of all the allergy and snot he has had. He slept in our bed last night which meant no sleep for me and Joe. Samuel also decided to wake up at 1 a.m. I am tired today. Right now the house is a mess, so I need to stop blogging and get up and clean...so not motivated to do it.

Here are the Rankin boy cousins. Jeff and Michelle came to our home one night last week. The boys played together. They met us at the dinosaur museum.

Here is Amy. We had fun on her last night here with us. Thanks for coming and visiting us. It was fun to have you!

I thought this was a cool pic that Joe took. He had to chase after Joseph and could hardly look at the displays. Joseph was running to his favorite activities at the museum.

Joseph with his Aunts. They look too young to be Aunts. He loved having Amy here with us. Everyday she wasn't around he asked when she would be back.

Great Aunt Kim met us at the museum with Joe's cousins. She is great in more than one way! She has a family pass, so we were able to get in for half price. That is awesome. Joseph had fun running around with Matthew. Of course, he did complain that cousin Matthew was taking away his sand at the sand table.

Joseph at the dimetridon display. Joe had to stop him and take the picture because Joesph was running to the water and sand table. I love the expression in this shot.

Amy with Samuel. He looks happy. Look at all the drool. He goes through bibs like there is no tomorrow.

Joseph before we entered the museum. He was acting like a dinosaur.

Joseph sporting some sunglasses. I like the cool pose that he struck for the shot. It looks like he has complex eyes. What a cutie!

Joseph styling in his sunglasses and rainboots. He likes to put them on and walk around the house.

One night as I was getting Samuel to bed, Joseph entertained himself by making a city on a mountain. He took over 30 minutes creating this masterpiece. I felt bad that I had to clean it up. What a creative little boy! He has done this a couple of times since then.