Just so I don't forget

Samuel and Joseph on the plane. I asked for one thing in prayer on the trip and that was that I might possibly have my own row on our flight. I got to the gate and asked if the flight was full. The lady said yes and I snapped my finger and said, "darn...I was hoping to have my own row." As I was boarding the plane, the lady came over to me and handed me new boarding passes. She had arranged for me to have my own row. It was in front of the bathroom, but that was nice because Joseph went 2 times and I had to change Samuel twice. I remembered to thank Heavenly Father for that one for sure. Also, the flight went faster than planned. They shaved off about 40 minutes of flight time. :)

A house that is prepared for the holidays. It even had musical lights.

Joseph and Samuel helping grandpa decorate the tree. Joseph loves to help.

Joseph with Santa Claus. When Santa wasn't busy, Joseph would go over to chat. He asked Santa what his favorite cookies are and informed us that Santa said chocolate chip, which happen to be Joseph's favorite too. We know what we need to bake for Christmas Eve.

Samuel with Santa Claus. He didn't scream and actually seemed excited to see him. He smiled at him when he saw him.

Last week Joseph was very upset to be in primary without me. This week he was a totally different little boy (from what grandma described to me). They asked the primary children what the purpose of Christmas is and Joseph yelled out enthusiastically: "Santa Claus." Nice...apparently I need to work on teaching him more about the meaning of Christmas. :)

This offsets a discussion that we had last night. Joseph has decided to sing contrary to whatever I am singing. For example:

I sing "teach me to walk in the light" and Joseph will sing "teach me to walk in the dark."
I sing "the wise man built his house upon the rock" and Joseph will sing "the wise man built his house upon the sand." When the house built on the rock stood still, Joseph will say, "the house built on the rock washed away." You get the idea.

Last night, when singing "oh come all ye faithful" at the part that says "come let us adore him" Joseph said, "come let us ignore him." I asked him if understood what ignore means. He said no. I then explained that ignore meant not listen to and Joseph apologized. He then started explaining to me that when Jesus lived, lots of people ignored him and they killed him and put nails in his hands. We talked a little about His sacrifice and what it meant and how we shouldn't ignore what He wants us to do. It was a good discussion and then after we were done, Joseph apologized for something he had done earlier. (During breakfast he said that he didn't want to eat anymore cereal and when I left, he "accidentally" spilled it all over the floor...he doesn't know how it happened) It was a sweet moment.

We had fun in West Virginia with Ernest and his family. On our last night there, Elena broke her little foot. Poor thing. Lydia and I talked about it and I mentioned that she was so calm. She said it is hard and that it is lousy that she has to see her little girl go through it. I have to say that I am very impressed with how well they handle the stress of the situation. Elena was just running around and stepped on her foot wrong. It got swollen immediately and they figured she had broken something. Elena handled it like a champ. Brandon is cute and looks so much like Ernest when he was little. The cousins got along well and had fun together.

The other night I was blowing Samuel's eyes to help him sleep. He took that as a cue and started blowing my eyes. Yeah...I guess that is something I can't do with him.

Joe got his own office at work. :) He got promoted from an associate financial analyst to an all out financial analyst. He's a smart guy that spouse of mine. :) We will get to see him in 4 days. Hooray!! Now I just need to pray that a snow storm doesn't keep him from reaching us in time for the holidays.

In West Virginia

My brother picked me up in PA and we are visiting him in West Virginia. Joe's parents were kind enough to drive us for a few hours to meet Ernest and Ernest was kind enough to drive a couple of hours to pick us up. This is the first time that I met my brother's kids, Elena and Brandon. They are a lot of fun and so cute. :) We are just chilling with them as it snows a lot outside. There are at least almost 2 inches of snow. We will be here till Saturday and then we will head back to New Jersey. Joe will meet us at his parents in a week. Yay!! He worked till super late last night because their budget stuff was due at work. It has been fun catching up with my brother. Samuel took forever to fall asleep last night. He hasn't napped today either. Maybe he will sleep well tonight...

Jersey

We made it okay to New Jersey. It has been fun so far. Samuel is having trouble sleeping, but that is probably due to his nap schedule being the same and the times being later here. Joseph is having fun with grandma and grandpa and his Aunt Chrissy.

Samuel also has what I think are hives. He has been on an antibiotic and I think he reacted to it...just like Joseph. He has been fine, he is just covered in splotchy points all over his body. If he scratches, a hive forms. Good times. :P

I am glad to be here. I miss Joe a lot. I hope that he gets a lot of rest and relaxation. :)

crazy days

Tomorrow morning I fly to New Jersey with the boys. I am nervous and excited and worried. I have everything packed and tons of snacks. Joseph is super excited. He recieved a letter from Santa this past week. We decorated our tree on Sunday. Saturday night was Joe's company's Christmas dinner. Yesterday was insane. Our day yesterday (mind you I had both boys with me for all of this, minus the last activity):

Took Joe to work
Came home and got the boys dressed
Went to my doctor appointment
McDonald's for a quick breakfast (drive thru)
Preschool
Drop stuff off at Saver's
Pick up stuff from Target
Go to Macy's to exchange Joe's coat that I bought for Christmas (3rd time doing this)
Run home and pick up library books
Go and babysit for a friend
Take Joseph to the doctor (he has strep)
Go to Panda Express for a quick lunch/dinner
Pick up Joe from work
Open Christmas presents
Clean up the mess
Run to Target again to pick up Joseph's prescription (I only took Samuel with me)
Come home and put the boys to bed
Go to bed

Yesterday was tiring and tomorrow will be stressful. The boys are bathed and asleep. It is time for me to get ready for bed and try to sleep. Everything is packed and ready to go...I hope. We are going to miss Joe, but luckily he will be there 2 weeks after us. I also get to hang out with my brother's family for a few days. Exciting times. :D

Samuel's first ear infection

So on Tuesday night Samuel woke up crying. He was burning up. We gave him some medicine and I ended up sleeping with him on the couch. Periodically through the night, I gave him medicine. At one point it seemed his temperature reached almost 104. He was toasty and fussy. It seemed that the medicine helped and he would get hyper and play for a bit and then fall asleep. With the medication he seemed fine. I put him down for a nap around 3:30 in the afternoon and took Joseph to a birthday party around 4:15. My friend noticed that Samuel looked super flushed and she said that he wasn't responsive. I got a call from Joe about 5 minutes after we had arrived at the party. I left immediately, asking Joseph's friends to bring him home. From what my friend Celia described, it sounded like Samuel had a febrile seizure. I spoke to a nurse on my drive home and then conferred with them after. They wanted me to bring him in. Last night at 8:30 we went to the after hours peditrician. He said he was surprised that we hadn't had symptoms prior to late Tuesday night because Samuel had a nasty ear infection, with puss, in his left ear and his right ear was also really red. I had debated taking him in because he didn't give me any indication that he had an ear infection. Poor kiddo. He is napping right now.

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with friends and family. Adam, Meredith, and Mackenzie drove from Denver and we were able to spend time with lots of Joe's siblings and family. Of course, BYU disappointed in their football game against the Utes.

I noticed that Samuel eats with his left hand quite often because he likes to grip things with his right hand. He and his cousin had a lot of fun together. She called him baby often and they had fun playing. Of course, he wouldn't give her a hug when she left. Joseph liked that he had a cousin that he could play with even if she is a little younger than he is. :) We also got the big announcement that we are going to have another Rankin cousin in June. Congrats Adam and Meredith!!

Questions...

We are still trying to decide if we should buy a house or if we should rent for a year. Anyways, this afternoon we went to look at an apartment in Provo. Joe and I were asking questions. Joseph was walking around and observing things. His first comment:

Seeing that the furnace was not blocked off and next to a bedroom, Joseph: "That is electrical and dangerous."
Person: "Do you have any questions?"
Mommy: "How much notice do you need to give?"
Person: "Just let us know before your contract is up."
Joseph: "I have a question. Do you have a mouse?"
Person: "I have never seen one."
Joseph: "Because there is a hole right there that looks like a home for a mouse."

I love my Joseph...he always can make me smile. :D

Christmas shopping

So I took Joseph with me to get Joe a gift. I told Joseph that if daddy asked, to trick him and say that we decided to wait. Joseph was sooooooooo excited to trick daddy and the following scene ensues when I pick Joe up for lunch:

Joseph: "So daddy, ask me if we got you anything."
Daddy: "Did you get me anything?"
Joseph (using a very rehearsed voice): "No daddy. We decided to wait to get you something."
Daddy: "It sounds like you were prepped. Did mommy tell you to say that?"
Silence from Joseph and a huge smile.
Daddy: "If I tell you something that I am going to get you for Christmas, will you tell me what you got me?"
Joseph: "Okay."

Joseph then proceeded to give hints that let Joe know what he is recieving. So much for tricking daddy. ;)

Blizzard means...

all zombies would freeze. Yay!!

Funny incident:
Samuel: "Milk please."
Joseph: "Mommy, Samuel said milk and not milt! (turning towards Samuel then) High five (holding out his hand for Samuel to hit)"
Samuel gets a big goofy smile and high fives his big brother.

Bike incident:
We went to a big toy chain and bought a lot of Christmas gifts. The cashier looked at the reciept and said, "I don't see the bike, but I know I rang it up, so you are good." We take it home and then add up everything. The bike was not on the reciept. Dilemma: We already have the bike and they brought it to us. The cashier made a mistake. Do we:

A) Let it be. We didn't do anything wrong.
B) Go back to the store and let them know their mistake.
C) Consider it a Christmas blessing.

Well, I called the store and talked to the manager explaining what had happened. Solution, they will give us a discount on the bike when we come in to pay for it. I go to the store and pay a little over $20 less than what it was on sale for and the kicker, it had a promotion and with a purchase the customer recieved a $25 gift card. The bike cost us a third of its original price. Yay for honesty!!

Samuel's latest

This morning I went to wake up Joe. I sat on the bed and Samuel came over and gave him a couple of kisses. He then said, "hud" which is his way of saying hug and gave Joe a big hug. It was adorable. Whenever lights are out he likes to make ghost noises and walks around saying "oooooooo." It is also hard to do dishes with him or bake when he is awake, especially if big brother is helping. Samuel climbs up and says "hep." He can often be found at the kitchen table getting into any leftovers that Joseph left. Even though he usually throws a tantrum when it is time for bed, he tells us when he is tired by saying, "nigh nigh." One of his favorite songs has a chorus that says "bubbles, bubbles, bubbles, bubbles, bubbles, bubbles, bubbles, bubbles, bubbles, bubbles, bubbles, pop." Yeah, I know...repetitive. He walks around "singing" the song and saying, "bubbles, pop." He condenses it. :)

One of my favorite Joseph sayings..."yayhoo."

Zombie apocalypse

So today I found myself looking around outside wondering if it had happened. I know it is a silly fear, but zombies freak me out. I have had zombie apocalypse dreams for as long as I can remember...some more vivid than others. In one dream the door turned to paper and I willed myself awake. In another I had to grab a rifle and shoot some. In another, Samuel was crawling among them and I had to save him. It is always worst when my little boys are involved or other members of my family. Often I make myself wake up from the dream and try to stay awake for a bit so I can change the dream. Joe jokes about getting a house that would be good for a zombie apocalypse (which he says will happen one day).

Today I was grateful to see people driving around in their cars. It appeased my fear momentarily. For those that are trying to psychoanalyze my irrational fear, understand that I can take a step back and know what is real...but I think I might start carrying a bat with me...just in case. I would post a picture of a zombie, but I wouldn't be able to look at my blog post.

Because I haven't blogged for what seems to be a long time...

I haven't blogged in what seems like ages. We are trying to get holiday plans hashed out and trying to find a house (again). We have an offer in on one house, and are planning to put one in on another house. I found a house that might be nice, but we need to look at it. Joe has had to work some long hours in the past few weeks because of budget stuff.

Joseph is pretty good at writing all the letters and his name. I haven't taught him our address because we don't have a home yet. He is a good big brother. We made his Christmas list tonight...some of the things he asked for (this is a random sampling):

3 pencils for homework
a blanket that is soft, cozy, and really warm
oranges for his stocking because he really likes them

We worked on the list for a bit to get some ideas on paper.

Samuel has had a rough go sleeping the past few weeks. Tonight we had him cry it out for the first time in a long time. He is finally in bed. I am going to bed soon too. He talks a lot more and says "milt (milk)", "nanny (candy)", "nack (snack)", all fruits other than bananas are "apple", and he likes to walk around asking "are you...shoe (or "boot (book)", "sippy")?"

I am just ready for a place to call home again.

Happy Halloween!!

Happy Halloween to all our friends and family!!


Joe making Samuel's Sloth costume, the big guy from the Goonies that says "Baby Ruth."

I was Strawberry Shortcake. I don't like that most women's costumes are made to be sexy. I just wanted something fun and inexpensive.

Joseph and Samuel at our friend's Halloween festival for work. David did a great job and the kids really enjoyed themselves. Joseph in his policeman costume. He loved it and looked so handsome as a little officer.

Samuel as Sloth. We were disappointed that only 1 person guessed who he was. Most people thought he was Superman with suspenders and a pirate hat. Where were all the Goonies fans? Anyhow. Samuel figured out the whole candy bit of Halloween. He walks around asking for "nanny" and saying please so he can eat some.

We also went to a haunted house that Joe's CEO had at his home. It was really cool. Today we are having our family dinner for Joseph's birthday. Yay!! Joseph's meal choice: Spaghetti.

Joseph's birthday party

We thought we would have a house by now, so we needed a place for a birthday party for Joseph. We finally decided on Nickel City, an arcade game place. It was relatively inexpensive and the kids had a great time.

Joseph spinning the prize wheel. They let him do it the first time and he only got 100 tickets and the second time he only got 200 tickets. The guy said that he would let Joseph have 400. Joseph ended up with a cap gun and cuffs for his prizes from his ticket.

Joseph didn't want birthday cake for his party. He asked for homemade cinnamon rolls. So that is what we had. They were really good too.

Joseph with one of his birthday gifts. He loved the gifts that he recieved. He got some "How to train your dragon" toys, some tools, a puppy, and more rescue hero stuff. Joseph also had a lot of fun having his little friends come to a party.

Counting...

Samuel counts every once in awhile. If I say, one he says two. When I was making cinnamon rolls yesterday, he said "eight." He is picking up on more things everyday. He also says "bathroom" and "no (for snow)" and "wet" and "mess." This picture is of him playing with Joseph in the tub with bubbles. I needed to wash dishes and they both wanted to help because there were bubbles in the sink. This kept them occupied for an hour. They were thoroughly soaked and had a lot of fun.

Birthday boy!!

Our Joseph turned 5. How crazy is that!! He is getting so big and so independent. We had to postpone his party because he was sick on Monday with a fever. We stayed home, played with his toys, napped, and just hung out. He was ecstatic that he got mail from Grandma and Grandpa Rankin. He got a rescue heroes robot, which also thrilled him a lot. Grandma Nunez took him to see Toy Story 3. All in all, not a bad day for him, other than his party being rescheduled.

Oh, I guess he did get 5 shots and was sore from that, but other than that, not a bad day for him.

"are you" (sounds like "arroo")

Samuel says more everyday. Yesterday he said, "onion" and today he said "got you." He also started to say "are you" for where are you. He was walking around saying "are you...dada."

Baking

I have been trying to be better about baking things instead of buying them. I have made rolls a few times and also baked cookies the past few Mondays. The cookies have tasted good each time.


Here is the batch of rolls that Joseph helped me roll out tonight. It is Joe's mom's recipe. The first batch of rolls I made didn't rise well, but they tasted good. The second batch rose well but as Joseph put it, "These rolls taste yucks." Joe has been eating the dough which he says tastes better. In a couple of minutes, we should be able to taste the results.


I also made cinnamon rolls for the first time. They were surprisingly easy and tasted super yummy.

We just tasted our first roll. It tasted sooooo good. Yay!! Success(even if I learned that I hadn't rolled them as tight as I should have...better next time around).

Joseph

Joseph has been practicing writing his last name. He can now spell it without help. Here are a couple of pictures of his writing. Notice the illustrations on the letters. The "a" is an alien and the "r" is a policeman.

We have a friend whose name is Cecilia, but she goes by Celia (sounds kind of like seal-ee-a). Yesterday we were in the car going to help her and her husband with some plumbing issues they were having. Joseph was in his seat and then said the following:

Joseph: "I wonder why she chose Celia for a name. If you take off the "ah" it sounds like silly."

Can you tell we have been working on letter sounds. :)

Learning new things everyday

Joseph is in preschool again. This year we are teaching Spanish to the kids. On Tuesday we practiced the alphabet in Spanish. The teacher called each student up and would pronounce a vowel in Spanish and then have them point it out. Joseph got up there and without any help, he identified all of the vowels by their sounds. After class he told me that he "wasn't going to give up Spanish." Of course he still thinks that being brown means that people must speak Spanish. The other day he said that Samuel was getting more brown so he was probably going to speak Spanish.

On the subject of speaking, each day Samuel says new things. He says "owie", "apple", "cheese", "nana", "up", "bite", "rice", "wet", "juice", "no", "bath", "play", "moo", "bird" and much more. Still no complete sentences, but he is showing more interest in saying words. He often mimics what we say. He does let me know when he is hurting. He has a diaper rash and everytime he went poop today, he would sign hurt and then grab his diaper. Samuel didn't even argue too much when I went to change him.

Tonight we went to see Nitrocircus. I will post more on it later.

Etto

We go to the library often. Today we went for Mother Goose, a half hour with songs, a story from a book, and a puppet show. We park in the underground lot which echoes very well. Joseph loves to yell to hear himself. Samuel usually makes a noise but it is not typically loud enough to hear the echo. Today he said loudly, "etto." Immediately after hearing his "etto" he put his pointer finger to his mouth and started to say "shhhhh."

Trouble

Joseph has been testing the limits of what he can and can't get away with. I try to explain things to him prior to going some places, just to make sure he understands. For example, "we are going to Target and we can look at the toys, but that doesn't mean we are going to get one." I try to prep him so there aren't any tantrums. On Sunday he got into trouble a couple of different times because he had some meltdowns and started to yell at me. Joe talked to him and he ended up having to go to bed and it cost him games and toys for all of yesterday. He decided to sneak into his room and started to play with toys while I was making a phone call. I saw him and told him he needed to come out of the room and stop playing. He yelled at me again and earned himself a timeout. I sat him down and gave him a notebook so he could practice writing sorry. He wrote sorry one time and then the following conversation ensued:

Joseph: "Mommy, I wrote down no. How do you spell mommy?"
Mommy: "Why?"
Joseph: "Because I am going to write down "no mommy" on my paper."

Great...who knew an almost 5 year old could be so stubborn (I guess he gets it from both parents). I did have him write down "I am sorry mommy." He wrote it and then got bored.

Samuel is speaking more. Today he came to me and said, "nana (banana)." I asked him to say please and he did. He also said berry today. It was out of context because Joseph was saying "we are going to the liberry." I was trying to correct him and Samuel said, "berry." Joseph started to laugh. Samuel also loves to look for his "dada." This morning he stood outside the bathroom door as Joe was getting ready and kept saying "dada" and pointing with his sippy cup. In the past couple of weeks he has started to give kissies. He kisses us and his cars and sometimes walks around making kissing noises. I did have to stop him from only wanting to kiss me on the mouth. He loves to kiss daddy's nose. Samuel also loves to point to things and say, "dis (this)." He is a cute kid. Boy do I love my boys!!

Seeing green

Yesterday I washed all of our dishes. I put a load in the dishwasher and had a little helper in the form of Samuel. Joseph was coloring in the other room. Samuel often puts his toys and other things into the dishwasher. I found a couple of crayons and removed them. Samuel came over a few different times and took things out of the dishwasher. I found a stray crayon and took it out. I finished loading and put the dishes to wash. Fast forward a few hours later...I needed a clean bowl and opened my dishwasher. I noticed that my measuring cups were green. I looked at a frying pan, covered in green. Plates covered in green. Culprit: green crayon. Evidence: empty paper wrapper plus all of my green dishes. Now I need to motivate myself to rewash (by hand) all of the dishes in there. Definitely not happening tonight.

Random tidbits

On Sunday, the primary had their program. Joseph had worked on his line, "I can show reverence at home by praying." On Sunday, when it was his turn, he went up to the podium and the sister tried to help him. He looked over at her and then said, "I don't need help." When he turned the microphone, he started to talk and then turned to her and said, "I can't remember." It was a funny moment that made people in the congregation laugh. Also, we sat in a pew on the side and to the front. In front of us was a sister with 2 little boys and behind us was a couple with one son, probably almost 10. One of the 2 little boys has some disabilities, and at one point during the meeting, he grabbed Joe's hair and tried to grab Samuel. The little boy behind us started hitting his parents and yelling no. It made for an interesting meeting trying to keep the boys from the little boy's hands in front of us.

Yesterday we went to look at a fridge and then were going to look at some cabinets. I was debating out loud on the way to drive, and I said, "I will take the freeway." Here is the following conversation:

Mommy: "I will take the freeway."
Joseph: "I wonder what kind of free stuff they will give."
Mommy: "What free stuff?"
Joseph: "On the freeway."
Mommy (laughing): "They don't give free stuff on the freeway. That isn't what it is."
Joseph: "Then what is a freeway."

Samuel is talking more. Yesterday he gripped our bread and started to say "bed, bed, bed" over and over again. Too bad it wasn't good and I couldn't give it to him. He is also very attached to a little car that looks like a pig from the movie Cars. He hides it and then laughs when we find it and give it back to him. I am also beginning to think that his wake up time is changing. No more 8 in the morning. It is now 6 or 7. Yuck. :)

This morning...

Joseph: "Thank you trees." (said as we were driving around)
Mommy: "Why are you saying thank you to the trees?"
Joseph: "Because they give us the air we breathe."

Cuties

Samuel has finally started to say "amen" after prayers. It is cute to hear him say it. I was playing a game and kept saying "oh man" and he repeated it. I wonder if he wondered why we didn't fold our arms. We moved Joseph into Samuel's room, so we have a new bedtime routine. We read a couple of books, and I rock Samuel in a chair and sing hymns, then we say a prayer together. For Joseph it used to be just books and prayer, and for Samuel songs and prayer. Joseph seems to enjoy the songs and requests songs at night. His favorite for me to sing right now is "Siembra Gozo (Scatter Sunshine)." He requests it every night. Last night he even tried singing along even though he doesn't know Spanish. It was so cute. I sang it a second time for him to hear the words and try some more.

He doesn't want to learn Spanish. He says that he wants to be English. At his preschool, we are having Spanish lessons and I talked about why it is important for him to try and speak the language. He will learn, even if it is reluctantly at the moment. Joe asked him why he doesn't want to learn Spanish and he said, "Because it will make me turn brown." I have no idea where he got this from. I remember when I was little I would get mad at one of my aunts because she would tell me that my babies were going to be super dark when they were born. I don't know what goes on in his head, but that definitely took me by surprise.

Exhausted

Joseph got out of bed around 10 and puked. He kept puking so I moved him to our room to be closer to the bathroom. After not making it to the bathroom, I decided that rather than wake up Joe with Joseph calling for me often, I would move to the living room. As I moved the blankets for Joseph to sleep on to the floor, at midnight I heard Samuel whimper and then he started to cry. He then started to cry louder and I knew what had happened. He had vomited in his crib, on his pillow, in his hair...ewwww. Anyways, I took him to the bathroom and he vomited into the toilet. I gave him a bath and put clean clothes on him, he vomited all over them, so he had another bath. I just wrapped him in a towel. Meanwhile, Joseph had to vomit a few more times and he didn't want to be alone in the bathroom, but Samuel didn't want to be put down, so I was carrying Samuel, covering Joseph's eyes for him so he wouldn't see the vomit in the toilet, as he is crying because it came out his nose and Samuel is crying because he isn't comfortable and feeling well. By one in the morning, I was just hoping to survive the night. I didn't want to wake Joe because I knew he needed to be up early for work. Joseph finally stopped vomiting around 1:30 in the morning and fell asleep. Samuel wasn't so lucky and puked on and off till almost 5 in the morning. I was just grateful that it came less often as the early morning progressed because I was able to sleep a little. I had to hold him while I pulled off his covers and pillow case and load the laundry. The boys are both napping (it is 6 p.m.), but I don't want to wake them. Poor kiddos. At least they are not throwing up at the moment. As for me, I am exhausted, but I did get the kitchen cleaned.

Misheard

After listening to a song called "Breathe" by Anna Nalick, Joseph exclaimed, "She's right mom...we need to just read."

Early morning (Saturday) and Sunday

Saturday
My day has already started. Samuel has been awake for over an hour. I am tired and it will be a long day. At least I cleaned the dishes last night and the kitchen is clean, so now what to do with the rest of the day. He woke up 5:30 in the morning and refused to nap. Joseph was up at around 7:30, so I decided to hit a few garage sales to see if there was anything good. Samuel fell asleep in the car at around 8 in the morning.

It is also the 9th year of the World Trade Center attacks. I watched a power point and was amazed at how close it still feels. It is a shame that we aren't more united as a country now like we were then. My heart goes out to people who lost loved ones in the tragedy. It reminds of the book I read Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. It is the story of a boy who lost a father in the attacks. The author does manipulate a reader's emotions, but it brings the heartache and fear to surface of an event that transformed a nation.

Sunday
Today was regional conference. We heard from Elder Snow, Sister Beck, Elder Holland, and President Packer. Elder Snow's message about spirituality and remembering them and the need to "remember to renew" our experiences was great. Sister Beck's message was that we can be doing better. Elder Holland talked about the trials of our days and Elder Packer stressed faith. All in all, a very good conference.

Samuel was having a rough time during the conference and didn't want to sit still. After lunch today, he was quiet in the bedroom and I wondered why. Joe went to check on him. He had found an ant and was looking at him walk around. Every once in awhile, he would put his hand near it and smile. My little observant scientist.

Tonight was rough for Samuel. He woke up around 11:30 and didn't fally back asleep till after 1:30 in the morning. Yay for being tired. :P

This last week I was able to visit with one of my mission companions who is visiting her family in Utah. It was fun to hang out and meet her darling little girls. It is crazy that so much time has passed between my mission and where I am today. She looked amazing and I do wish that she and a few of my other companions lived closer so we could hang out.

My little skeletons

Joseph liked that he and Samuel have the same skeleton pajamas. They were pretending to "walk like zombies" in the hall.

Randomness

Quote: "I want to eat healthy...just like daddy."

So the other day I was cleaning, and I decided that I would grab a Sunkist. It has been a long time since I have had one and I was thirsty. After opening the can, I took a large sip and gagged. It took everything I had not to spit it out. I forced myself to swallow. I couldn't drink anymore. Why? Because it reminded me of the glucose drink they have you drink during pregnancy. It tasted just like it and each time I had to drink it (2 times with Joseph and 2 times with Samuel), I felt sick the rest of the day. Well, Sunkist is now in the same category as that glucose drink and I will never drink it again. I shudder just thinking about it. Ewwww.

I taught nursery today. It took everything I had to keep the kids focused. I finally gave up trying to get them to listen to scriptures and found they focused well when we sang a song about creation with signs. I decided to teach them signs for different animals and the sounds they make as part of their lesson on creation. They really enjoyed it.

Samuel has started folding his arms for prayer. He won't say amen yet, but when we say it is time for prayer, he gets ready. It's cute. At night, I rock him and sing to him before bed. When he is ready to lay down, often he will fold his arms for a prayer...my hint to say it and let him rest.

We moved Joseph into the same room as Samuel. We had to reiterate to him the conditions of moving him into the room: 1) no getting out of bed at night, 2) no crying or calling out for mommy or daddy, 3) no playing after we put him to bed. Joseph was so excited to be moved in with Samuel. The first night, after they had been in bed a couple of hours, he started to cry. In return, it woke up Samuel and he started to cry. Joseph was afraid we would move him out of the room. Yesterday we went to Lowe's and found a couple of night lights. Joe told him they also worked to zap ghosts. Right now the boys are in the room playing. Joseph did tell me that he and Samuel were going to play in the morning when they woke up.

We are still trying to find the right house for our family. Hopefully we will get one soon. :)

Big brother Joseph

These pictures were taken before we left for the doctor. Joseph was trying to be helpful and take Samuel's temperature for me. He is so helpful and sweet. I love both of my boys so much!

Real Salt Lake Game

Last Wednesday we went to a Real Salt Lake Game. It was a CONCACAF Champions game against Aribe Unido. The weather was great (aside from the thunderstorm earlier in the day) and it was cool and breezy. In the distance you could see the lightning, but we stayed nice and dry and enjoyed (for the most part) the game.


The sunset. It was a beautiful night to be at a soccer game.

The start of the game. Who knew it would be a frustrating event when the players first came on the field. It was funny to see them zooming the cameras around the crowd. People were doing the truffle shuffle and the chicken dance. I am just glad the camera never came our direction.

Real Salt Lake scores a goal and ties up the game. The other team had "injuries" most of the game. They had one player red carded and another that was ejected. In the end, we won 2-1, but it wasn't fun to watch the other team randomly fall down and fake their injuries. There was 8 minutes of stoppage time added to the end of the 2nd half.

Daddy and Joseph. Samuel got to stay home with grandpa. All in all, it was a fun night. I especially loved the pecans that I ate. :)

Sick Samuel

Samuel taking his own temperature. He is becoming a pro at it because he still has a fever.

Since Monday, Samuel has had a fever. It was in the low 100's, but last night was at a 102. This morning it went from 102 to 103 in a matter of minutes, so I decided (against my better judgement) to take him to the doctor. I am afraid that he will have a febrile seizure like Joseph did, so I wanted to be safe. Of course, I know the time period for fevers (if it is longer than 4-5 days and his only started on Monday), but part of me hoped it was a simple ear infection that would require an antibiotic. Yet again, the doctor told me to watch him and if it hasn't passed by Friday to go back in. I should know better by now. It is a waste of a copay each time I get told the same thing. It would be a virus and not a bacterial infection, so there is nothing to do but let it pass. Viruses are so not conducive to a worried mother.

I wish I was Samuel...for reals

Since Samuel is smaller, he gets a lot of attention from everyone. People often come around and they will go crazy over Samuel and Joseph is kind of left on the fringes. I feel bad for my little guy. After they go crazy over Samuel, they often say, "hi Joseph" as an afterthought. Joseph usually waits for someone to pay attention to him (mommy doesn't count). He usually says, "I wish I was Samuel...for reals." When I ask him why, he says "Because." He has expressed this sentiment often and each time I express that we love him. It breaks my heart. Sometimes he tries to do what Samuel does for attention...not always the best thing, but it makes him feel more noticed.

I have been trying to spend more time with him. The other day he asked us what the biggest number was and we explained infinity to him. He thought about if for a couple of days and asked why there couldn't be an end to numbers. My little thinker (as he named his wolf from Build-a-Bear). :)

Questions, questions, too many questions...

Joseph asks a lot of questions about anything and everything. He asks me what will help him grow and what will not be good for him. Some of his most recent questions:

"Will french fries help me grow?" (me: "No they don't help you grow")
"I wonder why I like them so much?"
"Mommy, do cookies help me grow?" (me: "No, but they do taste good and are okay sometimes.")
"I wonder why I like them so much?"
"Mommy, does ice cream help me grow?" (do you sense a trend?)
"Does chocolate help me grow?"

Statement

Joseph: "I wonder why they call them cowboys because they don't ride cows."

Samuel is also talking a lot more. When I ask him to, he says "up peaz" and gets a huge goofy grin on his face. He is fascinated with rocks lately and loves to collect them just like Joseph did. His personality shines through often. Samuel still has his temper tantrums, but he is a lot easier to get to bed than Joseph. I sing him some songs and rock him and then lay him down. He usually goes down without fussing too much. Usually. :) Another favorite thing for him right now are french fries. When we drive by In-N-Out, he usually will try and get our attention and then signs eat. Silly boy. He also loves pudding and popcorn. Don't worry...that isn't all he eats. He is a fairly good eater. Put peas, corn, pasta, carrots, rice, and many other yummy foods in front of him and he eats like crazy.

Joseph has also mastered going to the toilet all by himself without his seat!! Yay!!!! He has also gotten very good at procrastinating going pee in the toilet, so on some occasions, well, you can guess what happens. He is also sounding out very basic words and starting to ask what words mean. Some of his new favorite words are distracted and annoying. My little teenager. ;) The other day he asked how to spell rat. We sounded it out and he was able to determine what letters were making the sounds and spelled it. I need to work on it more so he will start to read by himself. Joseph has also discovered a deep interest in rescue heroes.

We watched a Bill Nye on gravity and he and Samuel were laughing a ton when he was throwing things off a building to demonstrate that everything falls. Now Joseph says when we are walking up hill that it is hard because we are fighting gravity and it is easier going down hill because gravity helps us.

Minus the toilet seat

So today we are starting to work on Joseph going poops without his toilet seat. He came to let me know he needed to go poop, so I took him to the bathroom. I have been warning him the past couple of days of our plans for today. He got very upset and started to cry. He earned a nap for that action. I then told him that he had 2 options: I would help him get on the toilet without his seat or he could get the seat himself and climb on if he wanted to use it. I left him in the bathroom thinking about it. I just went back to the bathroom and asked what he had decided.

Mommy: "Joseph what did you decide to do?"
Joseph: "Option 3."
Mommy: "There is no option 3."
Joseph: "Yes there is. You put me on the toilet with my seat."

I can tell this is going to be exciting. :P

New words...

"bread", "apple juice", "peaz (please)"

Joe's latest project

Looking for gnomes in all the wrong places...

My parents went with my brothers to Washington before he leaves for Iraq. They left on Thursday evening. I decided to take the girls to the Dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point. We decided to look for the 13 gnomes that are hidden throughout the museum. We only found 8 of the 13, but that is an improvement over the previous time.


They have changed the activity center. The kids loved it. We spent a good amount of time in there.

They almost didn't charge me for the girls. I have to bring up the fact that they are not on our family pass. It would have saved me $8, but I wanted to be honest. There have been a few other times that they didn't charge me for the kids and I have had to let them know.

The kids on our favorite picture taking spot...the protoceratops.

One of the gnomes hidden on the giant sea turtle. I guess they move the figurines on occasion. The paintings will always be there and I think that we found all of them.

Samuel likes the large dinosaur puzzle slots. He gets angry if you try to pull him away, especially when you try to take one from his hand.

Company party

This year Joe's company had their company party at the Hogle Zoo instead of Lagoon. It was closer and a lot of fun. Joe won a prize.


Do not feed the animals. Joseph and his hippo smile.


Joseph at the giraffe area. It was warm outside, so it was nice to get in a shaded area.


Samuel in his stroller. He seemed to have a good time, but he wanted out to walk.


Us on the carousel. Spinning makes Joe sick, so I went on with the boys. Neither of them wanted to get on an actual animal that went up and down.


We got to see lots of animals and the boys enjoyed themselves, Joseph probably more so than Samuel.

I am glad that Joe's company opted out of having it at Lagoon. We got to ride the train, eat some fajitas.

New words

"how are you?" (sounds more like howru)
"bite"

Pics

We had a big box for packing and the boys loved playing inside of it. I can't remember how long they were inside, but they played and played.

The cousins sharing some blueberries. Joseph's cheeks are stuffed to the brim with blueberries. At least he shared. :)

Nathan decided that Samuel needed some helping stuffing berries in his mouth, so he was happy to oblige.

All the Rankin male grandkids together for a family photo. We couldn't let them do it on their own, so here are the tired mommies doing some crowd control.

Our cute little nephew Christopher. It was great to meet him before he leaves for London.

More new words

Hi, papa (grandpa), nana (banana)

Strange coincidence...or a sign

So last night I woke up from a nightmare where someone hurt Samuel badly. I woke up and almost started to cry. I prayed and went back to sleep. The place where he got hurt was Riley Street. We are looking at houses and I woke up telling myself that we wouldn't buy a house on Riley Street. Of course, we weren't looking at any houses on a Riley Street, so no big deal. Right? Right. Well, we went to look at houses in Springville. One of the houses we went to look at (where the realtor had put the wrong address on the MLS, so we drove around to all possible coordinates with the same numbers) was an older home. As we walked up to the door, on the sidewalk written in chalk over and over again, was the name Riley. Doo, doo, doo, doo,doo, doo, doo, doo... Coincidence or sign?

Blessed...

Heavenly Father has really blessed us lately. In so many small ways, I have seen His hand in our lives. Joe and I were worried about him quitting and not having a job lined up. I was amazed that Joe's company valued him enough to meet most of his requirements for them. Now he has better pay and we can breathe a little easier. We got our earnest money back on the house we decided not to buy because we thought Joe would not have his job. These are just some of the obvious blessings that I have seen. This does not include our health, our beautiful little boys, a place to live, food to eat. I am so grateful to know of His plan for us. Now as we proceed, I hope that we are able to find a great place to live with good schools because Joseph is almost to the point of beginning elementary school. I know that He will continue to help us and guide us.

New words

Up, apple...

Joe quit his job!!...but wait

So Joe finally sent in his resignation letter. Last night we concluded it would be best for us to do. This morning Joe received a call from the CFO. He told Joe you know you are valuable when your boss's boss's boss likes you. They made Joe an offer and gave him 3 options as to what his job could be:

1. Billing supervisor. Stay where he is and give him a small pay raise, while taking away 2 big responsibilities: attritions and commissions.

2. Financial analyst. Handle commissions and attritions and other financial reporting.

3. Revenue recognition. He would be more of an accountant.

Joe let them know a price range that he was aiming for and the CFO told him he would get back to him. They raised their offer and let him know that his raise would be effective immediately and that he would assume his new position after his boss comes back from maternity leave. Joe's biggest headache was commissions and they will take that away ASAP. Looks like our plan to leave Utah has failed yet again. Now we are looking for another house.

18 months

Samuel turned 18 months yesterday. Crazy. He is now old enough for nursery.


Here is Samuel with daddy.

Samuel right now:
-says "hot", "dada", "mama", "ba(ball)", "bed", "baf(bath)", "nigh nigh", "uh-oh"(corresponds to when he drops things intentionally or throws them), "wha(what)", "dog", "woo(woof)", "don(done)", "bite"
-signs "banana", "please", "eat", "more", "water", "drink", "all done", "play", "rock", "bath", "cheese"
-likes to play with Joseph, as well as fight with Joseph
-likes to put his cup in its place on his tray.
-likes balls.
-still likes to clasp things in his hands.
-loves pasta, cheese, peas, corn, fruit.
-has a very expressive face.
-runs to daddy when he doesn't want to go to bed or get changed.
-likes to stomp his feet.
-enjoys sucking in his tummy.
-blows air out of his mouth and can make a whistling noise.
-weighs 23 pounds (14th percentile), is 32" long (42nd percentile), and has a head that is in the 98th percentile.

Day 5 (continued), Day 6 and into Day 7: the drive home

After the going to the sun road, we went back to the cabin so Joe could nap. I took the boys to the playground and then we went for a swim. We wanted to hike the trail of the cedars, as it is one of the most popular paths to take.

Joseph found himself a little home in one of the tree bases.

Mommy with her boys. The trees were tall. Maybe not as tall as the sequoias in California, but tall nonetheless.

A cascading fall along the trail.

Just to get an idea of how large the trees were. Joseph ran ahead of us to pose for this shot.

We drove a different road for a bit to see wildlife. This stag tried to hide from us, but we caught him on camera! After our drive, we went to the Rawhide restaurant for some BBQ. Samuel was in a mood, so I had to carry him. Luckily it was late, so there were only 2 families (including us) at the restaurant. Samuel had a horrible night of sleep. I slept in the car with him and he screamed for over half an hour. I felt bad for anyone around us who could hear him. The next morning, Joe and Joseph slept in and I tried to keep Samuel entertained for a bit. We finally packed our car and went on one more drive. Joe wanted to go to one of the meadows we had seen to see if he could find any more animals. The night before, we had seen deer there.

Joe heard some rustling and a lot of chattering. He found a family of pine martens that lived near where he was standing. Joe tried to snap a picture, but the sound of the flash scared them. He waited patiently and was able to snap this shot. It is the head of one of the pine martens. A deer also scampered across close to where Joe was.

This deer posed for us. It was eating by the side of the road. I am just glad it didn't jump in front. :)

We decided that we wanted to go to Many Glacier before we headed back to Utah. It would be a long drive, but we figured we wouldn't be back to Glacier National Park for a long time. We ate at Eddie's Cafe. I snapped a photo especially for my brother Edward.

AFter a 3 hour drive to get to Many Glacier, we were able to snap some lovely shots. This meadow had a coyote lazing around. It is in the picture, but because it was far off and we don't have a super zoom lens, this is the best we could do. It was there though. We were 15 miles from the Canadian border, but without passports, we decided not to cross. They probably wouldn't have let me back in the country. We started the LOOOOOOOOOONG drive home.

A scenic overlook? I don't think it was so pretty, but I needed to change Samuel's diaper. Joe snapped some shots while I did. This is the road I told him to take to intersect with I-15. Had I looked a little closer, we could have shaved off an extra half hour or more going down a different road. As if we weren't already on the road long enough. The exits weren't marked well, so we ended up going north on I-15 and having to flip around. Add more time to the trip home.

We stopped for gas in Helena. Joseph saw the large dinosaur and had to pet it. Joe said he was ridiculously happy as he touched the dinosaur and had the largest smile on his face. What a cutie!! We drove till we were almost out of Montana and decided that we needed to sleep a little. We pulled over at a rest stop and hadn't been asleep for more than 30 minutes when Samuel started to cry. We buckled up and drove into Idaho. It was well past 2 in the morning when Joe and I decided that we needed to stop again. I was having trouble staying awake to keep Joe company. I made sure to put a hoodie over Samuel so hopefully he wouldn't get cold and wake up again. We slept for a little over 3 hours and started to drive back to Utah again.

Samuel's hair looked like Flock of Seagulls hair when he woke up. He slept till about 7 in the morning. Yay!

This is what we found when we got home at 8:30 in the morning. My dad has been working on the plumbing and was trying to finish it. It was a mess in the hall and in the bathroom. All in all, quite the surprise to come home to. I got the boys ready for church and sent them with my parents. Joe and I crashed for about 8 hours. It was a fun trip and I am glad that we went.