Thanks to the nice gentleman at the garage sale

Today I took Joseph and Samuel to a few garage sales. I did it because it was a nice morning and I wanted to let Joe sleep in. We found a couple of garage sales. I bought some Rescue Heroes for Joseph and Samuel to play with. The last garage sale we went to, they had a ride on toy. It was a garbage truck that makes noise and can become a wagon of sorts to transport stuff. The lady at the garage sale was asking $10. I had $4 left. I asked if she would be willing to take $4 for it, kind of expecting no for an answer. She did say it was hardly played with and that she couldn't take an amount so low. Joseph was pulling it around. I told him to put it back and we started to leave. A nice older gentleman talked to the lady and then called us back. He paid the lady $5 and I gave her $4. I was shocked that a complete stranger would do something so nice. He explained that he wanted to spend a little money and that he saw my boys having fun with it and wanted to help them have it. It made my day and it made Joseph's day. Samuel was smiling and babbling, so I assume it made his day too. :) Thanks again.

A day on the farm and a day with dinosaurs

Yesterday Joseph's class had a pool party. I knew it was going to be a cooler day and I didn't want to take the boys into an outdoor pool. I told Joseph that instead, we would go to the dinosaur museum and to farm country at Thanksgiving Point. Here are some pics from our day.


Joseph didn't want to ride a pony, so we opted to go on a wagon ride. Joseph was all smiles. He was a little disappointed because we couldn't get quarters to feed the animals.


Joseph and Samuel enjoying the nice breezy wagon ride. You could see the storm clouds slowly rolling in. We got into our car right before it started to rain.


Samuel and Joseph played in the jail playhouse. They ran around in circles till we were ready to go on our wagon ride.


While at the museum, we played in the digging area. Samuel investigated the sand. In this picture, he was letting it slide down his hands and arm. By the end of our time playing, hew was covered in sand. I had to brush him off as best I could.


Here is Samuel throwing the sand. He was laughing as he did it.


Samuel enjoyed this part of our visit the most.


His day wouldn't be complete without tasting the sand. I couldn't snap a picture of the face he made right after. He worked on spitting it out as fast as he could. :)


Here is my little scholar studying megalodon.


Walking into the prehistoric sea creatures area. Joseph stood by his little brother's side.


Joseph's other best part of the museum, the water and sand erosion table. We built a huge damn and then let it collapse. Samuel splashed in the water a little.

All in all, this was a fun day. I need to do it more often since we have our family pass. I guess that is what summer is for.

A nice walk and snow today

This is a picture from this morning. It snowed maybe an inch today. Since I have lived here, I have not seen snow this late in the spring. Joseph enjoyed it, as did Samuel.


Joseph climbing a rock in Rock Canyon.


Here I am trying to get Samuel to throw a rock into a stream. He liked the walk.


Samuel hanging out in his carrier. He chatted on the way down as I carried him. Joseph carried him up.


A picture of mommy, daddy, and Samuel courtesy of Joseph. I think he struggled a bit. ;)

Quote:

Joseph (giggling to himself and sounding sheepish): "I thought that was Jesus, but it was just a tree."

Samuel: "Bed."

Babysitting a little princess (aka Eliza)

A week ago we were able to babysit for some friends. Their little girl Eliza is really cute. Joseph loved having her around...Samuel on the otherhand found her intruding upon his territory. We walked to the library in the hopes of helping her take a little nap. Here is Joseph helping a pill bug get to safety in the grass.


Samuel got to sit in Joseph's seat on the Joovy caboose. He liked it a lot. Of course, when Joseph got tired, he would try and stand. Samuel was okay with it the first couple of times, but towards the end, he would headbutt Joseph in the stomach and growl at him.


Eliza crawling to play with Samuel. He would get very protective of his toys with her. Also, if he saw mommy or daddy holding her, he would come over and whine till one of us would carry him. He would then stare down Eliza. Little stinker. :)


After a long day, Samuel fell asleep. He is a cutie even though he can be tempermental at times.

And so concludes another week...almost

This week is almost over. I don't know what are plans are for the weekend, but we might go camping. Samuel is walking everywhere now. He still loves to climb stairs and he really loves his cookie puzzle piece. He likes to sleep with it and gets very excited to hold it. It is so fun to hear him chatter with himself in the morning and to see how excited he gets at seeing us in the morning. Another new favorite thing of his is to attack daddy. He loves his daddy a lot. It is the one word that he says consistently without any pleading or cajoling. He laughs a lot and smiles a lot, especially with his big brother. Joseph makes him laugh a ton. It is fun to hear them in the room laughing. One thing he tries to mimic is juggling. I usually hum a circus theme song and juggle a few things. He grabs it in his hand and makes a noise that sounds like my circus theme song and rolls the item between his hands.

Joseph is still a funny kid. This summer we are going to work hard on getting him to read on his own. He says that he can do it in his head just not outloud yet. Today we had a conversation with him telling him that I would probably be going back to work. He said that I could for a bit, but that I needed to stop so I could stay home with him and then if they asked me to work again, I could say no. He likes to play a "powers" game with the kids. He has items that have powers that can destroy enemies. With the aforementioned juggling, I have found Joseph also mimicing the circus theme song and throwing things in the air to entertain Samuel. Samuel finds it very amusing and laughs a lot.

Crazy weather

The weather has been sort of crazy the past spring. It snowed up until a couple of weeks ago. There was snow on the ground in May for a number of days.







Joseph at his last soccer game. It was snowy, cold, and windy so they called the game early. Joseph had more fun running around trying to catch snow in his mouth than actually paying attention to the game. :)

Conversation (one sided):

Joseph (speaking to daddy): "You like to sleep all day on Sunday. You need to learn to eat bananas and you need to learn to eat breakfast."

Singing

Joseph (singing in his off key little way) : "Talking 'bout it, talking 'bout it, talking 'bout moving...gotta move on."
Me" "Won't you take me to a Funky town?"
Joseph: "It's my best song."

Observation:

***note...the original conversation occurred in the bathroom while Joe was showering and Joseph was at the toilet peeing. He did the motions as he explained.***

Tio Blas

My Tio Blas passed away this morning. He passed on in his sleep and is finally at rest. He is finally free from the pain and addiction that were part of his life. It has been a year since I last saw him and my heart, love and prayers go out to all of my family who are saddened by his loss. He was a son, a brother, a father, an uncle, and one cannot forget that he was a child of God. I know the hurt and pain are so fresh and tender for you. It might not help, but I pray that these words will offer you some comfort. Tio Blas can finally return to the Father that created and loved him. He is always present and aware of his children, especially at times of loss and sorrow. My tio tried hard to laugh away the pains and memories. He laughed loud and often and he will not soon be forgotten by his loved ones. Please know that our Father in Heaven loves you too and wants to comfort you. There is a song that I love to sing, and though I can't get the tune written down, here are some of the words:

Heavenly Father are you really there, and do you hear and answer every child's prayer? (there are lots more words, but I wanted to write the chorus for you)
Pray He is there, Speak He is listening, you are His child, His love now surrounds you. He hears your prayers, He loves the children, of such is the kingdom, the kingdom of Heaven.

Your prayers were to probably have Tio Blas with us for more time, that he wouldn't die. It is not always easy to understand why our Father would take away our loved ones. I know that our Heavenly Father's love now surrounds you. In the quiet times of hurt and mourning, if you saye the words to the song above, or even just ask, you will feel the peace that only our Father can give.

Tio, I know that you are finally resting from a life that was not always easy. I will always remember your smile. I love you.

My boys

Joseph right now:
-loves dinosaurs still. He often pretends that we are different dinosaur families. Currently, we are a spinosaurus family.
-loves berries still.
-enjoys coloring and is getting very good at it.
-likes to draw. He has a notebook with a plethora of pictures.
-loves to play with his little brother. This often entails taking a toy away from him and thus having Samuel cry.
-loves to read books. We are working on getting him to recognize words.
-likes playing soccer. He still is not very aggressive, but he likes to run around.
-is a picky eater. I think he could live off of pb&j sandwiches, mandarin oranges, peaches, dinosaur oatmeal, and pasta and never complain.
-likes to show us new things that he learns to do.
-shouts out in a Turrets like manner everytime he sees the U.S. flag. He will stop mid conversation and yell "United States of America Flag!!!"
-likes to gather toys and other things and make piles of them in random places.
-is a very affectionate little boy that smiles a lot and likes to help mommy. The other day he swept the floor to help me.
-likes to ask for things for Christmas. If we don't get him something, he says, "Santa will bring that for me for Christmas."
-loves going to the library and checking out books and movies.

Samuel right now:
-loves peas and cheese.
-loves to talk lots and laugh a lot. He still doesn't say many words but he is working on it.
-says and signs "all done." He signs more. He likes to wave his hand in front of his face for stinky. He does the sign for drink.
-waves "hello" and "goodbye."
-likes to walk around unassisted and has even learned to fall on his butt and not cry.
-enjoys being tickled and having blowfish kisses on his belly. He blows air out of his mouth when he wants you to give him more on his bare belly.
-likes to be chased and giving high fives.
-likes to pant and make chomping actions with his mouth.
-loves to climb on anything, especially stairs.
-loves to carry around his "cookie" or anything in his hands all of the time.
-enjoys pulling toys away from his big brother.
-is a super light sleeper. He is good at getting himself to sleep, but we have to be very quiet because he wakes up all the time.
-loves his baths.

The pitter patter of little feet

I was sitting at the computer looking at my emails, when I heard from the kitchen, "pitter, patter, pitter, patter..." I stood up and here came Samuel from the bedroom. He was walking all by himself. He started to get a little more courage when Grandma Rankin was visiting and has really done a great job since then. He tries to walk everywhere. That makes me nervous because the basement we live in is all tile.