Stop beef!!!

I found a game called Slamwich at DI. It is for ages 6 and up, but I thought maybe I could get Joseph to understand a litle bit of how to play. Well, it is currently his new favorite game. He is especially good at the stopping the thief, or beef, as he calls them. For those of you have ever played egyptian ratscrew, this is the same game, only with sandwich cards. Here are a few of Joseph's other favorite things:

Favorite places to go: museums and toy stores
Favorite food: dinosaur oatmeal
Favorite dinosaur: velociraptor

As for Samuel, we have done only 2 feedings the past couple of days. Over the next couple of days, I will stop the morning feeding. We did find a sippy cup that he likes.

Nibbling Samuel

So lately Samuel has taken to the fact that he can use his teeth. This morning he bit my shoulder while I was trying to put on his jacket. He also has decided that when he has finished breastfeeding that he will signal by biting down. OUCH!!! It has only happened a couple of times. I have decided that if it happens again, he is going cold turkey and will not get anymore of mommy's milk. I have been trying to wean him and have decreased his feedings by half. For the past few days, he has been a very cranky baby. He does not appreciate the decrease at all.

Going private

For those of ya'll that read our blog, we are going to go private. If you want access to our blog, please send me your email address and let me know. It can be in the comment section or send me an email. Thanks! :)

Just a quick Joseph conversation from last night:

Mommy: "Why am I so lucky to have you and Samuel?"
Joseph: "Because Jesus sent us to you."
Mommy: "Yes he did send ya'll to us."
Joseph: "We need to be ready to meet Jesus."
Mommy: "Where did you learn that?"
Joseph: "In sunbeams."
Mommy: "How do you get ready to meet Jesus?"
Joseph: "Get a suitcase or something."

My little lollipops

Well, my boys are short, skinny and have big heads. Samuel had his 1 year check-up today. He weighed 20.04 pounds (12th percentile) and is 29.25 inches long (34th percentile). His head is in the 98th percentile for size. We get to go back at 15 months to see if he is gaining any weight. The doctor isn't too concerned because he thinks genetically that my boys might be more like me. I hope that he is wrong and that they will have daddy's height in the future...or at least close to it. They checked Joseph's height and weight as well. The doctor wanted to see if he would grow more between now and his last birthday. He was 38.5 inches tall (8th percentile) and weighed 33.5 pounds (20th percentile). The doctor isn't too concerned but wants me to give them more fatty foods like whole milk yogurt, carnation instant breakfast in their milk, peanut butter, avocados, and chips (sparingly).

Snow day

Joseph loves playing in the snow. It snowed on Friday, so on Saturday, Joseph was very excited to go and play outside in the snow with the kids.
Joseph sporting one of daddy's old snowsuits. It is a little small for him, but it is all we have.

Joseph is very excited to play in the snow in this picture. He also went outside on Sunday.

Busy day and other bits of our life

Yesterday we were out of the house most of the day. Joe hasn't been feeling well, but he needed to work from home. To allow him to do so without our little boys distracting daddy because they love to play with him, we went to do stuff all day. Before we went to lunch we went to DI. I am trying to find some chairs for our table. It is not serious looking, but more trying to find a style that I like.
What we did find was a dinosaur that Joseph has been wanting for ages. He didn't have this one and it was not a bad price, so I decided to get it for him. He was very excited (as you can tell from the picture). He asked me to take a picture of it. We then went home and I cooked us some lunch.
I didn't realize that Samuel was so tired. We were at DI looking at children's books and I noticed that Samuel's heading was bobbing back and forth. He was falling asleep in the cart sitting up. I decided to lay him down inside the cart. As you can tell, he didn't wake up. He has had a cough and is so congested...poor cute baby boy.

After lunch we went to the Paleontology Museum at BYU. I let Samuel crawl around. When we got there, there were a lot of kids that were running around and screaming and chasing each other. I was disappointed that the mothers didn't even try to stop them. Here are my boys next to a triceratops skull. This museum is a little smaller but it has a lot to offer.

Samuel and Joseph under a sauropod (don't remember which one). Samuel enjoyed crawling around and exploring the museum. He is still afraid to try and walk. Maybe soon?

My boys with an apatosaurus pelvis bone. Samuel loved that he could touch so much. After we left here, we went to the Museum of Art at BYU. They had some cool exhibits, but people aren't allowed to take pictures. Samuel fell asleep while we were walking around. We dropped by the BYU bookstore to see if we could find a coloring book with dinosaurs...no such luck. We finally came home around 4 in the afternoon. It was a fun and busy day. Our FHE was fun as well. Grandpa Nunez was with us because his family was out and about. We played memory and Joseph won. :)

Happy 1st birthday Samuel!!!

Happy 1st b-day to our cute little guy Samuel! He is one and so full of life. It is fun to see how much of his personality is established. He weighs a little over 20 pounds, but we don't have his official 1 year appointment for another few days.
In his pjs. He loves to walk around furniture but is still very hesitant to let go and try and take some steps.

Him in his birthday "suit." He just looked cute so I took some pictures.

Birthday mess. He had a small cake that we put a candle on and sang to him. As you can tell he demolished the cake and tried it after 3 minutes of destroying in it. He then pushed it onto the floor and laughed.

Here he is riding in style in his little cozy coupe. He thought it was fun when I pushed him around in it and he held on to the steering wheel. Here is a brief synopsis at 1:

-says "dadadadada (his first real sound)," "mamamamama," and "babababa"

-loves harvest vegetables but not peas or green beans

-loves bananas and other fruits

-loves baths

-loves to crawl and play with his big brother. He laughs and laughs when he interacts with Joseph.

-loves walking along furniture

-loves crawling up stairs and into bathrooms

-dislikes naps and getting to bed

-loves when daddy plays with him

-loves to act shy around people that talk to him

If I think of more, I will write it later.

I want to dance

I miss it. Country, ballroom, salsa...whatever. I want to dance.

Haircuts and retro Samuel

After...Samuel's hair is so much shorter and lighter. He is wearing one of daddy and Jeff's old outfits.
Before...in another one of daddy's old outfits. Look how long his hair was.

Before...a very excited Joseph. He was getting an octopus after this haircut.

After...he looks like a whole new boy. We joked with him that kids wouldn't recognize him at school because he looks so different.

Hives

Since Monday, Samuel has been breaking out in hives. We don't know what is causing them. If his skin gets agitated in any way, a hive appears. They have been coming and going for 6 days now. Poor kid.
They are not only on his face. They are all over his little body.

After sleeping for 3 hours on this side of his face, he woke up with a large read area on the side of his head. I hope they go away soon. We have been giving him benadryl to help. It helps a little, but before he can have another dose, he gets more.

Fun outing

Today we went out for a day with Olga and her husband, Paul. We met at the dinosaur museum and were there for a couple of hours before we went to their house for lunch. Olga is a professor at UVU and we got to know each other while I worked at UVU. She is awesome and we love her a lot. It was also nice to get to know Paul. He and my husband found out they both studied geography.
The boys digging in the sand pit. Another little boy got sand in Samuel's face. Samuel got sand in Joseph's mouth. Daddy and his boys on the protoceratops. Joseph's favorite place to take pictures.

Playing basketball. Joseph showed Olga what she needed to do. Joseph was very sad when we had to come home so Samuel could nap (a 3 hour one). Thanks Olga and Paul!! It was really nice to spend time with ya'll. We will have to do it again soon. :)

35th wedding anniversary celebration

My parents celebrated their 35th wedding anniversary. Crazy. They have been through a lot of things together and have made it this far. I am so proud of them. It has been a rough go, but there have been plenty of good times too. They have learned to work together (for the most part). I didn't get a good picture of them together. It was a country western theme even though they wanted to dance more salsa and meringue. Here is our little family.

I am dressed in a western outfit. There was plenty of bbq brisket and stuff to eat.

Cowboy Joseph. He was so excited to wear cowboy boots (little Justin ropers).

Country grandma with Samuel. He didn't have boots or a western outfit (I later saw some at Gymboree). Joseph wanted to dance with Kayla and mommy. There were some other little girls there and he tried to dance with them, but they ran away from him. One of the parents yelled at Joseph and told him to stop chasing one of their kids. He is little and still learning boundaries, so I was disappointed to learn that they had done that (I was home putting Samuel to bed and Alison and Ryan were there with him).

V is for velociraptor

At preschool on Wednesday, Joseph and his class learned about the letter V. I was telling him some words that started with V and I told him that velociraptor started with V. He wanted to draw one. I told him that he should draw a circle for the head. He drew it. Then I told him to draw a larger circle for the body. He drew it too. He then drew the 2 legs and feet with the large claws that tell you it is a velociraptor. He drew the arms with claws on his own. He drew the eyes and nostril holes. He wanted me to help him with the teeth. I told him to draw little triangles. He then added the teeth. Joe was impressed because he drew this all on his own with verbal instructions. It looks like a velociraptor. I was impressed as well.

What we almost gave to Savers...

Our wedding proofs CD. That would have been so sad. We had a small stack of CDs in a storage case and we didn't need them anymore. My parents had a 35th wedding anniversary celebration yesterday and I was in charge of getting music. I decided to look through the CDs to see if there were any good songs. When I found the wedding proofs CD, I was grateful that I had looked through them before I had taken a lot of stuff to Savers.

Teeth

The better to bite you with!!! And boy does he try. It looks like he has a large gap between his two top teeth. I will try to get one of his huge smile. :)

Dinosaur museum

I never pay attention to how I load the pictures and thesea re in backwards order. We went to the dinosaur museum on Monday with some friends. Joseph was excited to see them because it has been awhile since we last saw them.
Here they are unearthing dinosaurs with brushes. Samuel enjoyed crawling around in it and throwing it as well.

Samuel likes this part of the museum. When we had to leave, he was very upset with me for taking him away. Last time we came with Joe, he liked playing here as well.

Joseph with Bryan in this picture. Joseph likes to squint in all of his pictures now. It is hard to get one of him that isn't squinty or that doesn't look like his in pain.

Playing with gears together. In the middle is Matty, Bryan's younger brother. Joseph loves to spend time with both of them.

This basketball hoop is an easy shot without the glasses, but with them on, they mess with your perception and make it difficult to shoot straight. We had a lot of fun and are glad that we have a family pass to the museum. We've gone a lot more and because it is free for us (thanks SirsiDynix), we can go more often.

Bath time

Samuel loves bath time and enjoys splashing the water. The only downside is that he throws a tantrum when you take him out. What a cutie!

Just so I remember

Samuel had his first taste of homecooked food tonight. I used my food grinder to grind carrots, roast and rice. He like it. He crawls everywhere and is close to being brave enough to walk. At the moment, you can see him trying to figure out ways to walk around. If you hold out your arms to him, he reaches then pulls back and looks for a minute and tries to get closer and then reaches again. He is so dang cute and loves to laugh. Also, yesterday he picked up a teething cookie on his own and gnawed on it. It is hard to get him to eat food or drink from a bottle or sippy cup because he refuses to hold it on his own.

Joseph is fun as well. Today he played with moon sand for a long time. Every night we go through this routine for bed and have the following conversation:

Mommy: "Joseph, try and pee before bed."
Joseph: "I don't need to go to the bathroom."
Mommy: "Just try. If I am right then you will go to the bathroom, if I am wrong, you won't."
Joseph goes to the toilet and then pees. He starts to laugh and smile and say:
Joseph: "You were right and I was wrong."

Sometimes he adds a "silly me." He is fun and learning his alphabet. He can count to 12 on his own and knows how to right his name.

Christmas

Christmas was great this year. It was fun to be home and with my little family on Christmas morning. Santa came and left us many great gifts. We were blessed to have Uncle Esteban come into town for Christmas this year. It will probably be our last with him before he gets deployed to Iraq sometime in the near future.
Joseph next to the tree on Christmas morning. Santa had come and left a lot of gifts. Our tree looked so nice.

Us next to our tree after presents were opened. You can see lots of them to the left of us. Don't we look so great. It was funny to hear Joseph on Christmas morning. We could hear him exclaiming about different gifts that he could see.

My two cute boys with mommy. This is before we opened gifts. Joseph was soooooooooooo very excited. He could hardly contain himself for this picture. Samuel is disgruntled because his big brother woke him up before he was ready. :)

Santa came to town!!!

Joseph wanted a picture of himself in front of the tree before Santa came. I think he snuck into this picture before I took one of everything.

Pics from the past few weeks

We have spent the past couple of weeks downsizing. It is one way to minimize costs so I can stay home with the boys. Here are some pictures from the past few weeks.
Samuel and Joseph enjoying the empty toy cupboard. Samuel and Joseph closed the doors (mainly Joseph) to stay in their "house." I love Joseph's crazy hair in this picture.

We went to the dinosaur museum for FHE a couple of weeks ago. I forgot my camera. :( It would have been fun to take pictures of all of us there. Samuel enjoyed crawling around the museum and Joseph enjoyed building a dino with daddy.

Samuel loves rocking on the dinosaur that was in his big brother's room. It is fun to watch just how excited he is about rocking back and forth. When you stop rocking, he tries to do it himself. This picture was taken right before Joseph let go and Samuel fell of the dino. Aunt Alison and Uncle Ryan managed to get this super cute shot before it did. You can't see Samuel's 2 front teeth, but I will try and get a pic of just how cute they are.

After our first really big snowstorm, Joseph was ready to go outside and tackle the snow. We bundled him up and he spent a ton of time throwing his dinosaurs in it as well as throwing snowballs at daddy.

Mommy and Samuel. He loves to crawl over to me when he is tired. He grabs my arm and pulls it towards him so that I get the hint that he is ready to be picked up. If I am walking and he is tired, he crawls after me and will bump my leg to get my attention. What a cutie!