Rankin Ramblings

Great Brain

2012-01-05T22:09:00.002-07:00

Joseph has an ongoing project at school called a Great Brain project. It allows students to choose something they want to study about and do a project on it. Joseph chose the ocean. We created a diorama of the layers of the ocean with creatures that live in the different zones. He was so excited to present it at school. His teacher was impressed that he remembered everything by himself, because usually parents help their kids present. Oops. I guess I didn't get that memo. I will post pictures of his project later. Now he wants to do one on the human body.

Planets

2012-01-05T22:07:00.001-07:00

Samuel likes to look at the stars and has done so often. I pointed out Jupiter in the sky to him. The other night we were out and about and he pointed up and said, "There is Jupiter." I looked in the direction he was pointing and sure enough, he was right. Maybe he will be an astrophysicist.

Our family

2012-01-01T13:19:00.004-07:00

Life is crazy. I had a great birthday and had tons of fun with my family. I got a call that my uncle passed away yesterday. It is just a reminder to me that life goes by fast.

Joseph is a great kid. We love him so much. He is a very sensitive little boy. I told him about kids that had no families, food, and that were alone in the world. He started to cry because he wants them to have a family. He has been praying for that every night. Today in sacrament meeting he started to cry. I asked what was wrong. He said that he loved me so much and didn't want to be without me when he died. I told him that our family can be forever and that I was doing everything I can so that all of us can be together. It was also a good moment to stress choosing what is right and doing good things. He is also very funny. Because he is learning to read, he knows the sound "ch" makes. When were we preparing Christmas cards, he said, "Why is it Christmas, shouldn't it be Christmas (pronounced "ch"ristmas)?" He then started to sing "We wish you a merry "ch"ristmas, we wish you a merry "ch"ristmas." Joseph had a "swell" Christmas, as he likes to say.

We watch a show called Phineas and Ferb and they have a pet platypus, Perry. Perry is a secret agent and fights a bad-guy named Dr. Doofenshmurtz. He makes all kinds of -inators to take over the "tri-state area." Well, Joseph and Samuel got Perry the Platypus socks for Christmas. Joseph laughed and said, "Dr. Doofenshmrutz must have built and sock-inator and turned Perry the Platypus into socks!" Cute boy.

Samuel used the bathroom for the first time yesterday in his frog potty. He was so happy he smiled at us. Maybe he will be keen on trying some more today. He got some castle blocks and likes to build elaborate structures. He still is a very light sleeper. He is a cute kid and we love him! He likes to talk about lots of things and then he laughs like crazy. Joseph and I play a game called the "so hungry" game. Basically you say you are so hungry you could eat a ________________ (fill in the blank). Joseph usually wins because he says he can eat the universe. I was in the car with Samuel running an errand while Joe and Joseph were at home. He started to play the game with me without prompting. He said, "I so hungry I could eat the tree." I laughed and played along and said I was so hungry I could eat a truck. He then said, "I so hungry I could eat mountains and clouds." He laughed as we played. It was nice to have one on one time with him.

Joe's first day is Tuesday. We will see how it goes.

To clarify

2011-12-18T09:56:00.003-07:00

Last Sunday, Joe got a call from his former CFO. The CFO had a new position and wanted Joe to come in and discuss it. Joe had another interview for a financial analyst position the same day. Anyways, long story short, he took a job with his old company with another pay increase and it sounds like Joe will like the job a lot. Yeah...I have conceded the fact that we are probably in Utah till Joe retires. He was working towards GIS certification, but when opportunity calls, I guess you don't pass it up. ;)

Samuel's black eye came as a result of big brother. They had been running in the living room. I asked them to stop (which they did). As soon as I got in the bathroom, I heard a loud cry. Joe and I came in and Samuel had a large goose egg next to his eye. Joe sat down with Samuel and I got some frozen veggies to put on it. It helped with the swelling. I spoke to Joseph who was awfully quiet and sitting on Samuel's bed what happened:

Mommy: "Joseph, what happened?"
Joseph: "mumble, mumble, mumble" (softly so I couldn't hear)
Mommy: "Joseph, what happened?"
Joseph: "mutter, mutter, mutter" (a little louder but not discernible)
Mommy: "Joseph, what happened?"
Joseph (exasperated): "I grabbed his legs and he tripped and hit the coffee table."

Samuel is quite conversational these days. He talks about all kinds of things and lets his opinion be known.

Last night (since I started this post last week or something) we went to the Riverwoods with my friend Olga. We met Santa and walked around all the lights. The boys had a good time. It is cold here, but there is no snow. The boys got snow suits last winter and still have yet to use them. There has not been a lot of snow though it has been very cold.

I finished wrapping the gifts last night. Now I have to fend off 2 little boys that are super excited for Christmas. Joseph thinks there are hundreds of presents under the tree. He and Samuel keep looking at them.

I also signed Samuel up for Smart Start Basketball. When I told him, he got so excited. He made a "ooooooooh" noise and smiled. I think he will be confused when he realizes he is not going to be playing soccer.

Tidbits

2011-12-16T23:07:00.002-07:00

-Joseph lost his first tooth this week. He know believes in the tooth fairy.
-Samuel got his first black eye courtesy of big brother grabbing his legs and causing him to hit the coffee table.
-Joe got a job in Lehi (looks like we are in Utah for a long time to come...maybe even till retirement).

To catch up...kind of

2011-10-23T22:28:00.010-06:00

I thought the boys looked so cute I had them pose for pictures. Joseph likes to pose more than Samuel. Joseph was ready to be done and Samuel liked being outside.

My cousin Leslie was in town last week. It was great to see her. She looks great for being a grandma. She is only a year older than I am.

Fall colors and Joseph. We went up to Sundance last weekend to take in the nice weather and beautiful colors. It was a fun time.

Joe and Joseph walking along the mountain trail.

Yesterday we carved pupmkins. We as in Joe did all the work. They look pretty cool. Joseph chose a large pumpkin that weighed over 30 pounds and Samuel chose a green one. Joseph's is in the middle, Samuel's on the right and Joe's Jack Skelington on the left. They look great lit up.

We have been busy. Joe is working on GIS stuff and is starting to apply for jobs. I have been super busy trying to balance everything. I have class till late on Mondays, so I spend about 30 minutes with the boys before they go to bed. At least we have the whole bed time routine mostly down.

Joseph is doing great at school. He is reading more and more each day and is sounding out words pretty well. He laughed when we looked at the word "know" and he started to sound it out. I told him it was a word that didn't follow any rules like he knows and that it is pronounced like "no." He is sooooo excited to have his birthday party next weekend. It is a Halloween costume party. We made a bean bag toss for it and just have had fun getting ready for it. Thanks Uncle Ernest, Aunt Lydia, Elena and Brandon for Joseph's card. To quote Joseph: "I got cash." :)

Samuel is in a phase where he constantly wants medicine. He explains: "My throat is burning and really hot...I need medicine." I don't want him to have medicine all the time, so I started to give him a placebo. I bought Tylenol that is shaped like candy. Once he took it a couple of times, I substituted the Tylenol with Smarties. It worked just as well for the most part. Now his newest thing is that he wants "tums for my tummy." He is also comes to sleep in our bed early in the morning because "mommy is scared."

Yesterday I took the boys to a chemistry week activity at the library. Joseph and Samuel enjoyed it a lot. They made giant bubbles, watched hydrogen explode, a can collapse, a super saturated liquid recrystallize, a liquid that changed colors by itself, pulled rope, watched a balloon collapse in liquid nitrogen and blow up by itself, and watched a vacuum make a marshmallow expand and collapse once the vacuum was turned off. They LOVED it. Samuel was telling everyone: "The marshmallow got bigger and bigger, then it crumpled." He made the hand motions as he explained it.

Car conversation

2011-09-24T21:03:00.004-06:00

Today as we were going to the store:

Samuel: "I looking for temple."
Mommy: "The temple is not over here."
Joseph: "My teacher told me that if you get married at your house you are not married forever, but if you get married in the temple, you will be married forever."
Mommy: "That is why you need to get married in the temple."
Samuel: "I am going to get married."

At the grocery store all was going okay till we got to the checkout. I don't know why, but Samuel decided that he would bite Joseph's shoulder. He hasn't really bitten anyone, so it was a surprise. Joseph screamed. Samuel apologized and gave Joseph kisses on the shoulder where he bit him. It was a strong bite. After we got home, I had Samuel tell daddy what he had done.

What did he tell Joe?

Joe: "What did you do?"
Samuel: "I eat Joseph shoulder."
Joe: "What did you do???"
Samuel: "I eat Joseph shoulder."

Later that night, Joseph "accidentally" locked Samuel in the bathroom as he was washing his hands. Joe had to take off the lock because Samuel did not know how to unlock it. Fun times. :)

Joseph and Samuel

2011-09-19T21:38:00.003-06:00

Joseph is really enjoying school and has enjoyed his homework so far. He does not like to trace letters, but all the tracing has helped his handwriting. He has made some friends at school and is excited to go every day. Samuel points out the school anytime we go by it. He is getting better about not crying when we take Joseph.

Samuel is a funny little boy. He likes to eat onions (I just can't relate). He also likes to dip things in his drinks to "clean them." For example, today:

Samuel: "OH Goodness. I need to clean my pepperoni (puts it in his milk)."
Samuel: "It is clean now (puts his hand in his milk and then proceeds to eat it)."
Samuel: "I need to clean my onion (repeat the above)."
Samuel: "It is clean (repeat above)."
Samuel. "Mmmmmm."

My sentiments...gross. At least he likes it.

Random Joseph quote

2011-09-13T21:01:00.002-06:00

I know that my Joseph is a thinker. He will often ask questions or make statements that are out of the blue. Tonight was one of those times. As we were driving back from football practice:

Joseph: "Marriage is hard, huh mommy. You have to work hard not to break up."
Mommy: "What makes you say that?"
Joseph: "It was just something I thought of."

I wondered why he mentioned this and he said that he had been thinking about it. I asked if he had friends with parents that broke up. He said no. He then said that he wanted our family to stay the same, with me as his mommy, Joe as his daddy, and Samuel as his brother. I hope he doesn't stress out about the what-if scenarios that I did as a child.

Homework

2011-09-06T22:01:00.001-06:00

Joseph was enjoying his homework before dinner. During his dinner prayer he said, "We thank thee for homework."

This was prior to his breakdown and not wanting to write any little a's.

Kindergarten

2011-09-05T17:38:00.005-06:00

Joseph started school on Wednesday!! He is having a great time so far and seems to be enjoying his teacher. He comes home excited and saying that he loves school. His teacher is really nice and he says he is making friends. There is a kid from his soccer team in his class and I visit teach a sister whose son is also in the class. Joe walks him everyday and picks him up.

What a handsome little kindergarten boy!

Samuel of course misses his brother and Joe says he screams when they drop Joseph off. Samuel's conversations now consist of him saying:

"I go school too."
"I need school supplies."
"I need go my class."

It is crazy that we have a child in elementary school. Time does not slow down at all!

Samuel's comment

2011-08-27T12:01:00.001-06:00

Samuel saw his picture and said, "Shhh. Quiet." I guess in this photo he was telling daddy to be quiet. Joe verified that is what Samuel was saying in this photo.

More pictures

2011-08-27T11:56:00.019-06:00

I figured out why I could not upload big batches of pictures. These are all from our Canon Rebel, but blogger did not want to load more than one at a time. As you can tell, there is no order to the pics. I just put some up.

My beautiful family at Amy's wedding in front of the Logan temple.

Mommy and Joseph dancing. He is a little jitterbug. :)

Ryan, Adam, my handsome Joe, and Grandpa Rankin.

I took off my shoes because my feet were killing me. I also took the kids off to the side where they would not be in the way of the pictures. I sang songs for them so they could run out some of their energy.

Samuel giving his big brother a hug. They love each other, even though they may get into a lot of little fights.

Samuel kissing the iguana at the zoo. He wanted to touch it. And yes, he did kiss the glass as Joe informed me. Gross.

The zoo had lots of dinosaurs and they scared Samuel. Samuel is clinging to grandma for dear life. :)

My mission president made a quick trip from work to the temple to say "hi." We chatted for a bit. It was fun to catch up.

These pictures wouldn't be complete without pics of the bride and groom. Here are Amy and Michael with Mom and Dad Rankin.

MacKenzie and Joseph playing at the temple fountain. They couldn't quite reach it, so they climbed up a little to touch the water.

Grandma came and stayed with us for a couple of weeks. She stayed to help out with the boys while Joe went back to New Jersey to help finish up the stairs he worked on this summer. She is sooo good with Samuel. He listens to her like he will not always listen to us. She is the Samuel whisperer.

Me and my boys. They are so cute and I love them so much. They were excited to be at the temple, even though they could not go in just yet.

Samuel Conversations:

2011-08-24T22:19:00.004-06:00

Mommy: "Did you have fun in nursery?"
Samuel: "Yeah."
Mommy: "Then why do you cry when I drop you off?"
Samuel: "I like mommy."

Mommy: "Samuel, your feet are dirty."
Samuel: "No, they are clean toes."
Mommy: "We need to give you a bath."
Samuel: "No, I clean. Joseph get bath."

Mommy: "Yellow car." (a game that they played a lot in Jersey with Chrissy)
Samuel: "I not play that game right now."

Samuel: "I have poopy." (what he says at bed time to prolong going to sleep)
Mommy (after checking his diaper): "You are clean. Go back to bed."
Samuel: "I fart. It poopy fart."
Mommy: "It was just a fart. You are still clean."
Samuel: "I want clean diaper."

Mommy: "Samuel. Do you want a little brother?"
Samuel: "No. I baby."

Picture Blog

2011-08-21T10:20:00.006-06:00

I discovered that there is a small splash park at the Riverwoods shopping center. Joseph would watch the timing and play with the middle fountains.

Joseph stacked these letters and they did not topple over. I was impressed. You can also see Samuel's tower in the back.

We have discovered that Samuel is quite the little architect. He built this on his own and does this often.

I came home from work one day and this is how I found Samuel. Grandma Rankin had tried to get him to nap, but after a couple of hours she gave up. Once he wasn't being forced to, he put himself down for a nap.

Samuel's super tall tower. He likes to build them as tall as he can, and sometimes has patience when it crashes. It fell after he placed the block after this.

Joe took the boys to a small museum in the middle of no where and this is Joseph posing as a frontiersman.

Daddy, Joseph and Samuel looking at fossils.

Joe, Joseph, and Samuel with Fred the Bison.

Just so you know, with work, it is hard for me to get on here as often as I used to and write. To catch up: Joe and the boys got back. Grandma came and stayed with us for a few weeks and Joe went back to New Jersey to finish a project he started. He came back this past Thursday, and his mom left the same day to go and be with Alison and Ryan. Amy got married. Here are some pictures from all those times in no particular order (Joseph is helping me choose them).

And we're back

2011-07-21T23:08:00.003-06:00

I met up with Joe and my boys in Denver a couple of weekends ago for my newest nephew's baby blessing. It is great to be back with them again and to see family. :)

Things are busy around our house. We are trying to get things organized for when Joe's parents come to stay with us for Amy's wedding. It is crazy that the summer has flown by. Joseph starts school this fall. He will be in kindergarten. Wow. Joe starts classes this fall at SLCC. Hopefully he will receive credit for some of his BYU courses for the certificate he hopes to get.

Samuel talks a lot. He also has a lot of attitude for a 2 year old. He continues to be a light sleeper like his dad. He and Joseph like to confront each other over the littlest things. Sometimes they are great together and other times, they are at each other's throats.

The other day we went through their old clothes. I was saving some for the future grandkids. Anyways, Alison is due soon, so we decided to contribute to their baby's wardrobe. Joseph got this sad look on his face. He said, "But I want to save some of these clothes for when I have babies." We saved a small bag full of clothes that he helped me choose.

The boys finished their summer reading program at the library and got a free book a piece. They are excited about it. Samuel loved that they gave him cinnamon bears as a treat. Both boys love to be read to and were super excited when we unpacked one box of their books from the storage unit. Joseph kept running out with different books and exclaiming that he remembered this book or that book. Samuel joined in and would carry books to the room. He mimics his older brother a lot.

Countdown

2011-06-26T21:51:00.003-06:00

In less than 2 weeks I will see Joe and the boys again!!! I am soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo excited. It is lonely without them around. I do get to read lots of books and now do homework with my intro to interiors class. It will be nice to have a car again too. It is nice to walk around to different places, but it has been so hot. Can I just say that I am grateful for Skype. I get to "see" my boys everyday. :)

Getting to New Jersey

2011-06-11T13:51:00.003-06:00

We made it to New Jersey last night at 8 p.m. It was a long 2 days, but we are here and we are safe. We didn't really stop too long anywhere and only slept for a few hours here and there, but the boys did surprisingly well, other than Samuel vomiting a number of times on our first full day and once yesterday. We are wondering if he is motion sick, but even if he isn't, our car smells like vomit. We are happy and excited to be here. I will be sad when I leave on Tuesday, but at least I will have a few days to relax before I leave and Joe and the boys stay. It will be sad to be away from them for a few weeks, but it will be good for them to be here and spend time with their other grandma and grandpa.

There was some crazy wind and some crazy thunderstorms during our drive. One flash of lightning blinded us for a few seconds as the thunder shook our car. We must have timed it perfectly. Can I say that currently, Iowa and Ohio are beautiful. I also love, love, love Pennsylvania.

and also...

2011-05-23T20:25:00.001-06:00

Samuel likes to eat raw onions and loves, loves, loves him some lemons (along with the rind).

End of the world

2011-05-21T12:29:00.002-06:00

I know that there is a religious group that predicted it would happen yesterday, but I am referring to Joseph right now. A couple of weeks ago, when Joe was watching the boys, they were watching soccer. Joe left the game on and then went to take a shower. While he was showering, the soccer game ended and a movie began. As Joseph described it, "it had a lot of shooting and it was about the end of the world." Well, Joseph had nightmares about it for a few days. We have talked to him about it and tried to get him not to worry about it, after all, he is 5. The night before the so called rapture was supposed to occur, Joseph said this in his prayer, "I ask that there won't be an earthquake and that the end of the world won't happen." So everyone can thank Joseph...though we made sure not to tell him that someone had predicted that yesterday would be the end of the world.

Speaking of prayers, Samuel repeated his first prayer the other night. I think he likes doing it because now he has started to repeat words when other people are praying. He is napping right now. Church is not at a fun time. :)

In a couple of weeks we are driving out to New Jersey so Joe can help his parents around the house. I will fly back and work while my boys and Joe are gone. I am going to be so alone without them till after their soon to be born cousin's baby blessing. :P Not much else is going on here. I need to go and cook dinner. I will post pictures of Joseph and Samuel's marker fight later on.

Catch up

2011-05-08T18:06:00.004-06:00

Yesterday we went to a safety check on our carseats. They had a firetruck. The boys got to sit inside, but we didn't have much time to get a good look around. Joseph is still in his soccer stuff. He is getting much better at playing the game and enjoying it lots. The team we played yesterday was a challenging one. The coach had someone in the box (not supposed to) and also had a few kids who were pushers. My kids did great. Joseph even got pushed from behind and fell hard on his knees. He got right back up and started running after the ball.

These are the Easter baskets that the Easter bunny left the boys. They were very excited. :) Easter was nice. We had fun hunting at a friends on Saturday and then with the fam on Sunday. This past week Joseph and Samuel both found a couple of eggs that were missed on Easter Sunday. It is funny because Joseph regulates how much candy he eats, but Samuel would probably eat until he makes himself sick. In fact, he asks for "dulce" quite often.

Samuel likes to push around strollers. This pink stroller is his friend's, Eliza's, and he will not let anyone else play with it if he is around. He loves to ask for her and wants to see her often. Aunt Amy was nice enough to take the boys to a hot tub and since then, they want to go more. She took them again yesterday with Uncle Michael and last night, Samuel found his swim diaper and walked around saying, "Samuel go swimming."

Samuel and Eliza "looking" for Easter eggs. Samuel ate every piece of candy after he found an egg, as you can see from the picture.

I took Joseph on a mini date. We had been telling lots of jokes, and I saw that Divine Comedy was doing their semester end show. I decided to take him. Well, it was crazy. They had 60 tickets available for a 7 o'clock show and then 60 more for their 9 o'clock show. Granted, this is in the evening, around Joseph's bedtime. Well, the line to get tickets for the 7 o'clock show was too long. I decided to take him to the 9 o'clock. Well, after waiting in line, we could finally purchase tickets. One of the workers said they had 1 ticket to the 7 o'clock show. I asked if I could have Joseph in my lap during the show. They said that would be fine. Then, instead of charging me for the ticket, they gave it to me. I asked if I could buy something so that we could be seated early versus waiting in the insanely long line that was still waiting to be seated. The lady who gave us the ticket walked us to the door and told the ticket taker to let us in. We got to sit right in front and we got to do it for free. To top it off, they were throwing out glowsticks. They had a huge ball of glowsticks. Joseph got up and was trying to catch it. The guy acted like he was going to throw it further back, but in the end, he tossed it to Joseph. All in all, I don't think Joseph got most of the humor, but we still had fun.

Here is a picture of daddy after Samuel finished decorating him. Samuel put each sticker in the spot he felt was best.

Last year, Joe took Joseph to Big Guy/Little Guy at the library. Joe said it was not very good, but Joseph really wanted to go again this year. It was a cowboy themed event, so Joseph wanted to wear this shirt. Here he is riding his horse.

Joseph also practiced lassoing the bull. All in all, he had a great time. He even told me that he learned to like mustard and ketchup together on burgers. All the kids got to choose one "free" book (you pay for 2 tickets to get in). Anyways, there were hard cover books and Joseph chose a Pokemon book that was paperback. He likes Pokemon because of a video game he has played. At least he liked it, right?

Life is starting to settle into a pattern of sorts, but we have so much to do. Happy mother's day to all of the wonderful women in the world who serve family and friends! Joseph and Samuel let me "sleep" in this morning. Joseph also gave me stuffed animal and had picked some dandelions for me. During one of the talks at sacrament, a sister was talking about how her little boy cups her face in his hands on almost a daily basis and says, "you are a good mommy." Joseph heard that and turned to me and said loudly, "I love you mommy!" Samuel then said, "I ruff you." Sweet moment.

Samuel to his pound puppy at bedtime:

2011-05-02T23:58:00.001-06:00

"Are you okay?"
"You sad."
"I love you."
"Hi. You soft."

It was so adorable.

...and we're back...Happy Easter!

2011-04-24T22:52:00.003-06:00

Happy Easter to all! It is great to remember that our Savior gave all of us a reason to hope. I am grateful for the atonement and for the opportunity to live with my family for time and all eternity.

We finally have internet at our house. With work and trying to keep up around here, I hardly have time for getting on the computer to blog. Just some updates:

The other day Joseph asked me what would happen if he couldn't make it in kindergarten. He was worried that he isn't smart enough. To make him feel better, I let him know that I couldn't count or anything when I went. He was appeased because many of the things that I didn't know how to do he does.

Their last week of daycare was last week. All of the teachers said that we have the sweetest boys. I agree, but part of me thinks that they just want us to keep them there. Joseph and Samuel will be staying with friends till Joe's job finishes on Friday.

Work has been keeping me super busy. I need to get back to updating student files, I just haven't had time. I have met a lot of prospective students and graduating seniors this past couple of weeks.

Random

2011-04-08T19:30:00.004-06:00

Funny tidbits:

Joseph: "What did BYU say to the U?"
Mommy: "What did BYU say?"
Joseph: "Give us your dollar money!"

Samuel as I am putting on hose for work and with a huge smile on his face:

Samuel: "Cool. Cool feet."

This morning, Samuel comes in carrying 2 triangle blocks:

Samuel: "Triangle. (putting the 2 blocks together) Look, square."

Samuel also likes to talk about himself in the 3rd person:

"Samuel stuffy."
"Samuel sick"
"Samuel go nigh-night."

If we are asleep and he wants us to get him something:

Samuel: "Samuel hurt down there. Samuel poopy."

He actually is not hurt and doesn't have poop, but once we are up he then says, "I want milk." What a little trickster.

Why am I still awake?

2011-03-31T22:50:00.002-06:00

It was a super busy day. Get the boys to a friends, go to work, work on some projects, go to an ME EN class, help students, go to Capstone lunch, go back to my office, help students, go to Capstone to look at projects, get my ID card, go to my office and work on projects, leave work to pick up kids, pick up kids and go to the library for Joseph's last class, go pick up Joe, put gas in the car, come home to get ready for the soccer game I am coaching, go to the store to pick up treats for my team, go to the game (we lost by a number of goals), get home and pick up gift and Samuel and go to a friend's baby shower, come home and give the boys a bath, get things ready for daycare tomorrow, get the boys to bed and now I am winding down. I need to get to bed.

Samuel

2011-03-27T11:03:00.002-06:00

Samuel talks a lot more. When I took him to the night clinic, he recognized that we were going to the doctor's office. As we walked to the room, he started to cry and say, "no doctor, no doctor." He cried and cried till the doctor left the room.

Every night, when I go to put him to bed, he says, "mommy lie down too." Yeah, I have to stay in bed till he is asleep.

Yesterday, he was indoors most of the day and then he said, "Go bye-bye." I took him to the library because we had a movie waiting on hold for us. We got the movie, checked it out and then I was trying to leave. He said, "No, go get book." We went to the children's library and he picked out a few books. After I gave him one of the books to look at it in the car, he said, "Like it book." I told him we were going to go to the store and he said, "go costco." We passed in-n-out and he said, "want french fries (dent dies)." Then he started to talk about "tatsup."

He is using his nails to "make line" in daddy's mouse pad. I asked if he was still sick, and he said, "no, Joseph still sick."

He recognizes the way to certain places. When I took Joseph to martial arts on Wednesday, as we made the turn in the direction the place is, he said, "karate class." I was practicing some stuff with Joseph yesterday and Samuel started to mimic it. He would kick and say "sa" which is what they say when they kick at the class. I am going to miss my cute boys everyday.

Coughing contest

2011-03-25T22:46:00.003-06:00

So last weekend I developed a sore throat and had a fever. Samuel seemed to have the same thing earlier this week. We have both been coughing a lot. Last night, Joe brought him to the room to sleep with me in the bed. He woke up around 1 or 2 amd wanted milk. I gave him some kid's tylenol and milk and then we both spent the next half hour coughing. Today we have been coughing a lot and on top of that, Samuel got a high fever. I took him in and he has an ear infection. Joe heard both of us coughing and said that it sounded like we were having a coughing contest. Those were my exact thoughts last night.

In other news, we went and signed the closing docs for our house. We should fund sometime next week. Also, I got a job at BYU as an undergraduate advisor for mechanical engineering. It should be a fun job. :)

2011-03-20T13:17:00.003-06:00

Here's a picture of Joe's family together. This is the first time in 2 years that all of the siblings have been at one place at the same time. I think it will happen again in July because Amy is getting married then. Kind of crazy to think that only Joe's youngest sibling will be unwed and that she is getting closer to graduating high school.

The Rankin cousins together. Notice that the only girls are Joe's sisters. Rankins are good at having boys. Maybe Alison will have another girl to add to the mix of grandchildren, seeing as Mackenzie is the only girl so far, and Adam and Meredith are having a boy this time around.

Samuel is talking more and more each day. He no longer says magilk and uses chocolate milk. He loves to race around on his "cycle." He is now in a big boy bed. Unfortunately, that means that he can get out of bed when he wants to. Last night he slept in bed with me; I just hope I didn't get him sick. He also says "stuck-ed" when something gets caught somewhere. He loves to sleep with Samson and Ribbit (his bear and frog), as well as piggy car. Samuel also has a sense of clothes that he likes to wear. His favorites are: a shirt that says stay cool, a hoody with a pumpkin, dinosaur socks, and pants.

Joseph is starting to take martial arts classes and is enjoying it. He also starts soccer in a couple of weeks. I get to coach his team...yeah, we will see how that goes. I have a training on Tuesday night and I have contacted all of his team members. We also registered Joseph for kindergarten at Provost Elementary.

We are closing on our house in the next week if all goes well. It will be nice to have our own place again.

Joseph quotes

2011-03-04T15:56:00.003-07:00

We were leaving our car with the dealership. The driver was bringing us home:

Joseph: "We live in the basement. If you want, you can come in and visit us." (I need to talk to him about inviting strangers into our house).

Yesterday after daddy left for PA:

Joseph: "I would be so sad if daddy passes out while he is gone." (Passes out means passed away).

In a prayer while daddy was gone:

Joseph: "Please bless that the time will pass super, super, super, super, super, super duper fast so we can see daddy again."

Great Grandpa Azro Goodwin Rankin

2011-03-01T16:55:00.004-07:00

Early Monday morning, we lost a beloved family member, Azro Goodwin Rankin. He was a remarkable man. I was so blessed to become part of his family. He welcomed me into the family with open arms. Joseph's middle name was to honor him, Azro, and Samuel also has part of his name, Goodwin. The brief time that I knew him, he was always so kind and gentle. It didn't take long to for him to make anyone around him feel like they were important. He recognized God's divinity within us and was a man of faith. He always wore his wedding band, even after losing his wife, honoring the love that he carried with him till he left this mortal life. He always wore a smile and laughter was an essential part of his character. Even when we saw him at Christmas in the hospital, he eased the pain of us seeing him there by making us laugh. We love you grandpa and know that you are reunited with your wife. We will see you again one day. Thank you for your life and example.

Up to date updates...

2011-02-27T09:01:00.002-07:00

News in our life:

-We heard back on the house that we are interested in buying. It is a nice cute home that has an unfinished basement for Joe to work on. All the schools are good from elementary to high school. A few nice things about the house: central air, newer windows, newer roof, new kitchen cabinets (even if the kitchen is a small eat in type), and a super nice landscaped fully fenced backyard with large garden boxes. We had a few offers in, but this is the one we are planning on. It is in southeast Provo and has an awesome view of the mountains.

-Joseph is really big into playing the wii. He loves to spend so much time playing, that we have had to put time limits on him, otherwise he would sit in front of it ALL day long. At first we told him 2 hours was his limit, but he felt it was too short, so he asked for 144 minutes. We told him he could play 120 minutes and that made him happy. :)

-Samuel is a little chatterbox. He likes to talk and is formulating sentences like crazy. Not all of them include proper verbage, but he is putting things together. It is funny because the other day, Joseph wanted a snack. I told them we had popcorn and Joseph said that would be a good one. Samuel heard we were having popcorn and he started to say, "popcorn and pickles." Yep, he is his mother's son. :) He loves to snack on pickles, just like his mommy. Right now he is walking around saying, "piggy car. hide it?" He can't find his piggy car because he hid it. I don't know where it is either. His favorite songs are the "itsy bitsy spider", "the abc song", "the snowman song", and "twinkle, twinkle, little star." He sings along. I need to record the abc song because he only does certain letters and then kind of grunts for others.

-I have read a lot of books on my nook. Some are free samples and others were free books. I read one called "Fools Rush In." It is a cute story with very religious sentiments. I read the second in the series which I purchased. It was a little farfetched in my opinion, but I liked it. I decided not to purchase the 3rd book and am going to check it out at the library. Joe said I could spend more money getting books, but I like owning the hard copies of books for a library of my own. It is super nice to have because I can read it in the dark. Lately I have had to lay down in the room with Samuel so he can fall asleep. It helps him settle in easier and now that I can read, I don't get irritated with the time it takes. I have also set up a mommy decoy in the room. It is a bunch of blankets set on Joseph's bed to look like I am in the room sleeping. It has worked for the most part and he has started to sleep through the night again. I think he is starting to get afraid of the dark.

-Joe is working ridiculous hours at work. They are hiring someone else, so that will be nice for him. He will hopefully get to be home more often at night and on weekends. He is keeping himself busy doing things at home. Samuel likes to sit with his daddy and he usually falls asleep on him if it is nap time. Joseph loves to share his video game passion with his daddy. It has been quite the bonding experience for both of them. :)

I am trying to take more pictures. I need to learn how to not be afraid of my rebel. It is soooooo nice and the pictures that it takes are awesome.

Long time no blog...

2011-02-16T14:52:00.003-07:00

Joseph at preschool during their Valentine's day lesson. He also got to make a magic 8 ball at the library. He was worried at first because he didn't want me to leave him, but he had a great time and is looking forward to going tomorrow again. They are making pancake people.

Samuel watching Joseph work in his maze book. He likes to do them.

Samuel playing with the toy that Aunt Amy gave the boys for Christmas. He was trying to get the car that went around and this was the face he would make when he would miss.

We are still trying to find the house that will suit our family best. Joe is working hard and long hours and I can't wait for him to have a little more free time. Joseph is excited to play with his daddy everyday on the wii. Joseph's favorite character on most games is Yoshi. Samuel likes to have a "troller" and he pretends to play too.

Our 8th anniversary was Monday. Amy and her friend Mike came over to watch the boys. Joe and I went to Thai Ruby for dinner. We got there early, so we didn't hit the Valentine's day traffic at the restaurant. We went to try and watch a movie, but there was nothing interesting enough for us to spend a lot of money on at the theater. We came home earlier than we anticipated and I got to put the boys to bed. Samuel is struggling with sleeping again and refuses to stay asleep if we try to lay him down on his own. We almost bought a washer and dryer but opted to wait till we have a house. I guess this is why I haven't really blogged, there is not much to say.

Samuel and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day...

2011-01-30T14:53:00.003-07:00

Yesterday was not the best day for Samuel. Apart from having a fever on Friday to starting a family prescription for whooping cough, he had a number of bad falls. I was outside cleaning yesterday and he went to the backyard with his grandpa. At one point, he slipped on ice and hit the back of his head (injury number 1). I checked him and then let him play some more. He and Joseph came to the front yard and started to run around. As he was running on the sidewalk, he tripped and face planted (injury number 2). He got a big goose egg and looked kind of like a klingon from Star Trek. The bruising is now turning into a couple of black eyes (I will post pictures later). I dislike head injuries because they make me worry. I checked his pupils and then watched his behavior throughout the day. He napped briefly about 45 minutes later in the day. Well, before his nap, he went to play with the kids upstairs and was running around. He stumbled and hit the side of his head (injury number 3). I checked him again and he seems okay. For all the bad stuff that happened, last night he was in a fairly good mood. He slept all night but now has a slight cough that started yesterday. I wonder if his equilibrium is off because he has a head cold...anyways. I hope that he won't have another day like yesterday. Poor kid.

Cute phrases and more from the mouth of a 2 year old (on the 20th)

2011-01-19T09:54:00.002-07:00

Samuel now says:

"Ewww...ewwww...dross." (gross for those who don't speak Samuelese)
"Cool." (That just started late last week, it is so cute to hear him say it)
"Wow."
"Read it book." (We have to work on word order)
"Moo." (If he sees pretty much any animal except a dog, snake and pig)
"magilk" (strange word meaning chocolate milk)
"Oopies" (I say oopsies a lot)

He is also very adept at yelling when not crying or screaming.

Santa gave him a teddy bear from Build-a-bear that is named Samson. He hugs it at night and gives it "tissies (kissies)" and says his name.

Other things he does:
-Likes to have his hands and feet traced. He then proceeds to say "happy" which means you need to draw a smiley face in it. He also likes you to do this with moons, hearts, and stars and then he will say, "happy moon" or "happy star" or...I think you get it. :)
-He likes to draw circles himself. He will then ask you to repeat the above action.
-Has an issue where he thinks that the world is his canvas and proceeds to color it as his little artistic eye sees fit (which means mommy needs to go and scrub the fridge or the floor).
-Loves to play with Joseph but likes to declare that everything is "mine" which frustrates Joseph at times.
-Enjoys it when daddy tickles him and will prepare himself for it.
-When it is time for bed he will run to daddy and try to stay in his lap.

Birthday present

2011-01-18T13:11:00.006-07:00

Joe got tickets for me and a guest to go to Guster. He didn't obligate me to take him, but I wanted him to come with me. :) I know he likes Guster just a little bit. It was this past Saturday at In the Venue in Salt Lake. It was a fun concert after the large lady in front of me moved down and I could actually see the concert.

My view for the first bit of the concert. I had to encroach on her personal space a bit so she would have to dance elsewhere. My plan worked. After she moved, the girl next to me that was also being blocked by the dancing woman, leaned over and said, "You can finally see the concert too!" Yeah.

The concert was enjoyable and I really liked the music. I recognize some Guster songs and it was fun to hear some of their new material. They are fun to listen to and they are fun to watch. Their stage interchange is entertaining. For instance, they had a new band member and the crowd was asking for a song called "bury me." Ryan Miller asked him if he had even heard of the song and he told them no. They then turned to the crowd and said, "we will play the song, but Luke has to sing it" and they did just that. He didn't know the words but made some up. During the encore, the Luke played a Red Hot Chili Pepper's song and Brian Rosenworcel sang to it. He sounded terrible, but it was funny.

Thanks to my husband for the nice night and thanks to Esteban for babysitting the boys. One of Joe and my first dates was to a Guster, John Butler Trio and John Mayer outdoor concert in Park City. Good times. :)

Back in Utah

2011-01-10T08:50:00.010-07:00

I have a lot to catch up on. Last week we flew home to Utah. Not that we really have a place to call our own yet, but we are trying to get back into a routine. The boys ended their trip in the same outfit they started it in. I thought it was cute and so did lots of people at the airport. After our flight back, a lady stopped us and said that I did such a great job with both boys alone on the plane. Can I tell you that I was disappointed that neither of my flights had a movie or tv. Joe's did. :P I had hoped to have some more on board entertainment. At least both flights we had our own row and the boys were pretty good. Joseph was so excited to get back to Utah because Santa left a picture of the presents he left for him in Utah. Once we boarded the plane, Joseph started to cry a lot. I asked him what happened and he said, "I don't want to leave New Jersey." It was cute. I am grateful that we were able to go.

Our boys were very excited to see the tree and presents when we got back from New Jersey. Some of Samuel's new words include: tree, stocking, Santa, and presents, plus open it. They learn young. :) At least he is saying "thank you" more often.

With Grandma Rankin on our last day in New Jersey. We got a picture of her with the boys and the collage that Joseph and I made. It turned out really nice and pictures just don't capture the thought Joseph put into the placement of the pictures.

Our last family home evening with Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt Chrissy. Joseph loves family home meetings and learned a new game.

Samuel playing with homemade play-dough. That is another new word. He wanted them rolled into a ball and then he would promptly squish them and want it rerolled into a ball to do it again and again.

Joseph and Grandma baking gingerbread cookies. We couldn't eat the ones on the house because they were too hard. These turned out super yummy. Joseph's favorite shape was the bear.

So this came after the one below. Joe noticed that the gingerbread house had gnaw marks on all of the kisses. We then noticed that Joseph had chocolate all around his mouth. You can guess the rest. Samuel enjoyed sucking on the candy. Joseph gnawed off more chocolate.

Notice all the little teeth marks. It was funny to find it this way.

Joe wanted me to include this picture. It is a face that Samuel gives Joe when he is about to do something he knows he shouldn't do.

Joe giving me a look as he is browsing through photo albums with his parents and the boys. I wonder where my boys get it? ;)

Samuel on top fo the table during a game of Mormon bridge. It is a fun game that we played with rook cards. Grandma Rankin is hooked on this game. Joe liked it too. We played it often. Samuel liked to help me by pounding his little fist with the number of bids he thought I should win.

Grandma, Chrissy and the boys watching Home Alone 2 in Cranberry, Pennsylvania. We went to visit Great Grandpa Rankin. He was in the hospital so we only saw him once briefly. I don't think he will remember that we were there to see him. We love him lots.

While we were in Jersey, a big snow storm came through. It snowed and left about 2 feet. They declared a state of emergency and closed the roads. We were eating dinner at Michael's house (Amy's boyfriend) and left right before the roads closed. On a sidenote, the dinner was amazing. Thanks to Michael's family. They are super nice and really good cooks. :)

Joseph with one of his presents on Christmas morning. The dragon and characters were from Grandma and Grandpa Rankin. The smile on his face was huge when he saw them. Samuel got some play food and a sandwich game. They both got pajamas which the boys enjoy.

Joe with some of his gifts. Joe's parents gave us the starting of a 72 hour kit. It is nice to have some stuff...now I just have to put packs together for all of us.

Samuel in front of the tree on Christmas morning. When I came out, he was saying, "presents, presents, open it."

Samuel helping Grandma bake. He was playing with the flour and repeating, "cooking, cooking." He likes to "help."

Here is a picture of the collage Joseph and I made. You will see that there is a little boy kneeling and looking at baby Jesus. There is a wreath around Mary and baby Jesus on another part. You can see wise men following the star to Jesus. The star is actually a snowflake that Joseph liked and said could be a star. You will notice Santa coming out of the temple plus lots more. Joseph "decorated" one of the trees on the collage. It has red ornaments. The word joy is in gold and Joseph said it was because of the song we sing at church (and he would sing it as he said it) "Joy to the world, the Lord is come."

Aunt Chrissy and Joseph with the completed gingerbread house before Joseph gnawed on it. They added the kisses.

Amy helped Joseph with the house before the kisses were added. Here is a before picture of it.

Ernest and Lydia with my niece and nephew. It was a lot of fun spending time with them. Joseph and Samuel enjoyed meeting their cousins for the first time.

These pictures are not really in order. This is a picture at a rest stop in PA. Ernest was meeting Joe's dad to give us back after our visit. :) Samuel and Joseph loved climbing the hill. Getting down was tricky, but they did it.

The cousins watching a cartoon together and snacking on popcorn. What cute kids!

Joseph, Samuel, Elena and Brandon helping Uncle Ernest collapse the bed in the morning. They were having a lot of fun as it rocked them back and forth, hence the reason it needed to be deflated.

Joseph walking with Elena to the house on our first day there. I thought it was cute that she was letting him help her even though they had met not more than 2 hours before for the first time. Brandon is right behind them.

Grandma Rankin and Samuel. He enjoyed playing the piano and would find a reason to sit there. He would actually pat the bench next to him, look at me and say, "sit down, sit down." He is really wordy these days.

I have lots more pictures, but they are on Grandma Rankin's laptop in New Jersey. I need to get copies of them. I should have brought extra memory. As for some of the gifts I recieved...I finally got a Canon Rebel!!!! Yay!!! I have been wanting one for years. Now I have to learn how to use it. I also got a nook with some books. I read North and South, the Lost Hero and started Vanity Fair. It was a great Christmas.

Just so I don't forget

2010-12-19T17:01:00.006-07:00

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

2010-12-16T13:35:00.003-07:00

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

2010-12-11T09:24:00.002-07:00

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

2010-12-08T20:50:00.003-07:00

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

2010-12-02T13:40:00.003-07:00

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

2010-11-29T20:32:00.004-07:00

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...

2010-11-27T20:49:00.004-07:00

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

2010-11-24T23:26:00.002-07:00

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...

2010-11-23T20:26:00.002-07:00

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

2010-11-21T22:48:00.002-07:00

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

2010-11-16T21:10:00.002-07:00

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...

2010-11-09T21:34:00.002-07:00

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!!

2010-10-31T13:32:00.003-06:00

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

2010-10-31T13:25:00.002-06:00

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...

2010-10-28T08:56:00.003-06:00

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!!

2010-10-28T08:23:00.004-06:00

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")

2010-10-25T17:52:00.002-06:00

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

2010-10-16T18:52:00.003-06:00

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

2010-10-12T13:22:00.003-06:00

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

2010-10-09T23:01:00.003-06:00

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

2010-10-08T22:21:00.002-06:00

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

2010-10-05T22:01:00.003-06:00

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

2010-09-30T20:51:00.003-06:00

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

2010-09-28T07:30:00.002-06:00

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...

2010-09-25T16:32:00.002-06:00

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

2010-09-23T13:10:00.003-06:00

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

2010-09-20T09:59:00.003-06:00

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

2010-09-16T16:07:00.002-06:00

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

2010-09-11T06:32:00.006-06:00

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

2010-09-07T10:39:00.003-06:00

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

Randomness

2010-09-03T11:25:00.005-06:00

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

2010-08-26T23:08:00.002-06:00

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

2010-08-26T22:54:00.003-06:00

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

2010-08-25T19:18:00.005-06:00

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

2010-08-24T17:36:00.004-06:00

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...

2010-08-21T23:59:00.003-06:00

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

2010-08-19T20:54:00.003-06:00

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

2010-08-16T12:50:00.003-06:00

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...

2010-08-12T20:34:00.001-06:00

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

Joe's latest project

2010-08-08T17:38:00.001-06:00

Looking for gnomes in all the wrong places...

2010-08-08T17:15:00.003-06:00

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

2010-08-08T16:58:00.002-06:00

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

2010-08-07T10:13:00.002-06:00

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

Pics

2010-08-03T16:34:00.003-06:00

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

2010-08-02T23:01:00.001-06:00

Hi, papa (grandpa), nana (banana)

Strange coincidence...or a sign

2010-08-02T22:54:00.002-06:00

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...

2010-07-30T15:23:00.002-06:00

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

2010-07-29T17:44:00.001-06:00

Up, apple...

Joe quit his job!!...but wait

2010-07-27T21:16:00.003-06:00

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

2010-07-21T17:44:00.009-06:00

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

2010-07-21T10:22:00.006-06:00

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.

Conversation while on the Going to the Sun Road

2010-07-20T11:13:00.002-06:00

Joseph: "We should be pickers." (we watched a show called American Pickers about 2 guys that travel around and buy stuff to resell for more. They focus on antiques and collectibles.)
Daddy: "What would we pick?"
Joseph: "I would pick toys. Mommy would pick girls clothes. Daddy would pick electronics and Samuel would pick baby toys."

Day 5: Going to the Sun Road

2010-07-19T23:35:00.009-06:00

We started out bright and early for our drive along the going to the sun road. It is about 24 miles and the views are spectacular. There was construction and a ton of bikers (usually not allowed on the road because it is extremely narrow at points). The bikers were doing either training or some charity event.

The sign on the East side of Glacier. The sign on the West side was always busy with people.

One of my big worries on this trip is that we would see one of these while we hiked. I guess it worked to our benefit that we only did 2 hikes. Joe says we only did 1 hike and the other was a nature walk. I consider the second a hike as well.

Sunrise in the park. Actual sunrise was a lot earlier (I should know, I slept in the car with Samuel). The light filtering through the trees was cool. Joseph told me to take it at this angle.

Nice reflections on Lake McDonald. It was really nice to drive the road early in the morning because there was only a little traffic.

Another picture of the reflection on the lake. Very nice (as boys say according to Joseph...girls use the word pretty).

Small tunnel on the road. Joseph got excited that he could hold his breath for it.

We went around a switchback and this deer was in an overlook area. I was less than 10 feet away from it while I snapped this picture from the car.

Spectacular view from the car. Some of the roadside made me nervous, especially because I can be afraid of heights. Joe is too, but he drove like a pro. Only on a few occasions did I feel dizzy looking down the heights.

More views of the mountains with unstable snow at the base. The snow is labeled as unstable so people won't climb it.

This is a picture taken as we waited at one of the construction areas. It was a tall mountain that we were going to pass a little closer later. The ridge line coming down is where we would be driving. We already passed the weeping wall. It was crazy how much water was pouring onto the road. I couldn't take a good picture, but I did get a video of it on our way back on the road.

On the side of the road while we were driving near the aforementioned mountain. They were right outside my window. Yay for seeing a mountain goat!! We had tried the day before at a place called Goat Lick. Usually it is teeming with mountain goats, but when we were there...nothing. This made up for it. :)

Logan Pass and the Continental Divide. We drove by the divide a lot. We tried to stop here on our way back for lunch, but it was later in the day and super busy.

Yay again!! We saw a big horn sheep as we were leaving Logan's Pass visitors center.

Joseph standing at one of the stops. It is the Jackson Glacier in the background. Joe read on the sign that in the 1800's there were 150 glaciers in the park. Today there are 26. Scientists estimate that by 2030, all the glaciers in the park will be melted.

Goose island found in Lake St. Mary. I loved the water at the park. It was so blue and clear. Everything at the park felt pristine. Thanks for making it a national park.

Goose island from the other side. Now you can see the blueness of the water in contrast.

Mommy and the boys on the shores of Lake St. Mary. It was very pretty. To get here, we walked through a meadow of flowers that smelled oh so enticing. Perfect place to find a bear. I am glad that we didn't though and that we were able to enjoy the lake side.

Me and my sweetie. He is so wonderful!

Daddy and Joseph. Here is Joseph with his hippo smile.

Daddy hiking (not on a nature walk) with his 2 boys. We were hiking to St. Mary's Falls.

A nice older gentleman offered to take our families picture at the falls. Pretty fails to describe how awesome it was.

Wildflower in the meadow.

Wildflower near St. Mary's Falls.

Picture of a hanging valley.

More big horn sheep had joined the first one we saw. A ranger was here telling people not to stop. I snapped a couple of pics while the people in front of us were stopped.

Moutain goats grazing by the side of the road near Logan's Pass. It was a nice meadow with waterfalls and grass. Pretty. :)

Joe took this out of his window. It looks like the goat is glaring at him.

I am glad Joe decided that we should go to Glacier National Park. He wanted to go before the glaciers melted away and it really was beautiful. I wouldn't mind if we owned a cabin near the park. All in all, Montana is a really nice state. The going to the sun road was worth it for the views. There were lots more hikes, but we learned that we couldn't hike far with the boys.

Day 4: Driving to Glacier National Park

2010-07-19T22:21:00.004-06:00

We traveled from Bozeman to Glacier National Park. It was a long drive. We made it to Glacier at around 5 and got some stuff out of our car to do a quick drive through the park.

Joseph sleeping on the way to Glacier National Park. I thought it was funny that he slept on the cooler.

Samuel on one of the rare occasions he was smiling while we drove.

This little critter greeted us on our way into the park. He turned from side to side.

Mommy and Joseph at Fish Creek. Samuel stayed in the car because he screamed any time we took him out and tried to put him back in the seat.

Daddy and Joseph at Fish Creek. One of Joseph's new things to do is to do a hippo smile. He opens his mouth wide.

The winding river was so beautiful. The water was so clear and blue. I wanted to jump right in and go for a swim.

The crystal clear water allowed us to see all the rocks in the water. We found out later that we could have fished for free.

We got lucky and saw a black bear on the side of the road. He was foraging in the underbrush. I couldn't snap the picture fast enough. He was less than 10 feet away from me. I am just glad I was in the car.

Sunset on the drive. It was amazingly beautiful.

The river was a sight to see. Yay for the beauty of the Earth!

Day 3: Bozeman, Montana

2010-07-19T13:50:00.003-06:00

We drove to Bozeman after the KOA. We decided not to go back to Yellowstone and instead go and get rested here. We stayed at the Western Heritage Inn. Before we could check in, we saw a sign advertising for the Museum of the Rockies. We knew what we could do to kill some time before check in started.

An oh so happy Samuel (sarcasm intended), a very excited Joseph (no sarcasm, just the truth), and a tired Joe (true yet again) in front of the Museum. It was worth it. I was sad because my camera died when we got to the kid section.

Joe and the boys looking at a display. In Joseph's opinion, it was much bigger than our dinosaur museum in Utah (even though we told him the one at Thanksgiving Point is the largest in the world).

Joseph was very excited to see the various displays on dinosaurs. As you can tell, he was enthusiastic about the pleisosaurs. There were also displays that showed skeletons on one side and skin on the other.

Here Samuel has assumed his tantrum position. He was tired and so he lay on the floor whining. Joseph joined him for good measure.

The museum had a Da Vinci invention display area. It was a lot of fun to see his creations, including life size models of his armored tank and helicopter. He was a man inspired by nature. We bought an ornament here for our tree.

We checked into our hotel and then I bathed the boys. We watched a show called American Pickers and House Hunters. We relaxed and enjoyed our stay. Samuel cried a bit before he finally fell asleep and then he was up at 7. I forgot how much I enjoy cable TV. We showered and relaxed. Bozeman is really nice. It has a nice art district and is a place that wouldn't be bad to live at all.

Day 2: Yellowstone

2010-07-18T21:50:00.004-06:00

We were up and gone from our campsite by 8 in the morning. We snacked on breakfast stuff in the car. We decided that we couldn't really go on any really long hikes because of the boys, so we did lots of driving and shorter hikes/walks.

Us at Old Faithful. Joe just missed this because he was trying to find a parking spot. He dropped us off right on time. We saw the whole thing. Joseph loved the geysers and the hot pots.

Me and Joe. He was great to plan and take us on this trip. My rugged mountain man. :)

Up close to a bison. It is funny that animals can be the cause of traffic jams. This bison was really close to the road. Joe parked and got a picture of it. He didn't get any closer for the obvious reason that it is a wild animal. We also saw lots of elk the day before when we entered Yellowstone and in the morning.

Yellowstone Falls. Very picturesque.

There is a bear in this picture. It was a black bear on the side of the road. Unfortunately, it was on the driver's side of the car and it was causing a huge back -up in traffic in both directions. Joe snapped this as he was trying to drive by. Yeah!! We were so excited to have seen a bear. This is the first time for both of us outside of the zoo. Joseph couldn't see it because he couldn't see around the branches.

Joseph and daddy at the Celestine Pool. It smelled of sulfur all around.

Joseph plugging his nose to block out the rotten egg smell. He loved the paint pots here.

Samuel a little disgruntled about not being able to walk around.

Our first geyser of the day. We went on Firehold drive and saw lots of cool geothermal features. We caught this geyser shooting up pretty high. This was before Old Faithful.

I loved the contrast of color in this picture. Joe and Joseph walked the middle basin. I sat in the car with Samuel who was asleep. The wind was crazy. Our whole car was shaking from the gusts. Joe said there were 17 hats in Excelsior geyser due to the wind. We didn't have a place to stay this night either because we had planned on staying in Dubois. We found a KOA north of Yellowstone and called it a night. Joe cooked hot dogs for us. Yum. Samuel slept a little better here. Early in the morning we packed our car. More to come on that in another blog post.

Day 1: Grand Teton

2010-07-18T21:25:00.004-06:00

We took off for our trip at about 2 in the morning so we would have a full day at Teton National Park. I slept in the car and Joe managed to hit 50% of the wildlife that scampered onto the road in front of him (2 out of 4 large rabbits). It was beautiful and cool when we arrived. We did one hike that was 3 miles round trip. It was to look at Swan Lake and Heron Pond. Being a little naive about mosquitos and their habitats, I told Joe we wouldn't need OFF because we were going to be some place colder. After 3 hours of being eaten alive by mosquitos and having a tired Joseph and Samuel half way through the hike, we made it out and back to our car. Lesson 1 learned: 3 hours is too long for 2 little boys on a hike.

We saw some elk on our drive. This was our first taste of the wildlife that we would see and photograph.

Pelicans and other birds at Swan Lake. We forgot our "rinoculars" as Joseph calls them in the car. Also, we forgot our bear spray. Lucky for us, we didn't run into any bears on this hike.

Some more of the Teton mountains. It was beautiful and peaceful...if you discount Samuel screaming because he wanted to get down. When we did put him down for a little bit, he got himself completely dirty. Outfit 1 for the trip wet and dirty in the first few hours of our trip. This doesn't include his wet pajamas to begin the day.

Our first sight of bison. Obviously, my pictures aren't the best. Those are bison...I swear. :)

After a nice morning around Teton, we drove to our campground. We were going to camp at the KOA in Dubois, WY. We got there and the wind was blowing at about 20 to 25 mph and gusting at about 30 to 40 mph (we looked it up later). For the life of us, we couldn't get the tent set up. After fighting the wind for about an hour and a half, we decided to cut our losses and leave. This meant we had no place to sleep for the night. We decided to drive to Yellowstone and try our luck. Luckily, we found a campsite that still had a site available (everything else was full). We set up our tent in the dark. Samuel woke up crying at 3 in the morning, so I went to the car with him and ended up sleeping with him on my lap wrapped in blankets. Joseph woke up at 5 because he got cold in his sleeping bag. More to come on day 2 in a new post.

We're back!!

2010-07-18T21:21:00.003-06:00

We pulled into Provo at 8:21 this morning. We are tired but doing great! We loved our trip. Yes there were quite a few tantrums (all Samuel) and many not so good nights of sleep, but we are finally back in Utah. We started our trip back at about 9:45 a.m. yesterday and were about 15 miles from Canada when we officially started our way back to Provo. Joe and I tried to sleep for a bit at one rest stop, but Samuel woke up crying. We drove till we were in Idaho and stopped at about 2 a.m. to rest at another rest stop. We slept poorly for about 3 and half hours and made it here this morning. Joe and I are beat. I will chronicle the rest of our trip in a few different blogs.

Family Vacation countdown...

2010-07-11T21:39:00.002-06:00

We are leaving bright and early for a much needed family vacation. Of course, packing 2 kids and ALL the other stuff makes for a very crowded car. Let's hope that we don't have too many meltdowns and can still be happy. We are heading off to Teton National Park, Yellowstone, and Glacier National Park. We have the plans and the stuff, now let us see how this goes. Weather will range in the 40's at night while we are in Wyoming and in the 30's when we are in Montana. The days will be nice, about the 60's and 70's. Pray that all goes well so that maybe in the future we will decide to do another trip. :)

Sick boy Joseph

2010-06-30T02:13:00.002-06:00

Joseph hasn't slept very well tonight. He has woken up a couple of times. The first time he said he was scared and that he wanted a drink. The second time he woke up, he was crying in bed, so I got up again and this time he felt very warm. He has a temp of 101.6 right now. I brought him out of the room and he is sleeping on some blankets on the floor in the living room. He is a little loopy, maybe because of the medicine, and is laughing about a movie that he saw, "Aliens in the Attic." He is mentioning the part where one of the boys calls an alien a "fruitcake." He just laughed and looked at me and said he is having a fruitcake dream.

We watched part of it with Joe the other night and there is a scene where 2 aliens are watching part of the "Mask of Zorro." One alien comments that first they were fighting and then their lips were hugging. Joseph's comment to this, as he laughed, "He said their lips are hugging. They are such the aliens!"

I hope he falls asleep soon. I am feeling jittery and nauseated because I am so tired. He is talking about throwing up now and how if he swallows (as he demonstrates) it goes back in.

Sick boy Joe

2010-06-24T20:14:00.002-06:00

Joe has been sick ALL day. He woke up vomiting and with a fever of 104 before 6 this morning. Even with tylenol, his temperature hovered around 103 or 104. Poor guy was burning hot to the touch but because of his fever, he was freezing. His temperature finally went down this evening. I have kept the boys away from him all day and am having Joseph sleep upstairs with grandma and grandpa tonight. Samuel took a late nap, but he is up there also. I just hope and pray that no one else gets whatever he has. I am going to sleep on the couch as a precaution. Let's just hope we all don't get sick.

On a side note, I interviewed at UVU today. If I get it, we can help Joe get back to school.

Father's day (I couldn't get the pic to not be upside down)

2010-06-23T22:58:00.003-06:00

Joseph was excited to give his daddy this "tie" for Father's day. He drew a boat and a flower. Joe said the primary kids walked into priesthood to look for their dads and his eyes lit up when he saw Joe there and he could give it to his dad. He was also very excited to give Joe his present. It is more for Joseph than for Joe because Joseph loves to watch his daddy play video games. We got him Super Mario Galaxy 2. We also got him a huge bag of BBQ chips.

Joseph called great grandpa and the conversation went something like this (on Joseph's end): "Is this my great-grandpa? Good."
"Happy father's day. We got daddy super mario galaxy 2."

Babysitting

2010-06-23T22:40:00.003-06:00

We have been helping out some friends with their little girl. As you can see from the pictures, she is a happy baby. She may not nap well, but she is happy nonetheless (for the most part).

Samuel ate at the table like a big boy. Unlike a big boy, he dropped most of his food on the floor. He enjoyed the experience as Eliza ate cheese in his seat.

What can she say...she has attitude! Everytime I think of her name, I think of a country song called "Little Liza Jane." I don't know the words just that line. Anyways...Joseph started to crawl on the floor after Eliza. Samuel saw him doing it and decided to crawl after them too. It made me smile. :)

Last week

2010-06-23T22:10:00.005-06:00

Last week I took the kids to the Children's Gardens at Thanksgiving Point. It was a fun outing. We ate outside and barely missed getting rained on. I was surprised because Joseph normally doesn't like to get wet. Earlier he had me roll up his shorts, but by the end of the day, he was splashing around and didn't care that he got wet.

Joe had fun getting Samuel ready for bed, as you can tell from the pictures. Samuel would try and suck in his gut to pull the pants down.

Last week we hung out with our friend Brittney and her kids. Joseph and Bryan sword fought. It is fun to watch Joseph play with other kids.

We went and played in the water, or at least I tried to have my boys play in the water. Samuel's shorts are obviously too big, but he enjoyed splashing on the edges of water. Joseph had fun running around throwing balls at other kids. He didn't get in the water at all.

Samuel not knowing how to interact with Ariana. He is a funny kid. He can be mellow at times but tempermental at others.