Homework

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

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

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

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:

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

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

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.