Some pictures

My cute boys with their long "tongues." They were happy to have their pictures taken. This was after family home evening where we played Mouse Trap.



Some of Joseph's art work from school. This is "Starry Night." I thought he did a great job on this.



Yesterday Joseph finally got his medal for his Great Brain project. He was acting shy when he got it. On the paper they have different ratings. One is Specialist, the next Expert, the next is Mastermind, and the last is Genius. That is the rating that he got on it. My smart little boy.



Joseph with another Great Brain recipient.



This is Joseph and his best friend forever, Talan. They play together often and are going to play soccer on the same team again this year.



One of these things is not like the other. The initials after mine are Joseph's forgery of Daddy's initials. You can see Joe's in the pic too. Pretty good if I do say so.



At the park one day when it wasn't super cold. They are in the pirate's ship.

So I remember

As I was getting ready for church, Samuel came to the bathroom door. He started to play the "I am so hungry game."

Samuel: "I am so hungry I can eat trees."
Mommy: "You are so hungry you can eat a tree? That means I need to go and cut one down."
Samuel: "You cut down the tree. I eat lots of leafs. Leafs look like spinach."

I love that he is making associations. He asks all the time if something is silly. He also starts to cry if he thinks he is going to get in trouble. He will ask, when we don't get upset for him doing something he shouldn't, "You not angry?" Cute boy. I love his little personality. He is also going through a stage where he wants to put ice on "owies." He won't go to sleep without having ice on his cheek or wrist or something. We usually put a piece of ice in a wrapped paper towel. Needless to say, I have been finding lots of pieces of them all over his bed and on the floor next to his bed.

Samuel conversation

Tonight was the Graduate Information Banquet. I planned the event, so I was stressed about how it would turn out. It was nice and the food was good. I was at work till almost 9:30 tonight. I got home and Joe said Samuel was waiting for me. I went in to say goodnight.

Mommy: "Do you want me to rock you?"
Samuel: "yes."

I start to get the covers ready to rock him and find a little something.
Mommy: "Samuel, what is this?"
Samuel: "It is the scorpion's claw (he had torn it off from his toy)."
Mommy: "I will be right back."

As I get the covers ready to rock him again the conversation proceeds:

Samuel: "You need to rock me because daddy is a boy; because only girls can rock little boys."

It's nice to know that I am missed. :)

Long time no blog

So any people that read my blog on a sort of regular basis. It has been awhile since I blogged, but I thought I would give some updates.


Samuel turned 3 on January 20th. He is a cute little boy with a lot of spunk. When he is happy he is adorable, when he is cranky, he is not afraid to let you know about it. Things about Samuel:
He likes berries.
He loves to mimic his older brother and considers Joseph's friends his friends.
Loves to sing and dance. He typically dances from side to side singing "ya, ya"
Is finally potty training. He is close, but not quite there.
Loves to draw.
Won't really watch TV unless we are watching Bill Nye, Funny Show (America's
Home Videos), and occasionally Scooby Doo.
Talks up a storm.


For his birthday he wanted to go to the Bean Museum. Of course, he was scared of all the animals that were there, unless they were behind glass. Here is Joe looking so excited to have his picture taken.


He started basketball a couple of weeks ago, but we haven't been the past couple of times. He refuses to play or let go of his ball. Joseph loves it and wants to go, but Samuel might have to wait a little longer. :)


He is also quite the little architect. Here he is with one of his creations. He built this all by himself, but he gets frustrated if they fall. I think we need to get him some megabloks, but that is a long time coming. We are impressed with how well he builds and balances his toys.


Joseph has been doing great also. Here we are working on his science fair project. He got a "Easy to Understand Ribbon" at the fair and today he and other science fair participants got to eat lunch (pizza) with the principal. He is reading pretty well. The other week he thought we had forgotten to sign his reading folder, so he did it himself. I will take a picture of his forging skills. He decided to Joe's initials because they were easier than mine. He did a convincing job. Joe and I laughed when we saw it, but we talked to him without laughing about why he shouldn't do that. He also told us that he likes to "relax" when he is at the computer and not do anything. He is an honest little boy. I spoke to his teacher and she said he is one of the top readers in her class and that he is a good student in math too. She also said he is a social little chap. That describes him so well.

That is all for now. I will try to post more pictures later and talk about our anniversary (which we spent finishing the science fair project).

Great Brain

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

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

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.