Service with a smile...

On Saturday, the compassionate service leader asked me to take dinner to a sister who had recently had a baby. She told me the sister was less active, not married, and living with her (and she didn't know what to call him) "husband". I told her it would fine and that Monday would be best for me.

Today I ran some food over there, and no one answered the door. To top things off, as I parked my car, a lady in another car was glaring at me. As I headed towards the yard of the family I had cooked for, she said very rudely, "Excuse me. You parked in my spot (public road). " I explained that I would only be a couple of minutes because I was delivering food to someone who had a baby. She said, "I had to park in my landlord's spot." Once again I explained that I would be gone in a couple of minutes and she could park right after I left. She then said, very snottily, "I can't come back outside." Snarl. She was so mean. Maybe she had a bad day, but do not take it out on the person that was trying to do something nice for someone else.

Busy week

It has been an insanely busy week and I am soooooooo very tired. I should go to bed, but I keep distracting myself. We cleaned all day yesterday and everything looked so good for today's realtor tour...except that it got cancelled. We did have someone come look at the house today. His realtor said he liked it but was going to talk it over with his dad. I hope that means we will get an offer soon.

I just finished reading P.S. I love you. It made me cry. I don't want to lose my husband or my kids or any of my loved ones anytime soon. I don't know who sings a song that has gone through my head a lot, but some of the words are "let me watch my children grow, to see what they become...oh Lord don't let that cold wind blow till I'm too old to die young." That is a prayer that I have in my heart always.

Today was library day. We went and returned the books we had checked out a couple of weeks ago and got a new batch. Joseph got a lot of bug books. He also chose 2 signing time dvds. He enjoys signing, especially plane. In our last batch, he really loved a book called Barnyard Lullaby. I made up a tune to what the barnyard animals were singing to their babies. He really likes the I Spy books. We got another 2 of those in this batch. He did not enjoy the Simple People by Tedd Arnold. He loved the book Tuesday by David Wiesner. It is a picture book about frogs that one night inexplicably fly on their lily pads and have various adventures. We "read" that one a lot. In our last batch, he really enjoyed Joseph Had a Little Overcoat. It was super cute. It is the story of man who uses something till he loses it and even then creates
something out of nothing.

I have started to read to Samuel and let him play with books. He is so cute and grabbing anything that is close enough to reach. He also still does his butt bounce to move forward. He is rolling all over the place and almost rolled off our bed the other day. I caught him before he did. Samuel definitely wants to move around more. He almost got into a crawling position. It is cute to watch Joe with him because he anticipates being tickled and looks over at his daddy and laughs and smiles. He reaches out to Joe a lot. He rolls onto his back and onto his belly and "crawls" without using his arms. It is usually a face plant and push himself forward with his legs till he reaches what he wants. One of his favorite pasttimes at the moment is to empty the diaper bag out when he is close to it. Today I put something back in and he promptly took it out again and did this multiple times as I tried to put it away. Samuel is also getting used to the idea that if he is standing up and people try to walk with him, he can move his feet.

Joseph is so cute with Samuel. He loves his little brother. It doesn't mean that he doesn't take away toys that he is playing with, but he likes to hug and kiss him lots. He checks on him periodically when he is napping and will run in to say that he is good.

Joseph likes to make up songs that always begin "Once upon a time" and then he sings about whatever. He is experimenting with laughing right now and has a very weird laugh at the moment. He also tells stories about different things and will say, "that is the end of that story." He still loves dinosaurs, bugs, cars, animals, books, and berries.

I love my boys so much. They are so great and so beautiful. Heavenly Father has blessed me with 2 of his precious children! They have such calm temperments overall and are patient when I need to get things done. It doesn't mean they don't demand attention now and again, but they wait for me.

Samuel's new sleeping position

I don't know how he finds this comfortable, but this is how we always find him sleeping these days.

What is funny about the way he sleeps is that he sometimes gets stuck with his head like this and gets frustrated. He napped in a diaper today because it is hot in our house. Our swamp cooler is getting fixed in the next couple of days.

Sardines...

Yesterday was the last $2 day of the month, so I had told Joseph we would go to the Museum of Ancient Life (aka Dinosaur Museum). We were going to go with Brittney and her kids, but they were sick. We did run into her sister, Heather, at the museum. When we got there, the line was out the door and we had to wait a little over 20 minutes just to get in to pay. We went through the starry night and hurried to the water and sand table.
Standing room only in the dinosuar excavation area. Joseph was having fun till someone took his brush. I don't know if they took it or he put it down and someone grabbed it. There were not enough to go around.

"I told you it would be busy..." I like this because it looks like Samuel is telling Joseph something. Joseph wanted Samuel to wear the same outfit as him. I was trying to change it because Samuel drooled all over the shirt. I had to let it dry before we went so he could wear it.

Joseph finally found a place to play. He had to wedge himself in after walking around looking for someplace to play. It was insanity. There were sooooo many people.

Just to catch up

Today was a nice day. I got to nap (thanks sweetie!!). Joe and Joseph built a bird house. Joseph was so excited to be making something with his daddy. Here he is in his little work apron from Home Depot.
My two handymen.

Joseph and daddy with the birdhouse they built. Joe cut the pieces from lots of scrap wood that we have had from various other projects.

Here they are painting it. Joseph loves to paint.

Here is the assembly process at the very start of the project. I ran in to shower while Samuel was trying to get to sleep. He has had a runny nose which makes sleeping very difficult for him and consequently, very difficult for us as well since he is in our room at the moment.

On Thursday we went to Discovery Park in Pleasant Grove. My former office mate, Emily, called me on Wednesday so that we could get together. She had her nephew Ammon with her. Here are Joseph and Ammon playing together. He is only a few months younger than Joseph, but a lot taller.

Jospeh loved the park. He ran around everywhere and told daddy that it was a park meant to be for kids to go without their mommy or daddy. He said he would hide from me when I was trying to find him. It was a fun park, but very hard to keep track of the kids.

Here is a picture of one half of the park. It is really a nice park. I liked it a lot. Too bad it isn't closer, otherwise we would go more often.

Conversation:

Joseph: "No one is buying our house."
Mommy: "I know. Someone will buy it though."
Joseph: "Yeah. And you know who will help?"
Mommy: "Who will help? "
Joseph: "Jesus will help. He has all power."
Mommy: "That is true. Jesus will help us sell our house."

I love the faith that he has. I just pray that mine is as strong. :)

The Gardens at Thanksgiving Point

Yesterday we had a fun day at the gardens at Thanksgiving Point. We went with Brittney, her sister Heather and all the kids. We are taking advantage of the $2 per person price tag on Tuesdays for the month of August. It was a relatively cool day all things considered. Yet again, I forgot to post in chronological order, so the pictures are in reverse.
Can you spy the little frog, who sits on a pad and not on a log?

The fish in the pond were more than happy to accept the food that was tossed to them. They would swim over each other, jump out of the water, and beg for food.

The lily pads were really nice. I don't know why this picture loaded sideways. I guess it looks better that way...

Feeding frenzy. Joseph and Bryan fed the fish. There were so many of them.

Samuel, Ariana, and Cambria. All 3 babies after their feeding. We stopped in a shady spot because all of us had to feed the babies. My baby looks so giant next to the petite little girls that we were with. Of course, Ariana looks almost as tall as Samuel even though she is 3 months younger than him.

Matty, Joseph, and Bryan. I couldn't get the boys to smile for the camera.

Joseph exploring the "wild" terrain. He enjoyed running around with his friends.

Joseph in the bear cave. The children's garden has a Noah's ark theme, so you follow the animal prints to where they make their new homes after they exit the ark.

Noah's ark is a little splash area, so I had to convince Joseph to play in the water. He liked to stay at the edge kicking and splashing water at people (we talked about it afterwards). He never got under the elephant squirting water from its trunk, nor the llamas spitting water from their mouths, or any of the water features that sprayed water at people. Brittney's little boys were in and under the water everywhere they could be. I guess it is nice that Joseph is so cautious?

It was really cold water and the day was cooler than last week. That didn't stop the boys or the hundreds of other kids that were all over the place.

We all loaded up into Brittney's van. A van full of carseats and kids! You can see Bryan and Joseph talking to Samuel.

We ate lunch at a park in American Fork. Samuel and Cambria played together for awhile. It was mostly Cambria looking on as Samuel grabbed at things and tried to put them into his mouth.

Samuel at the beginning of the day. He looked so handsome! You can't see it in this picture, but he has his daddy's hair.