For once this kid did NOT do this to himself! His daddy while trying to get his bib off of him failed to notice the huge collection of food on it and so we ended up with this.
The bad thing was the rice stuck in his hair and then would mash into his hair if we tried to pull it off.
I just can't resist this kid!

A brave new Mom

I have no idea what I am doing.

MD is such a interesting kid. He's got one of those personalities that is kind of a puzzle to me. In alot of ways he is a lot like his daddy-serious, dedicated and a quick learner. MD copies what we are doing all the time and takes it very seriously! Take washing dishes as an example. That is HIS job and he does it faithfully every time I do the dishes. because of his personality I had decided to start a Chore Chart and it has been wonderful. He helps around the house and picks up his toys and LOVES putting the stickers up when he finishes one of his chores. Recently you might have noticed that we included going to the potty......gulp.....

I have been putting this off for a couple of months...yes months! MD has shown signs of being ready to be potty trained for awhile now. Lately every time he pees he grabs his bottom and starts whimpering coming to me to "fix" the problem. He HATES having dirt on his hands so I can imagine how much he hates having things on his bottom. There have been times he has woken us up in the middle of the night just for us to change a poopy diaper and yesterday he came up to me once again grabbing his bottom and saying "peeeee...peeeeee" So really I have no choice but to help him with this problem.

So as the clueless mother that I am I came prepared for this with a pack of 3 transformer underwear, some Smarties candy for a toilet treat and a bad attitude about what I was about to unleash on our house.

This morning after I had given a bath to both boys I pulled out the underwear and showed them to MD explaining that these were "big boy underwear" He had no idea what I was talking about but loved the fun pictures that were on the back. I set the timer for 20 minutes and let him run around. After 20 minutes I set him on the toilet and explained that he would get a treat if he "tee-teed" in the toilet. He got really excited and started visiting the toilet, pulling down his underwear and sitting on the toilet every couple of minutes. At the beginning I was excited because he was telling me he was "tee-Teeing" but reality hit when I found that he had peed on our carpet in between one of his trips to the bathroom. MD thought if he SAT on the toilet he got a treat. Getting increasingly more frustrated he finally refused to sit on the toilet because he wasn't getting his treat-finally hitting me in his anger. For that he got his diaper put back on and sent to his room for a while. After a couple of minuted we tried again, but this time I tried a different tactic. I knew it would soon be time for him to go to the bathroom so I put him on his potty chair and put his treat on the chair next to him and let him have his treat. Low and behold he peed in the toilet.

I am POSITIVE he did it on accident :) But still he got a different treat and we looked at the pee in his toilet and exclaimed how wonderful it was that he peed in the toilet like a big boy!!!

"Im-a-big-kid-Now!"

oops...
Mom this is an invasion of my privacy!

When he was done he pulled me into the bathroom to show me that he had peed.

Now that I am somewhat "experienced" I have a total of 15 underwear for this little boy. All joking aside, I am a little excited for MD to be learning this. I can't believe he turns two in 2 weeks!

Soccer!

Last night we went to watch a soccer game a freind of ours was coaching! It was a lot of fun-especially because there were tons of kids with the group we were sitting with. My sister and her husband brought their 4 kids The coaches wife had her 2 and we had our 2. Rui has done amazing things with these kids. I have never watched anyone from our school do so well. They ended up winning the first playoff game.
Coming back from a quick walk during half time


Hyrum did well but he was SOOOO tired and wanted what everyone else was snacking on


As soon as we pulled out the candy we had a huge group of kids around us wanting some. At one point my sisters little boy was sneaking the candy out of my diaper bag and would have gotten away with it if his mother hadn't told on him :)


After the game we let the kids run the track. They were so excited to RUN!
It was a very late night for my kids who are used to going to bed around 7:30 0r 8:00. Hyrum was out almost as soon as we put him down. MD took a little more persuading. After getting out of bed twice he finally settled in for the night around 10:00.

Sunday Mornings

Sundays are the hardest day of the week for us. From the early morning bustle to the battle in Sacrament meeting to the callings we do it is a HUGE relief to walk out of church knowing that I can put my kids down for naps. Yesterday after everyone was dressed we had a couple of minutes to spare before we needed to leave for church so I took some pictures of my kids knowing I would be close to insane AFTER church and it wouldn't get done.
From what I hear Sundays are pretty hard on ALL mothers but for those wonder mothers out there who have found a way to stay sane throughout the Sunday I would LOVE to know what you do.

Tonight for the first time MD said his very first prayer:) We have been trying to get him to repeat after us while praying for a while without positive results so it was a surprise for MD tonight to just start talking as soon as we said we were going to pray. With prompts from his daddy MD blessed the day, his blessings, Hyrum and his grandparents. It was such a sweet moment to watch this sweet little prayer and Both Michael and I were both so excited and proud of MD when he was done! Having these children has been the biggest blessing and watching them learn and grow gives us the greatest joy.

This picture was taken right after
Michael then wanted us to throw Hyrum in

And then it turned into a family affair-Unfortunatly the picture didn't really turn out :)

The picture at the top of the post is MD giving his Grandmother fresh picked flowers

Mellow yellow

I found this outfit the other day and pulled it out of a box of MD's old clothes I knew it was hideous but I still wanted to put my kid into it. I can't quite put my finger on what he reminds me of-A Ghostbuster?? Maybe a Monsters Inc uniform? Whatever it is it was funny to see our red head in this bright outfit :)

This is Hyrum playing with his cousin Evan-They are one week apart in age

Can't get enough of this weather!!!

The weather here has been absolutely Wonderful! I can't seem to keep the kids or myself inside for very long and when we are forced inside I have the windows open letting in as much sunlight as our house can hold. I am afraid that soon this wonderful weather streak will end with some cool front or summer will REALLY hit with blistering heat and drenching humidity. Soooo I feel like we need to soak up as many good days here as we can! And since it is Spring Break Michael was home to experience most of the happenings. I cannot express fully how much I love watching Michael play with his boys. Anyway it was just one of those days that I felt completely productive sitting outside and spending time as a family without worrying about dinner or other things.
Yep MD can ride a bike! Ok just kidding he loves this little bike but it is broken and has training wheels so we call it the kids "exercise" bike :)

I love Hyrums face!

Perfect weather for some cookies
I'm in a generous mood so you can have 2....
It was just to much goodness to eat in one sitting

The we went on a walk where we saw some "orseys" and a "pu-ee dawg"

It was too educational and they got bored

But the day was GREAT!!!

I leave the room for 2 minutes and come back to this! How does a kid get this disgusting so quickly???

New Haircuts all around!

All of my guys have been needing haircuts for months but since I am such a procrastinate I have just put it off until my kiddos look like ragamuffins. Finally today I just decided to dedicate my morning to getting it done (Since I am not even remotely good at cutting hair) and gave it a whack :)
He was so happy UNTIL we started to cut his hair
But once we were done and after a bath and nap he was happy again :)

I love Hyrums smooshed face
I didn't get to taking MD's picture until much later because to get him to actually have his hair cut I was cutting his and his daddy's hair at the same time. So MD went into the tub when he was done while I finished up Michael's. But I did get to the picture when we went and played outside
And since I already HAD the camera i figured I might as well keep snapping pictures!

So glad I had my camera for this shot! He doesn't kiss Hyrum very often :)


MD has wanted me to carry him on my back alot lately.

I have thought lately about how much I love the stage of life I am in. I am so glad Michael and I decided to have these kids when we did. I don't regret having them as close together because I see the friendship between the two already starting to form. Motherhood for me is such a joy.