The boys loved wrestling, being chase and tickled, and read books to by their grandparents. We had a lovely Sunday with them. After Stake Conference we played out in their front yard. Air rockets, balancing acts, and the boys used whatever as swords. We also played a game of Kubb. I am having a hard time uploading pictures. Here is a start. The month of May has been busy and fun. I haven’t updated our blog in awhile but I will stick with mostly just what has been going on during May. We started the month going out to New Hampshire to visit Devin’s parents serving a mission as President. They took us into Vermont and Maine. We had so much fun being with them at their home, seeing them in action, and touring with them. We had almost perfect weather the whole time which is unusual for rainy New England. We went to a beach in Maine and had a lot of fun playing in the sand and walking along the shore line. We found a neat bird platter, where they come to eat the animals and leave their shells. Grandpa found a little rubber pink duck and it is now a really fun inside joke. It rests on our window seal at home. (Don’t worry mom and dad we haven’t lost it yet…but if we do we’ll look long and hard for it.) They know a lobster man, who offered to take us out on a pre-season lobstering trip. We were fascinated by the process and seeing all the many sea animals: seals, baby eel, crabs, lobsters, jelly fish, and little other fish. He let Clay drive the boat on the way back and well Clay was trying to flip us with his sharp turning. He sprayed our host really well water but he didn’t mind…not the first or last time for him. We got to take three lobsters home and yes we cooked the poor things and ate them. Pretty good. We saw light houses and surfers. We saw too many things to go into great detail: light houses, 40 surfers, wild turkeys, Quinci (?) gulch, Joseph Smith Birth Place, Salmon Water Ways, and more. We went to Minute Men Historical Park and Boston Temple one of the days. We learned that mom is really good at sliding into first base as she slid in her skirt while running down a dirt trail with Clay. Clayton and Collin of course loved all the attention from them. After grandpa picked us up from the bus stop after a day and half in Boston Collin gave him the longest hug. We miss them already again. I loved going on runs through their neighborhood. I was going to take pictures of the many picturesque homes and yards but I didn’t Their home was so quiet and peaceful and we loved just being there as well. We 4 took a bus into Boston for a day and half. We had a lot of fun following and learning along the Freedom Trail. The little time we spent in “little Italy” was a sweet moment. W saw was the classic old men sitting talking and using hand gestures. It was fun to go into the little bread shops and see real Italian bread and the house intercoms. I felt a piece of my mission coming back to life. We really enjoyed the Granary Cemetery, the North Church, and the U.S.S Constitution and its museum. A week after we got home I ran in the Ogden Marathon. My oldest brother and I started out together in the race. I met my goal time by 7 seconds, which was to be under 3 hours and 30 minutes. My body felt the beginnings of recovery after eating peanuts at Texas Road House. It was a beautiful run with 20 miles through the canyon and the other on city/river trail. I am content to say that this will be my last full marathon for a long time. But Devin always says, “That is what you say every time.” But I think I will stick to half marathons for a long time to come. I had a fun lady’s night out to celebrate another member to the 30’s club, Janie. Three of the ladies are expecting and so of course we talked about labor and delivery and the funny things our husbands have said and done during these experiences. We love our husbands and our kids at home but it was sure nice to have a night out. The cutest big eye brow boys are doing so well. Collin knows how to hold his own and can be found on top of Clay during a wrestling match. Clay is full of funny things. We had a yard sale this week and he was getting candy ready to sale and said, “I will bring a bell and say buy candy.” At the yard sale I heard him tell two different people two different prices for candy. Once he said 2 dollars and another 2 cents. And he did call out to people to come buy candy. He said once, “Come candy buy!” Oh my sweet boy has my gift for words. 

Clayton turned 4 and we did have a little snow

Clayton turned 4 years old on March 3rd. We asked him if he would like to go to the aquarium for his Birthday. We went and had fun watching the playful and active otters, the penguins dive and swim, and the sting ray being fed. He wanted to go to what he calls "Old McDonald's" for lunch.

We actually had a couple of days of sledding weather this year. I loved making snow cones when as a family we would drive up to play in the snow for a few hours. Clay naturally loves to eat snow as well. It is a treat for the both of us eating snow with sweet syrup/juice.

Preschool

Clayton has a co-op preschool with three other boys on Wednesdays. He and I do other preschool learning together. Some fun ways that we learn is by making numbers with clay, drawing letters in flour (idea came from a friend) and of course playing in it for "reuses", collecting twigs, grass, etc. and making a bird's nest. He was in to magnifying glasses for awhile so I wrote really tiny different letters spread about a piece of paper and he had to use his magnifying glass to find as many of the one type of letter we talked about during that lesson. He really enjoys learning about dinosaurs and sea animals. We had read about the Blue whale being 100 feet so we went outside with our measuring tape and marked one end to the other. We held hands and ran from the head to the tail and back several times imagining that we were in the big whale. We also signed up with abcmouse.com through his Aunt, Heidi, and have enjoyed learning through this website as well. He earns tickets for doing various kinds of homework and can buy things like more fish for his fish tank and things for his bedroom. He of course wanted to buy more for his tank as soon as possible.

big brown eyes

Although Collin looks a little more like me than Dev, he has Devin's root beer eyes. Collin loves to get on top of and into things. The scariest time or times I should say are when he climbs the brick steps that are around the gas fireplace, but are not meant for actually walking on, to get onto the air hockey table. When he has scaled the bricks he stands straight and walks around the table like he has somewhere to go. He is so quiet about it. Sometimes I don't realize what he has done until I hear the hockey table rocking a bit and then I put 2 and 2 together and run back down stairs. One time while in the same room, I looked over to find him laying awkwardly in a basket of blankets that is by the brick wall. He had fallen landing sideways into the basket of blankets (thank goodness) while trying to climb the steps. Oh-my another brave child. It only took him once falling down the flight of stairs to know that going down them wasn't a good idea. We never put up a gate after that either but watched him more closely and really he hasn't fallen down since. He was 8 months then. Wow, I am sounding like an irresponsible mother. I hope my mom isn't reading all of this:)

plain cute

Collin loves his baths. Yes at 14 months he still fits in the kitchen sink. Normally he takes them in a normal bath with toys and a big brother to splash with but this occasion was a in place of having to use a million wipes to really get him clean after you know what. Clayton is on the ground in a ball. We were playing charades for family home evening game last week and he did a forward roll and held this position. We guessed many things but not "ball" and that is what he was. Cute! Devin is a big kid at heart. After playing with Clayton's friend's remote control car on New Year's Eve, Devin went out and bought a couple to claim his. He has a monster one but he wanted some for inside use. The boys love them. Can you tell that Collin has the extra controller? Love these boys! A couple of weeks ago on a Sunday drive Devin spotted a herd of elk. We went home and went back with a camera. He was able to get within 50 yards of the elk. Several with large antlers. It was fun to watch him sneak up to them. They were in Lehi down from a mountain side but close to a construction site. It was neat to see them from in the car at 120 yards.

I added lots of video clips especially for grandparent viewing. Clayton misses his grandparents. He can't wait for Brock grandparents to come for Christmas! He loves talking to Wilkey grandparents on the phone. We really need to set up skype.
This is the insert I added to the Wilkey December newsletter.

Don't grow too fast!

Clayton is such a story teller these days. He has always had such a good imagination but lately his stories have gotten better. I find myself some times at the edge of my seat. His eyes are huge when he gets to the climax. He spends a lot of time walking around the house with random objects or toys talking out loud about the action and commentary (but not in a weird way so far :) He would do well in the Story Telling Festival. Despite the ease of keeping him entertained he has come to me a couple of times already with the "I'm bored" phrase but he says, "Mommy I am boring." Humm...interesting problem. A couple of weeks ago I found him on the stairs with his head down. I asked him if he was okay and he said, "I am just praying for the people that don't have food." Anytime Collin does anything like a 'big boy' Clayton calls for me to watch him and he cheers him on. When I get overwhelmed with the boys I say sometimes, "You guys are going to give me a heart attack." I have been working with Clay to instead of pushing or yelling at Collin to come and get me to help when Collin is in the way. The other day he came to me frustrated with Collin, "Mom I am having a heart attack." We got the decorations out for the Christmas tree but then got distracted with other things so Clay decided he would decorate the tree without us. He put up about 15 ornaments by himself, well spaced too. Three words to describe Clay: funny, sweet, and feisty.

Collin is becoming our little-big-boy. He turned 1 on Thanksgiving! We have been surprised at what a little boy can learn in such a short amount of time. Showing him the sign for "more" just a few times he was able to copy followed by the cute head tilt and big smile. After night time family prayer we say, "Sure love Ya!" (Sound familiar?) Collin now makes fluctuated noises right after that mimicing our fluctuations in the phrase. The three of us were putting money in Clayton's piggy bank and Collin concentrated so hard to get those coins into the narrow slot. He picked it up and stayed with the job the whole way through. I kept wondering when he would get tired of it. A month ago he started taking steps without any coaxing but he still mostly gets around with his amazing crawl. I find him often inside a box or up onto a chair rocking it (giving me a heart attack). He loves his mom but he also loves to play and be in the company of other kids. His ear infections have been cured.

Eating snow

After an easy snow shoveling morning Clay still wanted to play. When I went out to check on him he was bent over eating snow. His lips and nose were pink. He is a little camera shy but still cute. Last year I was shoveling a ton of snow at this time! We just got a light snow fall but it was exciting! As long as the sun still makes its way through the clouds I don't mind a snowy winter as much!

giggle boy