A lot has changed from last year:



To this year:



But we're still wishing you a Merry Christmas!

What's the matter with spazzing burper brownies?

Since I'm trying to get Alex to stop saying freak/freakin', I've realized I have to completely remove that word from my vocabulary. If I tell him to stop freaking out, he'll call me on it. I decided spaz/spazzing work better, so I've been saying those instead. The other day I was getting a bit rambunctious and he told me to "stop spazzing, mom!"

Alex came down with an ear infection and was screaming his head off on the way home from the doctor this morning. Ella was very concerned and kept asking "what's the matter, Awex?"

Alex has added brownies to his Christmas list. He's obviously my kid.

Any time any bodily noise is heard, Ella calls the culprit a "burper."

Tanner:

I hope you never stop saying, "Well, you're right about one thing" like Edgar on "Men in Black" whenever I say anything.

Road Rage and World Hunger

Alex already has severe road rage (I won't blame anyone's example here)! Whenever we stop the car for longer than 3 seconds, he starts yelling, "Come on...hurry up....Whaddya doin?.....Go! Gooooo!"

Every time Ella wants to eat, AKA- all day, she says, "Hungry me!" and she's grab our finger and drags us to the kitchen, and then she starts spouting off whatever it is she wants to eat, usually (fruit) snacks, candy, orange, apple, or yogurt, or all of the above.

Thanksgiving and bosses

Just before Thanksgiving we had a family home evening about being thankful. I was trying to teach Alex what it means to be thankful. I told him he was probably thankful for Daddy and Ella. Then I asked him what else he was thankful for. I was thinking he would say his toys or something like that, but he said he was thankful for Jason. (Jason is my brother who--no offense, Jay--probably pays the least attention to Alex than anyone. I thought it was kind of a funny/cute response.)

Alex also randomly said "Take it easy, boss" in the car the other day. Tanner has said it before, but he doesn't say it often and hasn't said it lately.

Toy Drum and Sentences

Today Alex beat his toy drum for a good 45 minutes (only taking a break once to go potty) while I was working. I guarantee he was just trying to get a rise out of me since he looked at me the whole time and got louder and louder as he screamed my name (when did I start considering my name to be mommy?). I looked at him a few times and gave him a smile, but this only made him hit harder and louder. I wanted to see how long he would go before he gave up. I actually hid the camcorder when he went to the bathroom and got a couple minutes on video. I'm pretty sure he's crazy.

Ella is getting really frustrated that she can't form sentences. Whenever we're holding her, she'll look around at everything in the room and just start naming things she sees. She wants to converse so badly. A lot of times she'll get going on a string of words she knows go together, she just can't figure out how to connect them. In the car the other day she said, "Fall, bonk, owie, hurt, you okay?" It's amazing how little kids just learn to form sentences without being taught. She also has this new game where she'll name everything on your face when you're holding her. I usually just scrunch my face up really tight with my eyes closed because she pokes you as hard as she can when she says eyes and she pinches pretty good when she says nose. She'll also try to stick her finger as far down your throat as she can get it when she finds your mouth. She must have pretty long fingers cause I'm pretty sure she's got my uvula a few times and made me gag.

Cunning Alex

Alex tries to convince us that things he wants are great and we want them too.

He'll say things in this very convincing, upbeat voice like, "Mom, wanna make some brownies? Does that sound nummy? Whaddya think about that, huh?"

"Hey guys, wanna go get some ice cream? That sounds nummy, huh? Let's go get some ice cream."

Alex: "Hey, wanna go outside and ride my bike?"
Me: "No, it's too cold."
Alex: (still in his upbeat voice) "Wanna put on my jacket and go outside and ride my bike?"

I'll admit, sometimes it works. Yes, ice cream and brownies usually do sound nummy to me too.

Alex (3 years):

I've been making a list of things to add to Ella's journal for a long time so she has more, but Alex is by no means lacking in the funny things he says--they'll just have to be added as I remember them.

* This is Alex's Christmas list: dog, car, train, boat, motorcycle, mashed potatoes, Santa, the moon, and the usual boy stuff.
* He calls Ella "sweetheart" in the cutest little voice.
* He currently calls all of his grandparents by their first names.
* He has a little laptop with numbers and letters games on it. One of the games he loves is one that shows you the lower case letter and you find the upper case letter. He's mastered this.
* I can already tell he's going to be a musical genius. He is so into music and sits at our Clavinova piano for hours each day playing the demos and making up his own songs. Most of the demos are fun, upbeat songs that kids would normally like but, weirdly, his favorite demo is organ music, which he pretends to play with his eyes closed and moving his whole body like only true pianists do!
* When he wears his Toy Story PJs, he constantly runs around yelling "To infinity and beyond!"
* He asks to have "Heavenly Father meeting" every day (aka--family home evening). He always gets up and leads the music with one of his books, and his prayers always go like this, "Heavenly Father, we're grateful for this day. In the name of Jesus Christ, Ameeeen." Amen is always said so sweet that we just have to accept it. Note: He's a great one to ask to pray when we're starving!
* Sometimes he remembers that if he tries to pray while he's growling it makes me and Tanner laugh our heads off.
* He has this funny little accent when he talks, so I always love when he tries to teach Ella new words. One day I heard him say, "Ella, can you say Wookie Chiorms? Wookie....Chiorms. Wookie Chiorms." Ella, of course, repeats this perfectly. He means Lucky Charms.

Ella (16 months):

* The other morning I was working and heard Ella just waking up through the monitor. She started singing "I am a child of God and He has sent me here...da da da da blah..." Then she said very sternly (as she often does), "Alex, 1...2...3...time out....TIME OUT!" (She hears that 100 times too many every day!)
* On our way home to Logan last week she was getting very ornery and driving me a little crazy, so I said, "Ella, feel free to go to sleep any time!" Even before I finished my sentence she started fake snoring very loudly with her eyes half closed.
* She started calling her daddy "Tanner" and my mom "Deb."
* She can count to 10, sometimes missing 8 and 9.
* She can say her ABCs to G.
* After the example of her brother (who learned from the example of his parents--yes, Tanner, both of us), she says "Are you freakin' kiddin' me?" This was almost abolished until we went to Logan and it was encouraged all over again by our families.
* She calls Alex "brother."
* About a month ago she decided she wanted to go poop on the potty. She had said this several times before, but I totally ignored it because I'm done with potty training for a while! She kept insisting, so I took her to the toilet and she pooped. The next day, she said she wanted to go potty just before I put her in the tub. I didn't think she would do it again and I didn't want to wait very long, so I let her sit for a few seconds, grunt a bit, and then put her in the tub. I went to grab the towels and she had pooped in the tub. Guess I should've waited. Sometimes she says she wants to go potty, but sometimes she is VERY adamant about not going. I have no intentions of pushing her. Diapers are so convenient!
* She has the chubbiest little sausages I've ever seen! No shoes fit her!! It's a nightmare.
* She has the cutest curly hair.
* She's obsessed with her blanky and gets mad if anyone, especially Alex, touches it.
* Tanner and I realized we spoil her way too much and she's getting a BIG attitude. She's so sassy!
* She's quite the talker. She will keep trying to say a word over and over until she gets it right. For example, she says my brother's name, "SssCaaah...t" She can pretty much say anything you ask her to, but some words/phrases I have heard her say since I've been typing this include Christmas, outside, upstairs, on/off, piano, shoes, brrr...it's cold, Jesus, bike, lotion, want some, come see me, good girl, snowman, I dropped it, oh toodles (from Mickey Mouse Club), doggy...woof woof, etc. She's funny.

New Traditions

I nearly decided to give up on the blogging world because I hate how I feel like I have to update so often and it has to be this big amazing thing with pictures and stories and adventures that I have to clear my afternoon to post. I've tried to start journals for my kids, but I haven't been so great at that. I wondered if I would be better at just quickly blogging simple little phrases my kids say or things they do so I can remember them. I don't like the "impress everyone" aspect of blogging, so some of these things might not make sense to you and some of them might not be funny unless you're there. But now I'm going to try to blog for the memories of me and my family, and hopefully the funny things they do will be enough to entertain whoever keeps reading. I'll do a few of those fancy posts here and there, but I'm hoping to be able to post little tidbits daily, or as often as they come up. So here goes.

Seriously, though...

I have to show off!






I just love 'em!

Fun, Fun, Fun!

I don't like when blogging feels like a chore. Hence no posts for months. Hence the near extinction of the new and most popular food blog.

We've had some grand end-of-summer events that I wanted to brag about a little bit.

First off, went to Lion King in SLC a few weeks ago. Stinkin' A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! If you get a chance to go, go.



The past few days we've been in Bryce Canyon with some of our friends. The pictures and sights are breathtaking! For the third camping trip this summer, the kids did GREAT sleeping, even though it was butt cold! They didn't wake up screaming once! And I didn't turn on my un-turn-off-able car alarm once in the middle of the night either. Tons of fun and tons of food!!







It was fun that Ella could wander around with Alex this time and eat lots of yummy dirt-covered nature.



On our way home we decided to go the long way and do a hike in Colorado City (polyg-town). The whole drive was so pretty. We even went through infamous Orderville where they sold "Ho-Made Pies." Sadly, I didn't get a picture of the ho on the billboard who made the pies. And they had a delightful little store there that sold "Sporting Goods and Chain Saws."

It's drives like those and hikes like the one we went on in Colorado City that make me wonder why people aren't flocking to move to Utah (even though Colorado City is technically in AZ). So pretty! Our friends, Cory and Shay, showed us this hike in Colorado City. It doesn't even have a name or cost money, but it reminds me of Zion, the Subway especially. These pictures make me realize how little it looks like I had to carry the kids on the hikes. I made the neighbors do it. I had to carry the camera instead. My achin' fingers!




(Alex always had to have a walking stick!)

I'm glad SG still has a month or so of summer cause I'm not ready for it to be over!

Life

It's hard, cause Tanner and I used to get all the cookies. But now we have to share the cookies with 2 other people.

Good Times

Who the dilley-dalley understands Blogger's new way of importing pictures?

Well, anywho, we went to Bear Lake for a few days with our families. These are pictures of all the cousins (minus the 3 babies) on Tanner's side, freezing our butts off at Bear Lake, Ella's first steps caught on camera, Ella's white trash 1st birthday party, and Alex and his Papa BA on the 4-wheeler. Even though it was butt cold, we still had fun with our families. But next year everyone's coming here!

Another Blog

Since I'm not that great at cooking, and probably even worse at blogging, I decided to start a cooking blog. Nothing special, but take a look if you're ever looking for some semi-palatable recipes that I've tried.

cookinandbacon.blogspot.com

What We've Been Up To This Summer...

Tanner graduated from nursing school! (and he was the speaker at his pinning ceremony!) AND he was 1 of 24 to get hired at the hospital out of over 200 applicants!


Hiking in Zion with Nana and Papa!


Sleeping on hikes!


Growing freckles!


Playing in the water with the new and improved thong swim diaper!

I DID IT!!!

I was a spectator at the St. George Ironman!

We Need a Diagnosis

Ya know when kids start doing things that don't seem like such a big deal at first? Heck, maybe it's even a little cute. And it keeps them entertained for hours on end so you decide to let them go at it so you can get some stuff done?

Well, Alex recently started picking off every sticker he spots. One day he sat there with his car and picked off stickers for nearly an hour. It was amazing! He didn't bother me once for snacks or with questions or anything. It kept happening every once in a while, but now it's pretty much all he does. I'm pretty sure it's classified as a full-fledged disease by now. It's horrible. He used to replace the little pieces back on whatever he got them from (like in the picture of his car below), but now he puts them all over the walls, the tile, the cupboards, Ella, himself, anything! I've even found pieces stuck to the butt of my pants in public. Lately I've been telling him to stop or I'll take whatever he's picking at away, so he'll tell me to "go potty" or "go work" so he can continue on while I'm in the other room. It's really becoming quite annoying, not to mention near deadly. Ella has been choking on the little pieces pretty much hourly. What can I do? And what's the prognosis?

I went in to check on him during his nap the other day and found him like this. He's addicted.

Kite Day

Every year St. George has Kite Day at a local golf course. Most people bring all sorts of fancy expensive kites. We decided to take Alex and his $1.30 kite and hit the sky. It was actually a lot of fun, even though Alex spent most of the time playing with the kite wrapper, ripping up the kite tail, and playing in some melted gummy candies on the grass. Yummy!

"Why so many pictures lately, Mom?"

A Visit to the Temple

My cousin Shauna got home from her mission a few weeks ago and came down to visit with my aunt. The kids had a blast! One day we went to visit the temple. The flowers looked so pretty, especially with pretty Ella Bella.

This is a common face from Alex, though he usually does it when he's trying to hide something (very obviously) under his arm. He must've had a bug or a flower, which he probably ate later.

Ella on Easter

She's just a joy!
She's started to be a little tease. She'll hand me something, and when I reach for it she pulls it back and shakes her head no. She loves this new game.

Dear Sloan:

You make me crazy!! Learn to call a time-out! If we're tied at the start of the 4th, lose by 13, and still have 5 time-outs left at the end of the game........then you should retire!

Speaking of Food...

I'm pretty much obsessed with bacon and garlic--not only the taste, but the smell. If any recipe has bacon or garlic in it, I'll try it. And it's even better if it has both. I'm one of those people who has a permanent smell of bacon and garlic on my skin and hair. It's very attractive. I have dogs running towards me all the time. I always tell Tanner that if I had it my way, I would have garlic and bacon Scentsy flavors.

I found these little ditties in my Taste of Home magazine. If they weren't $60, they would be on my feet right now.

Snacks

I saw a segment on the Today Show the other day about kids and snacks. Let's just say I need a little help in the area...not so much with my kids, but with me.

They had a cute little fictional boy on the screen. They went over his snacks for the day and what the calories totaled. They said he had some pretzels between breakfast and lunch, a couple cookies after school, a fruit drink and chips before dinner, a Popsicle after dinner, and a bowl of cereal with milk before bed. I was shocked when they said only his snacks equaled 1,130 calories. After all, this sounded a lot like me, except substitute 4 peanut butter cups for pretzels, a couple cookies for half a pan of brownies, a fruit drink and chips with a Coke and a Milky Way, a Popsicle with a bowl of ice cream, and a bowl of cereal and milk with 2 bowls of cereal and milk.

I added up my calories for the first time in my life yesterday. It was disgusting. And I think I was being a little shy because I knew what I was doing. At this rate, I'll be a 385-pound diabetic by my 10-year high school reunion. Sweet.

(And the sad thing is, I'm eating some beautiful Girl Scout Somoas as I type. Mmmm, fries.)

Not Enough Ella

I've been so busy with work and visitors that I just realized I haven't given near enough updates on sweet little Ella. Not very many people know how LOVABLE she's gotten! I've been counting down the days to warmed weather so we can show off those rolls. Unfortunately this picture doesn't show of her thighs, which are my favorite part. They're edible!

And this is what Alex has been up to lately--the cause of my first meltdown in a long time. This picture was taken after I had already cleaned some off and faded most of it with Magic Eraser and alcohol, which ate up the paint and will require a new coat before we move out. The picture doesn't do justice to everything else he colored on with the inch-thick Sharpie--the computer, tile, garbage can, CDs, papers, printer, desk, and himself. Please refer to my post a few months back on how to handle multiples. This happened while I was showering.

Shopping at the Vegas outlets with Jeff and Tana.
This little face is what makes me forget those horrible things he does. Unfortunately he's a sucker for these rides, and unfortunately I'm a sucker and pay for them.

In our backyard sitting on my future garden. Hey, at least they're both looking in the same direction.

Light Reading

My father-in-law sent this article, and I thought it was so good I wanted to share. It's long, but well worth it. It's about some of the miracles the church has seen through the earthquake in Chile. Amazing! I love the gospel! Time to do better with my emergency prep/food storage!

http://www.ldsmag.com/churchupdate/100303chile.html

My Valentine!

Let me just take a minute and tell you all how amazing my Sweetheart is. There are hundreds of reasons I love her and I doubt there is room on this blog for all of them so I will name just a few.

• Many of you know that she works at home as a Medical Transcriptionist to help pay the bills. She is extremely smart and very good at what she does. What you may not know is that she just picked up MORE work in order to help out! She now gets up at 5 or 6 o'clock in the morning to get a few hours in before the kids wake up. Somehow she manages to get all her work done and take care of 2 rambunctious kids (make that 3 rambunctious kids because I live there too). I don't know how she does it!
• I have never met anyone more selfless in all of my life. She always puts my needs or the kid's needs before her own. She never wants anything for herself and she is always making sure everyone else is taken care of first. I have to be very strict when she gets gift cards for birthdays or Christmas because she tries to spend them on the kids or even me! I don't think she has a selfish bone in her body.
• She is an amazing mother. Most of you don't get to see it because you live far away but she is so great with our kids. She exceeds what I hoped my wife would be like as a mother! Not only does she produce Sweetened Condensed milk to fatten up our kids but she is so dedicated to raising them in the best way. She researches anything she doesn't know in order to best care for the kids. Anything from illness to potty training, she researches in order to find the best way to raise these kids. They adore her now, and someday they will recognize all she does and be extremely grateful to have the wonderful mother they have.
• Beautiful is an understatement! I don't know if there is a word to describe her hotness! And she would be the last person in the world to admit it. Sometimes I get frustrated with her because she doesn't believe me when I tell her she is pretty! I really wonder how I found a woman with all these amazing qualities on top of being dang cute! I'll never know.
• Top notch cook! If you don't believe me, I'll send you a before and after picture. When we got married I weighed about 165 pounds and now I'm 190! When we got married she made it her goal to learn to cook and it was all downhill from there. She is addicted to it and has become gourmet! If this isn't incentive enough to come visit us, I don't know what is!
• Nobody makes me laugh like Stacy does. She has the best sense of humor of anyone I have ever met and I LOVE it! It draws people in and endears them to her and I am no exception. Her quirky sayings like "salivate like a yak!" and "Hey you dingleberry!"(Dingleberry is her favorite term on endearment!) are classic and there's always a new one! I could start a weekly blog and just post the funny things she says (and I might!!!).

Well, I just thought you should all know how lucky I am to have spent 5 Valentine's days with my best friend and the most beautiful girl in the world. Thank you for all you do sweetie! I LOVE YOU MOST!!!!!!

Why My Kids Are Cuter Than Your Kids!

What we love about Ella (7 months):

*She's the sweetest little thing. We call her "angel baby"
*Her ears
*New sounds, especially the low "whos"
*She likes to suck on our chins (gross, I know)
*She's a mama's girl
*She hates "This little piggy went to the market"
*We call her "twinkle toes" cause she moves her feet really fast when she gets excited
*She gets stranger anxiety (kind of a pain, but she looks so cute when she's bawling and scared!)
*The only thing she'll watch on TV is football (because it's her dream to play in the NFL)
*She loves Alex, but she always gets a nervous smile when he comes around and starts looking for us to make sure we can see what he's about to do to her
*She licks her lips when we're eating chocolate or goodies that she can't have yet
*I love when it's bath time and those cute rolls aren't hidden under her clothes
*She's a good sleeper and eater
*She's the most kissable baby ever


What we love about Alex:

*He always says "that's pretty cool"
*He puts on Tanner's shoes and his jacket, asks for the keys, kisses everyone on the leg, and goes to the door and says, "K, bye"
*He gets his laptop and types like me when I'm working
*When I do my hair, he gets a water bottle and brush and pretends to do his hair like I do, and he likes to lay on the rug when I blow dry my hair
*He is president of the No Pants Club
*Every day he asks to go shopping (though he's a horrible shopper)
*He has proved that Wal-Mart is taking over the world because he somehow learned how to read "Wal-Mart" and asks to go there frequently, even though that's the store we go to least
*He loves to ride Pumba at Wal-Mart and says "fun doggy" for days after he rides it (even though it's the lamest "ride" ever)
*Whenever we're watching any sport on TV, he yells "Go Aggies" and screams at the TV like Daddy does
*Everyone in the store stops us and compliments his red hair
*He loves to dance and sing and he somehow learned how to do the worm--it's funny as heck
*He loves his grandparents, especially his papas
*He likes to have music on for his naps, but he can't say music; it sounds like "blanket"
*He likes to line his toys up in a perfect row and tips over the piano bench to set his farm animals on the bottom of the legs
*He says what he thinks we should say to him: "good boy", "STOP!", "no no", "nice shot"
*When he gets caught doing something wrong, his whole body stiffens and he turns into a robot
*He's on spit-up and bug patrol, and he doesn't miss a thing
*If he's doing something he shouldn't and I give him "the look", he'll say "1, 2, 3, timeout!" and sometimes even walk himself to time out, slam the door, and scream his head off!

We sure love these two!