William's mind

William has a small Jenga set which he usually builds towers to knock down. So it surprised me when I saw this creation of his. Using all the pieces he made "an alien." It was pretty neat.



William and Matthew were coloring on separate pieces of paper and William said he was going to write Matthew's name on his paper. When I went to check it I was impressed. Now William says "Mat-few" instead of "MatTHew." When I was young I didn't say "bathRoom" I said "batFoom." But that's me, back to William. So on Matthew's paper I saw the letters M, F, U. Get it? William knows his letters and what sounds they make and it makes me happy that he's using what he knows to make words.

Love that smile!

Peek A Boo

Melville Stables

Just down the hill from us is the Melville Stables. Matthew is a huge horse lover. Anytime he sees a horse on TV or a picture of one he giggles and points. While looking at the stables' website Matthew came running over to me, climbed on my lap and pointed at all the horse pictures. Since most of our outings are things William likes to do, or at least appreciates more, I figured it was time to do something that Matthew was interested in. So I called the stables and they said we were free to come down and walk through.
Samuel got to see everything from the Bjorn while the older two walked. There were at least 20 horses there. At first the boys didn't want to get to close, but at the end they were walking up to the gate and waving.


William called this one a "cow horse" because it "looks like a cow color."




This horse walked right up to the gate and stretched out his neck for us to rub/pet. The stable hand lady, who was clean the stall next to him said he's a big playful guy and a gentle giant.
Before we left Eric helped William and Matthew reach up to pet him.
The lady said that next time we come we can bring carrots to feed the horses. Since it's so close and free we might have to go back soon.

Has anyone else noticed that we've done a lot in just 2 weeks?! That is a good thing but I hope we don't run out of things for next month.

Year of the Rabbit

Two hats, two outfits, three boys. That's why we share.
Happy Chinese New Year!

Sleeping

For the last month Samuel has been eating solids. He enjoys them. His favorites have been sweet potatoes and squash. He's not a fan of any kind of fruit other than bananas which all the boys share one before bed. Since eating while sitting up has been a regular occurrence, Mom bought him a high chair so he's more secure than sitting on the counter top. Well apparently I took too long getting his food ready because this is how I found him one afternoon. He slept that way for about twenty minutes until Matthew came along and started patting him on the head.


Samuel has been eating so well that I started weaning him. He nurses one to two times during the day and then three times a night. I think night time will be hardest for him and me. Since we all share a room and Eric gets up early in the morning for work, I have to keep Samuel quiet when he wakes up. As Eric says "just plug him on when he wakes up." Often times he's just passing gas and not hungry but other times it's just a comfort feeding to fall back asleep. We'll see how it goes.

Ice castles

On Eric's day off we made a trip out to Midway, Utah to see the Ice Castles. It was only about 30 miles away and took about 30 minutes. We paid $5 per adult and $3 for children over 3. The boys slept in the car and woke up once we parked. It was pretty cool- pun intended. They we tall and so neat looking. Some towers were 30 feet high. William loved it! He didn't want to leave. I took him around a second time and we talked briefly with the creator Brent Christensen about staying warm. He said it takes him 30 minutes to get dressed in the morning. When we told him we moved here from Hawaii, he said he took the family there last year to "warm up" using the money from doing the ice castles to pay for the trip. We had a great time and are glad we went out to see it.

Big boy haircuts

Eric got some coupons from work for a free haircut at Sport Clips for men and boys. Since the boys hair was getting bushy we decided to take advantage of the promotion. Matthew missed his nap that day so he slept on the drive to pick up Eric from work and to the store. This was his first time getting his haircut by someone other than family and I wasn't sure how he'd act when we put him in the chair. Luckily we had some goldfish in the van and were able to cox him to sit still while he got his haircut. He did pretty good. William was a pro and sat straight and tall and still. He told me before we went in and after we were done he learned to sit still and be reverent from a song his primary teachers taught him. He thought of that song the whole time he was getting his hair cut and it helped him be still.
When they were done they walked out with stylin' cuts, with gel in their hair and looked so much older. Not sure that's a good thing or not yet :) (I'm mad that I forgot to take a before picture)

BYU Museum of Paleontology

Mom and I made a trip with the boys to the BYU Museum of Paleontology. William was so excited to go and see the dinosaurs. I explained to him that these dinosaurs are dead and couldn't hurt him. But still he was scared to go up to the big ones. Matthew planted his feet and had to be carried through most of the museum. It was fun. And William can now say 'paleontology' and use it correctly.

Giant crocodile head

Saber tooth tiger head