Family Pictures!

We took some family pictures a little while ago so I thought I'd share. I know many of you have seen these on facebook, but for those of you who do not frequent facebook, here they are.

It seems like we can never have perfect conditions for pictures (of course.) Last year we chose the coldest day in October so we couldn't get Mikey to get out of the blanket! This year I thought it would be much better because it was a warm, sunny evening and everyone seemed to be in good spirits. Then on the way there, Mikey fell asleep in the car...*sigh* And there the problems began. He never really came out of the "just waking up" funk. He didn't want to be close to anyone or smile or look at animals or anything! Then to make matters worse, he had an accident.... I know, right? (We ended up getting the rest of his pants wet so that you couldn't tell so much--I'm sure being wet really helped his mood.) So anyway, I was sad that we didn't get more good pictures of Mikey. There are a few, but he is normally such a camera guy and so cute with Luke that there could have been some really good ones. We're still happy with them, though. And Luke couldn't have been any cuter! :)

Like I said, Luke couldn't have been any cuter!

Finally half a smile!

How the Hamster Stole Christmas

Today Mikey was introduced to "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." I had to run take a shower while Luke was asleep so I put it on for him. He recognized the Dr. Seuss-type characters from his books and was excited.

I came back downstairs as it was ending and when Mikey saw me again he said, "Mama! They did it! The doggy and the hamster lifted the sleigh!" I stopped and thought for a second. Then I realized what he meant. I said, "Mikey, do you mean the green guy?" Mikey said, "Yeah! The hamster!"

Hey, he is kind of furry looking...? So now in our house, "the hamster show" is "How the Grinch Stole Christmas."

1 + 2 = 3
And that's why we now own one of these:

(Still too cryptic for you? Look to the right at the new widget)

Cheesy dancing!

Luke loves to dance. Even the tiniest amount of music can get him going. But nothing gets him going like the ending of "Imagination Movers" on Disney (Perhaps it's the fact that Mikey has been a long-time dancer with the Imagination Movers). After watching an episode one morning, he was loving the dancing so he and Mikey kept asking for me to play it over and over again. Finally I grabbed the camera to capture the moment. BUT as I mentioned a few posts ago
Luke says, "cheese" both when he wants to eat cheese and whenever he sees a camera. So I pulled out the camera to get the dancing and Luke immediately turned around, saw the camera and did what he always does when he sees the camera. Then he proceeded to dance as I wanted! But then he saw the camera again and did what he does. Love that kid.

Note: Though I normally love to capture Mikey dancing away as well, at this moment he did not have pants on. I was trying to only get Luke, but Mikey loves to be on camera, too so he kept trying to get in the shot. Sorry for racy shot.

Leaves!

Now that it has snowed I thought I'd finally get my leaf pictures up. Oh, poor Lance. With three MASSIVE trees in our backyard we end up with a sea of leaves that no one person should have to rake alone. So this year we bought a leaf blower. Still, it's no easy job.

But as much as Lance hates the leaves, a small part of him has to be a little okay with them because the boys absolutely LOVE them. For weeks it has been running, throwing, burying, drowning, jumping, falling, and anything else you can think of, in leaves.

Now about this video, I wish it were better. Lance was out blowing leaves and Luke wanted to get to him. The problem was the foot and half layer of leaves between him and dad. So he did what he had to do. He crawled. It was so cute and I ran for the camera! Unfortunately by the time I got back and got it turned on to video, I only caught the last few feet of crawling. But it was still cute so I thought I'd put it up.


Way to go Lance for getting all the leaves off the grass! It was no small feat!

Yet Another "From the Mouth of Mikey"

So, as I was getting ready for school this morning, the whole family was in our bedroom. Kristy was trying to squeeze in a little bit more sleep, Luke was drinking a bottle and mostly watching a show, and Mikey was following me around, asking questions about everything in the world, as he tends to do. At one point, he asked if he would be able to go to my school when he gets bigger. I told him that that would be great (he already knows that Cougars are awesome and Utes are weak-sauce). I then told him that maybe he could follow in Daddy's and his Great-Grandpa's (Great-Grandpa Moss) footsteps and become a prosecutor (assuming I can get a job at some point). He then informed us that he would need his magnifying glass if he was going to be following Great-Grandpa's footprints. Elementary, my dear Watson. Why didn't I think of that?

Pumpkins and Trick-or-Treating!

The boys got to go Trick-or-Treating twice and they certainly had twice the fun. On Friday night we did Trunk-or-Treating where Luke was introduced to the activity for the first time. His cute little voice trying to say "trick or treat" and "thank you" was just the cutest thingThen they went out again on Saturday. Luke had not forgotten and again, loved it. I wish I had gotten a better picture of these two ready to go out, but I could barely get them both in the frame long enough to take it! Luke is actually starting to walk toward me in this picture.

Mikey and Luke were so excited about carving their pumpkins. (Note: "carving pumpkins" means daddy drawing the faces on paper until Mikey approved and then daddy carving the pumpkins according to said drawings.)

Though I didn't get the best pictures of Mikey and Luke just before they went out, I did get this video which more than makes up for the lack of pictures.

Halloween Party

To start off the serious Halloween celebrating, my mom had a party on Tuesday where costumes were (supposedly) required (though some got in without--you know who you are!!) The kids all loved it and we all had so much fun.

Mikey has known for two months that he wanted to be a Knight and we have the cutest shark costume that we got in Florida when Mikey was Luke's age.

So I was a princess to go with Mikey's Knight.

And Lance was a snorkeler to go with Luke's shark.

Mikey and Ben NEVER get enough of each other so they were glued at the hip all night and loving each others' costumes.

This is almost all of the grand kids: Princess Caroline, Shark Luke, Princess Amanda, Peacock Abigail, Knight Mikey, Cowboy Ben, Indian Kate and Indian Anna. We were only missing the two newest babies, William (one month) and Olivia (11 months).

Heather and Herb's family won with the best family themed costumes. How cute are these Cowboys and Indians! Seriously!

Peacock Abigail with her new baby brother William and Mama.

After dinner there were tons of fun games for the kids. I didn't take pictures of everything, but this was my favorite picture--Mikey getting ready to pounce on the doughnut!

Yet Another "From the Mouth of Mikey"

Quick Daddy Moment: So, we all went to our ward Trunk-or-Treat on Friday night, and both boys had a ton of fun. As soon as Luke saw that people were putting candy into his bucket, you could only have gotten it from him by prying it from his cold, dead fingers. As for Mikey, he knew what to expect, and loved every minute of it. Unfortunately, since we were only using the parking lot, the church building itself was all locked up. For those of you familiar with recently potty-trained three-year-olds, potty emergencies don't leave you with a lot of time to respond. So, after trying a few of the church doors and realizing that we were going to have a problem VERY soon, I tucked Mikey under my arm like a football and ran across the street to the vacant lot there. I told him we were going to sneak over and potty in the field, and he thought that was great. Then, as I was holding him in the superman position to prevent water damage to his pants or shoes, he turned to me and said, "Daddy, do you think the farmer will be mad?" I almost dropped him, I was laughing so hard. Priceless, that kid.

Last few days of swinging

As the weather cools, the days of swinging are nearing a close so Mikey pretty much wants to go outside with dad the second he gets home every day. And of course, no one gets him higher than dad (he rarely even asks me to push him anymore.) THIS is how high dad gets him.

No wonder he's never interested in the swings at the park. What will we do when we move one day?!!!

A little more about Luke

Oh Luke, my cute little man. He will be 17 months next week. He is in such a fun, but MESSY stage. I mean, toys of course are all over, but he has the biggest effect on the kitchen while in his high chair. He's getting to the point where he wants to be quite independent when it comes to eating so he must have a spoon or a fork to himself. For the floor this works out about half the time. Half the time he eats the yogurt out of of the cup and leaves it on his tray. Half the time the yogurt cup ends up upside down on the floor.

When it comes to pieces of food, the floor never wins. As anyone knows who has ever played ball with this kid, he's going pro for sure. He can throw like no other and has been amazing at it since he was 9 months. Lance, of course especially loves it. I love it, too when he's playing ball. I do NOT love it when I try to get him to eat peas (or really any other kind of food, but peas are the most affective). Yes, he can get peas all the way from his high chair by the back door to the front door (for those of you who have been in our house, you realize that that is FAR!) But he doesn't just throw in one area. Food ends up in every direction and as far as he can get it. So my kitchen is never clean. Sorry. I just can't keep up.

And I know when he's done by two things that happen. First, he bends all his silverware. Yes, bends it in half. I'm ready to actually give him real SILVERware because he's destroying all our kid stuff. And second, as soon as he's done he rubs his hair as much as he can before I stop him. Yep, he sees me coming with the washcloth and he immediately starts rubbing his hair as fast as he can. Oh he kills me. But I just can't get enough of him. He is the cutest thing I've ever seen!!!

I especially love the yogurt running down his arm here

It's hard to tell by the angle, but notice the bent spoon

I never knew he liked spaghetti and meatballs until Mikey ordered it at a restaurant and Luke ate more than Mikey. And here he is with the leftovers. Still lovin' it!

But my favorite, FAVORITE thing he loves right now are the kisses! He loves to give kisses. I've been meaning to get pictures of him doing this forever, but I kept forgetting when Lance was around. Finally I had the camera close and he was in the mood so this was the best I could get taking the picture myself.

Oh, and one last thing, he keeps trying to talk and talk. He now talks as though we should understand everything he says. It's cute, but also frustrating for him since we really can't understand anything he says. Well, we can understand a choice few. There is 'ju' = juice; 'cheeeese' = for cheese (used when eating cheese and ALSO anytime he sees a camera); 'bauba' = bottle; 'bu' = books; 'wahtur' = water; 'mama' = mama, daddy, or pick me up; 'dada' = daddy, mama, or pick me up

Love him.

From the mouth of Mikey

Earlier this evening I was in the kitchen doing dishes while Lance was in the front room with both boys reading books. Mikey loves to read these Book of Mormon picture books (mostly the ones about fighting and war...he's such a boy.)

Well actually Mikey had chosen the one about Christ being resurrected. So Lance was explaining resurrection and was explaining how we would all be resurrected also one day. This is what I heard:

Lance: Do you know what it means to be resurrected? It means we'll live again and we will have perfect bodies and we will never get sick, and won't get hurt, and we won't get tired...
Mikey: ...And we won't get killed by gorillas!

......apparently that is Mikey's number one concern in life at the moment! I was laughing so hard that I was crying in the kitchen for like 10 minutes...in fact, I had to stop again just now to laugh enough to bring tears to my eyes.

Brothers...

They love it. Luke loves to follow Mikey around and Mikey loves to have him follow him around and make him laugh (unless he just woke up--then don't bother him). Mikey cries when we put Luke down at night before him.

Show time--Luke loves sitting in little kid chairs. He can't get enough of it.

Just being silly in the entertainment center before it got moved out to the garage.
Just too cute!

And "squeezy yogurt" time is a frequent occurrence

So tired...

This is what Lance came home to the other day. Guess who had already had a nap...
Mikey usually doesn't take naps anymore, but I guess we had had a pretty tiring day (to my great disappointment, I also rarely take naps... *sigh* Hey, maybe I shouldn't post this. I think it might not shine the kindest light on my mothering skills. Who lets their 16-month-old run around the house unattended--it wasn't intentional, I swear!)

I TOLD You So!

Back when Mikey was a little younger and not quite the talker he is now, Lance would get him so say little things that were funny to hear a little child say. Now and then I would warn him about something he was teaching (warning, threatening--same thing) that would come back and get us. Well the day has come.

This particular little word of wisdom from father to son was in regards to what we do at stop lights. He taught him the following responses:
"What do you do at a green light?"
"Go"
"What do you do at a red light?"
"Stop"
"And what do you do at a yellow light?"
"...FLOOR IT!"

Yes, I warned Lance...

So the other day in the car Mikey suddenly said to Lance, "Daddy! Miss Ashley (his preschool teacher) said we slow down at yellow lights!"

Lance (of course thinking, oh no, Kristy was right--as usual) said after a long dreading pause, "And…uh…what did you say?"

Mikey's response was as expected: "I told her that you FLOOR IT! But she said that you slow down."

*Sigh*...so embarrassed. I expect to be called in to see the teacher any day now.

Luke

It's been another month or so since I've given an update on Luke. He's now 15 1/2 months and gets more and more fun every day. It's great (for both the boys AND for mama) because Mikey is enjoying playing with Luke more and more so they can entertain each other for longer stretches. I usually only have to yell out to Mikey to stop taking things away from Luke every so often--it's an improvement.

He continues to work on his words. He quite regularly says bottle (bahbuh) and will try to imitate our words when he's in the mood. He also says, "cheese" when we pull out the camera. So cute.

A little while ago when we were sitting down to dinner we were doing the usual with all eyes on Mikey trying to get him to sit still and say a prayer and do all he's supposed to do. Well I happened to glance at Luke in his high chair as we said to Mikey, "let's say a prayer." Just as we said prayer Luke grabbed his forearms in the folding-arms manner. It was so cute! He only held it there for a second before continuing with his meal, but it was so funny--we had no idea. Watch what you do! The kids are watching! :)

Love you, Luke!

Has given me an earthly comb...

Mikey loves to sing. One of his favs, of course, is "I Am a Child of God." For most of it he either sings the right words or mumbles the words. But one phrase he sings loud and clear: "Has given me an earthly COMB!" Kills me every time.

My Baby....

...has started school. :( That's right, folks. My little Mikey started preschool this last week. Okay, actually I'm the baby because yes, I shed a tear or two when watching him walk away into the school. I just can't believe how big he is!

He has been doing so great. I wasn't sure how he'd be because at the orientation a few weeks ago he didn't want Lance or I to leave his side. But come d-day he hopped right out of the car and went inside.

Here he is just after he jumped out of the car. He wouldn't have even looked back if we didn't make him!

Note: You may have noticed his ridiculously cute Spiderman book tote bag. He loves it...and so do I. Okay, maybe it's because I made it... :D He is not allowed a back pack because the school says they are too big for these little kids and they will crush art projects they bring home. So here's the thing: cutesy, little girly tote bags? Found in plentiful quantities in all such stores such as Target, Walmart.... Manly, little boy bags? Not a one to be found. The closest I came to finding anything not so girly was a Rolling Stones bag--not exactly my ideal candidate for my 3-year-old to be carrying around idealizing. So in steps my trying-to-be-creative-mom side. I had less than a day to produce something he could use that didn't have pink stripes on it. So off to Joanns. They had all I needed for a little boy appropriate bag.

PS: And so it begins. After his first day we asked, "So Mikey, what did you do at school today?!" Mikey's response: "I don't know. Nothing." Sigh.