Shake that thang!

Best. Video. Ever.
Mikey hula hooping on the Wii.

The difference a few months makes

A few weeks ago we went to St. George for a break from the cold and fog. Not that it was super warm there, but it was at least not snowing and freezing. We chose a hotel with a pool 'cause it had been some months since the boys had gone swimming. That turned out to be a good choice because they LOVED it. At the end of the summer they, of course, loved swimming, but Mikey was still very clingy to the edge of the pool and to us and Luke wouldn't dare get in this little boat. Apparently they progressed over the last few months...by swimming in the bath tub...? Who knows, but it was great and they loved it.

Luke loved his little boat, as you can see. (I know I've said this before, but MAN that kid is the cutest thing ever--though I'm pretty sure it's so that we don't kill him, but more on that another day.)

And Mikey just swam up and down the pool in his life jacket like it was no big deal. (Trust me, last summer it was a big deal!)

(There is actually a pool at my gym. I feel a little bad about not taking advantage of that more now. Time to go swimming)

Snow Time

This year has been so fun with the snow because both boys are big enough to enjoy it. They don't always last too long and Luke will sometimes lose a boot and just stand there in a sock screaming, but he goes right back out there. This is one of my favorite pictures because Luke is just so little still that he is the cutest thing all bundled up in his snow clothes. I could watch him walk around like that all day.

Mikey and Luke will definitely venture out alone in the snow, but it is SOOOO much more fun when dad is there.

Another cute little Luke picture

And finally a snowman! Lance has been complaining about the fluffiness of the "greatest snow on earth" because he couldn't get it to pack enough for a snowman. Well finally we had a wet snow!

They did a fabulous job, don't you think?
(Yes, we need to work on Mikey with his EXTRA cheesy grins. What can we do? He's 3 1/2 and gives it all he's got)

And the other good thing about wet snow? The ability to make snowballs. The best thing about this video is Luke just using the same snowball over and over again. And this is only a brief shot of this. It went on for quite some time with the same snowball.

Christmas PJ's and Christmas morning

What's that you say? It's almost Valentine's Day? Well I say, "back off!" I was busy this month, alright? I thought that since my boys keep insisting on wearing their Christmas PJ's then it's really actually current to post these pictures. (Seriously, Mikey will settle on his other PJ's when these ones are dirty, but otherwise it has to be these.)

I know that most everyone does the whole PJ's on Christmas Eve thing, but I never really did that growing up. Well this year I saw some cute ones so I thought I'd try it. I think we actually let them open them up a few days before Christmas so that they could get used a few times before Christmas was over. Who knew they'd be so insistent on going against the social norms and continuing to wear them long after the season! Those rebels.

And here is Christmas morning. Hey, I have a handful of other Christmas morning pictures that I never posted so at least I resisted the temptation of posting the full blown Christmas tree and present opening in February. (Mostly because I have like a gazillion other pictures from January to catch up on--so stay tuned for the next few days.)

For the grandparents

I know this post is a week or so too late, but I still had to post it because I love it. Of course, these videos are kind of long so I don't really expect that anyone else except the grandparents will love them as much as we do.

Mikey had a little Christmas program for his preschool and it was awesome. The first two videos are Rudolph. I had to break the song into two because it was too big to upload all together. And the reason why this is so great is because at first Mikey was singing like most of the little kids--just kind of mumbling through. But then during this song the teacher made some sort of "sing louder" signal and Mikey took it to heart. For the rest of the program he is almost the only one you can hear. He does sacrifice tone for volume, but it's all part of his charm. (Incidentally, the kid just behind him is one of his best friends in class and our next door neighbor. He is the one you can hear when you can't hear Mikey.)

(I apologize for the shaky camera work, but I just couldn't hold that thing straight while laughing my head off.)

Rudolph 1


Rudolph 2


Christmas Tree--this one is a lot shorter so for those who only want a small dose ;)


Luke loved the whole thing--especially in between songs when everyone clapped

The Unfortunate Follow-Up

For those who saw the last entry, specifically the part about me telling Mikey that he was getting a baby brother because Heavenly Father saw what a good big brother he is to his current baby brother, you might be interested in Mikey's epiphany this morning. We were at a ward event where the new primary kids (that's Mikey) got to meet and get to know their new primary teachers. Mikey's friend's mom asked Mikey what kind of baby his mom was having, and Mikey explained that it was a boy because he was such a good big brother to Luke. Then, after thinking for a second and with a little twinkle in his eye (and you might have guessed what's coming), he turned to me and asked, "Daddy, if I'm mean to my new baby brother do you think I can get a baby sister?" Part of me was proud of the kid for working that out, the whole "if...then," and the alternative, but the rest of me, well, you get the idea.

All Alone....

That's right folks, I'm all alone. I'm STILL all alone. I continue to be the only one in this household to be contributing any estrogen........ and that's because we're having another boy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We had our ultrasound today and the most important thing we discovered was that everything looks great and we have a healthy baby. But the fun thing to discover is that we are bringing another boy home. :) Now if you feel the need to comfort someone over the fact that is it ANOTHER boy, your sympathies would be best aimed toward Mikey. People keep saying, "Oh, you probably want a girl, huh?" "Oh, I hope you get a girl." Perhaps if the NEXT one is another boy, I might want your sympathies :) But I really didn't care this time, I'm actually very excited about another little boy.

Mikey, on the other hand.... He mentioned wanting a sister awhile ago, but he hadn't mentioned it in a while so I thought maybe he wouldn't care. He did. When we told him he was getting a baby brother again, he instantly dropped his head and did his trying-not-to-cry face and said, "but I want a baby sister!" He hugged Lance for a bit and remained sad and teary for awhile.

We seem to be better now, though. Lance told him that he's such a good big brother to Luke that Heavenly Father is sending him another brother. Then I showed him all the pictures we got from the ultrasound (which I'll post a little later) and explained what everything was. Between those two things he is now pretty excited--for now anyway :)

I must either be excellent with boys, or else would be terrible with girls :) Either way, for now we're happy!

Secular and Spiritual combine

Of course Mikey is quite into Santa and L-O-V-E-S Frosty, but I've been trying hard to also make sure that Mikey understands the true meaning of Christmas and all that. When it comes to that "spirit of Christmas" he struggles a little, meaning he just really isn't all that excited about what he is giving to others no matter how much I talked about it (every time I'd mention something Luke was getting he would immediately ask what he was getting). But he really seemed to understand the story of the birth of Jesus and its importance. So I tried to maintain a balance of that in the middle of all the Santa talk.

Well a few night ago after we had said the prayer for dinner, which always involves thanking, Mikey suddenly tells me, "I'm so thankful that Jesus made Santa!"

...Well...there you go...I guess. I'm not sure if I should be proud of that thought process or work on the kid a little more. But I love him either way! :)

Just watch

ps--don't call child services, pleeeeeease

Seeing Santa

We had our ward Christmas breakfast a few weeks ago and of course we got to see Santa. Mikey was so super excited and Luke is too little to be scared yet so it was all smiles...or at least it should have been.
As I've mentioned a few times, Luke is all "cheese" whenever he sees a camera. He was also in a fairly good mood throughout this Christmas event. So why the scowls? Who knows. He wasn't scared, he didn't try to squirm away. He probably would have sat there all day. He just scowls sometimes. (Don't we all have days where we wish we could scowl at everyone for no reason?) So we got Mikey alone with Santa while he was giving his ever changing list to Santa (seriously every time I asked him what he was going to tell Santa he'd say something different--what's a "Santa" to do with that?)

Luke scowling at Santa...

Then Luke scowling at us. Love my boys!!

18 months old!!!

I can't believe my baby is 18 month old!! He's just the cutest little thing (see exhibit A, B, C, D, and E below.) Although, don't let Mikey hear you call Luke cute. As you may or may not recall Mikey made explicit distinctions of who is cute and who is not. Luke has graduated from cute to a boy. I guess that's to make room for the new one on the way...?

Anyway, Luke keeps growing and doing more and more things. He continues to be a huge HAM! Every time he sees the camera he immediately strikes a "cheese" face above. (Except, of course, when we really want him to like when sitting on Santa's lap--that picture to come shortly.)

Luke is a SUPER jumper. He walks around all day just jumping. And it's quite impressive at his age that he actually gets off the ground as much as he does. He continues to be obsessed with balls. I mean more than most boys. He cannot even see a ball without dropping everything and throwing a fit unless he gets it.

That brings me to the less fun skill he has acquired--throwing tantrums. Yep. The first time you say no he just drops his head into his hands and covers his face (which I have to admit, we kind of think is cute.) But then the next stage is on the floor rolling around. Oh well, what do you do? It comes with the territory. :)

Notice his hands in this picture--those are mashed potatoes. They are actually all over his face, too and all throughout his hair. The kid hardly eats so when he started kneading the potatoes I gave up and focused on Mikey while Luke played. But in the end he actually ended up with most of the potatoes in his mouth! He just had to lick them off of his finger after making sure there were no lumps.

I also cannot believe my baby is in nursery!!! He is a champ with nursery (and I can't believe how enjoyable those second two meetings are when you just get to sit and listen!!! I completely forgot!) We took him about two weeks before his 18-month birthday. Lance sat with him the first time and said he did great. So the next week as sacrament ended and we were gathering up our stuff, Luke started to run to the back of the gym. He frequently does this (to pretend to shoot basketballs--seriously, he stands there under the basket and focuses and shoots over and over) so I didn't chase after him right away. But then he ran out the door! So I started after him. I didn't catch up to him until he was IN the nursery room. He ran straight to nursery!

He is just so 100% opposite from how Mikey was. Mikey cried for a month straight and still struggled for awhile after that. But I attribute the difference to two things. First of all, I have taken Luke to the day care at the gym since he was three months old. So he's used to me dropping him off and he knows I'll come back. Mikey had pretty much never been away from me. And second, Mikey is still in nursery. So Luke has Mikey there to feel more at ease. Anyway, I LOVE nursery and I'm so glad Luke does, too!

Luke is quite the roller in his crib. He is all over. So Lance I got a laugh when we found his little arm hanging out of the side.

And speaking of Mikey, Luke has, of course been long entertained by Mikey, but he's just started to really notice and freak out when Mikey leaves. Mostly it's just when we drop Mikey off at school. He immediately starts saying, "Mikey, Mikey!" and then screams as Mikey closes the door. I get sad that Luke is sad, but it's also so cute to watch them become more and more inseparable. I love it.

As happy and hyper as Luke is most of the time, don't be offended by his scowl. He can give a scowl like no one else and he just does it a lot. Also be careful when you put on his coat. Be sure that you're okay with him having it on forever. At church he was wearing a long sleeve shirt under his big thick winter coat, but it still took the whole meeting to take it off! When you attempt to take it off he just screams, "No!" and grabs any part you are trying to pull on. When coming in from playing in the snow he screams when you take off his boots and will walk around with hats, gloves, coat and snow pants for as long you allow it.

Just to finish things off here is a little video of Luke. I don't know why Lance started this "Bonsai" thing, but Luke loved it repeated it over and over again. It was cracking us up.



Love this kid!!

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!