I love my son!

I just wanted to record this conversation I had with Gavin this morning.

Gavin-"Mom?"

Me-"I'm right here, buddy."

G-"I not awake yet."

M-"Okay."

G-"you lay by me?"

m-"I'm going to go downstairs and start breakfast. Do you want some eggs and sausage?"

G-"ya. I still sleeping. I'll be down in just a few minutes."

That was a direct quote! He is so funny when he talks!

We are going to Logan this weekend to visit some friends and to go to my favorite Italian restaurant ever! Its called Le Nonne and it's delicious! Go if you get the chance! Have a good conference/easter weekend.

Today was a good day!

So, Gavin got up incredibly early this morning. I don't know what time it was, but Jamison was up eating. I think it was around 7 am. I know that is not early to some mom's, but in our house, that is early. Anyway, he was laying in our bed and nodded off again and started dreaming. All the sudden, he throws a fit! Yes, he started to cry and waived his arm through the air stating "Kinley took my toy!!". It was awesome to see him seriously think that he was awake and McKinley was fighting with him! The down side is that this is obviously a common occurrence in our home if he is dreaming about it. McKinley will actually taunt him-take something he has put down and say "Gavin, look what I have!". Little stinker!

Today was a good Sunday. We have church at 9 am and so the rest of the day seems forever long with nothing to fill it. Today we got our bikes out and went for a short ride around our neighborhood while Jamison was asleep. McKinley got a new 'to her' bike. We got it last summer to fix her little bike. It is the next size up and Matthew fixed it up so it will work for her this year. She loves to race! Anyway, it was nice to get out and enjoy the sunshine. We also spent time dropping origami helicopters over the stairs. Over and over and over again! The kids thought it was great! Then after dinner we had our movie night. We watch a movie with popcorn and orange julius. It's one of the traditions that Matthew brought from growing up. The kids love doing this and will actually put off watching a movie during the day so they can watch one at night! McKinley colored in her Friend magazine and Gavin went home teaching with Matthew. It was a good day, just nice and peaceful.

A free weekend!!!

I had my first free weekend, minus one when Erica had to work, since mid December. The ski hill keeps us busy all winter. They closed on Saturday, but I stayed home. There is still plenty of snow, in fact, sources tell me that it was snowing while they were getting all of the stuff from the lodge cleaned out. People just quit coming usually. Oh well, I'm ready for a break.

You may wonder, "Well, what did you do on your day off?" I went fishing! One of my most favorite things ever. Gavin had said a couple weeks ago that he wanted to go fishing so me and Dad took the kids out to the river. We had a good time. It felt good to be at home in the morning. Erica especially likes it when I'm home because she gets to sleep in. McKinley, Gavin, and I headed out just after noon and picked up Dad. We just drove out to the river behind Grandpa's farm. We all caught a fish and it only snowed and blew a little bit. They only lasted about an hour but it was just right because we had to leave anyways. It is so funny watching kids catch fish. It just makes you chuckle. We let Gavin hold the pole on his own and reel the fish in. He only fell down a couple of times on the river rocks. I had my camera and had to take a couple pictures of the kids. I wonder how many pictures of the kids holding fish I will take in my lifetime? Who knows, but I sure love it.

Erica made plans to go to a seminar about buying foreclosed houses. If you have any questions you can talk to her about it. She took Jamison and had a good time. She had been looking forward to it. She enjoys that kind of thing. I guess that someone has got to worry about selling our house and buying a new one because I am not doing much that way.

It feels good to have something to blog about that is fun. My last post had kind of a depressing feel to it. I am not depressed or anything, but just hadn't been doing too much. This was a lot more fun to write about.

As promised, here are a few pictures.

Here is Gavin's fine catch, we had to wrap the fishing line around his hand so he could hold it up.

He knows how to make it look like a big one!

If you look close at the edge of the water, you can see McKinley's fish getting pulled up on the bank.

She has a fish on but is being cool and calm. At least she didn't stick her tongue out.

My kids are Awesome!

I'm so excited to say that Jamison slept through the night last night! Okay-I put him to bed at midnight, maybe a little sooner. He slept until after 9 am this morning! Awesome, right! I don't know if it was a fluke or not. We will see how he does tonight.

So, I know you are all thinking "that's great, a good nights rest" right? Not even close! I swear my awesome children communicate on a spiritual level and say, "hey guys, I need a good nights rest tonight. Could you wake up so mom doesn't sleep good?"

After I put Jamison down, I was reading a book to relax. Gavin woke up. We go back into his room and he usually falls right to sleep if we lay on the floor next to his toddler bed. So, I settled with my book and after a couple of drinks-for Gavin-I thought I was in the clear when McKinley woke up! Gavin wasn't quite asleep and didn't want me to leave, so McKinley settled on his floor as well. When they were both asleep I was trying to move McKinley. She wanted me to lay by her in her bed as she said she was cold and "nobody ever lays by me!". This last sentence kills me. We are the hardest on her and she is the most difficult child of ours, so I always feel like she needs more love. So I almost always lay by her if she requests it. Anyway, I have no idea what time it is at this point, but McKinley's bed is definitely more comfortable then Gavin's floor, so I jumped into her bed. Next thing I know, Matthew is waking me up telling me he is leaving for work. Wow! I crawled in our bed and went back to sleep until the alarm went off at 8. I was still fully clothed!

What a night!

Someday I'll sleep again.

It's been a while

I realized that it has been a while since I have written anything. Life's been busy. My new job in Pocatello keeps me busy, which I am not used to. I get home later than I'm used to and it seems like there is something going on every night. A night to chill at home would be nice. I'm paranoid about getting enough sleep because I have to drive for 2 1/2 hours every day and I don't want to fall asleep driving. Most nights either Erica or I fall asleep putting the kids to sleep. It will take some getting used to before I can enjoy the new schedule. Living closer would help some, but it wouldn't fix the problem. I'll just have to get used to being a working stiff again.

Work is going good. I enjoy having something challenging to work on and think about. I missed that part of it. The people in the office are all good to work with. I'm still trying to get used to being in a cubicle. At my old job I shared an office with one other guy, at Keller, there is just one big room with cubicles.

I still enjoy playing in our "band" with Morgan and Devin. We don't get to play every week and so we just about forget everything we worked on the last time we played so we don't make a lot of progress but we try to keep up on the songs that we have learned. We have almost finished learning the first disc we put together and are making a list for the second one.

The other thing that is keeping me busy is church basketball. We are in the stake tournament and are one of the last three teams. For some reason the stake sports director is having us play two nights a week. I don't like having to be gone two nights a week and Erica has about had it. We have been doing really good. It is my only real source of exercise.

I haven't been on any adventures with the kids since I started working so hopefully when the ski hill closes, I will have a free day. Gavin said he wanted to go fishing last week so we'll have to try and do that.

That is all for me I guess. I've done my duty. 'Til next time.

Today was a day of laughter!

At least for me it was! I was just in a silly mood after my nap, I guess. I was laughing at everything-and not just giggles, full blown, tears running down my face laughter.

We had chicken and spinach manicotti for dinner tonight. It was a new recipe and turned out good. It wasn't overly exciting, but edible. Matthew didn't think to much of it. McKinley thought it was good cause it wasn't spicy. Gavin didn't eat more than two bites. We told the kids that there was ice cream for kids who finished their dinner. Well, Gavin got down from the table and as I hate to waste food, I finished his. He came back to the table, climbed on a chair, looked at his plate and declared "I did it! I finished my dinner!" I thought this was hilarious for some reason! A little con artist. Have mom finish your dinner and then claim it as your own. Too bad we were in on it. He still had to eat more to get his ice cream.

The second funny thing was a Geico commercial. You see this man standing on a scale and the measuring stick raised up to the max height not even close to the man's head. Then the picture moves out and you see the short nurse trying desperately to raise the stick as high as it can go. Then she proceeds to break it, set it next to the wall, and declare that she'll just guesstimate. I was laughing uncontrollably! I can totally relate to the short nurse! Have you ever tried to measure someone that is a foot and a half taller than you! You can't even reach the top of their head! If you got to Geico.com it's called "Too Tall". You watch it!

Anyway, the real reason i'm blogging is to post some cute pics of Jamison. He weighed in at 10 lbs 15 oz at his two month checkup and was 22.25 inches tall. Surprising seeing as how Gavin weighed in at a mighty 13 lbs at that checkup! Don't remember his height. Oh well-enjoy the pics.

McKinley thought this was hilarious! It was cute enough to take a picture, but you can only allow so much torture!
I love this outfit. A good friend in our ward gave it too us! He is finally big enough for the shirt, but the pants fall off if your not careful. He was being super cute, so I grabbed the camera!
Below you see another form of torture-this one from dad! It's pretty funny though. You can see the resemblance to his older brother in the following picture.
May I remind everyone, our beloved Gavin requests to dress like this! How can you put this kid in time out!? He is slowly learning that he cannot have everything his way, although he thinks everything, including Jamison, is his and McKinley must not touch!!! You should hear him tell McKinley, "Get out of him's face!". Its awesome! I love my kids!

Ahead of her time.

A friend of mine at work was talking about her little girl and how she is showing signs of being an early walker. She is 7 months old if I remember correctly and she is already balancing on her own. She might have McKinley beat!! As all good parents do, I had to tell my friend about McKinley. She walked at 9 months, rode her bike without training wheels just before turning 4, and can jump rope at 4 and 1/2. Nikki asked me to post video of her jump roping. I decided to find the one we have of her walking at 9 months, and yes, it was March 24, 2006. I laugh everytime I watch it. Be warned, we were first time parents and the video of her walking is very long. Don't feel like you have to watch all of it.

Nikki-this is for you! Be prepared for what is to come!!

Kinda weird to see them side by side. They grow up fast! When McKinley was learning how to jump rope, she couldn't spin her left arm the same as her right. She would jump kinda sideways. It was pretty spastic, but she kept working at it! Gotta give the girl kudos! She is pretty awesome when she's not irritating Gavin. I keep thinking she'll be my olympian! Ha Ha-isn't that every mother's dream! Here's the video of McKinley and Gavin skiing that I wanted to post so long ago. (nope-it didn't work again! I'll try again later.)

Gavin went up on the chair lift last weekend with Matthew and uncle Morgan. Uncle Devin took a video of him going down. We'll have to get it from him. Morgan skied backwards the entire way and Gavin just followed him. If he got going too fast, Morgan would just catch him. McKinley finished her 4 weeks of lessons last week and can officially go on almost any run on the mountain. They stay off the super steep ones. She's pretty funny to watch! She's still not super interested in technique, but I suppose that will come. Who am I to talk-I can't even ski! Its a good thing our kids have aunts and uncles to help them learn how. (and grandmas!) McKinley's cousin, Celsea, came up last weekend with my sister and parents. She went skiing too! It was a great success! Here's some fun pics!