All Boy

Last night as we were sitting together in the boys room I smelled something suspect. I asked Jacob, "Jake, do you have stinky toots?" He looked at me and, very seriously, said, "Yeah, and stinky burps too." Eew.

Fun Stuff

These are my newest Halloween toes.

Maggie's favorite new thing is walking, but she needs help. She LOVES to do this! In fact, don't even start if you don't want to do it for an hour. She will scream as soon as you stop. I got tired of bending down all the time so I enlisted the help of Tyler. Works almost as good!
Tyler took this picture. Watch out!
Notice anything special?????
She finally has enough hair to hold a small clip, as long as it has a no-slip grip glued inside of it. Yeah! So what did I do? I ordered about 15 clips off of etsy.com (great homemade stuff) for her to wear now!

Tyler took many many pictures of himself...this was my favorite...
Look who found a new toy! Yes, it was the entire roll. And yes, I am so cheap I actually picked up and semi-folded all the big pieces to use. Why waste an entire roll of toilet paper? I am sure it will happen again anyway. So now all my bathroom not only have the garbage cans on the counters, but the toilet paper rolls too.
We had a "Beatles Rock Band" party with our friends, the Larsons. We took turns, kids and adults. The kids loved it. Here they are playing their favorite song, "Yellow Submarine." It was so fun!
Last week we went to California Adventure and "Talked with Crush" (so cool by the way for those who haven't done it). They have a big screen out into the "ocean" and Crush the turtle actually comes and talks with the kids. How they do it I will never know. But now, both of my kids have gotten to talk with him, and for both times something funny happened. Last year Crush asked Tyler what his favorite food was. He shyly mumbled what was supposed to be "peanut butter and jelly" but what everyone heard was "Pee and jelly." Crush thought that was a little odd. Well, Crush called on Jacob to ask him a question. I whispered in Jacob's ear, "Say, what is your favorite food?" Jacob then responds into the microphone, "Ummmm...chicken." Crush said, "Chicken?" But he was quick on his feet and asked Jacob if everything on land tasted like chicken. What did Jake say? "Yeah." So my question now is....why can't I get Jake to eat chicken?

Bathroom Humor

Tonight Eric and I went to see a movie where a young boy innocently pees in a display toilet at a home-improvement store. We looked at each other--no words needed to be said. It opened our eyes to an issue we had not forseen, but is very likely. Jacob will be on constant surveillance from now on at Home Depot. Just this afternoon at my mom's he came inside (after running around outside) and told me, "Mom, I was running and the poop just fell out of my bum." I hate it when it does that.

A Child's Prayer

Jacob said the family prayer tonight.  This is verbatim..."Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for this day.  Bless that I won't get crumbs everywhere.  Bless that I won't break the house.  In the name of Jesus Christ, amen."

All in the Family

Apparently Maggie's penchant for refrigerator fun is hereditary....

Big Brother

Has anyone ever read the book "1984"?  Well, Big Brother is alive and well in the army.  I don't know why, but for some reason the army feels like they can control every aspect of your life.  "You can't travel to San Diego on your weekend off because it's too far.  You have to take leave if you want to go even though it's a holiday weekend......You can't have an 11-year-old babysit for you.  They have to be 12-years-old and have passed our babysitting course......blah blah blah."  Those are both true, by the way.  There are many more but their new one has to do with driving.  A few months ago a boy was hit by a car.  The driver was drunk, the boy was out at night and crossing the street NOT at a crosswalk.  Now the military police have changed all the speed limits around most of post to 15 mph!  And that is not even in residential areas or school zones!  It is so crazy slow it is ridiculous.  I mean, people get in car accidents on the freeway but you don't change the speed limit to 15 mph.  Anyway, the cops are being crazy about enforcing it--they give out tickets at the slightest sign of speeding.  I have a neighbor who got caught going 20 mph and they gave her an $85 speeding ticket!  Well now, Big Brother has decided that if you get caught speeding your commanding officer has the right to revoke your driving privileges.  WHAT?!?!  Who give the right for the Army to take away my driver's license that was issued by the STATE OF CALIFORNIA (or Texas in my case)?  It is so crazy--I think every commander and police officer is on some kind of insane power trip.  It is making me crazy.  Better check my house for bugs and hidden video cameras.  

On to better things.  Today was a holiday off school so we decided to go miniature golfing.  It was fun--the boys (who usually fight over the silliest things...tonight it was who had more bubbles on their side of the bathtub) played SO well together.  They had a blast.
Tyler even got to try the batting cages.  I tried them too.  Let's just say I won't be coaching any baseball teams anytime soon....   Tyler was pretty good though, once he got over his initial fear of a loud machine sending a speeding baseball heading toward his face.
Everyone had fun, except for Maggie.  My normally sweet little Magpie was not so sweet today.  She was pretty ornery and I could only keep her happy with a bottle while we were at the batting cages.  I tried to make her as comfortable as possible...   My guess is that second tooth looks like it is just one layer of gums from breaking through.  Hopefully it pops up soon!
My birthday was on Sunday.  Our friends, the Larson's, had us over for dinner.  It was so fun.  Plus, Eric had taken the boys to the store a few days before to pick out some presents for me.  Here is what I got....   First, two bags of candy (one of Lemonheads which were mostly to share with the boys--that includes Eric, and one bag of chocolate Reisen---soooo good---just for me).  Second, they got me a crown and earrings since I am the queen of the house.  They looked good on me but better on Jacob...  He doesn't look to happy in the picture, but trust me, he was dying to try them on.  Should I be worried?
And lastly Tyler picked me out a pair of fuzzy purple slippers.  Very cozy and bright.  
On to a more interesting topic.  Jacob's hunger strike.  Jacob has a terrible habit of asking for a specific food then saying, "Um, I don't want it" when you give it to him.  He wanted chicken noodle soup for lunch on Saturday but wouldn't eat it.  I do what I usually do and told him it would be the next thing that went in his mouth.  So I put it in the fridge.  This was the start of the hunger strike.  Over the course of the next 24 hours, I heated up that soup no less than 4 times, let it sit on the table for a while, then put it back in the fridge, only to get it out again when Jacob said he was hungry to heat it up, let it sit, and on and on.  It finally got to the point where he won--I had to throw the soup out.  It was really becoming a sanitation issue at this point.  After all that heating and cooling etc.  I can imagine the soup may not have been the best thing anymore.  I swear, that child is so stubborn.  I think he would starve to death just to spite me.  It's too bad he can't put that willpower to better use, like world peace for instance.  Stopping genocide in Darfur, ending poverty, etc.  Well, maybe when he's older....  For now, this is my kitchen table....
I painted my friend's toes yesterday.  They look even cuter in person.  Now when I don't have a design on my toes they look so naked.  I'll have to start sketching some Halloween designs!
Here's my happy girl.  She loves this little walker...  but is play the most annoying song!  Why do toy companies do that?  Maybe they are all in it together..."This one is too annoying, I've got to buy a different one!"  Then they split the profits.  Maybe I will call John Stossel and have him do an expose of the swindlers in the toy industry.
If I happen to open the fridge with Maggie nearby she makes a bee-line straight for it.  She would stand there for hours if I let her.  She pulls things off the shelves, drools all over everything.  If it weren't so cute I'd be annoyed.  She's pretty lucky to be so adorable.  The problem with her is that I want to give her everything she wants.  I better spoil her now before she gets old enough to realize it.  Plus "spoiling" her now only means letting her pull food out of the pantry and eating dessert without finishing dinner....
For Family Home Evening a few weeks ago we acted out the parable of the Good Samaritan.  Boy, was it a hit!  Eric was the hurt man, Tyler played the part of the good Samaritan.  They loved it, I mean, look at the body language, the costume design (my stained dish towel).  Do I hear Oscar music?  I think so.
Last week in the bath I put Maggie in with Jacob because it was getting late and he had bubble in his bath.  Maggie was fascinated by them and dipped her face down into them.  When she came up she had the perfect Santa Claus beard it was so funny!  I couldn't get my camera in time, but I think her expression shows how confused she was by the bubbles!
Don't you just want to pick her up and squeeze her? . . . . . Okay, back off Lenny....
Now, I looked good in my crown, Jacob looked good in the crown, but Ms. Maggie Moo looked the best of all...  She looks pretty happy about it too.
I know it is a long post, but I had so many pics to show!  Hope it didn't bore you all!

The Red Balloon

Guess who got her first tooth?  You can't see it in these pictures--it is too small.  But it is there!  Finally.  I loved her huge gummy smile and am a little sad to see it go, it was a very infectious smile.  But I am sure she will be just as fun with teeth.  

Eric and I went to Vegas for a couple days last week to celebrate a combination of both our birthdays and anniversary.  My mom came out and watched the kids for us.  They had so much fun.  She set up an obstacle course around the room and the boys had fun.  She took a few pictures but this was my favorite...
Jacob was completing part of the obstacle course when Maggie decided to join in!  She crawled right under his legs.  She is so funny!  

Up next is Jacob at his preschool "Fiesta" party.  The kids did a little dance and songs.  It was so cute and hilarious.  Jacob actually did the movements better than any of the other kids.  He even had a small speaking part.  He was very proud of himself.  He is also loving school.  She tries to copy everything Tyler does--so if Tyler has homework, Jacob has to have homework.  Occasionally they do have small assignments but I usually end up making something up.  And if Tyler has things in his backpack, Jacob has to have things in his backpack, it doesn't matter what it is (see the following picture...).

Yes, rocks.  Like I said, if Tyler's got things in his backpack, Jacob will find whatever is available to put in there.  I picked up his backpack the other day and thought, "Man, this is really heavy for having only an empty folder in it!"  Lo and behold I find an entire front pocket full of rocks from our front "yard".  Maybe he's just trying to put on a little muscle?  He has been talking a lot lately about growing up.  He'll say, "Mommy, I'm gonna drink milk and grow big and bigger and bigger and so tall that I will step on everyone."  He also says that with the ending of "so I can touch the sky, like Daddy."  Silly kid.  I just hope he doesn't step on me!  

Tyler said something cute the other day too.  We were talking about how everyone on earth is a child of God.  I told Tyler, "Even I am a child of God."  He looked at me and said, "No your not."  I was a little worried until he followed it up with, "You are a grown-up of God."  Love it.

Does anyone remember that weird movie, "The Red Balloon"?  Well, today we went to "town" (aka Barstow--a stretch, I know) and the kids had a red balloon with a blue ribbon attached to it.  As we were getting out of the car at the outlets it blew out of the car and scuttled away along the ground.  It was VERY windy so we didn't bother to go get it--we would've been chasing it for an hour.  Well, we go into our store and spend about 15 minutes there.  As we were winding down our purchases, we happen to look over by a round clothes hanger and guess what we found?  Our red balloon, complete with blue ribbon.  Now how it ended up in there is a mystery, but apparently it must have felt like it belonged to us.  So, my boys picked it up to bring it home.  Well, the poor balloon didn't make it all the way...Jacob popped it after a few minutes.  That balloon didn't know what he was getting himself into.