Sleepyheads

All too often, we are a house of sleepyheads.

What, don't you sleep with a piano bench resting on your abdomen?

Faces of Mischief

My sweet boys can be pretty mischievous at times. Here are a few snapshots that make us smile.

That is the grin he gives us when he knows he is doing something naughty...like getting into the toilet.

This photo shoot was terrible. Each picture provided comic relief simply because it was so awful!

I LOVE his face here.

Again, his smile that says he knows he is doing something naughty, and enjoying every minute of it.

Their mischief can cause trouble, but they are just so adorable about it!

Bird Week

I try to do themed activities each week with Talmage. We're not perfect at it, but it gives us a good structure to plan fun activities around. We had some fun with bird week.

One day we made pinecone bird feeders!

He was so into getting it right.

We also made a visit to a local park to feed the ducks. The super mean ducks that would snatch the bread right out of Talmage's hands and even bite his fingers sometimes! Thankfully he was very good natured about it. He kept saying, "They're eating me!"

And we made birds' nest cookies. Chow mein noodles lend themselves well to such a project.

I love the way planning a few simple, fun activities each week breaks things up and helps me focus the time I spend with the kids. It makes such a difference in their behavior when I spend focused, intentional time with them each day. And it makes my job more fun, too! So if you have any super ideas, feel free to send them my way. I'm always on the hunt for more. :)

Halloween

I don't know what was wrong with me for the month of October. But I was so lame with every celebration we had! Next year will be better, for sure. But the kids still had fun, and that's the really important thing! For Halloween, we decided at the very last minute to take the kids to the trunk-or-treat the ward was having. So we put Wesley in a duck costume from a friend and borrowed a dragon costume from a family in our ward and called it good.

We didn't even take them trick-or-treating, since we figured they had no need for the candy and didn't even know what trick-or-treating was. We figured it wasn't really worth the effort since we have to drive to someone else's neighborhood (our street has no sidewalks and only a few houses) and we didn't care to pump the kids full of even more sugar.

Maybe Talmage was more sad about our lack of celebration than I realized...or maybe it was just bedtime and he was SO done with pictures. :)

I love this cute little duck!

Okay, I'm making it official--next year's October celebrations are going to be much better! Sheesh.

A Visit to the Fire Station

Our ward has a little neighborhood preschool going on. Although I opted out for this year (Talmage still has 3 years before kindergarten), they were kind enough to invite us to come on their field trip to the fire station! Talmage was in quiet awe the entire time, cracking us up with his permanently open mouth and wide eyes.

The trip actually started out a bit rough. Talmage was surprisingly not excited when I informed him that we were going to the fire station. He was afraid they would turn on the siren and he does not like loud noises like that. He was so adamant that he didn't want to go in! I knew he would love it, so I eventually coaxed him to just come in and I would ask the firefighters if they were going to turn on the siren. They said they weren't going to, and all was well. And wouldn't you know it, somebody goofed and actually did turn the siren on, but by that point Talmage was fully invested and didn't really care.

He also loved seeing the inside of the ambulance.

And here's the whole lineup! What a cute bunch of kids.

Thanks for letting us tag along!

Wesley's First Birthday!

We were almost as lame with Wesley's birthday as we were with Talmage's. We did manage to get a few more pictures, though!

He loved the puzzle from Grandma Sue.

These are some awesome song cubes my sister sent me! I saw it as an opportunity to give Wesley a free present, so I wrapped it up for him. Ah, grad school...

But for a one-year-old, playing in the garbage is the funnest part anyway, right?

Then it was time for cake! We stripped him down and while I was getting ready Daddy played his ceiling touching game with the birthday boy.

All clean, but not for long!

He dug right in!

Atta boy, just shove it in.

And he LOVES sharing food with others!

Yep, it's true...his cake was even more boring than Talmage's.

But boring or not, it certainly induced great big smiles. We love this happy birthday boy!