Hippo birdy two ewe Daniel!

Today was Daniel's first birthday and we made an effort to make sure it was a fun day for him. We went to the zoo and had a blast!

Giraffes are totally rad!

Harry chasing a squirrel up a tree.

Fish!

I loves de fishes!

The gorilla was out which thrilled the boys.

Petting the goat was a lot of fun! I thought I had a really funny video of the boys talking to and petting this goat, but I hit the wrong button and ended up only recording myself putting the camera away. Bummer!

Flamingos!

The boys in the bear chair. This is Evan's love me pose.

This is Harry's My Name is Earl pose.

This is Daniel's Dr Evil pose.

Daniel playing chew and show with the pizza we bought for lunch.

Daniel lunging for the cake, he liked the candle.

Here is a video of Daniel noming his cake.

Here is a bonus video of Daniel being a silly little boy

Movin on

We are going to be moving to California. It will be kind a sorta near where we were before, I tried to convince my husband that he wanted to move back to the same town we were living in, but the idea of a long commute made him cranky. Plus we have to move into housing, so really there is no choice in where we will live any way.

It is going to be different living in military housing, a new thing for us since before now we have always lived on the economy and been able to pick where we lived. I will greatly miss our back yard and family room. It was nice to be able to shove the kids outdoors while I was cooking dinner and still be able to keep an eye out for them. It is also nice to have a place for the kids to play that is not where we greet and entertain guests. It saves a lot of rushed picking up on my part and I will greatly miss that.

Housing has no dishwashers in the kitchens which is a grave thing indeed. My husband was reluctant to buy one of those portable ones that you hook up to the sink on the grounds that the pioneers washed dishes by hand and they lived happy and full lives. I pointed out to him that there was a reason dishwashers were invented in the first place and if washing by hand was so fun then why did the majority of dwelling places have a dish washer. This afternoon he came to me and mentioned that someone that was moving out was selling a dishwasher so I am sure that my point got through to him.

The call

So, we got the call we had been waiting for but ended up just as un enlightened as before the call came. The guy is giving my husband a choice between a highly sought after area that we personally would not like but an ok job, a not so great job in a place that I would be thrilled to live, a great job in an area I don't know much about that would be in the wrong direction from the one we are hoping to go and there is also the possibility we could not even move but that is not a choice that we can count on due to some issues. Sigh.

Yargh!

I have been absent from the blog due to me holding off posting in the hopes that I would be able to announce the news about our possible move. Annoyingly we are still in limbo.. STILL!!!!!! I want to find a certain person and smack him on the back of the head (with a cast iron pan), say a few swear words and them make him tell us if we are moving or not. This is beyond insane and it is stupid that we still do not know. It is also stupid that this annoying person is still doing this to so many people. If he was a civilian he would have been fired by now for gross incompetence.

Yesterday was my birthday and it was a nice quiet day. Evan was a bit disappointed that I did not get to open presents, he does not yet understand the fun of buying one's own birthday presents. I made a trip to a book store and picked up some reading and plan on hitting a yarn store too. I finished a scarf and Harry was sad that it was not for him, so I promised that I would knit him a rainbow scarf for next winter. I may go wild and even knit a matching hat and gloves.

Later in the evening I had a very nerdy birthday party with my World of Warcraft guild. I figured a cyber party would be more fun since I would not have to clean up after the guests and we could be as loud as we wanted with out having to worry about waking up the kids. We had loads of pretend cake that will not ruin our figures and I got presents of arrows and other deadly items.

The last batch of pictures

These are the pictures from our visit to the state history museum. They were having a special car exhibit that was actually was a bit of a let down in my humble opinion (not enough cars). We made the best of it though and I think the kids had fun.

I kept trying to get a picture of Daniel petting the buffalo fur but he kept looking at the camera and hamming it up. He is so cute it was impossible to get frustrated with him.

Evan and Harry were a little more cooperative.

I was not able to take the stroller up to see the part of the train the boys wanted to see so I kept moving and snapped a few pictures. The boys thought it was super funny to see me down there when they were up there.

Daniel taking a ride on a carousel horse in the children's play area.

Too cute for words!

There was a playground outside so we let them run around while my husband went back to ask about the nature trails that he had heard were in the area. We had a nice walk and the weather was great. Sadly we got snow the next day which made me very sad.

Harry barely paused long enough from his running around to let me take this picture.

Evan mad that Harry is in his rightful driving spot. I pulled them apart before blood was shed.

A harrowing adventure

I have more spring break pics but the camera is upstairs and I am downstairs and I don't feel like fixing the situation so that we are both in the same room.

Today I had a "fun" adventure. On the way back from taking Evan (plus the younger kids) to the big city for a cardiology appointment I got a flat. I was driving on a bridge and felt an odd vibration, at first I thought it was the road since it was under construction but then a guy pulled up next to me and was trying to tell me something. That set off my danger meter so I pulled off as soon as I could (which was not super soon since there were no handy shoulders thanks to construction). I ended up by a toll booth and had to drive on a rim for a little bit to get there.

Evan and Harry were both thrilled when I told them the tire was broken, Harry wanted to get out and see it. Daniel was not happy to be still stuck in his car seat after being stuck in his stroller for so long too. A nice toll booth employee called a trooper to come over and help us get the tire changed. I am a rather liberated woman, but cars are really not my thing and I had a very cranky baby to deal with so I was very thankful for the help.

So tomorrow we get to go buy a set of new tires. We have been pricing them because the tires were getting old, I just wish we had not waited so long, so that this whole thing could have been avoided. I am glad that the Blue and Gold dinner was changed to next week because we would have for sure been late.

Spring break continued

After much weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth the family room was cleaned. What should have taken an hour or so to do took part of the preceding evening plus all morning. The deadline was noon after which I was going to gather up all remaining toys and give them away. Daddy took pity on the kids and assisted them so that they were able to meet the deadline. Mommy was a bit sad that she missed out on getting rid of toys who's only purpose is to be scattered all over the floor.




Previous to the cleanup you could barely see the floor. It is hard to decide if nagging them constantly to pick up after every toy they play with is worse than the massive amount of nagging I have to do to get them to pick up their own toys after a few days of letting things slide. They are more than happy to pick up baby toys or even help pick up other things, but the second I ask them to pick up a toy they have played with it is the end of the world.

Spring break!

To make up for the craptastic winter break the boys had thanks to awful winter weather we have been taking them to see some of the local sights. There is not a whole lot to do besides to go to the zoo (which we did on Saturday) but what there is to do conveniently enough involves vehicles, so the boys are thrilled.

Today we took a tour of the local air museum. Here are some pic as proof that yes we did get out of the house.

Evan and Harry just had to climb up every set of stairs they could. "Look a seat!" and "Look another seat"

Here are the boys ready for an important mission behind enemy lines.

Daniel is coming too!

The outside of the helicopter.

Up, up and away!

Irony

As I am quietly trying not to panic as I attempt to plan the Blue and Gold dinner for the ward I can't help but almost laugh at the irony of me ending up being in charge of it. I have never actually been to one! I have all sisters, so we were not exactly active in cub scouts or boy scouts. Last year we could have gone, but me being pregnant and really not wanting to deal with two rambunctious little boys helped me decide not to go. At least this will be the best one I have ever been to even if nothing goes right.

Toy review

This post is brought to you by Ebeanstalk. Ebeanstalk is a website dedicated to selecting great baby toys and toddler toys. They rely on the opinions and feedback of bloggers and moms around the country to continue selecting great toys to sell. Their team of child experts also helps them pick out learning toys to make sure your child gets the most out of his or her playtime!

The Infantino elephant shape sorter is a big hit in my house. The box says it it a toy for 12+ months, but the two older boys were all over it too. I have a hard time getting them to leave it alone so that Daniel can even look at it. Harry especially loves to "help" Daniel play with it which involves Harry doing everything and scolding Daniel when he dares touch his toy.

What I love about it is that the shape sorter is not sealed up. I bought one with more types of shapes when Evan was a baby and I have rued that day. It is a sphere and impossible for a child to open on his own let alone a number of adults. That lead to me having to open the stupid thing about a billion times a day when Harry was on a shape sorting streak. This sorter is more geared towards independent play which is lovely and makes me very happy. I predict that this little elephant will be with the family for a long time.

Warning possible cuteness overload ahead!

This is Daniel's growl face. He loves to growl at me and giggles like a loon if I growl back at him.

Evan dinged 6!

February was an odd month, it seemed to last forever then BAM! it was over and I was rushing to make birthday preparations for Evan. We are also in perpetual cold land and days after I finally stopped coughing I got sick again with another cold which is why I have been rather quiet. It is hard to concentrate on blogging when your head is killing you due to your sinuses being packed full of snot.

On a more fun note, here are pictures of Evan's big day.

Evan's cake.

You may wonder why there is a tank on a flower cake or why there are flowers on a tank cake. Well here's the thing.. the tank cake looked like it had splotches of mold on it which was not terribly appetizing. I could not think of anything else to suggest to put on the cake other than flowers... so there are flowers on the cake. I know the lady taking my order thought I was nuts.

Evan didn't care what the frosting looked like, he just wanted the tank.

Here he is "shooting" mom. He also "shot" grandpa on the phone later that evening but grandpa had no idea what was going on since video phones are not in common use.

Evan with his presents. He had a blast with them so I know I picked well.

Ugh!

Ok so I have been rather quiet of late. I still have a nagging cough which was keeping me up at night but has finally decided to let me sleep. February has decided to be a busy month and my calendar is packed full of things that I must attend to. Daniel is rapidly growing and developing new tricks, one of which is pulling up into a standing position. His crawling had also gotten a lot better and he is great at finding thing to put in his mouth that I missed when I try and pick up everything he should not have. I also have two deadline knitting projects one of which I know I will not get done.

Oh look something shiny!!!

Hack, hack, cough, cough

Well I was right about my last post. Thursday night or early Friday morning Evan tossed his cookies just the once leaving mom a fun surprise to find in the morning. At least this time he did it over the side of his bed so he did not sleep in it all night like he did once. I can't get him to come and tell us when he barfs in the middle of the night, he just rolls over and goes back to sleep.

I had a feeling he would be ok all day but made him stay home so that I did my due diligence in regards to infection control. He was not happy to be stuck at home while Harry got to go to school and visit a fire station.

I have been hit by an annoying cold. I wake up in the morning with a massively dry mouth because I was not able to breathe from my nose and was mouth breathing all night. I also loose my voice at odd times and am coughing like a 10 pack a day smoker. I am really grumpy when I am sick.

I got a bit of a surprise this morning. I was called to be the second councilor in the primary presidency. After we got the infamous general "so and so would like to meet with you" call any LDS person knows so well my husband and I threw out theories about what was going on. We were hoping for releases so that we could skip church guilt free, but Heavenly Father had other ideas apparently. We are moving this summer so I was kind of shocked that I got such a weighty calling.

Whew

I probably should not be posting this since I could be tempting fate.

Saturday night Harry started crying and crying for no reason and would not be consoled. I sent him to his room to lie down thinking he was just tired. He ended up throwing up on his bed (thankfully my husband did the cleanup since he was closest). Shortly after clearing the contents of his stomach he was back up and very chipper. No more barfing but he has become attached to Barfy the barf bowl. It will be fun trying to convince him that he does not need it any more.

My husband decided that it was food poisoning from Harry's lovely habit of eating the food off the floor that the baby has dropped. I am not convinced since crackers are not what you think of when it comes to food borne illness. We need to get a dog so I won't have to clean the floors every five seconds.

It is melting!

We have been having some really warm weather the last few days and as a result the snow is rapidly vanishing. I am giddy!

If I believed in a hell where people are stuck in situations that are personally tailored to be especially awful to them then I just got a taste of hell. I left my house at oneish and did not arrive home until after 6 all for one doctor's appointment for Evan. I got to shove Harry and Daniel in the car and them haul them both back to get Evan from school and then we had to drive an hour in drizzle that was compounded with nasty dirty melted snow being splashed up onto my windshield.

The part that was especially hellish was the wait in the small exam room that was filled with quite a few things that should not be touched. The kids had to quiz me multiple times on what each item was and also had to attempt to play with said items more than once. Daniel even squiggled and squirmed from the middle of the room to the chairs so that he could chew on the legs. That kid is determined let me tell you. I also ended up having to feed him in a chair with no arms to speak of which kills my back.

When the doctor comes in it is not THE doctor but a Fellow who is merely working for THE doctor. This confused the heck out of Evan who despite his extensive time with doctors is not aware of the different ranks of doctors (slacker!). He wants to go home after doing his dog and pony show for her and is cranky he has to wait for THE doctor to come.

More climbing and touching ensues. Mom starts to develop an eye twitch and Daniel gets cranky because he is tired so mom has to pace the room to help sooth him. I eventually caved and let the kids walk around in the halls a bit and pester the nurses because if I had not bad things would have happened.

At the end of all this I am told that Evan had pretty darn good range of motion for a hemi kid, we should consider getting him into water therapy this summer, when he gets a bit older we should think about getting his cognative abilities tested so that we can figure out if there are any types of deficits that we should be aware of that could hinder his education and that a hinged AFO is something that will be useful for him. Luckily with the hinged AFO thing we recently got him a new one and they still have the molds for it so we don't have to go back and get it redone. We just have to come when the new one is in.

Evan's report card and IEP progress report came this week and he is doing awesome! Some of his year long IEP goals have already been met. In the classroom he had continued to improve and I have noticed a big difference in a lot of things when I am working with him on homework.

Snowday

Today was a snow day which despite Harry pooping in his pants and biting Evan was welcome. The high was around 4 and I didn't really fancy going out in that kind of cold. The low tonight is supposed to be -11 with another single digit high. Luckily school is canceled for tomorrow so we will again get to stay snug in our warm house. Since I missed posting yesterday I am including two pictures.

Proof that on Daniels bald little noggin some hair does indeed lurk.

This pic makes me cry, it is the start of the snow storm that has us hiding in our homes.

The little things

Sometimes life gets you down (like when the weather is insanely cold and more snow is predicted) and then life throws you a little something that makes you squee. I threw this in my list of patterns that someday I wanted to knit only to find out that it was taken down due to issues with the BBC (note to self: print patterns that you are going to knit when you decide to put them in your list instead of waiting). Then through a serendipitous event I saw that it was back up and ready for me to print out so that I can make some of them as gifts for a certain Dr Who fan in my family who has a birthday coming up. Now I just hope that I can get my fanny in gear and get it done in time.

Snow

No picture today but a bit of a whine. I am so tired of the snow. Last year it never stuck around this long and I am pretty sure that besides a few really bad cold snaps it was a heck of a lot warmer last year. This winter is brutal. We still have the snow from Christmas plus a few inches from Saturday night/Sunday morning and there is more snow in the forecast plus insanely cold weather. I like snow in small doses, if I wanted to have more I would move to Alaska or Canada. Spring can not come soon enough. Oops gotta go, baby crying.

Busted

Someone is distracting the boys when they are supposed to be picking up toys.

Pictures

I have been really missing having family around. I thought it would be fun to share a bit more about what is going on in our lives through pictures. I am going to try and take more random pictures of the kids (hopefully at least once a day but I am not going to commit to that).


Daniel showing off his emerging self feeding skills. He is starting to actually get the food in his mouth the majority of the time. He is also better at chewing and moving the food around in his mouth but I still keep a careful eye on him.


We got a package in the mail from one of the aunties. It was filled with some later Christmas gifts. Evan's gift was some musical intruments and the harmonica was the hands down favorite of Evan (although mom and dad are not super thrilled).