Sunday Cuteness- 4th of July edition

I hope that everyone had a fun and safe holiday. I have been mum lately, we had my husband's cousin and her family over for a visit during the long weekend. She is the the closest family to us so I think that we are going to get to know each other a whole lot better than we did before.

Here are some shots of the boys at the zoo. I am excited that we are close enough to a zoo that a membership is worth the money. The zoo is small when compared to some that I have been to, but it is nice and well landscaped. We had perfect timing, as we finished seeing all the animals it started sprinkling.

This is the rain forest exhibit. They had a lot of birds and a small deer like animal running loose. They had a healthy fear of the boys.

The drain! This is what fascinated Evan the most about the zoo (I know this is Harry looking at the drain, but Evan kept going back to it and all the sundry drains that were around the entire zoo. Harry was satisfied with this one look) . He was not as excited about the animals as Harry was. He did enjoy being pushed around in the stroller which is something that we hardly bring out any more.

Harry was tickled that he got to see the orangutan so closely.

Sunday Cuteness

Evan is a funny child that will often burst out with random sayings that have nothing to do with the topic of conversation. His latest gem is "Don't eat black spiders!" That is very wise advice for anyone. I would suggest that we should avoid the eating of any color of spider, but if you are feeling adventurous stick with the non black ones.

Here is a starving Harry eagerly watching his dinner baking in the oven.

Proof that he was not adopted. My husband's family is enamored of olives and whenever they are bought out at a family gathering they are inhaled super fast. Harry loves olives!

Here is a picture of the cheeky bunny that visits our yard on a regular basis. I think it loves all the clover we have in our yard because that is where it seems to mostly eat from.

Sunday Cuteness

I have a feeling that Harry is aiming to be the next Monk.

The other day when we were at the grocery store picking up some fresh fruit and milk I decided to let the kids out of the cart to walk with me. I generally don't do this because the shopping trip will end up being five times as long as it otherwise would have been. So any way, the kids were busy being small children that had been let loose in an environment where they are normally tightly contained. I start looking at bunches of bannanas and when I turn around to check on the kids I find Harry trying to put a green pepper that had fallen from it's display back up. It was rather comical seeing this short little guy reaching as high as he could to put something away. Eventually he decided that he was not tall enough and gave the pepper to me so that I could put it away.

On nice Saturday mornings you will often find us walking in the park. It is a great way to tire the kids out so that we can have a productive afternoon at home. As Harry was ambling along in his toddler way he noticed a piece of a fallen branch. The branch still had leaves on it so he made the connection that the branch had previously been a part of a tree. He then looked at me and told me that the tree was broken. I agreed with him and tired to move on. Harry then picked up the branch and handed it to me and insisted that I fix the tree. I obviously do not have that ability, but knowing the tenacity of Harry I employed a tiny bit of trickery. I pointed out something exciting and then threw the branch into the bushed while he was not looking.

The final proof that Harry is very Monk like is his obsession with wipes. After every meal he must have his hands cleaned and every speck of dirt mush be off of them. He even requests napkins at meals and uses them.

Sunday Cuteness- flower power

This was entirely Harry's idea. He loves to pick and carry flowers when we go on walks. He suddenly stopped during our walk yesterday and repeated pocket over and over again. I helped him put the flowers in the previously decorative leg pockets. Quite pleased he ran off to catch up with Daddy and Evan. I guess I now know why manufacturers put silly and seemingly useless pockets on boy's pants.

Sunday Cuteness

Evan is getting to be quite the prankster. Yesterday afternoon he came to me insisting that he was poopy and wet. I could not really smell anything but decided to check any way since my nose is still stuffy from the cold that we are all getting over. As I start taking his diaper cover off he starts laughing hysterically, and I discover that he is not poopy or wet. I guess that was the little kid version of being punked.

I was wrapping some things up to send out in a package and of course the boys were very interested in what I was doing. I had some extra tissue paper so I took some of their toys and we played opening presents. It was funny watching their different opening strategies. Evan ripped right into his and even used his left hand to help hold the present still (AWESOME!!!). Harry carried his around for about a half hour before even thinking about opening it. When he did start opening it, he would rip a piece, run it to the garbage can, run back and rip another piece starting the whole process over again. After that was done he went and picked up all the pieces left behind from Evan's present. Harry is definitely a very detail oriented kid and likes things to be correct. As he gets older he is getting more rigid about things and less willing to accept alternatives.

Sunday Cuteness

Today while sitting out in the foyer with Harry I discovered that he had an amazing talent. He has the ability to suck his thumb and pick his nose at the same time with the same hand! Now that is talent!

Sunday cuteness

Oy! This week has been filled with a lot of whining. Harry because of his teeth and Evan..... well I am not entirely sure why he has so many dramatic sobbing fits. Apparently it is very sad and horrible when your own beloved mother wants you to pick up the toys that you have scattered all over the living room.

We have also been fighting vermin in the house. No, I am not calling my kids vermin. We have been having issues with mice. One especially cheeky mouse has been spotted multiple times running around from the kitchen to the closet where the furnace is. That is where we think they are sneaking into the house as it has a ventilation shaft that runs outside. We have managed to trap two cheeky little buggers and are hoping that those two are the only ones that have discovered our house.

Ok now for the cuteness. Both boys love to play on my bed. One of their favorite things to do while on the bed is twirl around while I sing Ring Around the Rosies. They take great joy in collapsing onto the bed, although they generally fall long before I singe the falling part of the song.

Our attempts to nerd up Evan are working. Thanks to Netflix we got out hands on the third season of Dr Who. Evan now asks to watch the Police Box movie. Hee hee!

Sunday cuteness addendum

I forgot this fun little tidbit in the original post.

Evan's physical therapist has been working on getting him to crawl. It s a great way to get him to use his left hand and it is beneficial for his brain wiring too. She used to have to hold his legs so that he could not turn into his butt scoot, but now he is getting what she wants. Even though he gets what she wants he is often a stinker and needs bribing on occasion.

During one session she was having trouble figuring out a way to motivate him to crawl. The usual food offerings were being snubbed but he had been showing some interest in the box that we keep all the small matchbox type cars in. The therapist announced out loud that if the car box was to be opened that crawling was needed. Harry immediately gets on all fours and crawls right to the therapist who is laughing by now. You can tell which one of the boys is th better listener right now.

Harry has been a clingy little boy of late and I have figured out why. His second set of molars is coming in. Now that I know this and am giving him medication for the pain he is much happier and so am I.

Sunday cuteness

I was cleaning out our third bedroom which is our guest room, Harry's nap room (when Evan is also napping which he actually does about every three days despite my premature thoughts about it's demise), the library and my craft room. As I was organizing the scrapbooking stuff I decided to show the boys all my hard work. They were entranced and loved listening to me tell about what was going on in the pictures. They even recognized some of the people in the pictures. It was a bit strange showing Evan the pictures of him in the hospital after his surgeries and telling him about it. It was the first time that I had really talked about it in depth with him and I am sure it will not be the last time either.

The bedspread on my bed is one of my super cool thrift store finds. I got the bedspread and the pillow cases for $24. It is in awesome condition and I adore the colors. It was nice to get a room update with out having to spend an arm and a leg.

Remember the wool that I dyed with Kool-aid? Well here is the soaker I made with it. I am pretty pleased with how it turned out. The wool started to felt a tiny bit so the stitches are not quite as perfectly even as I would have liked, but it is going to be covered most of the time so no biggie. I also need to work on my Kitchener stitching, but I am sure that practice will help that. That was only the second time I had attempted it and it is a whole lot less ugly than my first attempt. Harry has a soaker that is made from brown and green variegated yarn. With the addition of this orange one he is ready for bow hunting and rifle hunting. He is the perfectly accessorized child.

Sunday, oh wait Tuesday Cuteness

We were trying out a homemade fajita recipe for dinner last night. Evan was doing his normal playing around with his food because it looks strange and different routine. Suddenly he picked up one of the red bell pepper slices and exclaimed "Three!" The peppers had been cut such that they appeared to be in the shape of a three. Sadly that did not entice him to eat them. We had to enforce the one bite rule so that he could have Family Home Evening treat.

Harry is such a busy little guy. He always seems to have some important business that he is attending to. One of his greatest joys is putting things in the right place. This is often hit and miss, as my floor can attest, but when Harry is on a roll he is amazing.

Yesterday we had a quick appointment with the pediatrician to get some booster shots for the boys. I brought a piece of Halloween candy for the boys to help curtail the post shot hysterics. It worked like a charm, nary a tear was seen. While I was getting Evan's pants back on, Harry found an infinitesimal part of the wrapper that I had torn off the candy wrapper to open it. He then picked it up and went right to the trash can. It was one of those step cans, but he used both hands to lift the lid and get that piece of trash into the can.

Later that same morning I was changing the boy's diapers. I noticed that Evan's was bone dry so I dropped the clean one I had in my hand and the one he had been wearing on the floor and got that boy on the toilet, hoping that he would use that instead. While Evan was on the potty I went to the kitchen to put the dinosaur chicken nuggets (which are the only kind worth eating apparently) in. When I came back Harry had put all the diapers and every bit of stray clothing into the diaper pail in the bathroom. I really hope that his zeal for cleaning and putting things to right continues to strengthen, but I am not going to hold my breath.

Sunday cuteness

This is a picture of Harry doing his fish lips. I never taught him to do it, he just started doing it one day all on his own.

When Harry was not busy driving me insane hopping up and down off my lap in Sacrament meeting today in church he was chock full of cuteness. I stuck his thumb in my mouth just for a bit of fun and Harry decided that he could indeed share his thumb with mommy. He kept putting it in my mouth even after the cuteness of the act had worn off for me.

Since the boys have been infants we have been helping them "lead" the church hymns. They thought it was funny and it got a smile out of the people sitting near us. Now Harry is able to do it on his own but he still insists that a parent hold his hand to "lead" the hymns. He takes your hand and puts it on his.


Here is a video of Evan at my parent's house. He is "taking a nap" while playing with an alarm clock that was in my parent's living room.

Sunday err Monday cuteness

When we got back from the pumpkin patch and washed all the shoes and pumpkins off webrought the pumpkins in for the boys to look at. This is the very first thing that Evan did with his. He was saying "Pumpkin drive"

Harry is a hardcore thumbsucker. He has calluses on both thumbs and has sucked so hard he has caused blisters on his thumbs. One even got a small infection after a blister burst so I had to tape a sock over his hand to keep him from sucking that thumb. He has taken his thumb sucking to a new level. The other day I saw him trying to suck both thumbs at once!

Sunday Cuteness

This picture makes my uterus ache. I have been digging around and organizing some of my old pictures. I miss my babies!

Sunday Cuteness

When we pray the kids are usually pretty prompt about folding their arms.  Lately I have been trying to step up level of reverence at prayer time by having the kids bow their heads and close their eyes.  At church when it was bow your head time I would gently push the head down and tell them to bow their heads.  They have translated that to mean that when I say bow your heads a hand is necessary to push the head down.  Harry saw Evan doing it and he now eagerly uses both hands to roughly push his head into position.  I find it quite hilarious and have a hard time not laughing every time they do it.  Evan is also very amusing with his attempts to close his eyes and keep them closed.  He kind of moves his head around like Stevie Wonder when his eyes are closed.

The kids also adore playing on my bed.  Since the weather has started to cool we have been spending more time indoors.  I am sewing a jacket for the dress I am wearing to my sister's wedding.  It has been great to be able to have them in the next room entertaining themselves while I am able to sew in relative peace.  They are both old enough to (most of the time) respect the boundaries of the bed and not fall off.  They are also tall enough now to be able to get off and on safely. How they can spend house just hanging out on the bed I am not sure.  It is not even like they are jumping on the bed like wild little monkeys.  A lot of the time they just haul their blankies from their bedroom and just snuggle under them on our bed.

Sunday cuteness

When it comes to dessert I am not a cake person. It is ok, but I would rather have pie or ice cream. Also once you have eaten the initial celebration pieces you are often left with a lot of cake left over just sitting there asking you to eat it. My husband turned 29 years old last Thursday so I dutifully baked him a cake. I have decided that cakes are worth it because you can get pictures like this.

This is what happens when I try and blog in the morning.

Sunday cuteness

Here is Evan in the classic "I am wearing shoes that are way too big for me" shot. My husband wears size 12 shoes so his sandals are more like skis to Evan than shoes. Evan was quite proud of himself for being able to put them on with out falling over.

I bet you think that something utterly fascinating is going on outside. Maybe there are lots of friendly dogs out there or there is a parade happening in front of the window. Well you would be wrong. It was my neighbor scrubbing the dried remains of the plums from the flowering plums out front off of the sidewalk around her doorway. They preferred that over the episode of Sesame Street that was on the TV.

Sunday cuteness

Evan had a ladybug land on his arm awhile back. I took his arm and showed him the ladybug which quickly took off and flew away. Now Evan thinks that any flying insect is a ladybug. We leave the back screen door open so that the kids can go in and out while I make dinner. A few flies make it in the house as well. Now whenever Evan sees a fly he tried to encourage the "ladybugs" to land on his arm.

Friday evening while my husband was off at a church activity the boys and I broke out the stickers. The ones that Evan took off of himself Harry would take and put on his tummy.

"Hmm which one would look good on my belly button?"

"I will put it right here!"

Evan reluctantly allowed me to take this picture of him with a few stickers on his face.

Sunday cuteness

What is wrong with this picture? There are three adults busily designing a very complicated train track pattern, but where is the child that this toy was supposedly designed for?

Here he is! Off in his own little world having fun with the light.

This is Harry's playpen. The boys get giggly and rowdy, so I nap them in separate rooms. Harry loves to bring all sorts of odds and ends into the playpen with him. He goes right to sleep, so I allow it. Evan plays the entire time no matter how sleepy, so he lost the privilege of bringing toys to nap time. You will note that there is some tooth paste, a roll of medical tape and a book. Unseen are a multitude of small cars that are hiding under the blanket.

Here is Harry ready for his nap. Clutched in his hand is yet another small car.

I have a hilarious Harry story, well I think it is hilarious but you will have to be the judge of that. The other night, after bath time, Harry is running the hall like a mad man. He is sans clothing or diaper of any kind. I am still in the bathroom drying off Evan who loves to linger in the bath watching the water go down the drain. Harry lets a very loud toot. This surprises him a bit but he decides it is quite amusing and he laughs his laugh reserved for the most funny of situations.

I can see the little wheels start to turn in his little head. He is thinking "Gee that was funny, I want to try that again." Harry then looks like he is about to poop, he has the serious look on his face and is even grunting a bit. I fear for my clean carpet but Harry quickly perks up, realizing that he can't make another toot on demand. He is such a boy!

Sunday cuteness

Guess what? This is my 500th post. Just thought you should know.

Here are some pictures of my blackberry boys. There are a couple of lovely blackberry thickets on a path that we love to walk on. The blackberries are just starting to get nice and ripe so it is fun to have a little snack in the middle of a walk. I do all the dangerous work and the boys enjoy the fruits of my labor. Evan got a lot messier than Harry because he did not have a tray to put the berries on. He just crammed them all in his mouth at once.

Tags: blackberries, messy kids, pictures

Sunday cuteness

Evan is finally starting to get into singing time during nursery. It is funny watching him sing and do the actions to the songs while at home. He misses a lot of the words but he is stinking cute any way.

We buy our toilet paper at Costco in massive quantities. Most of it is stored in our upstairs bathroom. Now and then (much to the amusement of the kids) I will toss several rolls down the stairs. Harry had fun taking the wrappers off of the rolls and stacking them after they made their way downstairs. He is such a helpful little boy.

Tags: cuteness, kids, pictures