Weapons of Mass Destruction

Clark loves to take things apart, and sometimes he actually puts them back together, or (like this picture) makes a whole new thing.  Well, lately everything he has "made" has resembled some sort of weapon.  He took a pipe from the vacuum cleaner (which by the way he has taken apart so many times it doesn't work properly anymore) and found a stake from our tent (and who knows where he found it, cause I have been looking for it for weeks)...and made this lovely and very dangerous stabbing tool.  Luckily Harry was in bed, so the only person that got hurt was Daddy when he tried to take it away...and our poor coffee table that now has about 25 new little dents.  He was devastated when we took it away, but it didn't take him long to find another toy to take apart and mistreat.

Being A Mom

Snuggle time with the boys.  

It doesn't look like much, just my babies snuggled up in the bed (I had to take the picture so my spot is empty), but this really is a day dream come true.  Ever since I knew I was gonna be a mom I would day dream of a peaceful afternoon like this; chilly and rainy outside, snuggled up in the bed with my boys watching cartoons and laughing at SpongeBob's ridiculous antics, being lazy and having fun (this little day dream used to involve snacks as well, but I don't like slobbery crumbs in my bed).  There have been many times when I tried to force this same scenario on my family, but it just never played out like I wanted.  Until the other afternoon...

Harry wasn't feeling well, so I was laying with him in my bed.  Clark wandered in my bedroom, and as soon as he saw the cartoons on tv he jumped into bed, pulled the covers up around his chin and snuggled down for several episodes of cartoony goodness.  It was so peaceful, both boys were happy and quiet.  I did not have to tell anyone to stop yelling, hitting, or jumping.  It was heavenly and I was a happy Mommy, thankful for the cool rain, and dream like moment. 

Poor little teething Harry with his WallE blanket.

8 Steps

It is so hard to get a video of Harry walking, I have been trying for weeks.  He just zooms by so fast, by the time I grab my camera he is down.  He can only go a few steps at a time like 6-10...but it is so funny to watch him try, he is so shaky.
I love how he grabbed onto this total stranger to get some support, he seriously almost pulled her pants down.

Harry begging for food.

I know it shows up a little dark, but his panting and begging for food is too adorable not to share.  He acted as if he was starving, but he seriously just got done eating an 8 ounce bottle and 2 jars of baby food...I guess he just REALLY wanted some noodles.
Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

Happy Birthday Sister!

I love you sister, it is so hard being away from you and little Reesey.  I am so thankful I always have you to talk to, and you always make me laugh...always.  I love when you send me texts of funny thing, and pictures of the baby.  And I enjoy sharing some hobbies together...like reading all about James Alexander Malcolm Mackenzie Fraser (the hottest Scotsman EVER), and watching all sorts of junk on tv.  I hope you had a great birthday, and maybe next year we can celebrate our birthdays together.

The Heretic's Daughter

The Heretic's Daughter  by Kathleen Kent]

The Heretic's Daughter is a sad and haunting story, told through the eyes of 11 year old Sarah Carrier, following her family through the years before and after the Salem witch trials.  As morbid as it sounds, I love reading about a Salem witch trials.  What an interesting, and sad time in our country's history.  A somewhat disappointing ending, after all the build up through out the book, but overall this was great, and fast read.

✭✭✭✭ (out of 5 stars)

Rated: PG  A few suggestive situations and talk, but very mild.

Recommended: Yes, in a pinch when you can't find anything else.

I'm 29!

Happy Birthday to me!

I can't believe I am 29, and another year closer to 30.  I really feel like this year I grew up a lot.  In the last year I have gone from being a mother of one to a mother of two...and really that second kid makes the world of difference.  I learned a lot about myself this year, like I care more about what others think of me than I thought I did, that my favorite movie is Sound of Music (I think I always knew that, but I could never leave any of my other favs out, this year I learned how), and that I LOVE and hate being a stay at home mom at the same time.  I became closer to my family this year, and closer to the church (LDS church).  I made my first quilt, went from a blond to a dark red head, and re-discovered my love of fresh veggies.  I could go on and on, so much growing up...I really can't wait to see what this next year has in store for me.

I had a really nice birthday weekend.  Jay found a babysitter and took me to Harry Potter HBP, with the movie tickets Emma and Laura bought me (as a surprise).  Jay even got us matching Harry Potter shirts, ALL HIS IDEA! (I didn't even suggest it or make him wear his.)  He also got me a sewing machine, so I can try to make another quilt.

Clark was so excited to help me blow out the candles.  One of his favorite words to say is FIRE!  He was blowing so gently cause he did not really want to blow out the flames.

Me and the boys...trying to get a picture together is so exhausting.  They never look they same way or smile at the same time.  We must have tried all night, and this was the best one we got.  Clark was sneaking icing...ha ha ha.

I really had a wonderful day spending time with my family.  I am so thankful for everything I have, and for my AWESOME family near and far. 

To Nap or Not To Nap

So, Little Mr. Stubborn Pants has decided he doesn't need or want a nap anymore....fine by me.  However, he falls asleep almost every night during dinner. 

We hardly know what to do when he falls asleep.  If we wake him he spends the next two hours whining and crying cause he is still so tired.  If we can manage to clean him up with out waking him, and put him to bed...he will wake up in a few hours, still grumpy and hungry, and them won't go back to bed until 12:00am!  If we just leave him there to sleep, he is so difficult to put to bed, and stays up later and later.  Ah, what to do?  It is so cute to see him nodding off during dinner though.  Once he even fell asleep with a chicken nugget in his mouth.  I love how in this picture he looks like he is smiling in his sleep, precious!

Black Eyes

Poor Harry really had a tough week last week.  Two black eyes within days of each other, both on his left eye.  The first one occurred when Harry decided to challenge Clark to the talking Moto Moto hippo toy, and Clark won by pushing him into the toy box.  It wasn't so bad, and started to fade within a couple days.  The next one he got right above his eye, during a fight in the bathtub (over what I still don't know).  It was/is much worse, and looks like he wearing a very pretty shade of bluish-green and purple eye shadow every time he closes his eye.  Poor little boy, always getting in fights with Clark, and since he is more mobile now he is constantly bonking into everything....he is like a mosaic of bumps and bruises. 

All Dogs Go To Heaven

Charlie dressed as a princess for Halloween 2006. 

Playing in the snow.  Jan. 2008

Charlie the Princess Halloween 2006

Charlie, the Deimler family dog, passed away today.  Even though she was getting really old, and was sick, it was still a bit of a shock.  My parents got her at the pound when I went away to Ohio to be a nanny...I guess they were trying to fill the vast void I left in the house, and decided a dog was the best choice.  She was so well behaved and trained, and we always said that whatever family had lost her must have been devastated.  I only lived at home for a couple years while my family had Charlie, but she was still a big part of my life.  I loved the way she used to sneak in my bed in the morning, keeping my toes warm and cuddling with me until I got up.  I loved the way she would nudge you over and over with her chin until you would scratch her belly.  She was such a good puppy, always begging and wanting to play, and letting us dress her up in funny dog clothes.  She used to love going for car rides so much...I remember when I lived at home I used to take her with me on all my errands.  She would drive you crazy begging for a cookie, but you could never resist and in the end she always got one or two...or three.  She used to wait up for me when I was coming home late from a date, always so excited to see me come home and then would trot off with me to bed (even though she was not allowed to sleep with us).  I remember when my Mom told me how she waited up until 3:00am the night I got married and went off on my honeymoon, it broke my heart thinking she was waiting for me to come home all night.  I think my whole family has a cute Charlie waiting up for us on the stairs story...she kind of watched us grow up and leave one by one.  She loved my Dad the most...she was always so excited when he got home from work, and she loved to go to the garden or farm with him.  Always begging him for loves and scratches.  She wouldn't rest until Papa let her up to sit in the big chair with him, snuggled up, being scratched and loved.

And in the end that was how she went, with her Papa, snuggled up, being loved.  I couldn't imagine a better way.  We will sure miss our little Charlie dog.

Flashback Friday

Almost exactly two years ago... Little Clark at the beach enjoying his favorite past time, eating the sand.  He was such a cute chubby and very bald baby.

Little Tuna enjoying the surf.  

He has never really had any fear of the ocean (unlike Harry).  He still gets so excited to go to the beach, and always ohs and ahs just like it was the first time he's ever seen it.

Laura is such a sassy little thing!

I remember this trip to the beach just like 

it was yesterday.  Laura came to visit for summer vacation, she had just graduated from high school.  It was my 27th birthday in two days, I was starving on the South Beach Diet, and the last Harry Potter book was coming out in just 3 days (sigh...I still haven't gotten over it, even though I have my own little Harry now).  This was Laura's first trip to Hawaii and she was dying to go to the beach.  Jason got called into to work so we had to wait all afternoon in my sweltering house just dreaming of the cool water and warm sand.  Finally Jason got home.  We headed out to the beach even though we could see the clouds in the distance, and smell the rain on the air.  Clark was bouncing up and down, trying to get out of my arms cause he wanted to get in the sand and the water all by himself.  Jason was freaking out cause Clark was eating the sand.  Laura was begging for me to get in the water and play in the waves with her.  The cool breeze and clouds in the distance...I remember it all so clearly.  

It is funny how the simplest things, that you seem to have done a thousand times can stand out so vividly in your mind.  There are many other beach trips that were maybe more exciting or eventful, and yet this is one of those ones that sticks out so far in my mind.  Well, I do have a few others, but I will save them for another Flashback Friday.

My Little Comedian

I think my little boy is growing up.  

Last night we spent the better part of an hour watching America's Funniest Videos, which is far from the type of shows Clark normally likes to watch...in fact lately if it is not Pixar he refuses to watch anything.  Anyway, we tuned in right during one of their famous people getting kicked in the crotch montages.  Clark was fascinated, laughing hysterically and asking me to rewind it (thank God for dvr right).  After a few funny baby and scaring old people videos, which Clark gave a polite although not entirely convincing chuckle, he was starting to loss interest.  Then came the best of the night!  The people falling down videos, three full minutes of people falling down, stairs, ladders, anything at all, people flying through the air and crashing to the floor.  Clark was in heaven, rolling on the floor with laughter, bouncing up and down with delight.  I haven't seen his laugh this hard since the last great tickle fight of 2008, or when he caught dog trying to eat the bubbles Daddy was blowing.  He was mesmerized, we watched it like ten times, and he never got bored and laughed just as hard every time.  He then spent the rest of the night pretending to fall down.  He would fake fall off the couch, and then look up at me to see if I was watching and laughing.  He may not say much, but he is always thinking and planning things, mischievous things.  I know to keep an eye out when I see that sly smile slowly spread across his face.  Never a dull moment with my little comedian.

It's about time.

Inkdeath  by Cornelia Funke

✭✭✭ 1/2  (out of five)

As much as I loved the first two books in the series (Inkheart, and Inkspell) and the characters of these stories, nothing could save me from the tedious melancholy that was Inkdeath.  It took me forever to get through, hundreds of pages wasted on explaining over and over how dire the situation was.  I get it, there are bad guys and it is dangerous...now get on with the story.  

The conclusion was satisfactory, and once I got over my frustration I still found parts of the book that I loved as much as the first two books (hence the 3 1/2 stars).  Not my favorite, but overall not a bad read.

Rated: PG Mild violence.

Recommended: Yes, but only cause you have to finish the series as a whole.

My Favorite Picture of the Week

Driving Mr. Chubby

I know it is a little out of focus (he was just coming at me way too fast) but it beyond cute.  I love how Harry throws his head back when he laughs, and his two bottom teeth peek out of his little smile.  Nothing makes me happier than watching Clark and Harry play together, especially when there is no crying or fighting.  Harry loves Clark so much, he relishes any attention his brother gives him.  Even if after this photo he suffered three bloody toes from going way to fast down the sidewalk, he doesn't regret it, he is just happy to play for a little while.

Clark The Destoryer

The Wrath of Clark

This is what I found this morning, after I took my 5 minute morning pee break.  Seriously, I am not exaggerating, this mess only took Clark FIVE MINUTES!!  If you look closely you can see about 6 different card games, and my Scene It games ripped up and scattered in a pile.  Luckily no one was hurt, Harry was just laughing the whole time...and Clark had the hugest smile on is face, clueless that it was taking everything I had not to spank him into tomorrow.

I really don't know how to deal any more.  Clark is so destructive.  He just walks from room to room, throwing things around, ripping things up into tiny pieces, peeling paint off the wall, whatever he can get his hands on.  Actually we keep most of the doors closed or rooms gated off, so it is not the entire house.  But occasionally he does figure out how to open one door or another...and then there goes my jewelry collection all over the bedroom floor (and no, I still have never found my favorite missing earrings).  We have things up on the highest shelves...and magically he finds some fast and sneaky way to get them down anyway (ba-bye Harry Potter Scene It).  

I am sure most of his destructiveness stems from boredom and being stuck in the house all day (we really need to move or get another car!)  Or curiosity...I mean who won't wanted to see or feel what it was like to smash a dozen eggs on the kitchen floor, or take something apart to figure out how it works...I get that.  But why does he always go to the extreme?  Why would he be quietly reading a book one second and then in the next rip it into tiny pieces?  I just don't understand.  Now, I know some of his shenanigans are the typical little boy terrible two's, I am not foolish enough to think I was going to escape unscathed.  But to me it seems more than the norm.  I have watched and cared for children my whole life.  I have never met anyone like Clark, he seems to relish in the mess and destruction.  NO amount of time outs will change his mind that these things he loves to do are wrong.

So, how do I keep my house falling to ruins?  So many of my picture frames and photo albums have gone the way of the trash... not to mention the carpet pieces he loves to pull up.  I can hardly spank him and put him in time out him all day long.  I can not hold his hand for every activity...I can only entertain him so much.  Even when I do sit down to play cars or trains with him it is only a matter of minutes before the train track is in pieces and me and Harry are ducking for cover.

I am hoping against hope that this is just a phase.  That some of this destructiveness will out grow him.  I will be more than happy to get him a million things to take apart and put back together (if I could only get him to play with Legos)...if he could just not destroy and hurt Harry and the rest of the house while he is at it.

Write it down. Make it happen. Know what you want. Or in other words...My Bucket List.

In the hopes of making my dreams and goals reality, I am writing them down, and committing to them.  There is so much I would love to do, some as easy as getting up off the couch and just doing , and others requiring years of saving and preparation.  So without further ado my bucket list;

Travel Europe...Scotland, Germany, Italy, England.

Sing with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir...like join it, you know.

Learn to knit, and make my family matching hats and scarves.

Run a marathon.  I would like my first one to be the Honolulu Marathon, but I am not that picky.  I just want to be a runner.

Write a book.

Write another book, that doesn't suck.

Make quilts, I want to be a quilter.

Swim with the sharks. 

Own a home...our own home.

Learn to speak another language...Spanish, French, I am not to sure yet?

Visit and attend as many Temples as possible, all over the world (right now I have 6 different ones under my belt, in three different states).

Go sky diving.

Get a Masters Degree in anything.

Go to Africa.

Be debt free, and financially secure.

Have a big family...maybe 4 or 5 kids.  Ahh, did I just say that out loud!?

Be a guest judge on the Iron Chef America.

Road Trip across America.

Well, that is a start.  I got a lot of planning and working to do.  I am so over new year's resolutions...they never work out for me.  I think from now on I am just going to have my own birthday resolutions, keep track of my year to year progress.  My birthday is coming up, and as I think about turning 29 this year... I also start thinking of all I want to do before I turn 30.  I feel as if I haven't accomplished much with my 29 years, aside from my gorgeous family.  And I really want to do and be so much more.  Now, what first on my list, hmmmm. 

Sunscreen, Swimming and Our 4th of July

Jay's Star French Toast.  It's a good thing that Jay likes to get up early to make a special breakfast for the family...or else all the boys would ever get is toaster waffles.

We had a quiet 4th of July.  After a nice breakfast made by Daddy, we packed a small picnic and headed off to the beach for swimming.  We decided to drive up to the North Shore.  Clark loves the drive up, and oh's and ah's the entire time.  

We went to Shark's Cove, one of our favorite beaches.  The water is shallow and always warm (mostly ideal for snorkeling) and is great for the kids.

Clark eating ice out of the ice chest...instead of all the tasty junk food Mommy packed.  Here is his fake cheese smile, humoring me.  I can hardly ever manage to get a decent picture of him these days, he is always going going going...I am gonna start calling him The Blur.

Harry loved crawling around in the water, tasty the salty sand.

Watching his brother, Harry absolutely idolizes Clark.

Look Mom I am holding still....although not for long.  Clark and I swam the entire cove.  He is becoming quite the little swimmer, and I am surprised at how fast he can get along.  I loved being able to have one on one time with Clark (while Jay amused Harry) swimming and splashing in the water.

After our day at the beach, we went home to relax and recover from the sun.  Jason made some delicious homemade hamburgers and we watched fireworks on tv...the only kind Clark isn't afraid of.  Maybe next year we can manage to light off a few sparklers and baby fireworks, with out Clark going into hysterics.  I am so thankful for this beautiful country that I live in, and thankful for the men and women who fight to protect it.  I am also thankful for the quiet, fun family day we spent together!