Lindsay is such a crack up. This is how she was trying to eat her cereal the other day. With her spoon in her shoe.

She was giggling the whole time! Unfortunately, it didn’t work very well, if you can imagine. She makes me giggle!

Just in case you forgot, Logan is 2 1/2 years old. And that’s when you usually start to think/worry about having to potty train. Oh boy. The process isn’t my favorite, but I love how proud of themselves they are when they accomplish it. It’s so cute.

We decided to do it now because our cruise doesn’t allow NOT-potty trained kids in the pool. Whatever. We’re still going on the cruise and if he’s potty trained by then, GREAT! If not, we’ll be practicing our lying skills. We’re really not worried about breaking the rules or anything, we just thought this would be a good reason to start really training.

Today was Day 1 of our official potty training. He’s been going pee pee in the potty for awhile now, but we just haven’t been pushing it because we’d figure he’d do it when he wants to. He gets an M&M for going pee pee and a little mini 3 Musketeers bar (he picked out the candy himself) for when he poops in the pot. So far today, he got lots of M&M’s and no 3 Musketeers bars. He did poop twice, but in his diaper. I’m not too stressed about it though. I’m actually considering letting him go naked for a few days because for some reason, I think that would really work for Logan. Who knows. He also got to pick out a really cool tractor that he’ll get to play with when he’s wearing big boys. He asks about it every time he goes potty, but I just have to remind him of what he needs to do to get it.

So, Day 1 wasn’t too bad. I’m a little unnerved about how calm I am about this…

I just think I want to hold onto my baby for just a little bit longer…

(P.S. When Lindsay was potty training, she got to call a princess every time she went pee pee in the potty. Who do boys call?)

I forgot that Jeffy had these pictures on his iPhone. We went for a walk around the block while Lindsay was at dance, and we saw some tractors and so we went and checked them out. He was thrilled! I love listening to him talk about tractors. I love how he calls things buckets and scoopers and I still don’t know what the difference is and he constantly corrects me. He’s so cute.

Logan got his cast off yesterday! Yippee!

All week long we were trying to prepare him for it, and on the day before, Jeff was explaining to him that they were going to cut it off with a saw and Logan looked at him, with a concerned face and asked, “Is they gonna cut myself?” Seriously! How much cuter can you get? The day of he was pretty excited about getting it taken off. That was all he talked about all morning and he even talked about how he was going to get a sucker and it was going to be blue. (Isn’t it cute, how in kids’ minds, when something happens a certain way one time, that’s the way it’s going to happen every time?) He got a blue sucker the night he broke his arm and every doctors appointment since then he just assumes he’ll get one. And he did at every appointment except for the x-rays we got taken two weeks after his cast was put on. They didn’t have any. It was a pretty traumatic experience for him. Seriously. Stupid hospital.

Anyway, he was just peachy the whole time in the waiting room and then of course, the minute we step inside the room, he gets shy and won’t sit on the table. We try to get him to sit but he just held on to Jeff.

I then asked the nurse if she had any S-U-C-K-E-R-S and she said she did, so the other nurse went to go get one for him (and for Lindsay, of course. It has to be fair.) and while she was gone, the nurse told Logan that once he got his sucker he was going to sit down so she could take his cast off. He agreed. Man, once he got that sucker (it wasn’t blue but I don’t think he cared) they could have done anything to him! He was soooo content! It was funny to watch him as they were sawing because he just didn’t even seem to care. He had his sucker so the world was an okay place. Jeff covered his ears so it wouldn’t be as loud for him and I think that helped a lot.

Once they finally cut through all of the stuff, they took it off. And this was his reaction:

He cried!! He was so upset for some reason. The doctor said that all little kids react the same way. Every single one of them cry. I guess they feel as if it’s a part of them and they’ve gotten so used to it, it’s weird to be without it. He said that Logan would probably favor it and not use it as if it still had a cast on, and boy did he! He made Jeff hold his arm the whole way to the car.


He refused to use his arm all afternoon and did everything with his left hand. He was right handed before he got his cast on, but now I’m wondering if he’ll end up being a lefty because of this, just because he’s so young. I guess we’ll see.
He still favors his arm and still eats and writes with his left hand, but more and more we see him using his right hand, to climb or lift/pull himself up.

Even though the cast is off and stuffed in a Walmart bag forever because of the smell, let’s remember how cute it was on Logan’s little arm.

Last weekend Jeff and I camped outside with the kids in a tent. It ended up being a really fun night, but the beginning was sort of rocky. Once we had decided to sleep outside, I watched the weather everyday to make sure it wasn’t going to rain. All week the weather man said that it wasn’t going to rain, but instead be 84 during the day and about 62 for the low. Perfect! We were all so excited!

So Jeffy started putting the tent up around 5ish and once we got that up, the kids were SUPER excited!

Logan kept going in and out and wanting me to take his picture, he was having so much fun!

We got all of our air mattresses and blew them up, put them in the tent, got the DVD player ready, got all of our pillows and blankets and stuffed animals and we were ready to go.

I got hot dogs to roast over the fire for dinner and marshmallows to roast after wards. And the healthy people we’re constantly trying to be, we had grapes and salad with it. Lindsay put the red rose I had gotten from the Masquerade ball on the table as a centerpiece. Typical girl stuff!

We later discovered that 4 year olds and 2 year olds do not have the patience to roast hot dogs over a fire, so Jeffy ended up roasting most of them.

This is cute Lindsay dancing and shaking her tushie. She’s so cute.

As we’re sitting there eating, it started getting super windy and cloudy. At that moment, I seriously thought God hated us. Our plates were blowing over and causing everybody’s food to fall on the ground and I didn’t know if we were going to be able to sleep outside with winds that strong. But after about 20 minutes, it started to calm down and ended up being a really nice night. So after we ate, the kids got in their winter jammies and we snuggled up in the tent to watch the Hannah Montana movie. Literally, like 10 minutes into the movie, the kids wanted to turn it off and go to sleep. And go to sleep they did! The second their heads hit the pillow they were out! It was only like 8:00. It was amazing! So Jeffy and I just got to lay there and talk, uninterrupted, looking up at the stars. It was really neat.

We finally went to sleep around 10:30 or 11 and by 2:00, I woke up FREEZING!!!!! I woke up Jeffy to make him share his blanket with me and we spent the next 5 hours shivering. I couldn’t go inside because it would have ruined the whole experience, but man, were we cold! I’m so glad the kids had their winter jammies on because they seemed to be okay. But the second they got up, we ran inside, snuggled up together and finished the Hannah Montana movie, which we all really liked! We then finished the morning off with some french toast.

It was so much fun and we can’t wait to do it again! But next time, we’ll either do it in August, or use sleeping bags.

For those of you who know Logan really well, know that he LOVES everything to do with tractors. And it’s so adorable! Well, yesterday as we were walking around the neighborhood, taking things to people, we noticed a little bobcat tractor and a huge dump truck and in Logan’s mind there was nothing else to do but STOP and watch. So we did. For 1 1/2 hours. It was awesome! Even Lindsay liked watching them. At first we were watching the bobcat rip up the concrete and taking the big pieces to the dump truck and putting them in. The kids would run back and forth watching him, and would get all excited when he started to come back for some more concrete. Then after awhile we decided to go on a backhoe hunt to see if would could find the backhoe we had seen drive by while we were watching the bobcat. (I kind of encouraged them to leave because the idiot construction workers were cussing up a storm, oblivious to the fact that there were kids near by. I didn’t really want to have to answer potential questions from either of them later about what certain words meant).

So off we went in search of a backhoe. We walked down the street and around the corner and there it was! A backhoe, a cute little excavator, and a flatbed truck. We plopped down on our friend’s lawn and watched. And watched. And watched. By this point Lindsay had had enough of tractors, but the good sport that she is, kept a good attitude because she knew Logan was loving it. It was so cute to watch Logan watching these tractors. He literally needed another set of eyes so that he could watch both tractors at once. He would tell me what they were doing with their buckets and scoopers and where he thought they were going to go next.

So, after watching them for so long, Lindsay really was done and wanted to go home. I didn’t think Logan would want to leave, but he was just fine with leaving and as we were turning to go home, he turned around and waved and said, “Bye bye backhoe, excavator and truck!” I guess he didn’t want to leave anyone out.

This morning after taking Lindsay to preschool, we had to stop and watch the tractors that are working on the library. There was a big excavator and a little excavator and Logan loved it! We watched them for about 20 minutes and then he was ready to go, but I think that was only because the sun was in his eyes and so it was a little hard to watch.

I love doing things like this with my kids because I feel like childhood these days is getting shorter and shorter. I hope they know how much I love them and how much I love doing things with them!

We’ve been trying to teach the kids how to be grateful in their prayers and to make sure they thank Heavenly Father for all of their many blessings. It’s been hilarious! Logan’s prayer is about the same and has been for like 6 months now. He’s not one to take well to change. It goes like this:

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for day, bless food, sleep good, name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

It’s still SO CUTE.

Lindsay has seemed to understand the concept. A little too well. The last two nights she has just gone on and on and on about the things she’s thankful for, which is as cute as the dickens, but it can sometimes be really hard to hold back the laughter. One of the many things that made the list: doors. Tonight she thanked Heavenly Father for “doors, windows, walls and everything else”. I just think the doors part is so random. But the more I think about it, I too am thankful for doors. Thank you Lindsay for enlightening me. I look forward to prayers every night because I can’t wait to hear what she is thankful for next!

I’ve become a pro at wrapping a cast. The first bath after he got his cast on, not so good. It got soaking wet. Oh well. We’re pretty sure that’s the only reason it’s starting to smell…

After that first bath we’ve made an art of it. Here’s the final product.

This final product consists of one layer of cling wrap with duct tape on top of his arm and bottom. Then a layer of towel and then some more duct tape. Then comes ONE more layer of cling wrap and yes, you guessed it, MORE duct tape. The hardest part about this whole process is getting it OFF of his arm once he gets out. But he’s just as excited as I am when we pull that last layer of cling wrap off and discover that his cast is still dry! YAY! I cannot wait to get this cute little smelly thing off. But admit it, he’s cute with it on.

Doesn’t that sound like so much FUN? It was! Jeff’s company paid for us to go to a really fun masquerade ball last Saturday night. That meant that I got to rent a really pretty dress AND get my hair done AND buy some new makeup! I’m not one to say this very often but, it’s fun to be a girl! The weekend before we stopped by Hale Center Theater in Orem to look at the costumes they had, to see if any would fit and blah blah blah. We had the kids with us because we had been out and about running errands and thought well since we’re here we might as well go look. Once we got there, we realized that a play was going to be starting so I got nervous that we would be close to the play and have to keep the kids really quiet, but luckily the costume rental was in the basement of this place. Phew! But as a mother I still felt like I needed to keep them quiet and lucky for me, I have awesome kids and they did great! They could hear the crew practicing their songs and really wanted to go see them in the other room, but I told them we’d have to come another time and see them sing for reals. Anyway, after trying on a few things we found a costume for both of us! We were mostly worried that they wouldn’t have any that would fit Jeffy, but the second one he tried on fit. Me on the other hand, tried on like 5 or 6 different dresses before one fit. Jeffy ended up getting a King Henry the 8th costume and I was Juliet. They were awesome!!
See?

As we were walking back to the car, we got to the stop of the stairs and whoa, there was the stage, with a play going on! We tried to rush those kids out of there as fast as we could and we almost made it to the door, when a person in the play came plowing down the hallway and didn’t see Logan and ran right over him! She couldn’t really stop and see if he was okay because she had to go on stage, which I understand, but poor little Logan was shocked! The look on his face reminded me of the Friends episode when Mike answers Ross’ phone for him, and after he hangs it up, Ross looks at him and says, “I don’t understand what just happened here…”. I motioned to Jeff to pick him up and haul butt out of the door! So we did! Hopefully, no one in the theater could hear him crying…

Anyway, I was so excited all the rest of that week to go! I had been wanting an excuse to get all dolled up and it finally came! I haven’t gotten my hair done up since my brother’s wedding not long after ours. It was long overdue! The girl did a fabulous job and my hair actually stayed for 2 whole days! After that we went over to his boss’ house and changed and headed over. As we were walking in, they had some jugglers who were juggling with swords and fire. It was pretty cool!

We hadn’t gotten any masks ahead of time so we bought some there, and they matched our outfits perfectly!

This event was for charity so as we were waiting for all of the guests to arrive, they had a silent auction set up on tables for us to look at and bid on. We bid on some So You Think You Can Dance tickets but, alas, they weren’t meant for us.
Once everyone was there, they took us downstairs to the dining area and as we walked in, all of the ladies received a red rose. So sweet! The dinner was amazing and as we ate, there were belly dancers that danced around the aisles. I’m a little bit puzzled by belly dancers. Apparently, to be a belly dancer, you need not be skinny, but overweight with a jiggly belly. I guess that’s what they are looking for.

Anyway, after dinner they had a real auction and that’s when the fun began. Hehe…

During the auction, Jeff would raise his paddle, just trying to raise the price so they would get more money for the charity. For two items, this worked really well, and the host and him were enjoying it. The third item, he was doing his thing, and the next thing we knew, he had just bought a painting for $550. He turns to me and says, “Did I just buy that?” And I so lovingly said, “Uh huh.” It was about the funniest thing ever! In Jeffy’s defense, the auctioneer closed this one a lot earlier than he did for the previous two items. Oh well. It’s a beautiful painting of Christ holding a little African boy, and it’s entitled, “The Worth of a Soul.”

Anyone want to buy a painting for $550? We actually really like the painting, but I don’t think it’s one we would have chosen to be our first piece of art. We do like it, and us buying it paid for 250 kids in Africa to eat for a week. That’s a good feeling.

After the auction, we went outside for the dancing part of the evening. Jeffy did dance with me once but then we spent the rest of the time admiring this guys yard. It was incredible! It has a castle!

Inside the castle you could get your pictures taken so we did do that with everyone else from our table and then a big picture of everyone from work that came.

It really was a fun night and I’m so glad we got to go! Thanks Digicert! It was fun to get all dressed up and spend an enchanted evening with Jeffy. We are both SO grateful though that we didn’t live back then and have to wear those outfits all day every day. Good golly, they were heavy and hot! I think Jeffy said together our costumes had to weigh about 35 lbs. Thanks for a fun evening Jeffy! I love you!

This year, Labor Day was pretty exciting. I competed in my very first mini triathlon, which consisted of a 150 yard swim, 4.5 mile bike, and around 1.5 mile run (They said it was only a mile, but Jeffy and I think it was closer to 1.5 miles). I finished in 41 minutes flat. I don’t know if that’s a good time or not, but for me it is perfectly fine. I’m not a very good swimmer and I proved that fact by getting passed by swimmer after swimmer in the pool. Then after that was the biking. I rented a road bike and I am so glad I did because it would have been a nightmare on a mountain bike. I almost biffed it going over a bump but caught myself and never had another problem. Then after that was the running. Not just on flat terrain, but up and down a lot of hills and then a little bit of flat terrain. I like to consider myself as a pretty decent runner, but I did not feel like one on this run. It kicked the trash out of me! But I finished! I didn’t die! And I wasn’t last! Those were my goals! I can’t say I’m ready to do another one anytime soon, but it was a lot of fun and it was really fun to do it with a friend. Thanks Heidi!

After that we drove up to Park City and went on the Alpine slide. The Poulsons met us there and we stood in like for probably close to an hour because it was so CROWDED! The kids didn’t seem to really notice and had fun playing together in the line. The lift was hard for Jeffy because he has a slight fear of heights, but he was a trooper.
See? He’s eve smiling!

The Poulsons


She’s so pretty!

Logan had a little melt down once we got to the top of the lift so Jeffy had to carry him and the little sled thing. That’s my man! But once we finally got there (I had no idea that getting to the top of this slide included waiting in line forever, riding a lift for 20 minutes and walking a half mile), they were super excited! Logan rode with me, Lindsay rode with Laura and Jeffy followed on his own.
Logan is ready to go!

Lindsay is ready!


We had a lot of fun going down and wanted to do it again, but kids were melting down and the line was so long so we had some lunch and headed home. The kids zonked out on the way home and then we had a nice relaxing evening at home. I love doing things with my family and seeing the smiles on their faces. Thanks for a good time! I love you!