Beans Beans the Magical Fruit

Ryder really wants to be eating real foods, but he is still lacking all the necessary teeth to make the proper transition. I've been getting creative on feeding (since he won't eat baby food) the other day I fed him rutabaga, peaches, spaghetti, but he still wanted more... I had some home made black beans so I gave him one to see if he would eat it. He ate it and seemed to enjoy it so I put a bunch on his tray. He just looked at it and lowered his head and ate it piggy style. He apparently really enjoyed the beans.

There is a Place called Nephi and I've Been There

We made the hour and a half drive to Nephi today to see Grandpa June and Wendy. Grandpa June and Wendy are great. Wendy is opinionated and outspoken. She gives great big hugs and even lifted me off my feet today. I also found out that she always carries a weapon—kitchen knife, scissors, num-chucks. Yep that’s right num-chucks; apparently she is taking classes, but is skipping the Zen part. I totally feel inspired to be a num-chuck wielding senior citizen one day. Grandpa June is quiet and easy going. They are a nice balance to each other. We were able to get a 4 generation shot which is pretty special, especially considering Grandpa June will turn 92 December 24^th.

Lola had a great time, mostly because Wendy let her do WHATEVER she wanted. She played in their sandbox, dumping sand in the grass, and then wiping her dirty hands on my clean shorts. Ryder also got to play in the sandbox, but it was rather short lived because he kept sampling the sand—and not just little bites, but big greedy mouthfuls. Lola saw chickens and wanted very much to play with them. She played soccer complete with sound effects. She laid on top of their dog (his name is Samara which is perfect for someone who studies the art of num-chucks). She found a water source and drenched herself. She made dog food stew (its easy you just dump their dry food in their water bowl). Best of all when we left all his mischievous action tired her out so she peacefully slumbered most of the way home.

Shoving and Sharing Sibling Style

Lola and Ryder are great friends. Although I do have to remind Lola not to love her brother too much, like when she is on top of him hugging him and he is crying. Or today when she climbed into his crib while he was sleeping. These pictures are of them sharing Ryder's highchair (at Lola's request). There was a lot of sharing and a lot of shoving in only that loving way sibling can do. They are great kids.

One Person's Trash is Another's Treasure

Today Lola had a huge, nostril blocking booger. It was slowly driving me insane so I picked her nose--much to her dismay. She was mad at me so when I was done I showed her the fruit of my labor to prove I was doing something useful to her existence. She quickly plucked the booger off my finger and attempted to put the booger back in her nose, all the while saying "my booger."

Are you a boy or a girl?

Favorite Lola quote of the week

Grammy: “You are such a pretty girl”

Lola: “No, I a boy”

Pretty in Pink

Lola is quite infatuated with the bathroom; she just loves all the potions and lotions that it contains. She can’t quite seem to figure out though what goop goes where. She has narrowed it down to lips and hair so far we've had Vaseline in the hair and hair pomade on the lips. Today she was feeling quite original and was trying to think outside the box. At least that's what I told myself when I found she had applied nail polish to her lips (it was actually a nice pink color so at least it was a good choice). In the process of painting her lips she also spilled half of the contents of the polish out, which she expertly hid by placing a wet wipe over it. While I was cleaning up this mess she suffered a minor injury while attempting to shove herself down the laundry chute in the upstairs bathroom.

Lagoon

Every year our Stake does a Lagoon day, which means either you get a discount price or you can get in free, but you can’t ride on any of the rides. Our Lagoon day was this past Tuesday; Jon was able to sneak away a bit early and we did the free version of Lagoon. We had a picnic and walked around and saw everything. It was a perfect warm evening. The last 20 minutes or so were Jon and Lola’s favorite due to the fact they got wet. Here are some of the best pictures from their adventure.

Something new

Friday my Mom was flying out to Germany. She called me during a long layover is Seattle. I was downstairs sitting on the plaid rocking chair chatting away with my cell phone plugged in the wall. The kids were downstairs playing and all of a sudden Ryder just started crawling towards me crying. He was chomping away on something and his drool was an unhealthy green. I fished out what appeared to be a cat turd upon further investigation it was indeed a cat turd. Poor little guy.

The Grand America

Jon's company gave everyone a 1,000 gift certificate to a travel agency. Our kids are pretty little still so instead of doing a big trip we've divided it into 4 smaller trips.

Our first outing happened this past weekend. We stayed at the Grand America. The naked picture of Lola with a backpack is her all "ready" for our trip.

For dinner that night we went to the hotel’s restaurant, The Garden Café. I had called and made a reservation, which happened to be completely unnecessary, but I did let them know we had two little kids. The table they gave us was the most visible table in the entire restaurant, which would have been fine if Lola wasn’t there. She started “mixing” her glass of water with a fork and then promptly spilled it on her menu. They brought her a child proof cup at my request and she still managed to spill milk on multiple occasions. At one point she stood up and sang “Follow, follow me” while demanding us to dance with her. She was a riot and at times well behaved. We kept getting a lot of special smiles.

At bedtime we did our normal bedtime routine and as we were putting Lola down she said she wanted to go home and see her Grammy and Morning. This was the beginning of a very long night. At 10:46 she was still wide awake so Jon went and got her and brought her into our bed. She kept getting on the hotel phone and saying “Hello! Hello!” A few minutes later she puckered up and gave Jon a big fat kiss. Immediately after the kiss she made spitting noises and said “Yucky Kiss!” At 11:00 she was “doing” my hair and saying over and over again “pretty hair.” So after a short stint in our bed she was moved once again to the pack ‘n play.

The next day we ordered breakfast in and then went to the pool. Lola and I went in the changing room to put on her swim diaper. When we came out Jon and Ryder were already in the pool. Lola promptly kicked off her bottoms and tried to go in after them. I’m still not sure why she thought that was the right choice, but I explained to her those stay on when we swim and she didn’t try to take them off again. All in all it was a great happy weekend for our family.

Adult Prom

Jon's Boss was up for the entrepreneur of the year award and we were invited to the event. It was a black tie event, which means we got to dress up. It was the equivalent of an adult prom, but without dancing ...thank goodness!