Mixed Feelings

Aisea is 9 months old now. He is growing so fast! Some quick facts about him: wearing 12 month clothes, out-grew his infant car seat about a month ago, last check up he was ~75% for weight & ~95% for height (so he's "tall and slim" according to a teasing doctor). He's got his two bottom teeth in, and a single curl on the top of his head that is a lot longer than the rest of his hair.



Here are some short videos of what he's doing now-days.



laughing

Crawling (this was when he first started. He's MUCH faster now. He slithers AND crawls at top speed)

Climbing stairs- he gets up 2 or 3 stairs then screams because he's not sure how to get out of the rut he's in. (sorry, not the best video)

Waving. He says "hi, Mama & Daddy" now. First word was definitly "hi." pretty funny.

Things I don't have videos of: kissing. He LOVES giving kisses-especially to Daddy!

He also has a favorite game. If I'm holding him & standing near my Mom, he'll dive over to her. Then he dives back to me, back to her, back to me, etc. He finds that extremely humorous.

I love seeing him learn and grow and experience things, but I don't like that it's all happened so fast!!! I can't believe how quickly this has transpired.

(On the fun side, I posted a blog when Enos turned 9 months. If you want to see the comparison, click HERE)

Me

It has been requested that I write about me. Instead I will show you thru pix.


Things that make me happy:

(happy kids)

(loving kids)

(and the excitement Enos exuberates at the aquarium. See last post)

Things that make me sad:

(pouting kids)

(Obvious)

(and endless nights with little sleep.)

Things I miss:

(the simplicity, independence, friends, family, ward, ocean and weather in California)

(and my husband)


Things I've been doing:

Cake decorating class

(First attempt. Just practicing techniques learned in class that night)
(Second attempt. Ditto)

(Leftovers. My best cake to date, lol)

(Last cake made in class.)

It's been really busy. I plan to resume soon, but needed a break.

Things I don't have pix of:

Finance Seminar. In addition to the weekly cake decorating, I am also enrolled in a 6 week finance seminar. Boys will start tumbling classes on wednesdays, which is why I have not yet enrolled in the second of the cake decorating classes. Plus I'd like to improve and (hopefully) perfect the techniques I've already learned.

Book Club. I have been part of a book club for most of our time here. This month's book "The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch. Totally loved it! Check out his actual last lecture here. (Not the same as the book! Read that too!) I've really appreciated being part of the book club. It's given me something to look forward too each month. Plus I've been introduced to so many great books that I wouldn't have known about otherwise! Here's to another year of great reading!

Game Night. Tuesday nights my Dad hosts the 11 year old scouts. I am lucky enough to be friends (or frenemys) with a couple of the Mom's of these boys. Tuesday nights while the boys are busy scouting, we are busy playing games and eating treats in the basement. It is one of my favorite things ever!

Aquarium

We have become fanatics of the Living Planet Aquarium! We decided to buy annual passes, and we have since gone weekly. Enos especially LOVES it! He asks everyday if we can go. I love it! This last time we went was almost magical. Enos took off as soon as we walked in the door. He did his little skip-run over to the sharks (who were agitated & thus more aggressive...He was in HEAVEN!!)

Piranhas

Sting rays...Yes, in open water. The killing devices were removed.

This video is Enos's skip-run (AFTER two hours of being there! LOL)


Thought this video was pretty cool. I haven't seen anything like it before...

Discovery Museum

so I'm sure most of the "locals" here have been to Discovery Gateway Museum before. We went for the first time yesturday, and it ROCKED! Our boys had such a blast! We will definitly be going back. At one point I turned to chase Enos, and when I turned back around I couldn't see Leki anywhere. Waf was feeding Aisea across the way, and he pointed to the little house part. Leki had taken the groceries "home" and was putting them all away in the cupboards! Took us completely by surprise!

The construction part was cool too. There's a crane holding a little swing that can be raised & lowered.

Waf & Aisea (Aisea is 6 MONTHS today! Happy 1/2 bday little monster!)

Leki's saying "Daddy! Get in the back seat!"

It was hard to know what was their favorite parts were, but I would have to guess that the helicopter topped it all for Enos. We walked out onto the roof (?) part, and Enos's eyes got HUGE. He went completely silent as he took the whole situation in. I could just see his little mind deciding on his future career. It was awesome.

The hardest part was getting them to leave. :}

Misc.

Here is my attempt to do as little as possible to get caught up. Leki has become quite the little helper. Except I can't really call him "little" because he has grown so much! He is already up to my chest. He's 4! Crazy. (Ok, he's almost 5. But still! Sooo tall!)

Enos had a birthday. He is now 3 years old, and so much fun! His birthday was a blast. Some of his favorite presents included Gia the giraffe...

...and eggnog.

Somehow he remembered eggnog from last year, and it happened to come out the week of his birthday. Granny and Grandpa were seriously the best two people on earth that day! He didn't want to open anything else after the eggnog. We are currently on our 4th half gallon! He just can't get enough.

We also have been able to go on field trips with both Leki and Enos. We went to the pumpkin patch with Enos' preschool, where they had story time and picked out their own pumpkin. Then we bombarded the local Arctic Circle. It was a blast.

Aisea got to join us at the pumpkin patch. He is massive. He had his 4 month checkup last week, and he weighed in at about 18 lbs. He's already in 6-9 month clothes. No wonder my back (and arms) hurt!

Dear James

To my dear sweet brother... this post is dedicated to you. Lately my boys have reminded me of you. ALOT.

"Let me show you a new move I learned."

All that's missing is a picture of them tying each other up to the railing.

Still amazed I survived! Hope you have a fabulous day.

Awesome story

Another post so soon, you say? I know! But I had to get this one on while still fresh. (feel free to read the last post if you haven't yet...) We have been wanting a new car. My husband has family that are car salesmen & they have been keeping their eyes open for us. Well, last wednesday (exactly one week ago today), we went to look at this one. It's a 98 Lincoln Navigator. It has had only one owner who took amazing care of it. The car has UNDER 100,000 miles, and has never even missed an oil change. It was marked at $10,000, we got it for $6,000. Awesome deal, right? Right. So we bought it, and immediatly christened it "MONSTER" or "THE BEAST" So today we were in a shopping center parking lot. We were in the left hand turning lane, when the car in the right hand turning lane decided to turn left instead. She was talking on the phone, and "didn't see us." (We later noticed that she didn't have any side view mirrors) Waf happened to see a police car in one of the stores parking lots & told the girl to pull in there so we could get the info. In the mean time I called the cops. We were heading off to park, and she TAKES OFF!!! Waf floors it and follows her. She pulls back into the shopping center, and gets out of her car. She asks us not to call the cops because she "didn't have insurance." When she found out I was already talking to the cops, she jumped in her car & sped away again! By now Waf is pissed, and he is not someone you should ever make mad. So he floors it, rides her tail, honking and yelling all the way. She pulls over again, gets out of her car again, and tells us "she'll pay for it, she just can't afford an insurance ticket." Waf flat out tells her that he doesn't trust her cuz she's already taken off twice. She heads back to her car, and he follows. He goes to grab the keys so she can't take off again. She freaks out, and starts kicking and cussing at him. Mind you, she's a 19 year old, extremely petite white girl. Now think of Waf. He wasn't having that. He pinned her arms down and grabbed the keys. I was still on the phone with the police at this point, but i saw what was happening & I ran over to get Waf away from her. She spit on him in front of me, then had the nerve to say that "we were crazy." That's about when the cops showed up. This story ends with her being cuffed & hauled away. Apparently she has numerous warrants out, along with new charges for lack of insurance and attempted hit-and-run. The cops were very happy and extremely cordial after that arrest.

The sad part is the damage to our new Navi, Monster. Those of you who know us know that it has never taken long for us to add dents to our new vehicles, but ONE WEEK? That's a new record, even for us!