Wordless Wednesday

Little Mommy

Ashlyn loves her Landon baby! She wanted to feed him baby food the other day. I had my doubts as to how this situation would play out but I was happily surprised. Landon was so patient about the whole thing. It was like he knew she didn't mean to repeatedly gag him or give him a big spoonful of nothing. He was even opening his mouth for her and leaning forward to get it. Ashlyn was in heaven!!! This went on for a good 25 minutes before Landon was done. First she tried sweet talking him, then she moved on to threatening before resorting to tattling. "Mom! Landon won't open his mouth!" That is when she learned a valuable Mommy lesson, you can lead baby to food but you can't make him eat it!

Kaden the Great!

On Friday Gavin brought home a little paragraph he had written about his good friend Kaden. Friend was one of that week's spelling words and the teacher asked them to write about a friend. This is what Gavin wrote:

My friend Kaden was great.

I went almost every day to see if he could play.

Most of the time we would play outside.

I loved to play with him. He was great!

Gavin misses you Kaden (even is he did misspell your name)! Thanks for being such a great friend and example for him.

Ashlyn's Antics

While I was at a doctor's appointment today, Chris was in the waiting room with Landon and Ashlyn. We are assigned to go to the very special "Fliers" clinic. You get extra special treatment in the Air Force is you are a flier or family member of a flier. I guess Ashlyn was in heaven with a roomful of pilots to impress. She must of been searching her brain for how to best capture their attention. Chris said, she went to the middle of the room , got down on her hands and knees, flipped her skirt up and announced, "I like to spank my bum-bum!" While spanking herself!!! But wait it gets even better. Chris immediately said, "She learned this behavior from her Mother". They both got big laughs. I can promise that she most surely did not learn that from her Mother! Where does she come up with this stuff?!?!? If nothing else she relieved some of the tedium of waiting at the doctor's office. She has also been pining after The Rock since seeing the Tooth Fairy at the movie theater. I am very scared for her teen years.

Landon at 9 Months

Guess who is 9 months old now?!? He had been army crawling, rolling around and crawling backwards but finally mastered crawling going forward. He also started working on pulling himself up and had success for the first time tonight. He is into everything and nothing is safe! Ashlyn had a bag of popcorn on the coffee table and he managed to snag it only to end up falling down and spraying popcorn everywhere! She was not pleased. The kids cannot seem to adjust to the fact that is now mobile. I worry about his safety constantly. His new favorite past time is scavenging for tasty tidbits around the table. Ashlyn calls his drool, slime. She says things all the time like, "Mom! Landon slimed my doll!" He added Dada to his vocabulary. It looks like we have another toothless wonder on our hands as he has yet to cut his first tooth. He will look like he is 2 but not have any teeth!
He is huge!!!! A woman said to me the other day, "Poor thing you had to birth this head!"
At the park with Dad.

Big Boy

Of course this happened while I was out! Chris took a picture for me cause he knew I would not be able to believe it otherwise. His ear infection had him feeling under the weather though so I am not expecting it to happen again anytime soon.

Wanna Be Me???

Would anyone like to impersonate me this Sunday and give a talk? I absolutely hate/loathe/dread speaking in church! How evil am I? I am always astounded by those people that say they love speaking in church. I would do just about anything to avoid it. I even went so far as to count up how many times I have had to speak in sacrament meeting. Thirteen times if anyone is interested. Yes, it has become easier but is still tortuous for me. My reasons are many.

-I will cry like a baby and come home with a migraine due to the stress and crying.

-In my perfectionist mind nothing less than an apostle like talk will do. I will never be able to produce a talk of that caliber hence endless frustration and angst.

-Social anxiety. It is alive and real for me. Getting up in front of a giant roomful of people is enough but compound that with sharing some words of wisdom and I am done.

I was supposed to speak on January 31st but due to Gavin's hospital stay I had to cancel the night before. I was really hoping against hope that I would not be asked again. No such luck. I was re-asked this past Sunday and given a new topic.

It is now Thursday and despite hours of research on lds.org I am still in need of a talk. And yet here I sit griping and moaning. I really hope I will not be asked to speak again for a long, long, long, long, long, long time. Who said, that which does not kill us makes us stronger? I just might prove them wrong come Sunday.

Landon's First Tat

Check out Landon's ink! What can I say? He loves his Mom!!!

Daddy/Daughter Dance

Last night Whitney's school had a Daddy/Daughter Dance. The theme was Pretty in Pink. Whitney has been in an anti-pink stage for awhile now. She also is opposed to over the top girlie stuff. Chris had been teasing her about getting a really fluffy pink dress for the dance. I made the comment that if she got a pink dress then Daddy would have to get a pink tie. Whitney suddenly decided she must have a pink dress.

They started off the night with dinner out at Whitney's favorite restaurant Olive Garden. Then it was off to the dance where they had a fabulous time. Already looking forward to next years dance!
Pretty in Pink

Chris showing off his new favorite tie. Real men wear pink, right?

When we lived in Colorado they went to several Daddy/Daughter Dances put on by a local company. Whitney was 4 for this dance back in March 2003. They went to this one right before Chris deployed the first time.

April 2004

April 2006

City Running

You know how people always say running is hard on your joints? Well I have found better reasons to justify not running. Since moving to Tucson Chris has been hit by a car. He walked away from this encounter without a scratch (I swear he is like a cat and has 9 lives!). Though the guy that hit him about had a heart attack. And he has been chased by two homeless men. He said they were yelling crazy talk but he didn't really pay attention just picked up his speed a bit. Keep your fingers crossed for him that his entry will be picked in his newest fitness goal. He wants to run the Wasatch 100. Yeah, that would be 100 miles of running through the Wasatch mountains. Sounds fun, right?

Landon's First Haircut

Chris had been insisting that Landon needed a haircut. He did need a bit of a trim. His hair was growing over his ears and looking a little unruly. On Monday I had told Ashlyn we were going to get Landon's hair cut and she was so excited about it! When it didn't happen that day she was very disappointed so the next day she was insistent that we go and get Landon's haircut. The girl at the salon looked terrified when I said I wanted to get his hair cut. She asked me if he had ever had his hair cut before. When I said, no she looked even more terrified. She proceeded to tell me some war stories of cutting little ones hair. Landon did great though! It helped that he was sleepy. Overall he was just really curious and fascinated by the whole thing.
Particularly by the whole mirror aspect of being able to watch in the mirror too. She was a big Landon fan by the end of his haircut though! His hair ended up shorter than I was wanting and I have been regretting getting it done. He just looks so much older now.

Then Ashlyn wanted her hair cut. She has been obsessed with scissors and hair salons lately so we got her a trim too. I have been a little paranoid that she is going to try to cut her own hair so hopefully a haircut will fill that need.

after shot

before shot

Eat Your Fruits and Veggies!!!

His pain face.

His pitiful face.

Do you have a child that refuses to eat their fruits and veggies? If so, you might be able to use this story as a cautionary tale. When I picked Chris and the kids up from their hiking trip Chris was carrying Gavin. Chris said he was just worn out but upon arriving home it quickly became clear that it was more than that. He could not stand up and was sobbing because his stomach hurt so bad. Of course it was a Saturday night. We hadn't been to the ER in some time and our number was up. As usual Chris and I fought over who would take him. Since I cannot carry him Chris won. After many tests and pain meds they transferred him to another hospital with a Peds ward for observation. Chris said he did perk up a little at the mention of an ambulance ride. Though he was a little disappointed that they did not floor it and turn on the lights and siren. =) They suspected appendicitis but it is policy to observe them for 24 hours before operating because many times the kids are just extremely constipated. Which was the case with Gavin. He came home Sunday afternoon on doctor's orders to eat more fruits and veggies. In the pictures above I asked him to show me his pain face and his pitiful face. I have to say that pitiful face is spot on! Ashlyn told him she really liked his tiger dress. He immediately removed his tiger dress after fruitlessly explaining that it was not a dress. haha One thing I thought was really cute was that he was worried to death about Ashlyn and Landon the whole time he was at the hospital. He just knew they missed him horribly and that Ashlyn would not be able to sleep with worry. Something weird is that he has developed something of a phobia about shots but was just fine with them starting an IV on him. This makes no sense to me at all. Give me a shot over an IV or blood draw any day! Despite this trip he is still very reluctant to eat his fruits and veggies. No pain meds for him next time!

Hiking and Backpacking in the Catalinas

Last Friday I dropped Chris, Whitney and Gavin off at Sabino Canyon for the kids first hiking/backpacking trip. Chris had been beyond excited to take them! They stayed overnight and hiked a total of 16 miles.
Here they are looking very outdoorsy at a waterfall.

I was a little worried about my babies overall safety.

Here they are standing on the edge of a cliff.

Scaling treacherous and rocky cliff sides.

They asked Chris to take a picture of this sign about some of the over friendly wildlife. After looking at the photos Chris took, hearing their accounts of fording a raging river among other things turns out I was not completely off base with my worries. They had a grand time though and can't wait for the next trip.

Quail Time

On Friday Gavin received a Quail Time Award at school for "being a new proud, prepared, polite and productive member or our class". We are so proud of Gavin!