What to do when you child won't stop whining....

A million points of light

Saturday morning we headed up to the LA Temple to help hang Christmas lights with what seemed like at least a hundred volunteers from our church. I can't imagine how long it would take or how much it would cost if the church had to hire professionals to do this. There are hundreds of trees, shrubs, bushes, etc, so there was plenty of work to go around. We are excited to go back and take more pictures when the lights are officially turned on at the end of November.

I looked out the window and what did I see?

This huge spider knitting it's web between two lemon trees in our yard. I stood there and watched it make a round or two around it's huge web. That sucker is fast.


Diane's beautiful plumeria plant. So gorgeous.

What was he dreaming about?

The first thing Cohen said after waking up from his nap today....

"Mom, I need some chocolate."

Latest purchase

For those of you out there that have come to the realization that owning an iPhone is not only a necessity, but utterly life-changing, you might think about buying one of these guys....especially if you are among the dual-iPhone-user-household like I am. Merry early Christmas.

On the verge of sneezing

LOL

E: Mom, why are there so many cars (mdx) just like our car? Look there is a tan one, and a silver one, and the other day I saw a black one.
J: I guess it's just a popular car.
E: Does everybody have a DVD player in their car like we do?
J: No not everybody, a few I'm sure.
E: You got this car because it had a DVD player in it to distract us, huh?
J: LOLOLOLOLOLOL.

Just the four of us

Ethan had the day off from school the past couple days and I was given free Legoland passes a while back so we decided it was time. The last time we went was when the Ehat's came to visit over a year ago.





I went back through our photos from previous visits to Legoland and was shocked when I saw this picture of Ethan. THE SHIRT!!! I had to post a picture. Cohen has like 30 shirts and he just happened to be wearing the same one... so weird.



Ethan now


Ethan last year


Eric getting watered




Cohen has NO fear - he kept asking to go on the roller coasters.


Ethan on the other hand, a little more timid. His posture alone compared to Cohen's riding the slide is hilarious.

Zerorez

I scheduled Zerorez to come out today to touch up Diane's carpet. Looks great, as usual! They showed up while we were at Legoland and the carpets were dry by the time we got home. If you've never used them you gotta do it!

Halloween 2009, dress rehersal

Saturday night was our wards Trunk or Treat. As you can see from the photo shoot the boys, especially Ethan, had no problem getting into character.











Cohen lasted a lot longer than expected in his Spongebob costume. I'm not convinced he will be up for round two this Saturday.

Remember when I said Ethan is competitive?

Well, his competitiveness is in full swing thanks to these little guys, but in a good way. We started this little experiment the week after General Conference. I must say it is working. Ethan's jar is growing by the day, mainly because he's older and understands the concept. Cohen doesn't get it at all, but his jar remains to push Ethan to do more. Seriously, I am all for trying anything once. (total cost at Michael's was about $4.50 for everything!)

Liar, liar, pants on fire

This morning I took the boys to Jump & Shout, a local inflatables rec center where they can essentially, jump and shout. Amazingly, we had the whole place to ourselves which was nice because I didn't have to worry about them running into 18 month-olds or pushing slow pokes out of their way. But, inevitably Cohen got hurt at the hands of his older brother.

I hear Cohen crying so I look up from my book and see Ethan running over to me. He's already come up with a story...

E: Mom, Cohen was climbing up the bouncy wall and fell and he hurt himself, by himself.
J: Oh, really?
E: Actually, I am lying. But I didn't want to get in trouble. Actually, I pushed him.

I thanked Ethan for telling the truth, even though it was after telling a big fat lie, and after wiping some tears they ran off and went about their jumping and shouting.

Ethan has a good heart, but lately he has started lying, disobeying, and talking back like never before. What clicks in their heads that gives them so much confidence to do so? It doesn't help that he's super competitive, and not with things like organized sports or school work, but with his 3 year-old brother. Everything Cohen has or does he wants for himself. Isn't this usually the other way around? Doesn't the younger sibling always want what the older one has? I know for a fact this is how I was as a kid. I was the FAIR police. My own version of the F word, and boy did my parents treat it like one. They hated it when I said, "It's Not Fair", on a daily basis, round the clock, 24-7, and maybe even in prayers. I know my mom is loving this right now. LOVING IT!!!

I plead the fifth.

Ugh, this post is a hard one to write. Very hard. The sheer volume of BLUE in these photos is sickening. All I can say is that I was on drugs. Lots of them. Flu meds, sinus meds, fever reducing meds...the cocktail somehow led me to San Diego where I found myself sitting at Qualcomm stadium unsure of how I got there and even more confused by who I was there to see play. Apparently, I went to a byu game yesterday.



Dean flew in for the game. I think he brought all of Provo with him because there had to have been more Y fans there than SDSU fans.



I made Eric promise me that next year when the U plays in SD that he would be there with me. We'll see if he follows through.



We were sitting pretty close to the field and luckily had this guy to keep us entertained. He was pretty funny. Calling the cheers, dancing to the bands music, dropping into the splits....he was amazing.

Momastore.org

This is one store I feel comfortable posting my faves from without feeling like a totally lame blogger. It was always a must-stop store when we would visit NYC. Here are just a few from the most recent catalog.


Masking tape - just because tan is boring.


Blocks - anyone currently prego with a girl??


Clock - something for Eric

Bowls - aren't these awesome!!??


Wallet - and coin purse - for Molly or Martha!

One of each

It's great being the friend of a pregnant woman. Why? Because I can help plan showers for them and bring them meals after they deliver and make them burp cloths, all the fun stuff - but not have to worry about being that cute babies mother!

Sarah and I were kind of busy this month planning a couple baby showers for friends who are due this week.

First, Carly's shower. A GIRL! Something both Sarah and I have yet to experience.



Sarah's cute favors




Second, a BOY! Meagan's third. Congrats ladies...now who's next?



My cinnamon rolls were yummy!


And check out the cute cupcakes and cake that Claudia made.