For Grandma Sue...My Little Tom Cruise

So last Sunday I was talking to my mom after church, and my sweet tired son was refusin to get out of his Sunday clothes. Well he wanted to keep on his white shirt & navy socks. He reminded me of Tom Cruise from Risky Business plus he was dancing around. I thought this was a cute picture of him shaking it as he was acting like he was coming to let me get him dressed!
And then the photo shoot started! But these were not for mom, these were for "mama." He wasn't ever looking or smiling, so my mom threw out the idea of saying, smile for mama and this was what I got.

"Joe, can you fold your hands for mama?" Of course I can...

"Joe, can you smile for mama?" Sure, no prob...

"Joe, can you blow a kiss to mama?" I guess so...only if she promises to catch it

I started singing the clean up song so he could get ready for a nap, and this is what he did, folded his arms. Funny, he doesn't act this reverent in nursery when we sing the clean up song.
To my little stud: I want you to know how much I love you and how much happiness you have brought Mommy and Daddy in the last 20 1/2 months. You are such a sweet strong boy and I can only hope that you will continue to stay strong. I was talking to a couple friends last night about a scary proposition that I hope gets passed for our own good and am realizing slowly but surely that I can not control the world. Fortunately I can control what is taught in our home and I can hope that you have good friends that will help reinforce what gets taught at home. I hope that our house is a refuge for you. We love you!
For anyone living in California, please do your research on Prop 8 to protect marriage and to protect our families.

Road Trip to Grandma & Grandpa's

It's pretty obvious how much I adore my parents...I tell any of my friends who might be far from home that whenever they want to do a trip to go to Southern California to my house...Well when I got back from St George I got the sad news that our good friends the Mishler's were moving to Arizona. Heather and I had talked about going to Valencia but hadn't gone yet. I told her it was no big deal that we didn't go, but she found a couple days to squeeze in for a road trip with our 3 kids ages 21 months, 20 months and 2 months old. Are we crazy!? Yes, and was it fun? Yes, so thanks for the trip!

The ride down, I thought went pretty well. Kena and Joe read books, played with puzzles, ate snacks (so many that they didn't want McDonalds chicken nuggets, and played hide and seek. Benson slept, ate, and slept, he was such a good baby. Joe and Kena then slept after lunch until we got there. For a 5 1/2 hour drive, I was pretty impressed with how it went.
Yay, out of the car, exploring the backyard and hoping that Ellie stayed away from them.
Swimming in Grandma Sue's big bath tub.
This is what Benson thought of the bath fun, actually what he thinks of his cute mom!

Kena loves to clean up messes, kiss, nurture, be mom's helper and clean Joe...obviously no arguments from Joe

OK, Joe never wanted to sleep when the big boys, Uncle JK and Uncle Ben were playing ping pong or tennis with their friends. I had to put him in his playpen where he screamed bloody murder, and I could only do this when "mama" wasn't home. She came home and was shocked and my dad, Mr. Toughie gave her permission to go get him. Not only to get him and his blanket, but to get him a popsicle too. I try not to be too mean, but I couldn't be upset when I saw his super swollen eyes and when he came out he just kept saying mommy mommy. sigh...it was pretty sad. To help make up for it, he got to share 2 popsicles with grandpa. He would look at everyone and say nummy after every lick, like thank you for saving me!

All the kids relaxing with Grandma Sue when we were done swimming.
OK Joe, that hurts! Thanks still to Sammy for keeping this tractor at my parents. Joe just loves to sit on it!
Swimming with "mama"
Oh, the diving board! I sometimes tend to think my baby is older than he is. I was jumping off with Kena & Joe in my arms just about giving my mom a heart attack! "Jen, you are going to bla bla bla (can't remember), but Joe can't hold his breath for that long." Luckily we jumped off and because I concentrated so hard, took in a lot of water, and love these kids, they barely went under. Thanks for the relaxing couple days and mom thanks for all your help! On the way back we left at night and the kids slept. Thanks Ben for letting us borrow your family! Thanks Heather for the company and for driving!

Marriott Vegas Party

I'm a little behind, but on September 6th Steve had a Marriott Vegas party at his hotel and we were lucky to go on a date. The food was absolutely delicious and there were so many people there. We played lots of black jack with fake money, thank goodness because I lost mine very quick and we kind of danced. There were about 4 good songs and then as Steve would put it, the Asians came to the stage and started doing the train to the Mexican salsa music. It was pretty fun to watch. Thanks for a fun night Steve! I love my hot husband!
To our friends the Ben, Heather, Kena and Benson. Seriously, what will we do without you?! Thanks for adding our Joe to your group for a few hours and keeping an eye on him at the church party. It was so nice to be gone and not even need to worry about him. Thanks for taking him on piggy back rides around your place. We really appreciated it!

Say Sorry!

Joe is having a hard time learning to say sorry...For example, when he pushes his girlfriend Kena because he is upset that she is moving, he won't say sorry. When he smacks his friend Luke because he forgets Luke is littler than him and Luke's smacks are excited ones because he thinks Joe is cool, he won't say sorry. Or tonight for example when he was screaming at me because he wanted to be out of his chair and done with dinner, he wouldn't say sorry...he did this!

St George

Joe and I arrived in Vegas and to split up the traveling we were so lucky to have the opportunity to hang out with some family. My cousin Deanna was so nice to come pick us up from the airport, take us to her house, swimming and to meet up with my mother in law. Joe is so tough and strong! We just love him!
Deanna & her little 1 year old Bridgett. Thanks for the yummy lunch and for the swim time! I love your house! It was fun catching up and seeing a different part of Vegas that I never knew existed.
Me and Joe relaxing in the shallow part
Joe and Bridgett...Joe was a little shy mixed with a little feistiness, but Bridgett was a good sport.
We got to St George and Uncle Mike wasted no time getting Joe out of his comfort zone! Nice hops Mike!
St George has a few of these little splash parks! Love them love them love them! They are a great way to let the little kiddies cool off in water that they can walk and play in.
Uncle Mike was a good sport and got in on the fun with Joe
This was hilarious, the water was squirting through Joe's legs looking like he was peeing, then he'd sit it would disappear, he'd be confused stand up again and it would go like that again and again. It was cute
O Uncle Mike, I love you, can I get red rock and dirt and water all over you before you go golf?
Happy 2nd Birthday Cousin Luke! We got to celebrate Luke's 2nd birthday with a trip to Pizza Factory, splash pad and then party. This is how these 2 were for the week, following each other trying to find trouble!
Jamie & I made Luke a caterpillar cake and Luke and Joe were loving the dots and frosting.
My mother in law was so sweet to get us tickets to Les Miserables even though she couldn't go. We went with our cousins and Aunt Susan. I thought it was wonderful! This picture was taken right before the worker dropped my month old camera! Obviously she wasn't good at taking pictures or handing the camera back to someone. I was in tears when I got home since I babysat to pay for this camera. Luckily Jamie took me back to Costco the next day and I got a new one. Goodbye Canon Powershot 950, rest in peace(July 28 2008-August 28 2008), hello Canon Powershot 890 I will be so careful with you!
While the Bird's were visiting we decided to hit Jumping Jacks in the morning, McDonalds in the afternoon, and this new aquatic park after lunch. It was such a fun day. Joe loved all of the slides. At the water park I took him down a big kids slide (like 2-3 stories up) and once we were in the water he looked at me and said mo mo (more) mama! He also loved the cheese mobile, in motion or not.
Chandi and Cassidy just hanging out at the inflatable wonderland. Cassidy was perfect the entire day!
Chandi, Preston, Madalyn, and Cassidy were so sweet to drive from Orem to come see me and Joe. I met Chandi 3 years ago when I started working at Lincoln Academy as a teaching assistant. For the first couple days of testing, the teaching assistants just helped out getting kids registered and helping them find and meet their teacher. I remember seeing Chandi (kindergaten teacher) coming out with a new energy for every student she met, and these were some long days! I hoped that I would be paired with this cute teacher and luckily I was! She has been such an amazing friend to me and I was SO excited to see her!
Joe and Madalyn sliding down the huge slide together. Joe was very quick to learn that he didn't want to do the plain old on-the-bum sitting straight up ride. He was fearless and loved the slides, the bigger the better!
I thought Joe would enjoy riding the Pilot that Steve's parents had since he loves cars and driving and everything boys love. Well Grandpa took him out and Joe came back holding onto Grandpa with the death grip and he was turned the opposite way of how we put him in.
Luke couldn't get enough of the Pilot
Joe liked the Pilot when dad drove it, maybe grandpa drove it like a crazy man!
Bev, Jamie and I went to The Ledges for lunch one day. I love eating on a golf course. Thanks honey for watching Joe!
This is a new aquatic park in Washington UT. I definitely recommend it because it is so clean and big. The water around the slides is 8"-2 1/2 ft. Then there is about a 4 ft area and a lazy river, a big kids slide, a lap pool, and a splash pad outside. Inside there is rock climbing and lots of other fun stuff. I LOVE water stuff! Especially in such a hot place like St George.
Joe getting ready to go down a water slide
Joe and Luke loved the rec center. It was super nice and clean!
Since I had so much fun with Chandi's family at the inflatable wonderland we took our boys back there with Jamie's mother in law Sue, sister in law Natalie and her kids Carson & Aniston.
Luke was trying to get the basketballs out of the machine without any luck. Aniston and Joe followed him up there to try and help relieve some stress...I just decided to pay the 50 cents so that there wouldn't be a breakdown.
We went for a ride on the Gator and saw a ton of beautiful houses around Mark's parents neighborhood.
I was so glad I got to see my friend Tami in St George. She recently moved back to St George from San Francisco after her hubby Mark finished dental school and we all miss Tami tons! Fortunately every time we go to St George I will hopefully see my good friend, and I know she will keep me informed of all the cute things at Krumpets!
Joe loved this car! Thanks to CJ for letting us borrow it! Joe was very content just sitting in it and making key noises and car noises!
Thanks for a super fun trip! How lucky these boys are to have each other! Luke, 2 years, Joe 20 months, Porter 10 months. We love our family and we were lucky to get to be there at the same time!

Some fun

I miss Sunday naps like this...My naps now consist of me falling asleep and waking up to tons of things to do. Joe on the other hand can sleep when he wants to, obviously where he wants to, and however long he wants to. The life of a toddler...sigh

We went to the Discovery Museum, (quite frankly our favorite place to go), with Sarah and Hillary. It was pretty fun yet pretty tiring. We hit all of the rooms we thought the kiddies would like and scored on all of them. Thanks for a fun afternoon!

Joe, you are now 19 months old! Where has the time gone? You are talking so much, well mainly taking control and telling your mom what to do. If you want to leave, you bring me your socks and shoes and say-shoos buh bye. If I'm not moving quick enough you say buh bye buh bye buh bye really loud, until I start moving fast enough. If you are about to get in trouble, you quickly look at me then look around and say daddy daddy daddy! Yes we all love daddy, he is the nice one. You made a phone call to Grandma Sue while I was cooking and said hi and yeah to everything she was saying. She said, does mommy know you are on the phone, to which you replied, yeah! She said can I say hi to mommy, which you replied, hi mommy, and outsmarted your grandma! You are a city boy, you get so excited to see a bus and yell bus as much as you can. You love to say buh bye to people, any one you see, there isn't really a hi, just a bye. You are obsessed with keys, when we are leaving you demand the keys which sounds like "aqui." People are going to think we have a bilingual child! Today you hid the keys from mommy and instead of playing hot and cold we played yeah and no. Quite frustrating son! You love to say up up just so you can feel like you are in the midst of what is going on. Sometimes when mommy is trying to bug daddy during a tv show, she will give him kisses on his cheek and now you have started doing that too to show mommy that you are daddy's buddy. You have gotten a couple owies this week and have learned how to put neosporin on your knee all by yourself. We love you xoxo

A couple nights ago, I went to a movie...for the 1st time since I've had Joe (19 months) so I had to document it! Thanks girls for participating for my proof. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 was pretty entertaining. We, especially Mithona, were excited for the drawing class that Lena was taking...Kim, I am pretty short :) and I hope you have talked to your mom by now...Heather, thanks for coming out with Heidi & sorry I didn't call...Hillary, I hope Sarah inherits your laugh...There were a lot of laughs, the workers behind the counter were helpful enough to take this picture and we got some yummy yogurt afterwards. It was so much fun! I really needed it and thanks to my sweet husband for coming home and taking care of Joe so I could have a night off. Kristen, thanks for organizing and for walking up the slope with me! And girls thanks for the company! I am so incredibly grateful to live in such a wonderful place and have great examples to look up too. Our ward is amazing and I think having uplifting friends makes for a more positive attitude. Sorry for the obsession with San Francisco at the moment, but for anyone who doesn't know Steve is getting ready for a promotion and we started the hunt for a new place to go. We thought we'd found the perfect situation on paper, but when we went and checked it out we both knew it wasn't right. A lot of the decision I feel is because of the great feeling we have found here. I know that I will leave my heart in San Francisco.