Wordless Wednesday

My Nolie Cannoli

Nolan is now two months old.

He is such an easy going baby.
He loves to eat and sleep and will do either whenever I need him to.

He is doing well as the third child.

You know, the one whose life revolves around the schedule of his older siblings.

Yeah, that him.

And he doesn't seem to mind.



He sleeps through the night like it's no big deal.
I have to keep reminding myself that it is a big deal!

He loves to smile for anyone willing to smile back, but most especially for Tyson and me.



He has beautiful eyes framed with long long lashes.

It's easy to get lost in them.

He is completely kissable, which is good because kissing him is my favorite pastime.

Kindness & Compassion

In a world that is very rough and tough, and I am trying to teach my boys to be kind and compassionate.

In fact, I am officially changing my "Word for the Year" to Kindness.

I have found that they are able to resolve almost any conflict with a simple reminder to be kind. For example, if the boys are fighting over a toy (i.e. Tyson does not want to share his toy with Preston) Tyson doesn't not have to give his toy to Preston but he does have to be kind in the way he says no. Sometimes that means helping Preston find something else to play with.

I don't allow them to yell at each other, or hit one another. (Tyson still yells and Preston still hits but we are working on it.) They are lucky to have each other, and I won't let them treat each other badly. I want them to be best friends. I also want them to learn how to resolve their own problems without needing me to referee. I want them to learn these life skills before they head out into the real world. I tell Tyson that I can't let him play with friends until he is able to play nicely with his brother.

In the last few weeks I've started witnessing the fruits of my labors.

One afternoon I was watching a movie with all three boys. Nolan was snuggled on my chest, and the two big boys were sitting next to me. Without a word Preston climbed up on Tyson's lap and snuggled into his chest. Tyson wrapped his arms around his little brother and kissed the top of his head. They stayed that way for a few minutes before Preston climbed back down. Neither one said a word to each other. It was just a sweet brotherly moment while watching Alvin and the Chipmunks.

A few days later Dan and I were reading bedtime stories to the boys. Preston asked, "Tyson, will you hold me?" Tyson opened his arms and let his little brother climb up onto his lap.

They are building a friendship that I hope will last a lifetime.

Sometimes we run into problems with friends who come over to play. It's surprising how many children have a dog-eat-dog attitude about life. I've received many surprised looks from neighbor kids when I tell them that if they can't play nicely they can't play at all.

I know my kids aren't perfect. They hit , they take toys from other children , they fight, they like to get their own way.

But they are learning.

And I am proud of them.

Through this process I am finding myself being kinder to them.

(Maybe it's due to the lack of pregnancy hormones. Or maybe I'm getting softer in my old age, I don't know.)

I yell a lot less. I more aware of the tone of voice I use with them. I say 'yes' as often as I can. I let the 'little things' slide. My parenting style is changing. And it's a good change.

Wordless Wednesday

Preston-isms

Very little in this world is funnier than a two-year old learning to grasp the English language. Here are a few funny things Preston says. I find it adorable and would like to remember these Preston-isms when he is "all grown up."

Preston's favorite thing to eat for lunch is a

"Peanut Jelly and Jelly" sandwich.

Sometimes Preston tells me he is bigger.

Other times he insists that he is "litter".

Preston is very independant. He likes to help in the kitchen. His favorite tasks are "spinning" (stirring) and "spilling" (pouring).

Whether it happen last week, yesterday or an hour ago,

Preston will tell it it was "years ago".

Girls are grills.

His sentence structure is awesome:

"Is you have any more yogos?"

Who somebody is that? Who somebody turned off the light? Who somebody is coming to our house?

"Who somebody is dat grill dat came to our house years ago."

Spring Break 2010

Pirate's Cove is a privately-owned vacation home in Boulder City, Nevada, near Las Vegas. It is only available for family and friends of the owner (unless you want to pay $15,000 a night to rent out the entire place). One of Dan's real estate clients just happens to be close friends with the owners. As a Thank You to Dan, for being the amazing realtor that he is, they invited us to join them for their week at Pirate's Cove. We jumped at this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

The boys loved swimming, speeding down the water slide, watching movies, playing basketball, playing pool and foosball, exploring, hiking, eating ice cream, and spending time with their dad.

It was a much needed break for all of us.

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Pirate's Cove

This is where we went for Spring Break:

It was awesome. I am still looking for my camera cord so I can upload our pictures, so this will have to do for now. The room we stayed in is featured at 1:40 and 1:42 of the video.

Through the Eyes of a Child

Hey Mom! Check out that shiny thing up there!

While I hate how quickly they grow, I love watching my children discover new things.

It's a privilege of motherhood to see the world anew through the eyes of a child.

Tyson and Preston are good reminders of how fleeting the baby stage is.

It seems like just yesterday that they were this age.

I have got to stop blinking!

Photography Tip #211

To illicit genuine smiles from boys

it helps to have someone break wind.

Easter Morning

We were awakened bright and early Easter morning by Tyson and Preston.

Tyson asked nicely if we could go see what the Easter Bunny brought.

When Dan told the boys they needed to wait until Mommy woke up, Preston took matters into his own hands.

He went tearing down the stairs before anyone could catch him.

Tyson followed.

Dan yelled at me to wake up as he chased the boys down the stairs.

I stumbled after them with my eyes half open.

I attempted to take pictures of their egg hunt, but as you can see I struggled to keep up.

They gathered all the eggs quickly, and Preston soon discovered the candy hidden inside.

Nolan joined us later for his first Easter basket.

I treated the family to a lovely hot breakfast of Creme Brulee French Toast, and we spent the rest of the day in our sweats, eating candy and watching General Conference.

Coloring Eggs

Have I mentioned that Dan's been working a lot?

Well, he has.

We were hoping he would be able to come home to color Easter eggs with us.

So we waited, and waited and waited.

By Saturday night, we were out of time.

The Easter Bunny was due in a matter of hours, and there were no colored eggs in the house.

So we all put on our happy faces and colored eggs without Daddy.

Tyson wanted to write his name on every egg and dye them all blue.

Preston dropped every egg he touched and sobbed when we were finished.

But in the end the egg coloring was a success.

One of Their Favorite Things

This is one of Nolan's favorite places to be.

Unfortunately, due to Dan's work schedule, he doesn't get to snuggle here very often.

This time they were "watching" sports.

This is also how these two spent much of yesterday "watching" General Conference.

If Only I Could Freeze Time

In two years, when he's drawing on my walls with permanent marker and flushing my keys down the toilet, I'm going to look back on this picture and smile.

Another One Bites the Dust

It is time to take yet another adoptive family off my sidebar!

Patrick and Lindsay recently welcomed home Miss Daisy.

Isn't she just perfect?!

Congrats again!

Easter Egg Hunt

Saturday morning I loaded all three boys into the car and headed over to the park for our annual city Easter Egg hunt.

(I was hoping to have Dan there this year, but alas, he is still working Saturdays.)

I can't be in two places at once, so I left Tyson with some school friends in his age group. Preston and I joined the the "3 and under" crowd. This was Preston first ever egg hunt.



I quickly explained the concept of an egg hunt to Preston,

"When they say 'go' you run in there and put the eggs in your basket."

Simple enough, right?

I think Preston hit sensory overload when the hunt began. He walked two feet from me and froze.




He just stood there with dozens of eggs at his feet.

I tried to yell over the crowd, "Preston! Pick up the eggs!"

He either couldn't hear me, or didn't care. Finally he bent down and picked up one egg.

And then he just stood there.

I yelled again, "Preston! Get more eggs!"

Nothing.

He moved his feet and little but that was it.

Thankfully one of the guys in charge (the tall guy in the black jacket) was walking around the field dropping eggs into empty buckets.





Preston was the recipient of a couple "courtesy eggs".

When it was all said and done Preston had four eggs and a small candy bar.

He was so proud of himself.

Tyson, a veteran egg hunter, faired much better.




He filled his entire basket.

And just like every year, he shared his spoils with his little brother.

Deja Vu

This is my niece Jocey.

She is exactly one year younger than Preston . . . . and she is a girl.

That is where the differences end.

Wordless Wednesday

He's One in a Million

Preston is a character.

He is adorable, and trouble all rolled into one.

It's a deadly combination.

Luckily he saves the 'trouble' for me.

When he is with other people he is just adorable.

Last week I took the two big boys to the nursery during my Relief Society Birthday Dinner. When I picked them up afterward I was greeted with a very familiar:

"Is he yours?! He is so adorable!"

To which I responded:

"Yep, and it's a good thing he's cute. It's the only reason we haven't sold him to the Gypsy's."

At times it can be too easy to focus on the tantrums and mischief.

Like the morning he threw a fit because I wouldn't sort his Apple Jacks by color.

I made him eat both the orange and the green ones.

There are several things he is doing and saying right now that are adorable, and I want to remember them.

Like the way he counts. He can say his numbers one to ten, but for some reason when he is counting objects he forgets one, two and three.

It is always "fourteen, sixteen, eleventeen."

Or the way he wants everything "like a bana." When I give him a granola bar or string cheese he insists that I make it "like a bana," by peeling down the sides of the package like a banana peel.

He loves to sing and dance like "Apple Jackson."

He puts on his beanie, aka his Apple Jackson hat, and jams out to Beat It, and Smooth Criminal.

Oh, and I can't forget his version of the famous Little Richard Song, Tuni Fruni on Runi.

Or the way he belts out, "She love you, ya ya ya."

The Beatles would be so proud.

Thanks to his father and big "brudder" he is constantly quoting Harry Potter:

"Wingardium Leviosa" and "swish and flick."

And at the end of the day he insists on taking his turn reading the

"Book of Norman."

He really is an adorable child.

When he's not screaming or breaking my stuff.

Happy {early} Mother's Day to Me!

In an effort to avoid getting another slip 'n slide, I bought my own Mother's Day present this year.

(In fact, when I told Dan that I bought myself this gift

Tyson leaned over and whispered in his dad's ear,

"Dad, I think we should get her a slip 'n slide."

No joke.

I told Tyson we could give his Dad a slip 'n slide for Father's Day instead.)

Anyway . . .

I've been eyeing this necklace for months.

I made myself wait until after Nolan was born just in case we changed his name at the last minute.

Isn't it beautiful?!

It's an r house Three-Name custom necklace.

In case you aren't savvy on adoption blogs, the r house is awesome.

They created this etsy store,

the r house couture

to help fund the contested adoption of their son, Gavin.

(They won, BTW!)

My necklace came in this lovely box with a message:

"thank you so much for your purchase and for being a part of r adoption story!"

and was accompanied by several adoption pass along cards.

Awesome!

I love this new generation of pass along cards.

Ours were so ghetto.

Seriously.

The r house couture is having a sale right for free shipping on items for Mother's Day and Birth Mother's Day. If you want to know more about the r house couture click here.

Say Cheese

If he keeps losing teeth at this rate he going to need dentures.