The sweetest thing...

is when Jackson randomly says, "Mama, you're my best friend." I just wanna squeeze him silly with hugs when he says that to me. He is also VERY into Book of Mormon stories right now. He likes all the fighting and action. :)

His favorite book is a Book of Mormon stories board book we got him. He loves the Alma the Younger story, and also frequently requests that Living Scriptures video as well. I'm not sure why he prefers that one over others, but that is his favorite.

Sam has added a few new words to his vocabulary lately, too. He shakes his little finger and says, "nonono," He walks over and says it to Jackson when he is in time out, he scolds the preschoolers with it, and he even does it when he is getting into something he knows he isn't suposed to get into. Think he has heard that a few times? ;)

Sam's other new word, which we rarely hear, but has been witnessed by GrandMollie, is "Peeeese." He doesn't really know how to use it yet, but hey, at least he can say it, right?

Sam is now a full fledged walker. He can even stand himslef up completely, without pulling himslef up. He is quite speedy now, too. He almost keeps up with the preschoolers running around. He loves to walk around and explore outside.

Today I took him tot he doctor tho because he had two goopy eyes that only seemed to be getting worse with time, and yes, he has a double bacterial eye infection. We got his one year stats while we were there tho. 24 lbs, 29.25 inches long, and 18 in head circumference.

Summer, I love you...

I love the sun, it just cheers me up. I don't even care that it is humid outside and I get sweaty just running errands. It gives me life and energy. If I could, I'd live in molten hot weather all my life, preferably near a beach somewhere, but I'm realistic, so I'll take Texas sumemrs.

I love the excuse to wear less clothes instead of bundling up in thousands of layers to stay warm. I love summer clothes: t-shirts, shorts and flip flops.

I love working out in the heat, and the challenge it presents in extra conditioning.

I love the smells of freshly cut grass, and grilled food wafting through the warm breeze.

I love summer food: fruit, like watermelon and strawberries that are SO good this time of year, and grilled foods: hot dogs, hamburgers, steaks, etc.

I love to get a tan on my skin, and that I get to wear less makeup because of it.

I love outdoor water activities, going to the lake, and trips to Hurricane Harbor. I love to watch my kids laughing in the sprinkler. I love the excuse to play in my swimsuit all day.

I love the inherent laziness and lethary of summer, and yet, the flurry of fun activities that we get to do because we have so much time off.

I love outdoor projects and landscaping and time to do home improvements.

I love camping and hiking and all things outside, even if I get sweaty. I don't care, I like to sweat!!

I'm so excited for my summer break to begin! 8 more days!!

Missionary Conversation

Lately I have been really impressed with Jackson's mental abilities. He is remembering, recalling and understanding so much these days. He randomly tells me and/or Ben the activities of his day, things he liked/didn't like, when kids got in trouble, and what for, and things he learned. He is really turning into a little boy! I love it!

This evening when I put Jackson to bed, we went through our normal bedtime routine of bath, teeth brushing, book reading, and prayer. Tonight, as I tucked him in, I asked him if he wanted to sing a song before bed. He had been singing The Happy Family Primary Song lately and I didn't teach it to him, so I suggested we sing it, but he said, no, he wanted to sing, "I Hope They Call Me On a Mission."

So we sang that instead, and afterward I seized a teachable moment and said, "Do you know what a missionary is?"
"No, " he said.
"Missionaries are teachers, just like I am a teacher, but I teach kids about ABCs and counting, and when you are a missionary, you get to teach people about Heavenly Father and Jesus. Do you want to do that?"
"Yeah!" he said.
"You want to be a missionary?" I asked.
"Yeah, I want to be a missionary and teach my friends."
Very excited and a little proud, I said, "You do? That will make me and Heavenly Father so happy."
Still thinking, he said, "Yeah, I want to be a missionary...and I want to be Frosty the Snowman."

Hmmmph...maybe he doesn't quite understand as much as I thought. :)

Guns, Toddlers, and the Rangers!!

No one ever told me that when you have boys, anything and everything is turned into a gun. Literally. Wrapping paper in our cart at Wal-Mart turned into a lethal weapon and Wal-mart patrons were enemies. A peanut butter sandwich strategically bitten looks similar to a gun and coupled with my favorite *read sarcasm* shooting sound, it's like WWIII in our kitchen. My list goes on and on...play tools = guns, sticks = guns, Tinkertoys = guns, blocks put together juuuust right = guns, sometimes even things that couldn't possibly look at all like a gun, surprisingly will work just fine. I am NOT a fan of this gun phase. Anyone else have experience with this or should I be worried?

I have outlawed gun-play in the preschool with strict consequences, which may seem silly, but public schools are strict on this issue, too, I know, so I am trying to be consistent with what they do. He really didn't get into guns until a new kid started coming to our school who likes to make shooting sounds. Even Sam has started making the popular sound. Should I just throw up my hands and hope the phase passes, or should I continue with the anti-gun-play rule?

Sam is going to be one next week, and he does so much for himself now. He is an excellent walker, almost never falling (unless Jackson pushes him down, which sadly, is frequent), and I even watched him just this week master bending at the waist to pick up a toy and standing back up all without the aid of a nearby table or chair. He says Mama, Dada, claps hooray, and occasionally waves bye-bye, but doesn't say it yet. He can point to the basic parts of my face on a good day, but always knows nose. Lately we have been working on animal names and sounds, but the only one he says upon request is duck, and it comes out "Da" which is just Dada, with only one Da. He loves to play chase and laughs heartily when he is chasing Jack or me or when Daddy is chasing him to tickle him. He also has entered the love for Elmo stage. This is convenient since Jackson loved Elmo, too, and we already have a ton of Elmo gear. He will eat completely on his own, but he is such a picky eater! Jackson woudl anything and everything, so I have struggled with this. His least favorite thing to eat is any kind of meat. I try to hide it in small bites mixed in with applesauce or baby food, but he finds it in his mouth, uses his tongue to hold onto it, swallows the other food, and then spits out the meat. Little stinker!!

This is Sam trying to steal food off of Jackson's tray...so he won't eat his own food, but he'll steal his brothers'!

We have been to two Texas Rangers baseball games this month and took Jackson to both (we got a sitter for Sam). He was really good, especailly considering he was up past bedtime. The second game had fireworks, which, of course, he got super-excited about. Now he walks aroudn the house randomly shouting, "Let's go Rangers...(clap, clap, clap-clap-clap)" or "Let's go, C. JAYYY! (pitcher)" or "GOOOOOO Rangers!!!" I'm glad he is getting excited about sports and I can't wait to watch him play his first game of t-ball. For an almost 3 year old, he is fairly coordinated and athletic. He is a good dribbler, too, so I hope he might find some interest in soccer, but I won't push it.

This is an awesome blog!

If you don't already know about it, check out "Or so she says..." It is the 1/2 owned blog of one of my adolescent friends, Mariel. I just found some really cool DIY mother's day gift ideas on here. If you are looking for something like that, you have got to check it out!

Here is the site:

Spring Celebrations and Surprises

Two 2-year-olds in "jail" (behind the soccer net).

Everyone loves Sam, especially his self-appointed second mom, Sophia. Although you can't tell from his expression, he loves her, too.

Easter bunny glasses!! This isn't the whole group, only about a third of it, but these were the ones willing to pose for the picture.

Best Friends - Sam hates to be separated from Jack and well, Jack mostly likes to have his tag-along brother with him. They even have a special scream they call each other with.

"Hey! I found one!"

"This Easter egg hunt is wearing me out! I gotta take a candy break..." Sam found the biggest (and might I add BEST) egg ever!

I just LOVE these boys!

In the midst of hunting, look what else Jack found!

and here is his reaction...

This is Sam's new favorite thing. Good thing Jackson still loves Elmo, too, because we had moved past the Sesame Street phase, but he will still patiently watch SS with Sam.

Ben put up a tent in the backyard, thinking he'd sleep in it with Jackson last Sat night. That so did not happen...

but they had a blast playing in it after naptime on Sunday!

How does YOUR garden grow?

After 'me n the boys' got home from the gym this morning, I fed them lunch and put them down for naps. They stayed up very late last night since we made a huge family trip to the grocery store, and Sam doesn't believe in sleeping in no matter what time he went to bed, ergo Jackson was awakened early, too. Anyway, long story short (too late for that, huh?), they are both taking super long naps right now.


Ben was outside doing yard work and it was a beautiful day so I joined him to weed my flowerbeds for the first time this year. When I say flowerbeds, I really just mean beds where flowers should go, as I have yet to plant any this year. On that note, flowers are so dang expensive! What if I planted seeds? Does anyone have any experience with that? What types of flower seeds would I likely be most successful with? I tried to plant seeds last year for the preschoolers to have flowers in the Mother's Day flowerpots they made, but it didn't go so well and I ended up buying some flowers and putting them in the pots with some soil. Any tips you have are much appreciated because my flowerbeds are longing for some beautiful color in them, but I just can't afford to fill them all with already grown flowers.


As I was working in my front flower bed, trimming back the dead canna debris to make room for the new shoots, I was thinking about the state of my flower beds and the backyard in general. (We are having a hard time keeping grass in the backyard since 10 preschoolers are stomping on it for over an hour every day.)


I was thinking about the last house I owned and remembering working in the front yard in my flowerbeds, and how when I moved out, how sad I was that I didn't have time to do more landscaping. I had a beautiful little yard with lots of older developed trees and shade. I had a pear tree in the backyard and some very pretty bushes and flowers in the front beds. My old yard had such potential to be a place of beauty and peace with just a little cultivation, but the marriage deteriorated and I moved out of the house and lost the yard.


As I was reflecting on that and ripping out and trimming back dead debris from my current yard, I noted how quickly things can deteriorate in life if they are not nourished. I was making the comparison (and bear with me cuz I'm no green thumb) that our lives are a lot like plants and flowers. My previous marrige was not rooted in the gospel, and so it had no solid foundation and no continuous nourishment from good things to help it grow and flourish. It started with so much potential, but wilted fast without getting what it needed to sustain life.

This analogy can apply currently as well. Sometimes we get so busy with life that we let obstacles hinder us from stretching up towards the sun's nourishing light. Other times, unimportant objects can blow into our flower beds and trash it up or we neglect to weed our flowerbeds and the focus on the beauty of the garden as a whole (eternal perpsective) is lost. If we don't make time to constantly clear those things out, so that our nourishment can be constant, we will begin to wilt as well.

Anyway, just seem deep Colleen thoughts I thought I'd share. I like to try to make everything an analogy. I don't know why, but it helps me understand things better, I guess.