Happy Thanksgiving

So I know this is WAY late. But hey better late than never right. So this thanksgiving I did the turkey for the very first time! I was sooo scared but in the end it all came out great! We had a crap load of food. But it was all yummy Erik was the biggest oink I have ever seen and ate enough for a 5yr old and AJ was still his very picky self and hardly ate anything. I am happy to say that I stuck to my diet and did not eat too much:) Yay me.

Some things I was thankful for this year were:

That I have the gospel in my life

I have Arli I do not know what I would do with out him sometimes

For AJ he is the sweetest little boy and is so happy and funny I am so blessed to be his mother

For Erik, he is such a handful but his spirit is so strong that I can not explain. He is always happy. I can count on 1 hand how many times he has been something other than happy. I am proud & blessed to be his Mommy.

For my family and friends.

That my Dad is safe and will be coming home from overseas sometime in January

I could go on and on, but do not have the time.

But one last thing I am thankful for is....I am not pregnant! Even though some of my good friends do know how much I do want another one after dealing with both boys I realize I want to wait awhile. Arli and I are going to start trying in October of 2010.

Me and my turkey! And my lovely turkey apron

Erik and his new favorite food...deviled eggs. I love how you can see how full his cheeks are.

Just a good shot of Kenton I thought I would add in

Everyone ready to eat. And all of the food we had

Crazy Boys

So awhile back after nap time I heard Erik crying so I went into get him and this is what I found. AJ in Erik's bed jumping up and down and having a good old time(with out his pants on to boot) while Erik was crying his little eyes out. Since then AJ has gotten in trouble many times for doing this because it seems the only time he wants to do this is when Erik is asleep and every single time he jumps on Erik.

In the dog house

We went over to my good friend Kim's house and she has a chocolate lab who of course has a big dog cage. Well AJ loved the dog cage so much that he wanted to stay in there.

Saying good bye to crush

So in the beginning of November Arli and I came to the conclusion that the family pet Crush our desert tortoise had to go. AJ, who we thought was scared of the thing, was actually tormenting him. He would try and move Crush and would not do it softly and would toss him across his house. I think AJ ended up getting bit by Crush. Then the whole issue with the heat lamp. I would turn it on in the morning and when the boys went in for a nap AJ would take it off. So that was a big safety hazard. So we gave him to my good friend who has 7 kids and a whole bunch of other pets so I know he will be well taken care of. Plus we can go visit him when ever we want.

This is how I found out that AJ was throwing Crush

I like this pic a lot because my friends boys are 3 and 4 but if you look at them compared to AJ he is the same size as her 4yr old.

AJ(2 1/2), Carson (3) and Jake (4)

Family Visit

So these 2 visits were both surprozes but also about a month apart. But since I have been busy and very behind on my blog I figured I would combine them and make my life a little eaiser. So in the middle of November we got the wonderful surprize of my cousin and his wife coming out here for both buisness and pleasure. So of course we had to get together. It was so fun to see them as I have not seen them for about 10yrs and neither of them had met Arli.

The next visit was just as good of a surprize but my Aunt Jo came out here from Indiana from Indiana and so my Aunt Rosie who lives in Arizona came in to town to see Jo too. I have no seen Aunt Jo for a very long time so it was so fun to see her. We had a blast just catching up and shareing stories and mostly talking about sewing as we all love to sew.

Calling all moms

I need a little bit of advice from my mom friends. AJ is getting out of control! And I need some help to try and fix it. I knew mother hood was hard but never expected this. I just do not know what to do anymore. We have tried talking with him and explaining what he has done wrong, timeouts, spanking and everything else you can think of. But it just keeps getting worse. He does not listen to a thing I say, he now hits and kicks and has even pulled my hair and threw off my glasses. He dumps his food on the ground no matter what it is, he also does this with drink. He runs into the street and if he does not stop he will end up getting hurt. I mean I know 2yr olds are supposed to push buttons to see what they can get away with. But I just do not know what to do. I think a lot of his tantrums are because he does not know how to talk and express himself. But we are going to speech therapy next month. But until then I do not know what to do. Like I said I have tried everything I can think of to get him to stop and nothing has worked.

So if you mommas have any other ideas on what I can do please let me know cause I am about to loose it. And this adorable smile can not get away with anything anymore. (Just so you know he only got away with stuff like playing in the drawers in the bathroom and empting the t.p. roll when he was under 18mo old)

Erik is 14mo!

Today Erik is 14mo old. I know to most people this is not too much of a milestone. But it is a very big milestone for our family. As most of you know Joslynn passed away at 14mo well 1wk before she was 14mo. So to have another child make it this far and every day after this is very important to us. Here is a little fun stuff about Erik that you may not know. He loves everything he is always so happy, he is also like a vacuum if there is any food insight he will suck it up and sometimes not even chew it. He is so more advance than Joslynn and AJ was at this age, he already knows about 5words, can clap and wave and can give kisses and there are even certain toys that he knows how to do that Joslynn did not learn and AJ learned at around 18mo. He also has this overwhelming fascination with emptying the pantry, cabinets of tuppwerware and his newest one the toilet! Him and AJ even tag teamed me yesterday while I was cleaning and Erik somehow was in the toilet. It was a good thing I had just cleaned it the day before but still gross he had a long bath afterwards. When he was born I remember that Arli was worried about him passing than he was about AJ. Don't get me wrong he was really worried about AJ too. But Erik looked and still looks alot like Joslynn. So it was almost like he was worried that he looked so much like her it would happen to him too. Thankfully it has not happened. And I think that it will not happen. He is such a joy to have in our lives. I could not imagine our family with out him. He brings so much happiness to this house and to see him and AJ play and bond together as brothers is the best thing in the world.

Halloween Night

This Halloween was both funny and sad. The sad part was that halloween day Erik started getting a fever and by 6pm it was up to 101.7. So it kinda stinks that he had to stay home this year I know he would have just loved it. But I guess there are a lot more Halloweens to come. AJ was so funny this year. He kept thinking everyone was going to steal his candy rather than give him candy so every trunk e went up to he would kick and scream and say "mine, mine, mine". Going through the neighbor hood was a little better because he was in his stroller. But there was only 1 or 2 houses on each street we went down that handed out treats.

AJ and Nana

His cheesey face

A very tired Buzz Lightyear and Hannah Montana

This is poor little Erik he was so sick for a few days and still is just not as bad. All he wanted to do for 2 days was snuggle and lay there with you. Which is so not like him. He is always on the go and hardly ever wants to be held let alone snuggle.

Halloween block party

We went to a friend in the wards neighborhood Halloween block party where you were to come dressed up and if you wanted you could make a treat to bring. Well I could not decided whether to bring boilin cauldron cupcakes or blood clot brain cupcakes so I made both. Let me just tell you that that day was a rough day. I made 4 dozen cupcakes and did my normal stuff and all with the added help of my friends little girl who I was babysitting for. While I was looking online for the icing recipe for one set of cupcakes AJ had the lovely idea of giving Erik 10, yes 10 cupcakes! Which Erik of course enjoyed. Thankfully none of the cupcakes were iced yet so it was not a huge mess.

This is what I came out to find.

I love how AJ grabbed all of the ones on the edge.
My blood clot brain cupcakes. They even had raspberry jam in the middle

My boilin cauldron cupcakes. I liked these better than the other ones, and they took 2nd place this year.

Here is just a cute picture I took of AJ while we were there. He went as Buzz Lightyear for Halloween this year and I guess he really wanted to be like Buzz. I caught him with this cone on his head and for those of you don't know in Toy Story 2 Buzz Lightyear and the gang has to walk across the street to go rescue Woody. To get across they hide under the traffic cones.

Carving Mickey

Arli found these really cute Disney carving kits at Walgreens. So this year, and for the next few years, we will be carving Disney characters. This year AJ chose Mickey Mouse. And just like last year AJ did not like helping clean the pumpkin. Erik on the other hand loved it. The only bad thing was he wanted to eat anything he pulled out. Which would have been fine since it is edible but still gross.

But Mom this is icky!

I guess I will get it out

MMMM....I found something to eat.

AJ and Mickey he kept giving him kisses.

All lit up.

Springs Preserve Haunted Harvest

This year we decided to take the boys to the springs preserves haunted harvest. It really was not that much fun for us. I mean you trick or treated in springs preserve. But since it was dark you could not see any animals and the hay ride they have was sold out. There were games you could do in the middle of everything, but my boys do not get that yet. The boys did have fun and that is the main part. They especially loved the candy they got. But next year I think we will just go to a pumpkin patch. I did not get too many pictures because the place was packed and trying to stop and take pictures was so hectic to do. So here is my 1 semi good shot from the whole trip.

On the way home we stopped at Starbucks for Arli and I got one of their vanilla bean frapachinnos. Since AJ has had this before (just a sip or two) I let him have the rest which was only a few sips. Well he has a tendency of leaving his sippy cups or any cups where Erik can get them. So of course Erik got my starbucks. I just love his face in the picture.

Halloween Part 1

My good friend Camille invited us to go to her daughters school carnival a few nights before Halloween. It was super fun and everyone was supposed to wear their costumes. We were not able to stay very long which was good because AJ did not want to stay by me and Erik did not want to be in the stroller. Plus AJ did not really understand all of the games that were going on. He did however love the cake walk. He did not quite understand it but loved walking around and around. He even won us a dozen cupcakes.

Getting ready at my friends house.

My Buzz Lightyear and skeleton

Doing the cake walk for like the 3rd time

This is the only other game he played and it was so funny because he would only use 1 bean bag the whole time.

A whole lotta tents!

So lately AJ has been in LOVE with making tents. I have to make a tent almost everyday in our living room. When he wants one he will even come up to you with any blanket and put it over his head and hold out his arms. I think we are going to have to buy some tents and tunnels for him for christmas.

Crazy Little Sleepers

I do not know about everyone else's kids, but my boys can fall asleep just about anywhere in just about any position. But lately they have been getting funny.

For instance:
Lunch time I know he is still in his jammers, but they are buzz jammers and he will not take them off for anything.

Just during the day

Tonight at dinner


I have no clue how he could sleep that way.

And my personal favorite, he fell asleep with the pizza in hand.

Extended Rear Facing

Here is a picture of Erik rear facing and a link to the video in the post below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvyIv9QVRBE

Rear facing is safer

I have debated for a while on if I should post about this or not but since I keep getting comments from strangers and from people I know I decided I would. As this is something that I think more people should know about. I just recently found out about it myself. What I am talking about is Extended Rear Facing. It is basically keeping your infant rear facing after they turn 1. We are doing this with Erik because 1) after loosing Joslynn we try everything to prevent that from happening again, and 2) after watching the video on this we thought it was in the best thing to do for Erik and our future kids.

Cookies!

So a few weeks ago I watched my friends daughter since it was staff day at school. I decided we could make some cookies and decorate them. I let AJ help for the 1st time and he had a blast. It was so funny he would icing a cookie and then he would eat it right away instead of moving onto the next one. By the time we were done with the cookies he was done with icing them. He just wanted the icing.

mmm this is good.

Savannah decorating cookies

AJ decorating cookies

This is better mom!