fun with static

These pictures just make me laugh. Sammy is so happy to be with his brother all the time and he loves to do baby things now. He talks sometimes about "when I grow to be 1" because he wants to be a baby again. We watched home movies a while ago and he was so devastated that he had grown up. I feel the same way sometimes. But every stage and age has been absolutely absolutely ABSOLUTELY wonderful with each of these cherubs, and the femme fatale who is not pictured.

Every night when I swaddle Miniman he smiles at me, like, "Thanks Mom, for relieving me of these wildly flailing limbs. Now I can rest. AHHHH." I love it. I laugh every night when he does that. He usually does that then turns his little head to his left, and zones out immediately to sleep. I am always amazed by it! He is the best sleeper we've had, for sure. THANK YOU MINIMAN. What little sanity I cling to I can trace to your sleep habits :).

Actually these little people are all so good. We are SO BLESSED! I cannot believe how wonderful it is to be a parent. Other than the occasional meltdown or 3 hour park visits wherein 1.Mimi practically gets her finger pinched off in a spin around toy and we both (internally me and very externally her) freak out, 2.Sammy smacks his nose on a slide and blood gushes out everwhere, and 3. I get one of my vision migraines where I lose half of my vision for an hour, we do pretty well. (NOTE: Thank you to the dear McKenzie who saved the day there at the park and is a much more prepared and less freakyoutie mom than me, and sorry I didn't tell you Kenz about the migraine but I was having so much fun talking to you). Anyway, Miniman was still a complete angel! So it's nice that they usually take turns going crazy. Usually.

I LOVE this picture. Look at these two! We got to see Fernando's uncles this last week and it gave me another star to steer by as far as brotherly love.

Speaking of love that Sammy has been wooing me lately. It is THE BEST. He tells me to come close and don't say anything, then he puts his little chubby face right in my ear and whispers something wonderful like, "You're beautiful." or, last night, "You're so sweet." HA! It is the BEST! With his little tounge thrust s's and the look on his face afterwards when he's waiting for me to swoon, which I always do...ahhh mi!

The best is that at night when I say goodnight to them Mimi always gives me like a firm, rugged, nearly painful kiss of love to which I'm required to say "Wow!" (Fernie has the same experience and requirement) and when I leave the room and say goodnight every time Sammy says, "You're beautiful, and you're the best mom in the whole white world!"

Miranda tried to correct him but I shushed her because I love it! Then there can be other brown women in his life that he can sweet-talk.

As long as I'm the best white mom he has.

You know you're in Wyoming when...

(Happy St. Patty's, by the way...luck o' the Irish to you!)

We went to visit Fernando's mission greenie and his cute family in Kemmerer, WY. The drive up was gorgeous. I love our country. The Nelsons showed us a WONDERFUL time...including: going shooting!

Even the kids got to shoot a little 22. Sammy was so excited. Miranda was cold and nervous. But they both did it! Strange how I'm proud of them shooting, I know. But Bro. Nelson was so safe and helped them and it was an experience we hadn't even thought of giving them. I like when the kids' horizons expand.
I haven't been to a shooting range since I was probably 14 or something. So, a LONG time ago. But I've always had okay aim in sports (it's the coordination part I lack) and I really, really enjoyed shooting with some handguns. I wish I knew the names of everything. I mean look, I sorta look cool, right? I mean who would ever know that Bro. Nelson had to LOAD my gun FOR ME. Embarassing.

Bro. Nelson was the most perfect trainer and confidence booster. Later I saw him shoot every single target perfecty and I was in awe.

My Peruvian Cowboy

Sammy had great fun but afterwards he was so bummed and kept complaining that we didn't get to shoot any animals. What?! I mean, I've shown him Bambi. Oh well. Men. And the hunters we were hanging out with in Kemmerer are wonderful men, so I don't blame Sammo for thinking they were cool.

The beautiful K&H Nelson family. Thank you so much for your hospitality. WONDERFUL people. It's amazing how a mission can keep blessing you for your whole life.

And since there weren't any pictures of the squish face:

History 101 for Kids: Totally 80's & The Awesome 90's

The other day I was washing dishes, and Miranda came up to me and asked me if I wanted to play. We've become pretty good at accomodating one another...she's figured out how to play around my cleaning, and I've learned how to clean in character.

She wanted to play something having to do with girls who don't want to marry certain guys and I wasn't getting it, I guess. So, to help clarify, she uttered these words which I never expected to hear from my 4 year old in 2010:

"It's like on 'Saved By The Bell'..."

excuse me?

"Saved By The Bell?" I said.
"Daddy and I watched it on TV." So my husband was the culprit. Bless him for introducing our kids to the finer things.

Speaking of introducing these kids to the finer things, I have been wanting to work out more, and I can't figure out how to schedule it with the kids. So I figured, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. I scoured the library one day for a mommy and kids yoga dvd. No luck. But I DID find a "Richard Simmons" exercise video! And I thought, that might be just the thing to hold our attention and get us to enjoy wiggling our waistlines.

I told Fernando what I had found and he forbade us from watching it and told me it would turn our kids into weirdos. Since they're already weirdos and since I think he was just kidding...I think...I busted it out one morning. Of course I prepped the kids as to what we were going to do, and I told them that the leader acts a little funny and has puffy hair. So, they knew what they were getting into. Sortof.

Richard was in a mall when he greeted us, and he and all of his 80's clad friends were excited to exercize with us. Miranda said, "It looks like 'Saved By The Bell'!" and started dancing along. Sammy tried doing a few moves and after about 10.5 seconds said, "I'm done Mommy" and took off. I told Fernando that later and he was proud.

Miranda and I pressed on while Sammy distanced himself from the "puffy hair guy". I finally ended it when Miranda started comparing Richard's exercize friends to people we know. "That looks like Jackie's mommy!" (Names have been changed to protect the innocent.) I could just see her showing up at a family reunion or Church and saying, "Hey, you look like that guy I saw on Richard Simmons!" And, frankly, I was done. Even though Richard told me I could do it and he wanted to hug me.

As a postscript here, I should mention that later that day when we were telling daddy about our adventures, we brought up our encounter with Richard and showed him a few moves. So we've gleaned some sweet moves from the experience at least. And Fernando asked Miranda how it really was, and Miranda said, smiling, "It was pretty lame, Dad." That word, "lame," she has never used before. Fernando gave her a high five.

So, I'd say hubby and I are doing a pretty fair job of teaching our children about the 80's and 90's. Perhaps my next step should be introducing them to this:

Any other suggestions?

heavenly

Sammy says the sweetest prayers.

First of all his voice raises like 2 octaves when he starts to pray. He must associate tiny high voices with reverance.

Then, he prays for us to "be better." I think this started out long ago with Miranda as praying for us to "get better." But I always love to hear it because I need so much help from Heaven to "be better."

Then he prays for awhile for Heavenly Father to help him not to have bad dreams, and not to have a bloody nose.

For the last several weeks every prayer includes, "Bless the people in Haiti." And after my dad's lesson on donating to Haiti a couple of Family Nights ago, he decided he wanted to give money at our church to the Bishop for the people in Haiti. So he gathered up coins and so did Miranda and they both donated around a dollar the last couple of weeks in an envelope for Haiti.

I have loved being a part of their philanthropic spirit which I absolutely believe is a part of childrens' souls. I pointed out Haiti on the news one day and he said, "I'm giving ALL my money to dem." Full of goodness.

The best was the other night, he said "Heavenly Father...he's my favorite guy."

And He's my favorite too...He let me be a mother.

the object of my affection

He's a cute little squish face. He's getting to be a fatty guy.


And he is still getting mauled by his loving loving loving brother. But in this picture he doesn't seem to mind. (sneakily another important member of the family, sippy cup, steals a cameo here)

He's getting so smiley!

We all love him so much! (Even when our look is less than polished. I promise they clean up well.)

But the thing that Miniman seems to be most dedicated to, the thing that has captured his attention for weeks and demands his devotion and even causes me to post this up-the-nose shot of him gazing, completely enamored...

is this:

bwuthers

There may be future moments when you two disagree or even fight.
Maybe you'll have moments when you compare yourselves to one another.
Maybe you're going to go through periods when you have different friends, or interests.

When those times come I'm going to do my best to remind you about these moments.
When you snuggle together and spend all your time in the same places.
How S-man comes to see Miniman the VERY first thing when he wakes up.
That one of his favorite things is to have me wedge Miniman in the recliner so he can sit by him and watch cartoons together.
That S-man would kiss Miniman every 3 minutes, no exaggeration, if I would allow it.

You two are going to be close.
You will have each other's backs.
Boys are tough.
But I know somewhere inside you will always have the love and tenderness towards each other you have now.