Twins

Due 17 January.

From the Mouth of Babes

Liam loves church. He loves nursery. He loves pointing to "Papa" Howard sleeping on the stand. He loves Jesus. He loves the temple. Pretty good for a 21 month-old.

Every night when we put him to bed, before we even ask he says "payrsss!" so we all pray together. Then we ask him if he wants to sing a song, and he says "song!" We ask him which song, and he says "Jesus!" Our "Jesus" song catalog consists of "I'm Trying to be Like Jesus," "Jesus Once Was a Little Child," and "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam."

I tried to mix it up the other night and began singing "I am like a star shining brightly..." when I was rudely interrupted with "JESUS!"

Together as a family, we read one column from his own copy Book of Mormon every day. He has one of the older light blue editions with the image of Angel Moroni on the cover. Every morning he gets his Book of Mormon from the shelf, says "Mo-no-ni" and gives it hugs. Lately he has started repeating some of the words that we say as we read. He usually picks out the words he knows like "water" or "tent," but he also says words that he doesn't know, usually if they're right before a comma and we pause in our recitation. Our favorite so far is "abomination."

Last week I took him to an art exhibit. We were looking at a painting called "Glimpsing Ponte Vecchio" by Cheryl Butterfield, and he said "Temple! Temple!"


Today we were particularly surprised and pleased and proud of him. Chelsie took him upstairs to get dressed before going on some errands. I was in the kitchen heating up some lunch when I heard "Mike, come quick!" - which means something cute is afoot!

I dashed upstairs to have Chelsie tell me that as they walked into his nursery, he took her over to a Lego sculpture he had designed, then explained to her what it was: "Temple! Temple!" I looked at the sculpture and was so proud of him, especially after Chelsie told me that he had made it all by himself.

I have always had strong feelings, even since before he was born, that he would be a mighty tool in his Lord's hands. When you are responsible to teach a child the ways of the Lord, your whole approach to everything changes, especially to your own scripture study. I study to teach and I study to become an example to my children. Being a parent has helped me immensely because of this incidental growth I am trying to do for the sake of my family.

And then my son comes along and teaches me a lesson about the temple, and Jesus, and singing hymns and saying prayers, and repeating scriptures. I couldn't be a prouder daddy, and I know Chelsie feels the same. He's such a good boy.

Here are pictures of the temple he made:


His inspiration looks like it was Ponte Vecchio a little, doesn't it? :)

I don't feel well...

I always feel like this the day that I have a doctor's appointment. I hate going to the doctor. On the bright side, though, we will find out a due date for our little peanut. My prediction is January 8 ish. We'll stick with the 8th of the month as a good workable due date. Liam was due on September 8, but was born on September 5. Maybe this one could be a December baby to help boost our tax refund! :) Just kidding... sort of.

Guess I better go... Bah!!

Liam's Big Announcement

Mommy helped Liam make a self-descriptive sign. He did the coloring himself. When Mommy would say things like "color the 'B'" and touch the corner of the letter, he would scribble right where she touched. You can see this in a few places on his great work of art.

Liam is very excited to become a big brother. Okay, not really. He has no idea what it means. But he kisses the baby all of the time, and helps us remember where it is by pointing to Mommy's belly and saying "baby!" He forgets sometimes though, like when we're all playing and he decides to jump on Mommy.

Here is a picture of the two of us that I really like. I'm not sure what the metal object is that he's holding, though. Stapler?

Summer... for real?!

Liam is napping this beautiful day away. I think I will go wake him as soon as I click "publish post" so we can go run around in the wonderful sunlight. I found these pictures that I haven't blogged about yet, so here you go. The first batch is of my awesome garden!

On May 20 my garden containers looked like this:

peas

red potatoes, spinach, yellow onions

broccoli, green onions

2 types of tomatoes, bell peppers, and carrots

And today they look like this:

peas

birds- eye view- they're getting kinda crazy! It's a bush variety that supposedly doesn't need trellising. Anybody use this kind and is that true?

yellow onions, spinach, red potatoes

red potatoes, spinach, yellow onions, broccoli, green onions

broccoli, green onions, tomatoes, peppers, carrots

And, here is my indoor garden:

salad greens and cherry tomatoes

And, here is my favorite little sprout on May 20:

Mother's Day

Chelsie seems to always go out of town on Mother's Day. That's good for her mom, because "out of town" usually means Pocatello, unless I'm with her, then it also means Salt Lake City.

Again, I found myself alone for a couple of days with nothing to do. Chelsie wanted a new dining room floor, so I got some help and we did this:








Happy Mother's Day, Chelsie. I love you.

My cute boy

I just found these pictures from a couple of weeks ago that I haven't blogged about yet. This first set was taken right after Liam's nap. The sun was shining and it was a wonderful day to eat orange slices out on the deck. He still has tired eyes, but I think these are just about as cute as ever!



Most every time I take a picture of him lately, Liam runs over (usually before the picture is complete) and wants to see it on the screen. Then he tries to steal the camera to take pictures by himself. Well, this was one of those times and I decided to let him help me take a picture. Then, magic happened! I said, "can I have a kiss?" and snapped the picture right as he leaned in. Aww! I love my little crazy kid!


A cute family in our ward put together an Easter party for the kids. We colored eggs, the kids made Easter nests, they had a pinata and some other games, and we all brought food to share. It was a lovely time and I thought, for sure, Liam would love to participate in all of the festivities. Not so... well, not as much as he liked driving around in this car. I am pretty sure we're going to need to get him one of these because he spent probably an hour and a half playing. Perhaps next year he'll be a little more social.






The photo finish of the egg race...


On Saturday, the day before Easter, we went with some friends to an Easter egg hunt at a local park. The Easter Bunny came in on a helicopter, which was probably Liam's favorite part. He loves anything that flies in the air.


He was not as excited to actually meet the Easter Bunny. And, he didn't get even one egg during his hunt. The parents weren't supposed to go inside the area, but two seconds in they all were there trying to scoop up the eggs for their child. Liam was annoyed, I think, because he stood there just staring at all of the people and threw his basket down in disgust. We had a hunt later with just a few kids and he loved finding eggs- and, especially, eating the candy inside.

Easter Sunday was fun and busy, as Sundays usually are. Mike had to go to early meetings and left even before Liam woke up. The Easter Bunny had, at some point, delievered some baskets filled with candy, toys, and other goodies.



Liam wore his cute new Easter outfit for church, we combed his hair like a big boy, and we went off to sing praises and to worship our Savior at church. I love Easter. I love the gospel. I love my family. I love my life!