Dinosaur Museum

Bode saw this dinosaur on the Museum of Ancient Life building the other week while driving on the highway and was SO excited about it! It made me realize that we haven’t taken him to see it since he started the dinosaur craze. We decided we needed to go!

He was upset I was taking a picture, but he was super excited to go inside. (He picked out his outfit this day in case anyone was wondering… at first I thought he looked crazy, but it grew on me through out the night!)

Since it was Monday night, they had a bunch of tables set up for family night. One of them was coloring a dinosaur tooth. It looked like plaster hardened into a tooth mold. I thought Bode would be in love, but he wanted NOTHING to do with it. Some little girl was trying to grab his dinosaur away and he was mad about that, and he didn’t want the tooth. I tried to have him color it like the other kids, but he was mad about coloring it. I finally grabbed a color and started to color the dumb thing myself. Bode flipped out and immediately tried to lick his finger and get the color off. He’s such a funny kid. I had to take him aside and remind him we were there to have fun and if he wasn’t going to stop with the bad attitude that we would go home. He did cheer up a bit.

I got him to wear it for a little while. This is the only picture of him wearing it… and you can’t see it very well.

Clint was going to meet us there, but he was running a bit late. He had the stroller in his car and so I had to lug Owen around until he was able to show up. That kid is so heavy these days!!! Especially with the car seat. We started going through the museum and Bode wanted nothing to do with the discovery room, the star room, or anything else before the actual dinosaur fossils. Once Clint got there we had to double back and Bode was a little more excited to go through the star room the second time around.

Clint had to give him another reminder that we were there to have fun. That kid.

He did start having fun thank heavens! He loved looking at all the fossils and big dinosaurs. We went over some of the names and he’s been having fun identifying some of his dinosaur toys since we got home.

Poor Owen has had a little cold but he was such a good little thing.

Bode loved seeing all the exhibits, especially the ones with plastic dinos in them. He wanted to get more dinosaur toys so badly.

I think the water sand part was his favorite. He loved playing in it. Clint was appalled at how this could be a real activity for a kid and thought it was nothing but a big mess maker. He cracks me up sometimes.

He did lighten up a bit and actually ended up playing with Bode in it. I wouldn’t even do that.

Next up was digging for fossils. If Clint thought the previous activity was going to be messy… he was in for an even bigger mess!

He had a great time! We kept telling him not to throw the sand, but of course he didn’t listen.

Poor thing got it in his eyes. :(

Bode was having a bad case of plumbers crack. Clint had to get a picture of it. He kept telling me to pull up Bode’s pants because he didn’t want sand in his bum. Bode ended up sitting down shortly after and … yep! Sandy bum crack. Gross.

Clint was playing with Owen. It was pretty cute. :) He’s just as grumpy as Bode when I try to take pictures of him, so I’m glad I got this one without him knowing.

Last part of the night was the toy shop! Bode was in dinosaur HEAVEN. I ran into my friend Ashley who was there with her cute family. While we chit chatted, Clint took Bode to the gift shop. Once I got done talking and met up with them in there Clint told Bode that he couldn’t get any toys. He was really wanting one, but surprisingly he was ok with it. I would have totally gotten him one!

It was so funny because we kept telling him it was time to go and he kept telling us, “Wait! I gotta show you something!”

It was a pretty fun night out! I was glad to be able to do anything as a family really. We’ve all been sick for SOOOO long, it’s nice to rejoin life outside the house. :)

5 Months Old

Owen is the best baby around! He is such a joy in our home and we all love him to pieces. He’s very calm and sweet natured. He barely ever fusses and is so easily entertained. Here are a few things I want to remember about my sweet baby boy.

• He wears size 1-2 diapers.
• He wears 3-6 month clothes.
• He squeals with pure happiness when it’s time to eat. Funniest thing ever!
• He stares anyone down who is eating.
• He loves to eat baby food.
• He acts jealous when everyone eats but him.
• He naps in the crib in Bode’s room and sleeps in the pack n’ play in the hallway bathroom at night.
• He is a GREAT napper. Most days, I lay him down in the crib and he talks to himself for a few minutes and goes right to bed for an hour or two. He wakes up talking to himself as well, which is so cute.
• Some days he has a hard time falling asleep and I’m happy that he will let me rock him to sleep.
• He sleeps 10-12 hours each night, waking up 2-3 times to eat.
• Still rolls all over the house.
• Sleeps on his tummy. (Just like his older brother around this age.)
• Drools all over.
• Puts everything right into his mouth.
• Still won’t take a binky (I’m done trying because he does great without one.)
• Still won’t take a bottle.
• Loves to take showers/baths.
• Loves to interact and play games.
• Loves watching Bode.
• Sings all the time.

Isn’t he adorable? I can’t imagine a life without my Owen.

28 Years Old

I am in total redecorate the house mode, so on my birthday I shopped all morning for curtains. I ended up getting table runners for my long windows by my back door, and table cloths to use as curtains for my living room. It’s hard to see.. but here are the ones I got.

The table runners were too short so I had to sew a few together, and I also cut the curtain in half and sewed that together. I hate to sew. What a way to spend my afternoon!

Clint came home from work early with these. <3 him.

Then spent a little time putting up the curtain rods for me. (I tried myself and stripped a screw in like a minute flat.) Those frames are my newest craft project. There used to be ugly flower prints in each one and the inner frame was gold. Now they are pictures of my boys being cute. An ugly mirror/candlesticks used to be in that space.

We went to Clint’s indoor soccer game that night. The boys had fun. :)

The next morning (Friday.. which Clint had off work..)  Clint and I painted the kitchen. (I’d been wanting to do this for years.) We are both still sick and we were worse over my birthday. Bode was having fun with the toilet paper we brought down to blow our noses.. as you can see in the picture below. :)

And then Saturday we spent the whole day shopping for a new mattress and a new kitchen table. Both were successes. Bode loved playing around in the mattress store, helping us try out all the different beds. He really liked the sales guy, Barry. We were shocked how cute he was being with him! He normally hates strangers and acts really rude.  The table had a few minor scratches on it so we paid less than half the price. Woo hoo. I was happy to find one we loved with a bench.  We left the house around 11am and got home around 7pm. What a long day! The boys did so great. (Including Clint who hates to shop.) And that is my birthday weekend!

I also bought some clothes for myself! It’s nice to be able to buy pre pregnancy sized jeans. :) Was I spoiled this year or what???? And Clint was feeling guilty he didn’t get me an iPhone (which was a ridiculous price since we aren’t eligible for an upgrade…) Between Christmas this year and my birthday I am one lucky girl.

I love my life and I love my little family. I’m happy to say that I’m starting to love my house too. We have much more to get done, but so far so good. :) Turning 28 isn’t so bad after all. I’m excited for what the next year will bring!

Dinos on Doors

Bode went through a phase where he put a dinosaur on every door knob in the house. It lasted about a week and I’m kind of sad it’s over. I’m glad I snapped a few pictures to remember it. :)

Bode

I love love love Bode to death, but the boy has serious OCD tendencies. He’s very particular about .. basically everything! I know that some of it comes with being three, but  I wonder some days…

• He hates when my hair is up or my bangs are back. He immediately tells me to put my hair down.
• His clothes have to go on JUST right. I’m talking about his underwear, socks, pants, shirts.. everything. If something isn’t quite right I have to pretend to move it all around and “fix” it or he freaks out. Also, he refuses to wear half his wardrobe for whatever the reason of why it can’t be fixed. Clint can make him wear stuff, but I’m not usually up for the fight and just let him choose. He is getting a little better with it though.
• He is very picky about how he goes in his car seat and how tight the buckles are.
• He changes his mind every so often about what his favorite toy is. For the longest time it’s been his red “mosa-raptor.” If you even pretend to touch whatever the favorite is he freaks out.
• His bites of food can NOT be too big. He will immediately say, “Do not feed me too much.” There is also no hiding food he doesn’t want to eat with food he will eat. He always knows! Just today we were at Chipotle and one little piece of corn got mixed in with the rice and he knew right away and was able to spit out JUST that corn.
• He hates chocolate milk, cow’s milk, and most juices. He will drink the raging waters Capri suns and sometimes apple juice, but he always prefers soy milk.
• He likes to sleep with all three of his blankets, and refuses to have any covers on him. If he’s freezing and I sneak in there and put them on he always wakes right up and says, “No covers!!!! Ok mom?”
• He flips out if his bedroom door is closed. For all his naps and bedtimes it has to be wide open. I don’t know how on earth he sleeps being able to hear what’s going on in the house, but if I try and close it he always wakes up bawling crying telling me to please keep the door open. Not small open… big open aka.. all the way. I try to muffle sounds with white noise. He sleeps with a humidifier on and most nights we turn the bathroom fans on. It’s like white noise city upstairs. My neighbors wonder why I can never hear when people knock if I am up there!
• He does not like me singing in the car. Or if the music is too loud.
• When I am the passenger in the car and I put my hand up on the little handle at the top he tells me to please put it down.
• He’s very particular about the way his teeth are brushed. It always has to end with us brushing the fronts of both top and bottom at the same time and then his tongue. In that order.
• He does not like going by any kind of nick name and will bark back, “I’m not ______. I’m Bode!” It’s really funny because he calls Owen fella or buster all the time. He also calls Clint and I babe or hun.
• His night light is a fish scene that projects onto his ceiling. It has to be in the exact same spot every night, which is almost touching the side of where the wall and ceiling meet.
• He always has to pick what sippy, plate, and utensil he will use. He hates cups! It’s only very recently that he will even drink out of one. And just water.
• He has this really bad habit of demanding people repeat what he says. For example he will say, “Mom! Look over there!!! It’s a cow!” I’ll say, “ Yeah Bode I see it.” He’ll repeat himself and say, “But mom.. it’s a COW.” I’m like, “Yep hun. I see that.” This can go on and on and on until I say, “Yeah I see that COW.” It’s very frustrating because he will do this for everything. I am working with him really hard to help him understand that people don’t have to repeat him. When he gets upset because I don’t repeat him, or Clint doesn’t repeat him I remind him that he doesn’t need to make people say things. He kind of understands and so now he’ll say, “Just me says it mom?” I’m like, “Yep! Just you.”
• Every day that he has preschool I will ask him what he learned about. Every time he says, “D D D D DDDDDDDinosaur! I’m pretty sure he learned about the letter D months ago. They are now on the letter O.
• I have a really hard time teaching him anything because he argues with me about everything. It took him a while to learn colors because I would say oh that’s green! He would be like no that’s blue. I could not convince him what right colors were! Same goes for songs. He will listen to me sing and then one day out of the blue he will sing a song, but if I try and help him along and tell him the words he will automatically tell me to stop it.
• He likes to pray without any sort of help. Everyone has to be folding their arms too, including Owen.
• He can get very grumpy and cross with people. Always strangers, and sometimes even people he knows and is comfortable around. We have to tell him all of the time to be happy and just have fun.
• Clint will try and be playful with him and he just freaks out that dad is being mean, or hurting him, or touching his stuff. I remind him that we are all just having a good time and to try to have fun. Clint will give in and be like ok fine! No playing…. let’s just get you in bed. He then realizes he’s ready to have fun and is TONS of fun!
• He gets a bad attitude about a lot of stuff and will bark orders at me. I make him repeat everything until his voice sounds nice. It’s so funny because he can get so mad at me! He’ll demand, “Get me milk!” I’ll say, “Bode. That was not very nice. Can you say it nice.” So then he’ll say, “PLEASE get me milk.” – just as grumpy sounding. I will then give him an example of how I would like him to ask for it.. with a super nice sounding voice. He will finally smile really big and say it nicely. I then tell him, “Oh Bode that was so much better! I would love to get you milk.” or whatever it is he wants.
• His favorite phrase is, “I can’t.” It drives me crazy! I have tried to explain to him over and over that he can do anything he sets his mind to. I will ask him to do something like put his toys away. He will then tell me that he can’t. I will tell him that yes, he can. After he gets so upset with me I will grab his hand, walk him over to the toy, physically take his hand down to the toy and make him grasp it, walk him back over to the toy box, and force him to let go. (all while he’s freaking out.) He will be furious the entire time, but I will say, “See! You CAN do it. Great job.”
• He gets to decide what Owen plays with. He is always willing to share his toys with Owen, but only certain toys. And if Owen tries to play with something that is not a toy then Bode takes it away.
• He hates me taking pictures. period. I don’t even ask anything of him. Even if I just get it out he freaks out.
• He is VERY vocal about what he doesn’t like.

If I sat here long enough I could think of more stuff….

He definitely tests my patience and makes me question how I handle certain situations! I just want for him to be happy and carefree in his little 3 year old life and not think everyone is out to cause him some sort of injustice.  I’m always praying asking the Lord to help me know what to do with him.

Bless his heart… he just wants to be the boss of the whole world.

I would love advice if anyone has any!

Hmm…

I finally got around to doing Owen’s silhouette and it looks so strange! Maybe it’s because he has no neck? I hope it doesn’t look funny next to Bode’s. He’s pretty cute even without a neck. This really showcases his perfectly round head. :)

Sick!

I’ve already mentioned that I’ve been sick. For almost 6 weeks. I am feeling a lot better, but I still sound awful and the drainage… Let’s just not go there. I’m pretty sure I had a cough, then turned into a cold, then got shingles on top of that, then it turned into a sinus infection that I’m still recovering from. YUCK. I have never been sick for so long in all my life. It sucks. Clint went out of town this past week for a work conference. He had tons of fun partying it up in Vegas and I was at home dealing with poor, poor Bode who got sick while he was gone. Clint doesn’t go out of town very often, but when he does it’s like our whole world falls apart and something crazy happens!!

(This might be TMI for some.. but I figure most of the 5 people reading this are moms too.. )

Bode started throwing up, and I’m afraid he was having problems at the other end as well. Some times at the same time. My heart went out to him, but oh my goodness .. THE MESS. It’s amazing what you have to do as a mother that you’d probably not believe you would ever do prior to becoming a mother.  :( It started for Bode around 5am and the bathroom in the hall that Bode normally uses was out of commission. That bathroom has turned into Owen’s bedroom and Owen was sound asleep. Bode has a special toilet , and he is scared of normal toilets. I had to hold him the entire ordeal because he thought he’d fall right in. He’s never been that sick all at the same time! He had a cough and a runny nose along with the other stuff. 

He was handling it pretty well and I was really shocked. He just wanted to watch movies ALL day long. I let him. Normally when he’s sick and throwing up he begs to eat or drink something. I hold him off as long as I can, but I usually cave and feed him something small when his tummy is not ready and it starts the whole throwing up all over again. This can last for days. We really have to baby him through this process and he’s always been more sensitive to throwing up than your normal kid out there. This time I was able to explain to him what was wrong and why he couldn’t eat or drink very much. I’m happy to say that he totally understood! He didn’t even whine or cry or tell me how starving he was. Instead, he sipped on Gatorade and cuddled with me all day.  He was saying the cutest things and every time he was ready for another round he would just look up at me and tell me he had to go to the garbage. Once after quite the garbage session he finished up and looked up at me and said, “Hey mom. Can I watch back-yards-igans now.” Not even phased by what he just did. This kid is a trooper!

The dark circles under his eyes are killer! Poor thing. I let him chew on gum all day and that is what he is playing with behind his head. He’s a great gum chewer and always has been, so no worries about him swallowing it. Taking it out to play with it…. obviously is an issue. :)

Hanging out watching the TV with his “mosa-raptor.”

Thank heavens this little one was his happy, smiley self!! I don’t know what I would have done if both boys were that sick at the same time when I was already sick as well. Owen chilled out all day long. He rolled all around, played with his toys, napped effortlessly in his crib, and didn’t cry a bit.

This was day #2 and Bode was feeling much, much better. He still has the cold, but I’m happy that’s all he has. It’s crazy but the hardest part of him being sick is not letting him play with Owen and kiss on him and touch him and share everything with him. It’s like torture on him! Bode munched on rice and toast and crackers all day. He begged me to make cookies, and of course I caved.  Owen was chilling in the middle of the kitchen while Bode and I were making cookies. As soon as they went in the oven Bode had to look at them. He dragged Owen over to the oven so he could take a look as well. They are so cute together. Owen is always looking at Bode, and Bode loves it. He’s so good to his baby brother.

Bode and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, but Clint is super sick now. Owen had a runny nose the other morning, but it went away for now. We have a trip planned for my birthday next week and if we can’t go because someone is sick, I am going to be so sad.

Germs: Leave us alone already.

U-Swirl

I was running errands a while back and decided I needed to get myself a frozen yogurt. Bode was at preschool and Owen was being a perfect little babe, so I figured I might as well enjoy myself. It was one of my first outings in literally weeks since I’d been sick. This place is fairly new and I hadn’t tried it out yet… Let me just say that as soon as I approached the front door and looked in I knew I loved it. The colors are so fun and the whole place is covered in big windows. I knew I HAD to come back with my camera in tow.

I asked my neighbor (who is also into photography) if she would like to come with me. She knew I was sick, but she is the least worried about germs - when compared to my other friends. (Besides me because I am the worst germaphobe of us all.)  We had fun trying to wrangle the kids for some shots. Bode wasn’t into it at all, but once his friend got there he lightened up a little. Owen was happy as ever and he had just gotten shots literally 30 minutes prior. Janae was getting the cutest smiles out of him.

I was still recovering from shingles, I had a bad cold, and I had broken down in tears about something to my sister, Kelli, as I was pulling into the lot. I rarely cry, but this month has NOT been my month and I swear I’ve cried more in the last few weeks than I have in the last year. I was a mess, to say the least. I knew I was feeling like crap, but I have been sick since before Christmas and so I just had to get out of the house!!

I shared some of these on my photography blog, so I’m just copying them on here as well. :)

I think I am addicted to this baby if that is possible. I can’t get enough, seriously.

Since when did my baby #1 get so big?? I just love this punk!

My lovely friend, Janae, took a bunch of pictures for me. Half way through she was like, “Umm.. your smile looks pasted on.” I was not about to get into how I was feeling like crap and all this drama that was going down in my crazy life because I would have probably started bawling again.. sorry Janae!!!

This is Bode’s little friend, Gabe. He was being so cute! It was only after he let me snap these that Bode had to have a turn as well.

Here is cute Elle. She just had to hold Owen! He was pretty tired and ready to be done by now, but I couldn’t tell her no when she asked. He did pretty good for a minute or two. :)

My friend was running a bit late and by the time the boys were over it I had been there 2 hours! AHH!  I was able to take a few pictures for my friend with her camera, but Bode seriously melted down when I kept asking him to get out of the shot and Owen was crying in his car seat. I was so overwhelmed and ready to leave that I barely got to take any shots for her. Not nearly as many as she got for me. I’m sorry if you are reading this! Maybe another time, Banae. (What Bode calls her. :)