Ro-bino-ro-botto-ro-baby

crawling.

drooling.

pat-a-cake-ing.

He's so much work when he's awake,

but I miss him like crazy when he is sleeping.

And that right there is the funniest thing about motherhood.

Birthday Boys

Born 24 years and 8 days apart.

Last night we had our family over to celebrate the birthdays of these two guys.

If you can even imagine how exciting it was for little guy to blow out candles with his dad!

They each had a dessert request. David's had fruit of course, in the form of fruit pizza.

And Zachary kept changing his order daily until he finally arrived on vanilla cake-chocolate icing-blue "Z" on top.

David is 29.

It's an exciting year. He's done a lot in his 20s.

I'm sure he's got a few more things to accomplish in this decade.

Zachary is (almost) 5.

That is a big number.

It makes me happy, (and a little wistful) to think about it.

So for tonight and a few more nights...he's still 4.

:)

A little dose of us.

It was nap time and Zach was the first one up. I was cleaning and he wanted to help. Must have been the way that the sun poked out from behind the week of clouds, or the fact that it was comfortably quiet and nice to be in a room with my first born...just us...again. But I looked over at him, perched on his chair washing dishes at the sink, and my heart surged. Such a great age, he's such a kind-hearted boy. I asked if I could snap his picture when he was done, and darn it, I forgot to turn down the ISO, but I love this one. It's his natural smile, his just woke up sleepy face. Oh my, he will always be my little boy.
***
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Let's switch gears.
I can't make this stuff up.
Last week Zach and Lily came running and screaming into my room,
"Lily just peed a Bambi!" they exclaimed.
"WHaT are you talking about?" I said.
"She peed a Bambi, come here, come here!"
And as I followed them down the hall I mentioned that we didn't even HAVE any Bambi toys.
But sure enough, as I got to their room, there was the pee spot, the perfect little Bambi with four legs, and even a head with small ears. I just stood in the doorway stifling giggles as they jumped around the masterpiece. I told David about it later, and the first thing he said was, "Did you take a picture!?"
Well, um, no. I was too busy cleaning it up.
So he will be excited tonight.
Because it happened again.
Except this time they yelled,
"She peed a turtle!"


And sure enough.
She did.

You know, Lily got an art easel for Christmas because we noticed she loved to draw and color, and seemed to exhibit lots of skill for her age. Little did I know her artful soul would choose to manifest itself in this way.

I'm all for encouraging your children's natural talents, I just hope she decides to change her medium soon.

Real soon.

the following post was brought to you by "36 hours in the car" which actually, was surprisingly enjoyable

We're home after spending a week in Provo. A little business, mostly pleasure.
I haven't been been back since I graduated in 2003. The campus is looking beautiful again (there was a gaping hole when I left) and Kevin gave us a sweet tour of the student athlete building.
Being in Provo just makes me giddy. So many good memories. I will be forever grateful for the impact attending that fine college had (continues to have) on my life. I toured the gallery on the 2nd floor of the new JFSB, and I thought about how wonderful it is that amidst the studying and stress, BYU provides places for enlightenment almost everywhere you look.

Of course I had to take the kids to the Bean Science Museum. That cheesy (some might say creepy) place is so totally awesome. They loved it. Of course.


Zach and Lily are into dinosaurs right now. We watched a 3-d movie in the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point. Miss Lily was cracking me up. She didn't move an INCH once that movie started. She sat there with her glasses on and every so often when a small fish would swim by (the glasses made them look very close) I could see her little hand reach out to try and touch it. Magical.

Mostly, this trip reminded me of all the good people in our lives. Our gracious hosts were Ashley and Kevin, we ate dinner with David's former boss in Midway, and we were able to catch up with our Houston friends who were home for the holidays or have moved back. (thanks Christy for the picture)

Really, I think that is the secret to Provo. At some point you realise it's the people you're with that make it so great.