Ukrainian baby – all the way

Last week, our very fun friends invited us over for an international treat. Heath served his mission in Russia and I served in Ukraine (which used to be a part of the USSR) so we just couldn’t miss the opportunity to cook up some ethnic cuisine. Yummy borsch

Holubtsi (which is just cabbage rolls)

Heath made some plemeni and then we had some delicious chocolate cake (which was not Russian, but who cares because it was so delicious!) and pechivo (cookies) for dessert.

After all that good food, what could make the night any better? How about some good dancin’!

A couple goofy boys and some cute girls

Dallin showing off some awesome b-boy skills

A few adorable little ones and really good friends

Notice my Ukrainian shirt? It is one of my souvenirs from over there. The detail work is really beautiful.

Thanks so much to everyone for such a great night! It was awesome!

(Thanks Kelly for the picture!!)

A Sad State of Laundry

I had a very busy week.  And sometimes when I am busy, things around the house slip a bit.  Especially things that are not necessarily my favorite thing to do.  Like laundry.  I hadn’t realized how far I had let it go until one night last week I went to get Layton some pajamas and there were none in the drawer.  Trying to think of what to put him in, I turned and saw a bag of old Mandy clothes that I was planning on giving away to our niece.  They were all nice and clean, so I just opened up the bag and pulled out the least girly pj’s I could find.  Really, they weren’t so bad, they only had the tiniest bit of pink.

One day he is going to thank me for all these photos.  I just know it.  It’s going to be on that day when he brings home the girl he plans to marry and I pull out the scrapbook.  He is just going to be SO HAPPY for me to show her this and the many other telling photos that I have.

Just because

I love her and I wanted to share this picture of her:

Do you know what my favorite thing about Mandy is?  She tells me she loves me at least 15 times a day.  Do you know what my second favorite thing about Mandy is?  That most of the time when she tells me she loves me, she pretends that it is secret and comes and whispers it in my ear.  I just love that.  And I just love her.

The Miracle of Modern Medicine

Layton woke up this morning without a fever. That may not sound like much of a miracle to you, but it is a little teeny-tiny miracle for him. Why? Because he has had a low grade fever everyday for last week. Happily though, the antibiotics kicked in to fight the mild ear infection it turns out that he has.

This is him passed out in my arms earlier this week. Like all babies when they are sick, he was so pitiful and clingy. And while that meant that it was extremely difficult for me to get anything done, it also meant I got more snuggles from him in the last week than I have had in a long time. And while I loved that, I think I still love it more when he is being his normal happy inquisitive self.

Thanks!

Dallin is so excited about Christmas and so absolutely positive of his status on the ‘nice’ list that he has already started writing his thank you notes….

Christmas is still 15 days away. Boy do I have some anxious kids! Thank goodness Santa already bought him a football or else Santa would be out buying one today!!!!!!

Who needs a coloring book…

when you have a Dallin.

Dallin created this picture of a ‘clean’ earth and a ‘dirty’ earth for Mandy to color, complete with lines at the bottom for her to write what she loves about the earth.  He then proceeded to replicate it for himself so that they would be coloring the same thing.  You can’t ask for  a better big brother than that!

Wonder

He who can no longer pause to

wonder and stand rapt in awe, is

as good as dead; his eyes are closed.

~Albert Einstein~

We are so often told to become as a little child.  I think one of those reasons is a child’s ability to be in awe of the simplest things.  One of the things that I love most about Dallin is that he is such a deep thinker.  He finds a reason for everything.  For him, everything needs an explanation.  And if one is not readily available, he makes up his own.  He told me the other day that the reason we have families is so that everyone can have someone to take care of them.  Everything is on a grander scale to him.  He doesn’t just draw pictures.  He creates a masterpiece.  Everything has purpose.  His faith in people and in God is sure and unquestioned.  I want to become not like just any child, but very much like him.  And like Mandy with her sincere desire to love and let everyone know that they are loved by her.  And like Layton with his smile that makes everyone around him a little happier when they see it.  I think that maybe the reason we have families is so that parents can learn to become as a little child.

Birthday Party

We celebrated Mandy’s birthday last Saturday at her park. We call it her park because that’s what she calls it! And she does have SOME claim to it in that she has had her party there for her last three birthdays :) She loved it and had a wonderful time.

And what’s not to love about a party surrounded by family and friends,

a princess birthday cake,

lots of presents,

and a nice little walk by the water.

Thanks so much to everyone that came and made Mandy feel so special.

She is our little sweetheart and we are so happy that she had such a wonderful birthday!

To Laugh or Not to Laugh

Nathan: “Why is this dirty diaper on the floor?”

Me: “I must not have thrown it away the last time I changed Layton.”

Short pause.

Me: “Wait, I know it got thrown away because I helped Layton do it himself.”

Long pause.

Warm stream of pee raining down on my toes.

Quick glimpse of a glaring white behind peaking beneath long shirt tails.

Laugh or scream….laugh or scream….laugh or scream….LAUGH

Laughter is definitely the best option when you have pee on your big toe.

He is such a mess! But I love him! Even if I did have to sanitize my toes!

‘Tis the Season

To decorate for Christmas! Have I ever mentioned how much I love Christmas and Christmas decorations. It just makes me happy. Although unlike some people, **cough**Kylia**cough**, I didn’t have my decorations up months in advance. I only put them up this last weekend. But now that they are up, I just love it! And the kids love it to. They helped put everything up and had a blast doing it.

I am so looking forward to driving around looking at Christmas lights! Which, considering how much I love looking at them you would think we would put some on our house. But we don’t, so I just love driving around and looking at everyone else’s. Oh and Christmas songs. I’ve been humming them to myself for weeks now and we’ve been listening to them daily. Non-stop talk about Santa Clause is pretty exciting to. Having little kids around just makes Christmas that much better!