The Backyard

We're working on putting up a retaining wall in our backyard (and by "we" I mean Jordan and some guys from the ward, I'd so be out there helping, but, you know).

Jonah was in charge of eating donuts. Apparently between the one I gave him, the one he got from Skyler, and the first one that Jordan gave him, he ended up eating three!

Anyway, the wall construction creates a great hill of dirt for the time being that is far cooler than the sandbox.

Maternity Pictures

Perhaps it's due to my Superman obsession

or maybe it's because as a child I hated pink and all things girly

or maybe it's just my love affair with breakfast cereal

Whatever the reason, we'll be welcoming our third little boy very soon.

I just laughed when I saw it on the ultrasound (so far he's just like Skyler, he wanted us to know!) and I've been so excited since. Not to knock on mother/daughter relationships, but I just love the very special relationship a boy has with his mother. I've seen it with my own mom and brothers and I'm so excited to share it with another one of my sons.

Here are some pictures of me and my two-soon-to-be-three boys.

Yes, we've known the gender since week 20, I just spaced putting that bit of information up here for whatever reason.

Tumbling, Dinos, and Band-aids, oh my!

So far this week....

Joy School was at our house. We talked about creativity. One of the definitions that lessons give is simply creating something by yourself. Pretty cool and basic definition, I feel like I can fall into that category! Skyler said I came up with a fun activity for them to do. Little does he know I come up with nothing when it comes to Joy School!

Skyler had tumbling. Jonah gets really excited about going too, since he tends to participate in some things.

Jordan started planting our garden (or was that last week?). Skyler likes going outside to help him. Jonah likes playing in the mud. Jordan also started prepping the yard for the railroad tie retaining wall that he'll start on this weekend.

We went to the Natural History Museum with the cub scouts. The big thing here is the dinosaur bones. We've been once before but Skyler had no desire to check them out and Jonah was too little. Jonah is very into dinos right now, so he loved it. He also thought the fish tank was cool because he loves fishies!

Skyler has started reading. He was frustrated that he couldn't read the words that would pop up on the screen when he played Wii (who says video games are bad?) so he said he wanted to learn to read. We borrowed some readers from a friend who has a daughter in kindergarten and he's starting to get the whole blending thing down (which has been his biggest struggle thus far - he'd just say each letter sound and then move onto the next word without putting the sounds together!)

Skyler pinched his palm in the folding door to the laundry area. It left a mark that was about a half an inch long. This was right before leaving for the museum and he was refusing to go because his hand hurt, so Jordan offered to wrap it up just like he used to wrap his own ankle to play volleyball. Suddenly, all was right in Skyler's world. Despite the fact that he still looks so sad in this picture. He kept it on until after the museum and then happily took it off and hasn't complained about it since.

 

Now on to next week!As soon as this one is over, I guess.

Happy Easter

We've had a fun week doing a few fun Easter things.  Skyler really got into filling the eggs with candy, so we filled way more than we needed.  We also made some little origami baskets to fill with treats and give to Skyler's friends (well, most of then got filled with treats...).  We got together with some friends for an Easter Egg hunt.  One of the other moms made cute little bunny hats, Jonah wouldn't wear it at first, but then I sneaked it on him and he kept it on for awhile.  Skyler didn't want one on until the very end.

On Easter morning, the boys were excited to have their baskets all filled up with sand toys and baby dolls.  The buckets will be sand buckets now that the Easter festivities are done.  Skyler kept saying how smart the Easter Bunny was to bring him a new shovel, and Jonah just kept shoveling jellybeans in his mouth.

Then, there's the traditional Easter family pictures.  I was the only one to sport new clothes.  I asked Skyler if he wanted to go to Target and buy new clothes for Easter (he normally loves to go clothes shopping for himself) and at first he wanted to, but then he changed his mind and said that he didn't need new clothes because he already had a blue tie and a blue shirt to wear.  Okay then.  These are last year's Easter ties, and Skyler probably hasn't worn his since last Easter because he prefers the zipper ties that he can get on by himself.  But, even though the kids didn't have new clothes, we still had to take a picture because we always do!

Skyler decided he was done and tried to leave.  This was unfortunate because Jonah had just decided that he'd stay where we wanted him to.  He was especially excited to look at these pictures, so I think he was escaping not so much because he was bored, but because he thought it would make for a funny picture.

At Conference Time

This is the way church ought to be - two times a year, that is.

During the first weekends of April and October, our church holds a general conference, and through the miracle of modern technology, we can sit at home and watch it on the internet (TV would also be an option if we had the BYU channel, if we lived in an area more heavily populated with Mormons, or if we had the cable that Jordan keeps begging for that would allow us to easily hook up our computer to the TV). 

So after our traditional breakfast of orange scones, we flipped the couch around to face the computer and set the boys up with coloring and activity books.  And there was much reverence during the opening song.  And then there was much chaos.  And much noise. At one point, Jordan brought out a bag of chips, thinking that if Skyler's mouth was busy eating, it couldn't be talking.

I can imagine what is going through my boys' heads.  Skyler sees both mom and dad just sitting there and decides we have nothing else better to do than pay attention to him.  I know that getting him to watch even ten minutes is asking a whole lot considering that a half an hour TV show is all he can handle watching at a time - and that's when it is something he chooses.  We tried to get him to play in his room, he wouldn't have it.  Someday, I know that we won't be able to get him out of his room on conference Sundays.  Jonah sees two jungle gyms - man that boy likes to climb.

So another conference weekend has come and gone. All I can say is at least there is no test immediately afterwards.  I surely would have failed.

Jordan and Alison do Vegas

Jordan flew to Phoenix and then we left the kids with my parents while we went to Las Vegas. So just what do two people who really aren't into gambling or the party scene in general? I'm so glad you asked.

Eat

One could easily drop at $100 a day eating in Las Vegas. Assuming the restaurants are all as good as the one we tried, there's so many good ones! We chose Diego, Rick Bayless' Las Vegas restaurant. He does a show on PBS (Mexico, One Plate at a Time) and generally makes anything sound good.

Aren't the plates cool?

Though, really one could spend under $10 total each day and just eat these hot dogs.

We learned about Slots A Fun's large and cheap hot dogs while watching a PBS documentary on hot dogs. This documentary is easily 10 years old, and when it was made the hot dogs just cost 99 cents. We set off to find the illusive hot dogs and found that inflation had taken over and the dogs now cost $1.99. They are still really big though!

Moral of the story? Let PBS plan your vacation meals.

Look at Cool Stuff and Buildings That Are All Lit Up

That staircase in the top left corner? That's an escalator. The figures in the top center picture? At first we thought they were real people. Then water started coming out of their fingers, so we thought they must be statues. But then we eventually decided they had to be real people. The picture on the top right is the fountain show at the Bellagio. The fountains are set to music. Cool stuff. Las Vegas is full of random shows like this. There is also an erupting volcano that we missed because it is not a punctual erupting volcano.

Look at Animals

There's a lion habitat at the MGM Grand - with people in it! It would have been fun to see the trainers interact with awake lions instead of sleeping ones. There was a little (enclosed) walkway through the habitat and, while we were there, a surprising number of people were enjoying checking out the bottom of the sleeping lions.

At the Flamingo Hotel, you'll find none other than flamingos. And frogs and fish and other birds too.

Go to a Show

We saw Cirque du Soleil's Beatles Love. Good show. We also saw a magician of sorts. Not nearly as good, but it was free, so who cares.

Ride the Monorail

Not as cheap as the bus (and ultimately involved a lot of walking to get through the hotels and to the stations) but lots of fun.

Visit Every Rolex Dealer that Vegas Has to Offer

This particular store that Jordan is standing in front of sells only Rolex and has 600 on display in the store. They have another 1500 in the back and another 2000 downstairs in the vault (correct me if I'm wrong, Jordan). There is much expensive and fun stuff to look at in the all the stores in Las Vegas.

Try the Pool Scene

It seems like all the "in" hotels have either a shopping mall or a cool pool (or both!). Ours took the cool pool route. Jordan enjoyed the hot tub (why am I always pregnant when such opportunities present themselves?) and I enjoyed the lazy river.

So, there you have it. In addition to loosing 25 cents gambling (and wondering how one plays Pai Gao Poker or whatever it was called), that's how we killed time in Las Vegas.

Arizona Trip

The boys and I spent some time in Arizona last week with my family. Here are some pictures from our trip.

We got to go to the Phoenix Zoo.  Everyone knows that the best part of the zoo is examining the map and checking out the squirrels.

Here's Skyler pointing to a frog, he thought this frog was just the coolest.  Both boys really enjoyed the petting zoo area.  Skyler grabbed little brushes for himself and Jonah so they could brush the goats' fur.

I wanted to get a picture of all of us.  Jonah cooperated.  Skyler, not so much.

 

I had a chance to spend some time with my college friends.  A group of girls affectionately known as the "dorm girls".  We went hiking and had lunch together and talked lots.  I think the later is what we do best.  My favorite part was at the restaurant when my favorite Harry Connick, Jr. song came on.  My old roommate Sarah started mouthing the words to me.  Hmmm... I guess I played it once or twice when we lived together.