Sleeping and Cooking :)

This was taken in Nov/Dec. I have always loved to see them sleeping on Damond's chest. That is also one of Damond's favorite things. Unfortunately for him, Alex was never really a cuddler so he hardly ever slept on his chest. This is one of those rare opportunities ( I think he was sick).

Alex is a night owl like me. If we ever let Thomas stay up late, he would usually fall asleep, but Alex will not. He goes and goes and goes till we put him to bed! :)

Thomas (and Alex) love to cook! For Christmas, we took some friends of ours to the Temple lights. I thought it would be fun to make sugar cookies so Thomas could help make and decorate them. hmmm, I hadn't realized that I had never made sugar cookies. I know what you are thinking, (how can you mess up sugar cookies?) :) I didn't really, they just didn't turn out as well as I wanted. And I thought you just use cake frosting for the frosting... nope! That tasted kinda weird. But the kids loved them. and the adults were gracious :)

Car Obsession

As you see Thomas started his car obsession when he was about two years old. He started lining them up and putting them in different configurations. Some of them are quite intricate. (crazy scary side story... but last week he had made a figure with his cars and he said, "mommy look. I made a shoot!" " a what" ( a shoot holding up his index finger and thumb) "oh!" He had made the figure of a gun. Not sure if that's supposed to scare me :) And HE LOVES CARS! ( the characters) They are his bestfriends :) He has tons of them ( I think Damond and I get just as excited over them as he does! ) He loves to watch the movie and move the cars around following the movie. Other times he have them circle up like they are conversing. It is quite cute! The only drawback is that he has become VERY territorial with them. so I sometimes have to hide them if other kids are coming over so he and I don't lose it! He also puts them in traffic jams. It's all very entertaining to watch what he does. We build ramps with our blocks for them or parking spaces. As you see, he even created a car trophy. When he first started, he always had to pack up his cars. He would lug around this huge bag of cars. He sometimes still does it, but I usually convince him to leave it in the car.

Alex, as always is quickly following in his footsteps. I don't think he is as obsessed, though. and Thomas is having to learn how to share his cars... it's hard!

Four Boys!

I have always said I wanted all boys... lately I have been thinking a girl would be REALLY nice (but Damond doesn't agree, because he is scared of girls) j/k I think he would be great with one

I digress... so last fall I started taking care of two little boys. The oldest is a day younger than Thomas and the second is a couple months older than Alex. I was a little worried to have four children under the age of four and four boys.... but it was fine! We had tons of fun :D They loved to play hide and seek, play with the curtains, cars, trains, and we did a lot of music time. There was definitely fighting, but for the most part it was a lot of fun and laughter. I would really try to do fun things with the older boys, but sometimes it was really hard keeping track of the little ones, ( they are both climbers!) while doing a craft with the older ones. Here is an example of the fun we had! Although life is a little easier, we really miss them coming over!

Spaghetti

I took this picture the first time Thomas ate spaghetti by himself. He was about 18 months. He maybe had had it a couple times before this, but maybe not, since Damond really doesn't like spaghetti. But after seeing how much Thomas was enjoying it, I decided, "too bad" for Damond. He was going to have to start liking it again. :) and I think he has.

Alex is about 15 months here and you can tell that he loves it just as much as his brother. Which I am so glad since it is such an easy dinner!

But as you can tell, they need to wear these full protective gear when eating it and then they need to go straight into the tub :)

Random Happenings II

This past weekend we went to Yuma for a this little girls sister's blessing. We had tons of fun... tons of food, tons of games, and tons of family ! It was perfect! These pictures are actually from when we went in Nov. , but they are a good example of what we do when we go down there :)

Aren't these two of the cutest? Ever? I love to watch Thomas and Alex play with their cousins. I look forward to the memories they will have together.

Although I have told Alex he needs to stop growing it seems inevitable. The boys are happy if you give them dirt, water, and or a rock. ( or shell in this case) :)

We sometimes go to the shooting range. I feel that if the boys are going to be around guns, they need to start learning now about handling them properly.

Thomas is holding that can, because he is the official empty shell holder. He loved this part. He quickly learned which shells were worth picking up.

This was Thomas' first time shooting. He loved it! Unfortunately, he didn't love taking turns.

( no surprise there, huh :) )