The Battle of the Card Stock

By now most of you should have gotten our Christmas letter. Some of you may be wondering why on earth our Christmas letter was printed on card stock. Perhaps you were thinking that we are just really stuck on ourselves and think that our letter is more important then most others that you will receive. Well that might be true...just kidding. To tell this story properly I have to go back, back, back...to June. We live very close to a Postal Copy Center. I needed to make some copies on card stock , so I went in and here is the conversation that I had with the lady.

me: "I would like 25 of these on card stock please."
lady: "On what?"
me: "On card stock."
lady: "What is that?"
me: Stunned silence, then "You know, thicker paper."
lady: "We don't have that."
me: Huh?!

Now fast forward to December. I try to find cute Christmas paper at Walmart, but let's face it, that store is just to big to find anything that you are actually looking for, so I give up and think I will just have them run it off on green paper. I go back to my special Postal Copy Center. I give the man my letter and tell him I would like it run off on green paper. After he gets the copies going, he brings the first one to me. Here is the conversation that I had with him.

me: "This is card stock. I didn't want it on card stock, I just wanted normal paper."
man: Comes over and shakes the edge of the paper as if to prove something to me and says, "This is normal paper."
me: "No, this is card stock."
man: "Do you want me to stop the copier?"
me: "Yes."
man: "I can't. It would mess up all of my other copiers."
me: Huh? What? Why? What just happened here? (This was all said in my head. On my face was just a look of consternation and annoyance.)

So I get home and start trying to stuff envelopes with stupid card stock. The envelopes that came with our Christmas cards required folding the paper over as well as in thirds. Believe me, this is not easy to do with card stock. Well I get about a third of the way done and all of a sudden our Christmas letter is superimposed over someone's exercise schedule. I start flipping through to see if the rest are like this, when about 6 pages down, what should I discover but REGULAR PAPER. So apparently to work at a copy center you do not need to know the difference between regular paper and card stock. In fact, paper is paper...why don't we just stick all the green paper in one stack? Oh well. So if you got your letter on card stock, now you know why. You should feel lucky. Now you can treasure it forever without having to worry so much about it ripping. For those of you who just got normal paper, please do not feel sad. We love you guys too.

Sweet and Sour

Sweet: Last night Eric made up song for each member of the family on the piano. Each one consisted of him playing random notes, and basically singing the family members name over and over again. He would sing one and then say "Now I sing Andrew's song....Andrew, Andrew, Andrew...." You get the idea. We couldn't go upstairs to bed until we each had our song. Yeah, sweet!

Sour: Yesterday morning I got a bowl down for Eric's cereal. It is his favorite bowl. It is brown and shaped like a mitt. Well he sat down, threw the bowl off the table and said, "I not want brown bowl." He said this over and over for about 20 minutes. Finally he got interested in something else and I cleaned up breakfast. Not wanted to start anything, I picked up the bowl and put it back in the cupboard. Eric saw me. He went and got a chair, pushed it over to the counter, climbed onto the counter, got the bowl back out, went and sat back down at his seat, threw the bowl off the table and said, "I not want brown bowl"!!! Um...not so sweet.

The Spirit of Christmas

We had our ward Christmas Party a couple of weeks ago, and they told us to dress in time period clothes. Andrew decided to dress up as a wise man, and we had Eric dress up as a shepherd. They had a program where they acted out the Christmas story from Luke, but the audience was only involved in the singing. Andrew did not understand this, and all night he kept asking us when it was going to be time for him to go and give his present to the baby Jesus. We kept trying to tell him that we weren't involved in the program but it just wasn't sinking in. In his mind, he was a wise man so he needed to give a present to baby Jesus. The way they did the program was they would read from the scriptures, and then whoever they had just read about, e.g. Mary and Joseph, shepherds, etc would make their way to the stable while singing a song. Well when they read about the shepherds Andrew said, "Okay Eric, it's your turn." We kept trying to explain it to him that we weren't in the program, but he wasn't having any of it. He was just so excited in a sweet and innocent way to go up and present his gift. How could I refuse? So when they read the part about the wise men, I walked up with him so that he could set down his present in front of the baby. Luckily the lady who played Mary has a son Andrew's age and she was so gracious, and we got A LOT of "Ahh, isn't that just the sweetest thing you've ever seen" looks on our way back to our seats. I told Reed, this was one of those experiences that made me want to cry, and yet was pretty embarrassing too. I was proud of him. He is such a good boy. I love his innocence.

Last week we chose a name off the Angel Tree and we went to Walmart to get presents for a little boy. On the way there we kept talking about how we were helping this little boy have Christmas and how we were all going to feel warm and fuzzy inside for doing something good. Well after we bought all of the stuff Andrew asked why he didn't feel warm and fuzzy inside. So we tried to explain some ways that he could feel the Spirit. He said he didn't feel any of that, so we told him maybe he would feel it when we dropped off the presents. Well we dropped the presents off the next day, and he asked again why he didn't feel warm and fuzzy. Reed and I really wanted him to feel good about what we had done, so we prayed that he could have good feelings, and be able to recognize the Spirit. So the next day we had FHE. We sang Christmas songs and took turns telling each other some of the things we were most grateful for that Jesus has done for us. Well after we had each had a couple of turns Andrew said, "I feel warm and fuzzy now." That was one of the neatest experiences I have ever had. Reed and I both teared up and told Andrew that he was feeling the Spirit and that we both felt it too. Prayers are answered.

Birthday's!

Andrew and I both recently had birthdays. Mine was first so I will start with it. Andrew is so great. As soon as he woke up he went downstairs and made signs and pictures for me and hung them up all over the house. He got treats out of the pantry and put them by my spot for breakfast. Then he set up different game stations. Here is a list of the different birthday party stations that we had:
1-Bounce the ball into the shoe
2-Pin the feather on the turkey
3-Read the books
4-Read the comics
5-Play with the cars
6-Play with the animals
7-Eat breakfast.
Pretty much it was the coolest birthday party ever.
When Reed got home from work he brought me these beautiful flowers. Sweet!

Andrew turned 5 a couple of days ago. He decided that he wanted to have a friends party this year, so this was our first experience with a friends only party. It was Reed and I versus 1o little kids. It actually went really well. Our neighbor girl told me that it was the funnest party at someone's house that she has ever been too. So there you go. We are totally awesome apparently.

Andrew wanted a Lightning McQueen Cake, and he helped me make it. While he was mixing up the batter with the beaters he said "Hey mom, this looks like your tummy." Anyone who has given birth can probably sympathize with me on this observation by my 5 year old. Unless you were one of those freakishly lucky people who didn't get 10,000 stretch marks. Anyway, lets just say that knocked me down a couple of notches. What I wanted to say was "Hey, you're the one who did this to my stomach, and any spot that you left free of stretch marks, Eric came along and took care of!!!" I didn't though. I just smiled and helped him make an AWESOME cake. By the way, he and Eric are totally worth the loss of my flat stomach.

Also I just have to tell you what Andrew requested for his special birthday dinner. He asked for a peanut butter sandwich, peanut butter pretzels, carrot sticks, mickey mouse cheese, and apple slices. YUM! We love you Andrew.

Larry Boy and Thomas the Train

Eric loves Thomas the Train, so that is what he was for Halloween. Reed and I made his costume on Friday night, and when he woke up the next day and saw it he was so excited. Eric was totally amazed by the Trick-or-Treat thing. When he realized that people were putting candy into his bag, he let out a little whoop of delight and did a jig. It was totally awesome and hilarious. All night he kept telling people that he was Thomas, and then at one of our last houses a lady said, "Are you Thomas?" and Eric replied, "No, I Eric."




For several months now Andrew has wanted to be Larry Boy from VeggieTales for Halloween. For the benefit of those who don't know who this is, I will explain. Larry the Cucumber turns into a superhero, Larry Boy, who has plungers for ears. Well we went to 4 different stores chasing the elusive mini plunger that everyone claimed existed for garbage disposals, but to no avail. So we had to make do with making our own plungers. Not many people knew who Andrew was, but those who did got a huge kick out of it. Also as a fun bonus to his costume, he could whack people just by turning his head quickly.

Andrew's Awesome

If you know Andrew, you know that he gets VERY VERY nervous about change. So we were understandbly terrified about how he would deal with preschool. He started a couple of weeks ago. He was so nervous, but when I went to pick him up that first day he said, "Mom, you came too soon." It really was an answer to prayer.

Also if you know Andrew, you know that when he finds something that he likes he becomes obsessed with it. Well lately he has been absolutely obsessed with big cats, and it has now expanded to all wild animals. Every week he checks out several books about wild animals. Some of them have talked about animals that are endangered. This really concerned Andrew, and he kept asking us what we could do to help the animals. We told him that one thing we could do was make a donation to a foundation that protects animals. So he ran to his room and started dumping out his banks. When I asked him how much he wanted to donate he said, "I can give all of it if the animals need that much." It was so sweet. He ended up donating $10 and Reed and I each matched it. He chose to sponser a tiger. But he wanted to help more animals, so we told him that instead of a birthday present from us we could donate more money. He decided that would be good, so he chose to donate to help the wolves for his birthday. Then he asked if he could do the same thing for one of his Christmas presents. He is such a good boy, and he is a great example to us. Throughout the day, he would just squeal and look at us and say "I helped the animals!"

Fall Fun

Andrew decided that he wanted us to have a really scary decoration for Halloween, so we decided to continue the awesome tradition that I had growing up of making a headless man for the front of the house. Anyone who lived in my neighborhood growing up probably remembers this totally cool tradition. Especially the year that we put the guy on the roof. I can't tell you how many times that thing gave all of us a near heart attack. Anyway, Andrew and Eric had tons of fun making this little fella. Although Andrew says it isn't scary it's just fun.

We went to a farm last week that had lots of fun fall activities. We got "lost" in a corn maze, rode in a corn cob train, rode peddle carts, ran in a hamster wheel, saw pig races, rode horses, and more. We were all very worn out and very sunburned at the end (because mom of the year forgot the sunscreen).


Andrew and Eric at the pig races.


My boys in the hamster wheel.


Me and my boys in the train. It was a tight squeeze. I was very glad when this ride was over and I could unbend my body.

Reed and Eric riding a pedal cart.

Andrew on the pedal carts. He totally knocked a lady over and didn't say sorry because he said he was too shy.

It's Easy to be Parent When...

It's easy to be a parent when your babies are sleeping. Reed and I love to check on our boys when they are asleep. They take on a very angelic, fragile look. If we have lost patience with them at all throughout the day, this is when we feel the guilt. As we stare down at them it is hard to remember all the times they made our eyes twitch that day.

What a cutie pie.



So I just decided to ask Eric to say "Look kids", and he did, so I thought I would show how cute it really is.

Sorry about the crazy video shooting, but in my defense I was the chaser. I just wanted you to see how Andrew protects Eric like I wrote about yesterday. Then the other video was just so stinkin' cute that I had to share.

Vacations are Awesome cont.

Andrew and his cousin, Justin, absolutely love each other. They had a sleep over and we found them holding hands when we went to check on them.

Great Grandpa and Great Grandma play the accordian, so they let Andrew and Eric have a turn.
Hopefully this will be the only time we will see our boys behind bars. Me too...I don't think I'm going to suddenly start a life of crime.

There is a totally fun park in Provo with swings that go really high. Well Eric just couldn't get pushed high enough. It's funny because 6 months ago 1 foot was high enough for Andrew. Not Eric though. He kept saying "Higher, higher". He got going crazy high. He was going way above our heads. And he didn't want to stop. He was so upset when we made him get off. He'd been swinging for at least 30 minutes. I felt queasy just watching him.

Vacations are Awesome

Eric, Jonas (cousin), and Andrew at Thanksgiving Point


Eric and Reed throwing rocks in Provo River

Andrew and Grandpa taking a short break from throwing rocks in the river.

Eric and Jonas hiding under the stage at the Timp Storytelling Festival. You can tell by their faces that they knew they are doing something that they weren't supposed to do.

Andrew, Eric, and Jonas on a stage at the Timp Storytelling Festival. They put on quite a show for us.

So we went to Utah last month. We had such a great time. Andrew and Eric loved hanging out with their cousins. One of their very favorite things to do was go up Provo Canyon and throw rocks in the river. I'm surprised we didn't make a dam, we threw so many rocks in. Tonight we were eating dinner and Eric randomly started talking about throwing big rocks in the river.

Andrew's other favorite thing was going to BYU campus. He was in heaven. He got a BYU t-shirt that is now his favorite shirt. We went a few days before BYU's first football game. So the day of the game everyone had their BYU flags out. Every time Andrew saw anything that had to do with BYU he would get so excited. So we would hear squeals of joy every few minutes every time we went somewhere.

Random Stuff

So it has been awhile. Here are some random cute photos of our family. Just some quick updates. Eric is still completely obsessed with trains. Especially Thomas the Train. I have to sing him the Thomas the Train song every night before he goes to bed...and that is a long song. In fact we have a whole regimen of songs that I have to sing every night. First I have to sing 2 Dora the Explorer songs, then the Bob the Builder Song, and then the Thomas song. If I try to cut corners and skip a song he always calls me on it. We went to a train museum the other day, and Eric was in heaven. They had a whole bunch of trains lined up that we could walk through, unfortunately there was no A/C and it was sooo hot. Reed and I were miserable, but the boys didn't seem to care.

Lately Eric has been saying "Hey look kids." I don't know where he got it but it is just about the cutest thing that we have ever heard. I wish I could get it on video so that you could hear it. Reed and I enjoy being called kids...especially by our 2 year old!


Andrew and Daddy hiking through the "forest".

Andrew is such a great big brother. He loves Eric and is so protective of him. When we are playing chase he makes sure that Eric is in front of him so that I have to get through him to get to Eric. There are times when he tries to block me and yells, "Run Eric, run." It is pretty heart warming. Today Eric fell down and started to cry. Andrew went running over and gave him a big hug and kiss. They really look out for each other, except for when they want the same toy:).

Andrew's Turn

So Andrew has been saying a lot of cute things lately too. Reed and I have discovered that we are horrible at remembering all of the cute things our boys say, so for everything I write, there are probably 10 more things I've forgotten.

This morning the boys were eating powdered donuts for breakfast. Reed and I were sprawled out on the living room floor because we were still really sleepy. Andrew came in and said, "I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but I spilled white powder all over the kitchen floor."

A few minutes later he asked us about why we were splayed out, and we said " We're just easing into our day." So a couple minutes later Andrew comes over and is in the process of stripping off all of his clothes while performing a little jig. When I asked what on earth he was doing he said "Oh I'm just easing into my day." It was hilarious!

A couple of weeks ago we were outside playing with the next door neighbors, and the mom told me she had a tote of toys for us. While we were going inside she brought them over. In the meantime, her kids had invited Andrew to come to their house until dinner time. As he was going into their house Andrew said, "Mama, will you get a surprise ready for me?"

"Like for dinner?" I asked.

"No, just a surprise for FHE," he said sweetly.

I laughed and said "Okay."

So Eric and I go home and go through this toy tote, so when Andrew got home there were new toys spread all over the toy room. He looked around wide eyed and said with awe and admiration, "Mama, thank you for my surprise. How did you get this surprise ready so fast?"

What can I say, I'm good. Best surprise EVER!!!

Out of the Mouths of Babes

So Eric is talking so much now, he is saying some really cute things. I thought I better write some of them down before I forget them. The other day Eric came into me, pulled up his shirt and said, "belly off?" I said, "No silly, you can't take your belly off," and he just laughed and laughed. So now it is a game. We do it over and over again.

If Eric wants to play chase he comes in and says, "Ga ah me." We don't really get where this one comes from, but he says it with this sly look on his face that is just so stinkin' cute. Then when we take off running after him he screams like a woman. His scream really is blood curdling. If the game lasts a long time and he is getting tired he will stop and say, "lil' rest, lil' rest." Then 5 seconds later "Ga ah me."

Every night when I'm singing him bedtime songs, he tries to sing with me. He doesn't know the words, but he always gets the last sound of each line right. Every once and a while he get a couple words in a row right and he looks so pleased with himself.

Lately when we've been saying prayers, when we are done Eric says "Pray Dada" really urgently. So then we have to say a special prayer for Reed. This repeats for each member of our family. It doesn't matter if we included every one's name in the original prayer, we have to have our own individual prayers. He won't stand for doubling up.

When you ask Eric to point to any body part that is double (i.e. ears, eyes, cheeks) he points to one and says "cheek" then pointing to the other one, "and other cheek". I think he really thinks that one is called "cheek" and one is called "other cheek." So every night he has to have a kiss on "cheek and other cheek". What a cutie pie.

Fun With Cousins or Disturbing Influences?

Missy and her girls were here this past week. We had tons of fun together...but I am wondering if the girls might have been a little too influential on my boys. Friday night all of us girls gave each other pedicures. When Andrew saw our toes on Saturday morning, he had Darcey paint his toes. Later that day he asked me if we could buy some more nail polish so that I could keep painting his nails. Awkward!

Then later they ushered Eric into the kitchen to show me his new hairdo. We were definitely all getting in touch with our feminine sides. I think Reed was a little distressed though. Especially about Andrew's toes. He'll have to help the boys work on their manly grunting and burps just to help even things out again.

It is quite possible that I will have a band practicing in my garage in 10-15 years. Andrew is so into air guitar and singing and making crazy rocker faces. It is hilarious, and sometimes a little frightening. He is a character...he just can't help himself. He dances to the beat of his own drummer. The other day, we were cleaning and listening to U2. Andrew says, "Mama, we need to take a break to walk around looking cool." HA!

Eric's Birthday

So our little Eric turned 2 a couple of weeks ago. It is hard to believe. He has turned into quite a little man. He's taking his 2's very seriously. His fit intensity has increased, his demands have become louder and more frequent, and the phrase, "no mama" is commonly heard coming out of his cute, cherubic mouth. We were outside playing with the neighbors and Eric was having a hard time sharing his truck. Well the neighbor girl asked what Eric's problem was. I tried explaining to her that he is still learning how to share, and how it's a hard lesson to learn...blah, blah, blah. Then Andrew pipes up and says, "He's 2." I thought that was probably the best, most succinct answer possible.

There are some very wonderful things about this age too. Eric is talking more and more everyday, interacting more with Andrew, and grasping more concepts. The other day Andrew was telling Knock Knock jokes, so Eric decided that he would to. Here are a couple that he came up with.

"Knock knock.

Who's there?

Boo.

Boo who? (wild laughter by Eric)"

"Knock knock.

Who's there?

Scoop.

Scoop who?

Scoop Bob. (laughter)"

This joke is referencing Eric favorite show Bob the Builder. His two favorite characters are Bob and Scoop. In fact as soon as he wakes up in the morning he says "Scoop Bob."

Andrew and Eric are getting so cute with each other. Whenever one of them gets hurt, the other one comes over and gives him a big hug. It's extra cute because while Eric is quite a bit shorter then Andrew, their heads are the same size. I don't know why but for some reason that makes it more adorable when they hug.

Eric's favorite things right now are cars and trucks. He plays with them all the time. He has named our two cars "blue car" and "black car". If we go a day without getting to ride in the car, he starts going through withdrawals. The other day Reed and I were getting ready for bed and we heard Eric call out "Blue car" in his sleep. It was totally awesome!

Anyway...we love you Eric. We are so glad you came to our family. You are wonderful!

Flooding

Last week the boys and I were playing and the phone rang. It was a recording telling me there was a tornado watch in our immediate area and to take cover. Ahhhh! We went into the bathroom, and then I thought, "Well how long do we have to stay in here"? Luckily there was never a tornado, but we did wake up to flooding. Our cul-de-sac was fine, but these pictures are just around the corner from us. It was crazy!

10 Years and Still Going Strong

I think we still look this good don't you?

Reed and I have now been married 10 years! Crazy! That has really made us feel old. Missy watched the boys for us for a day. We went to Dinosaur Valley State Park. They have dinosaur footprints in the river. It was really cool. Yes, we are geologists and we are nerdy. We know it.

We spent the night at a hotel, and we were really looking forward to a good night sleep without Eric waking up or Andrew climbing into bed with us. Well, we think that the fates are against us. At about 12:30 a.m. I woke up because it sounded like someone was trying to open our door. Then I hear this obviously very drunk man yelling in the hallway for his friend to let him in. He kept yelling nonsensically, interrupted periodically by him gagging. We laid there for a while wondering why no one had called the front desk. Once he started running up and down the hall knocking on people's doors I decided I would have to call myself. Especially when he knocked on our door. Both our phones were unplugged and I couldn't figure out how to get the stupid things plugged back in, so I was sure he was going to break down the door and kill us. (I was really tired). Luckily Reed got the phones plugged in and they sent up security. And guess what? The guy was on the wrong floor. Shocker! Don't get drunk, it just makes you look like an idiot.

We really did have a lot of fun though. It was just the right amount of time. I couldn't have left the boys for more then 1 day. In fact I almost called the whole thing off within the first 30 minutes because I wasn't sure I could leave them for so long!

Superhero

Yes I know it has been forever since I have posted. I am sorry. There are a couple of things that I am going to post that have happened in the last couple of months though because...well because I want to. The reason I got out of the habit of blogging in the first place was that we had visitors off and on for a couple of months.

We went to the livestock show a while ago. We had lots of fun. They had this little farm where the kids got to pretend to be farmers. They fed fake chickens and got eggs, milked cows, picked fruit, got sheep's wool, and then got to sell everything at the end and pick something out of a store at the end. All the kids thought it was great. Eric was super cute in his little apron. We saw pig races which were totally awesome.

Reed and Andrew are superheros.


Here is Andrew doing a Superhero Song. He wore this same outfit to the grocery store the other day. He insisted on riding on the side of the cart so that "Everyone can see that there is a superhero in the store, mama."

We Now Have 2 Big Boys

So we finally decided to cut the curls off of our little baby. Andrew claimed that he was going to cut Eric's hair, so we told him he could cut off the first curl. Eric did pretty good. He kept looking around trying to figure out what I was doing. When I used the clippers, it tickled so he would tilt his head to the side and scrunch his neck up so much that I couldn't even get to his hair. But we put Cars in and he was fascinated enough to let me finish. He definitely looks like a big boy now.

Talk About Adorable Torture

We went to get our pictures taken last Saturday. Let's just say that our photographer earned her money. Andrew started off good and then he started thinking about it too much. Everytime she asked him to smile he would bite his lower lip. She finally told Andrew that if he did it again she was going to spank him. Well he didn't think that was funny so he was done for.It took Eric about 5 seconds to burst into tears. I began to think that it just wasn't going to work out. Looking back through the pictures though is pretty funny watching Eric's range of emotions. Enjoy!