Andrew's Big Day!

Andrew graduated from preschool last week. I figure if he looks this cute in cap and gown in 13 years, we will have to beat the girls away with a stick! He is a crazy man. For most of the year, he was nervous to downright terrified to go to school. Then about 2 weeks ago I told him he only had 2 weeks left and he said, "I wish I had 900 left because I love school now." In fact he cried for 2 days after this graduation because he was so sad that preschool was over. He just refuses to be satisfied!!!

Our camera was acting up during the ceremony. It decided to not focus and go as slow as molasses. So that is why I missed the first part of this song. Then, since Andrew uses our camera and fills up the memory card with his animal/nature pictures, we ran out of room before the song was done. So anyway, here is the middle part of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." Andrew is the 3rd from the left, holding a yellow bell. I really wish we had gotten the whole song because after the bell part was done, then the kids sang the song. It was hilarious. There were about 3 different tempos going. Andrew and his friend Jacob finished a whole line before the last group finished singing.

Eric is 3!

How did our baby turn 3? He won't even let us call him baby anymore. He says, "I not a baby mama, I a big boy." But like I tell Andrew, both of them will always be my babies. Even when they're 50. Andrew doesn't seem to think this is very cool.


For Reed's birthday, we put a car on top of his birthday cake. So ever since then Eric told us about 50 things that he wanted for his birthday, and then he would say, "And I want it on my birthday cake". Seriously, if we would have put everything on his cake that he wanted, that cake would have had to be HUGE. One of the things he asked us to put on his cake was a full size basketball! The thing that he talked about the very most though, was blue Thunder. Thunder is a character from the movie Cars. In the movie, Thunder is green so we didn't think that they made a blue one. But Eric never lost faith. Whenever he talked about his birthday he would talk about his blue Thunder, and how Grandma was looking for it for him. Ah, the faith of a child. Grandma did not find it (though she gave a very good effort), Reed found it. It ended up being the only thing that we put on his birthday cake, but he didn't seem to care. He was so excited.

Eric caught on pretty quickly that he was now 3 instead of 2, but it is pretty hard to learn to hold up 3 fingers as opposed to 2. Especially if your fingers are short and chubby. So cute!

Wild Flowers

Andrew found a few wild flowers (aka weeds) growing in our backyard the day before we mowed. He picked them and brought them inside for me. He got really excited when I put them in a vase. Later we went on a bike ride. Well, Andrew and Eric rode while Reed and I walked. Well there were a lot of "wild flowers" along our route, so every 30 seconds or so, Andrew would screech to a halt to pick more. This usually caused Eric to ram into the back of him but no one was seriously injured. When it started to get dark Reed and I finally had to say, "Okay, I think we have enough flowers." When we got home and put them all in the vase, my boys were so proud. It was very sweet. They both gave me great big hugs.

From Ahh to AUGGHHH!

So often our boys go from something that is so cute and awesome and quickly it turns to something crazy. The other day we decided to do pillowcase races. The boys thought that this was just the funnest thing ever. Andrew was a lot faster then Eric, so he would wait for Eric at the end and then shout, "It's a tie!" and they would both laugh and laugh. As shown in the following videos, this game quickly digressed.

One day we were outside cleaning up bikes, balls, etc. and Eric went into the house. When I went in, I said "Eric, where are you?" He said, "I going poops." I was so proud. I hear the toilet flush and then I hear Eric's sweet voice saying, "It's cold." Yup, he stuck his foot in the toilet. My one consolation is that he flushed first.

Again with the potty. I was trying to make dinner and Eric had to go potty. I usually stay in there while he washes his hands, but this time I was in a hurry so I left. I said, "Can you wash your hands by yourself today?" He says "Yes Mama." Well he's in there singing and talking and generally sounding very cute. Then I hear, "I can't turn it off." I ran in and Eric had plugged up the sink and flooded the bathroom! As I was cleaning Eric just kept saying, "Mama I sorry I did dat. I sorry I ruined the band aids."

Eric and Andrew wanted to be my chefs for lunch one day. So cute. I had bread, apples, carrots, an entire dinner plate filled with crackers, a whole gallon of milk and a whole container of apple juice...and a HUGE mess to clean up afterwards.

I'm Lame...Who's With Me?

I love watching the Olympics. But there is a drawback. It really makes me feel like a loser. Chelsea and I talked about this extensively after the summer Olympics. We both loved them so much but then we were like, "Oh man, why can't we be cool too?" Being a glutton for punishment, I watched the Winter Olympics too. Just when I was getting over my feelings of inadequacy, 5 time medalist speed skater Chad Hedrick comes to a Verizon store near our house. Reed and Andrew went to see him and had him sign our Salt Lake City Olympics banner. He wasn't in those Olympics, but it was the only Olympics thing we had. Reed and Andrew said it was really neat. They got to see all of his medals. He has 2 bronze, 2 silver, and 1 gold. They were excited that they got to meet him. Oh and don't worry, in a couple of days I will be okay with being mediocre again.

Quirky Boys

Our sweet boys sure do love each other.


Andrew took this picture of Eric. I thought he did a pretty good job.


A couple of weeks ago, Reed and the boys decided that they wanted to go camping. They decided to "camp out" in Eric's room. Andrew was so excited. He helped Reed make a list of everything that they would need. Then as we were saying family prayer that night Andrew prayed that I, mama, would not get scared out there by myself. It was awesome and sweet. Reed tells me that Eric woke up screaming in the middle of the night. When he finally settled down enough to talk he sobbed out "Mama drank my chocolate milk." All I can say is that I wish my nightmares were this mild. Speaking of nightmares...

...Eric's been potty training for the past few weeks. It actually hasn't been a nightmare. It was even his idea. He was helping me get Andrew's clothes one morning and he saw Andrew's Lightning McQueen underwear and said "I want to wear Lightning McQueen on my bum bum." Well I would have been officially a fool if I hadn't jumped on that opportunity. He caught on really quickly. We did have some poop issues at first, so we had to bribe him with Lightning McQueen cars. We finally told him he could get a Mac if he went poops in the toilet for a week. All we had to do was say "Mac" and he would run to the toilet. It really does help that he is obsessed with the movie "Cars." Ask him what any of the cars in the movie say and he will blast your eardrum with his response. The night that he earned Mac he wanted to sleep with it in his bed. He was so excited. He just kept calling us into his room to talk about playing with Mac the next morning. It wasn't until about 10:30 that he finally stopped calling us in. Pure excitement!

The boys were sitting on the hood of the car and wanted me to take a video, and this is what they came up with. Eric is in the mode where he copies almost everything that Andrew says. But this time, Eric can't get a word in. That is actually pretty typical. Maybe that's why Eric talks so loud...hmmm.

Cute and Talented...Some People Have All the Luck

First off, I do not know how to turn these video's. I'm sure someone smarter and more technologically savvy then I could do it easily, but alas...I am what I am. So that being said, you are just going to have to tilt either your head or your computer to get the full effect. Next time I will remember to take the video's horizontal.

So one of the drawers in the toy room was empty (because the contents were scattered to the 4 corners of the room) and Eric decided that if he turned it upside down it made a great stage for him to do some musical performances on. He did about 7-10 performances. He wanted me to film each one. After each one he would jump off and say, "I see it now." Then he would watch himself, get very excited and say, "I do 'nother one." This particular song is "Jack and Jill."

While Eric was performing, Andrew was in the bathroom getting ready for bed. He could hear what was going on though, and he decided to hurry it up because he definitely wanted in on it. So then they had to take turns performing, watching their video, and then performing again. Don't even ask what song Andrew is singing. It is one he made up right on the spot. And yes, he is crazy!