Life's Little Moments

This post is kind of Wesley-dominated. I'm not playing favorites--but his older brother is becoming rather obstinate when it comes to the camera lately!

I'm pretty sure the highlight of their day consists of the time between when Daddy gets home and we sit down to dinner. It is non-stop, high-energy playtime!

Wesley is so stubborn when it comes to eating. He often adamantly refuses to eat even his most favorite dishes if he doesn't get to eat them the way he wants. At dinner time, this entails having his own utensils, his own plate of food, and his food not being cut into small pieces. This presents a problem since he is just getting his 5th and 6th teeth and can't chew most foods very well. He gets so angry when we give him little pieces of food, though, and they usually end up on the floor with him throwing a huge tantrum. I'm not sure why my kids want to be big so fast, but they certainly have both manifested that trait! Here Wesley was feeding Talmage some of his yogurt as well.

Wesley still desperately needs a morning nap. He missed it on this day and crashed in his high chair. His cheeks are very squishy! Love it!

 Talmage and I were talking about opposites and made opposite-puppets out of wooden spoons. It was such a fun project!

We have Mr. Happy and Miss Sad. Talmage was very concerned about why Miss Sad was sad. And Wesley's impersonation (or impuppetation?) of Miss Sad crying is HILARIOUS.

I could read this little bookworm books all day! He absolutely devours them.

Another of Wesley's hobbies is opening all of the child-proof burner covers on the stove. They're there because he would mess with them when they were uncovered, and now he's figured out how to defy them! There are few obstacles he can't find a way around.

Or climbing on the counter, crawling over to the stove, and turning on the oven. That's pretty fun, too. I pretty much spend all of his waking hours getting him away from danger! He's just so cute about it, though. He has this irresistable smile he gets every time he's getting into mischief.

Talmage is starting to get more chores (any great chore-chart ideas?). He loves washing the dishes wih us!

When there's a will, there's a way. This is how Wesley gets a good view of which cooking utensil he should get from the drawer.

The play kitchen I made them for Christmas ended up not being as much of a hit as I had hoped. They have more fun climbing on it and taking it apart than they do playing with it, and they've destroyed many parts of it, including ripping off the faucet that was screwed in. I gorilla glued it back on and joked with Sam, "Now it's Wesley against gorilla glue." As you can see here, Wesley won. I can't believe even gorilla glue failed me! This kid is just about unstoppable.

And pretty pleased about it. (I love how Talmage is inspecting the damage...)

 We made butter one day as part of our farm-themed week. The boys had fun shaking the jar!

Wesley loves putting on our shoes and walking around. Pardon his pantsless appearance--the boys usually play with water on our balcony while I make dinner, so Wesley soaks his pants!

 4 pies for Pi Day! (2 chicken pot pies, 1 sweet potato pie, 1 crumb-topped apple pie)

 Spinning around on Daddy's shoulders makes for one happy boy!

The boys found a new spot to play.

I just can't get enough of that cheesy smile!

Valentine's Day

I always appreciate holidays because they give an excuse to be creative and come up with a fun way to celebrate--especially on a grad school budget. Since the stereotypical beautiful bouquets of flowers, nice dinners, and expensive colognes aren't in the picture at the moment, we tend to have an exciting array of crazy ways we celebrate.

For Valentine's Day, I wrote a poem and cut it apart into 25 sections. Then I folded each section up and stuck it in a balloon, along with a mini candy bar. I blew up all the balloons, and the night before I put them in the car for Sam to discover as he left for work.

He had fun popping balloons at red lights on the way, and he worked for over an hour and a half unscrambling the poem when he got home!

He had to work late, so we enjoyed one of his favorite dinners late-night style while he worked. (Recipes here and here, if you're interested.)

Sam got pretty creative, as well--you can tell your husband is a scientist when he leaves you a secret-message Valentine written in baking soda and e-mails you instructions to spray it with grape juice to cause a chemical reaction to occur and turn the message green!

Losaunne's Layover

Back in January, my sister Losaunne had a layover in Houston for a few hours. We took advantage of the opportunity to meet up with her and made the most of the visit with a quick stop by the Houston Temple and lunch at Cici's Pizza. Cici's Pizza is kind of a fun tradition from our childhood years of living in Katy (another suburb of Houston). Where else can you enjoy an all-you-can eat pizza, pasta, salad, dessert buffet for less than $5 per person? They even let Talmage eat for free, even though he's three! Talmage and Wesley were much less interested in the food and much more interested in the toy right next to our booth.

Apparently riding the bus with Bozo is more fun than eating pizza.

And Aunt Losaunne even forked over the 50 cents to make the thing drive around! What a terrific aunt. 

Talmage would not give the camera the time of day.

Lil' Stinker.

We're so glad we got to see Losaunne for a little while on her way back from Guatemala. And T minus 2 1/2 weeks until we get to see her (and many other wonderful family members) again as the boys and I head to Utah while Sam is at a cancer conference in Washington, D.C.!

Family Pictures

We got family pictures taken a couple of weeks ago by a friend of ours. She is starting to get into photography and she caught some great shots, even with uncooperative kids! It's always amazing to me how my sweet boys can become so obstinate when we're trying to get them to look nice for a picture. :)

But now I need some help. I can't decide which ones I like best. I've posted some of my favorites below--any feedback would be appreciated!

Posed Family

#1-Talmage's smile is ridiculous here, but at least we all look somewhat happy.

#2-Our faces are all okay in this one, but Talmage is kind of an outlier there on the side...and he looks smaller than Wesley.

#3-I like the boys' faces best here, but Sam's tie is twisted. And I just look strange in all of these (could I not keep my head from cocking to the side?). Oh, the dilemma! :)

#4

Posed Couple

#5

#6

#7

#8


Talmage

#9


#10


Wesley

#11

#12


#13-I already know this one is my favorite of his. But it doesn't match very well with Talmage's for the wall. Thoughts?

I loved it so much I had to make a B&W version.

Parent/Child

Mostly just because they're cute...

#14

#15

#16-We found this fishing pole lying in the grass. It made a nice little prop...even though Sam doesn't fish. :)

#17

And just because they're funny...

#18-These were the faces he would pull when we tried to get him to smile.

#19

#20-My friend's daughter found a large beetle. The boys were completely enamored with it! I love their faces!

#21-Talmage kept looking for more bugs and was totally done with pictures after that.

#22-I feel like this one needs a funny old-man caption. Something like, "Now, Erma, how many times have I warned you not to trifle in the neighbors' business??"

#23-Young and free!

So what's your vote?