Where's Nathan

He's reading. And reading. And reading. These Magic Treehouse Books are amazing. He is devouring them. He reads one in an afternoon. We find him sitting next to his nightlight reading them late at night. He comes home from school and acts out whatever plot he read most recently.I love it.

King Jack

Meet King Jack:
Isn't he cute? He likes me to make the crowns extra big so they will slide down over his ears. He likes it that way.

Dallen

Dallen is cute. Really cute. And I don't think it is just because I am his mom that I think so. I have mentioned before that he has a fan club. He is a charmer and he is fun. Lately he is talking in full paragraphs in his high pitched little voice. He sings tons of songs-his favorites are If You Chance to Meet a Frown (the above picture is his version of smiling that frown away), Jingle Bells and many others. Do you know sweet it is to hear a two year old belting out "I know He lives. I will follow faithfully?" His other newest trick is jumping and he does it all the time. He loves to get his feet off the floor. And he usually ends his jumps with a half spin that makes him look like he is dancing. I love it. I adore him.

But let me tell you the truth behind that darling, lovable, kissable face. Dallen is a stinker, a punk, a beast. (Those are the affectionate terms we use for him.) Let's start with an example:

On Saturday morning about 10:00, me, Nathan, Jack and Dal were in Nathan and Jack's room. I was reading them a chapter book while they played on the floor.

I guess I have to preface this story by saying that we have the doorknob on their door on backwards so that they can't lock us out. Recently Dal has learned to lock it, so he has locked his brothers in several times. Not cool in their book. Especially when mom is in the shower and not available to rescue them right away.

So, Jack got fed up and insisted that I do something. So, I, being the clever mom that I am, put a child proof doorknob cover on the outside thinking then he couldn't flip the lock.

So, back to the story. We were reading the book, Dal went out and, you guessed it...locked the door! And then couldn't get it unlocked because of the doorknob cover. So Jack, Nathan and I were trapped in their room. No phone. The doorknob has a keyhole. We had no key. And Josh wasn't going to get home for 3 more hours. I thought about trying to get onto the roof out their window, but Dal's window was closed, so I couldn't go through there and the house was locked, so even if I got off the roof that wouldn't do me much good.

Well, lucky for my kids, I am skilled in the art of breaking and entering, or in this case exiting. We found a Popsicle stick in their room and within a few minutes I had used it to bust us out.

Just a small taste of the trouble Dal can sometimes cause.

I have never had a child who draws on walls. Dal has created a masterpiece-repeatedly. The list of things Dal has broken in our house: the wii, our TV input/output holes, numerous DVDs, not just by scratching, but also by snapping, my computer (standing on it is NOT good for lap tops), window blinds, the piano in several ways, the lamp in his room (almost started a fire-he is now lightless in his room) and the list could go on and on. And on.

Anyway, we love this little punk. Adore this little punk. Especially because he always apologizes with a sweet "I sorry mommy." How can you not love that? And that adorable smiling face?

UP Party

Josh was out of town last week, so I had to step up the cool factor in our home in order to compensate for a missing daddy. Or something. So we had an "Up Party."

We started out making "Adventure Books." (I can't claim this great idea-it came from my cool sister in law Natalie. Did you know that I have a total of 2 sisters in law and they are both named Natalie? I think my boys think that all Aunts are called Natalie. So anyway, this idea came from one of my cool sisters in law Natalie.) Next we of course watched the movie. With Popcorn.
We had our neighbor friend Damien over for the party. Damien is 7. And yes, Damien is texting during the movie. :)
Last, we had "Upcakes." I got this idea from my favorite site, Bakerella. Hers were cooler than mine, but the boys liked them and that's what counts. (In case you don't get it, that is supposed to be the big bunch of balloons flying through the sky.) This is my version:
Reality: Behind the Blog Facade
Before I finish this post that makes us sound like such a cool family (right?), let me give you some insight into what really went on that night.

After making the Adventure Books I sent the boys upstairs to get in their jammies. Well, I guess because they have a Y chromosome they heard "go upstairs and wrestle. And hey, if you feel like it, bite each other." So, soon enough Nathan's hand met Jack's nose and Jack, being prone to nose bleeds, started spurting blood.

He ran for the bathroom where he attempted to spit out a mouthful of blood into the sink-only he missed for the most part and spattered the bathroom with blood.

Then, he ran all over the upstairs looking for me (I was still downstairs). Blood on the carpet down the hallway, on the wall, on my bathroom door and toilet, etc. You get the picture.

And then I yelled at Nathan and made him cry. And the look on his face was heartbreaking. Don't worry, I apologized and we worked it out, but still. Bad mommy.

So, now you know they whole truth about our night, or most of it anyway. :)

Aaaaaaargh!

A couple of Saturdays I left in the afternoon to go to the temple. It's always nice to go to the temple, but it is even better when you come home to this:Aaaaaargh! Nathan was gone all day that day, and I do mean all day (8 hours to be exact) to a birthday party and Jack was missing him quite a bit. But never fear, Dad had some great tricks up his sleeve. These pirate ensembles were created by Josh off the cuff and the bunk bed was their ship. Pretty impressive and SO much fun.

Incidentally, is the aaaaargh a pirate says pronounced with a hard g sound at the end or is it just a long, drawn out "are" sound? I always made the g sound at the end and just recently realized that typically the gh in a word (such as sight or right) is silent. Have I been saying it wrong all these years?

We Don't Suck Anymore

For a long time we have sucked-thumbs, nigh-nights, you know the drill. Nathan sucked his thumb on the ultrasound at 12 weeks. Jack started sucking his thumb right after he was born and never looked back. (That thumb was in there all day most days-while watching tv, driving in the car, snuggling with his beloved pillow, getting his back scratched by mom, etc.) And Dal, he was never a thumb guy. Instead he liked his nigh-nights (pacifiers).

A few months ago we couldn't find a pacifier when we put Dal to bed. And eventually he fell asleep. When we still couldn't find it a day or two later, we decided to just be done giving him his nigh-nights should we ever find it again. When he did find it, he popped it in and I popped it right back out and said "we are done with those. You don't need that." That was easy.

But Jack and Nathan. At 6 Nathan was still sucking his thumb to put himself to sleep at night. And Jack was sucking so much that his teeth are badly out of line. He once told me he didn't want to stop sucking and it was ok, he liked looking like a walrus.

Last week, after a trip to the dentist and some good advice, I decided it was officially time to be done with this thumb sucking business. I told the boys if I caught them sucking their thumbs they would lose whatever they were doing at the time. (Watching a movie? Movie goes off. Snuggling pillow? Pillow in time out.)

I also promised a candy bar of the their choice to anyone who went 24 hours without sucking. And a trip to the Corvette Diner when they are both completely done.

Josh and I braced ourselves. Jack has been known to be a tad bit opinionated. If he doesn't want to do something and you try to make him, expect a fight. And maybe some mean words. ("You're a jerk!" Nice.) We thought we were going to be in for it for several weeks of fighting.

Imagine our surprise when about 4 days into this Jack had stopped sucking about 80% of the time. In the car when I glance in the mirror-no thumb. Pushing him in the stroller at the zoo? No thumb! Watching a movie or reading a story-no thumb! Holy cow. I didn't expect that. I guess the thing about Jack is that if he sets his mind to something, he is stubborn enough to do it. I caught him once or twice huddled in a corner sucking and at night we find him asleep with his thumb in his mouth, so we have a little ways to go, but wow.

And Nathan, as far as I can tell is totally done. We took trips to the stores for candy bars and the Corvette Diner is in our near future.

That was easy. Way too easy. And Gramps-this post is for you. :) (Gramps is a dentist.)

Random Happiness

Here are just a few pictures of sweet moments in our life recently:

Dal insisted on me doing this to his shirt. And then he walked around like this for at least 20 minutes.

Two little astronauts playing together:

I love this. Found them laying on the floor reading a book with each other: