Independence

Tyson wanted a Peanut Butter and Honey Sandwich the other night...since that's his FAVORITE meal of all time.  He insists on making his own. ALWAYS.  That cute, little, whipper-snapper.  Well, Emmett decided he wanted to make one, too.  He pushed a stool up next to the counter where Tyson was and climbed up.  I pulled out the bread for him and started to make the sandwich, and Emmett immediately insisted, "Iiiee ooo it, Iiieeooooit!"  So, of course I let him try to do it and he mashes the knife into the bread and makes a hole, and doesn't spread the peanut butter around in the slightest.  Eventually I persuaded him to let him help him just a little bit.  Amidst this whole process, Tyson leans over, changes his tone of voice and quietly encourages his brother, "  You know Emmett, when I was this age I couldn't make my own peanut butter and honey sandwiches, but then I COULD!" 

I about died.  It's so hilarious to me when kids think they're so old and experienced.  I just love it.  And it's so funny to me that my little Emmett, who isn't even 2, yet, thinks he can do everything his big brother can do.  I love my children.  They make my life!

My Purple Shoes & 1st Bridesmaid Bouquet....

When I found out Lindsay was engaged...I had the BRILLIANT idea of hand-making all 5 million invitations for her Bridal Shower. Lucky for me Lindsay has an amazing group of support. Between family and friends, we were able to make everything we envisioned happen. Jenny and Kelly were awesome and helped me plan and prepare for the Shower.

Just a sample of some of the things we had there. It was all amazing.

Every single person in this picture helped with the shower...and they weren't even the only ones! Terin & Sherri didn't make it into the photo because this was taken when it was all over, but I was amazed at all the help people were willing to give. Especially because we hosted it on Easter Weekend. It was a crazy time of year, but it turned out GREAT!

Whit, Me, Lins, Jen

I don't know why, but when Lins told me I was in her wedding, I didn't think about getting a bouquet, and I CANNOT TELL YOU how THRILLED I was with my GORGEOUS bouquet!!!! It made me happy the ENTIRE DAY!

I should do an entire blog post on my purple shoes alone...it's got a story enough to tell. Let me just tell you in a nutshell--my out of pocket cost was only $3.50 for a pair of perfectly matching purple shoes for my bridesmaid's dress. : ) Let's also just say that Mitchell Jay Borden is a STUD MUFFIN for spray-painting...YOU HEARD ME...SPRAY PAINTING these fabulous shoes. I'm not going to lie--my purple shoes and the bouquet were 2 of my FAVORITE parts of the day. I'm so glad Lins asked me to be in her wedding. The only other wedding I was in was my sister's...and I'm not really sure that I was considered a bridesmaid...I was a pregnant and emotional mess in Erin's wedding. It meant a lot to me that Lins would have me in her Bridal Party. I love her to bits and she's been there for me throughout all the years I've known her. I'm lucky we're friends. I had so much fun on her wedding day. It was a serious highlight of my summer. All this time we've been dreaming about what Lindsay's Prince Charming would be like, and now she's finally found him. It's such a beautiful thing!

Jenny and I had fun hanging out during all the pictures. She was really helpful for Lindsay--picking up things, and holding things, and I think she did her make-up...maybe not that day, but for a picture day. It reminded me of how awesome she was when I got married. I had been so upset because I wasn't able to get in the nail appointment I wanted, and AT MIDNIGHT the night before my wedding, Jenny painted my fingernails for me, and they turned out so pretty. I was so happy. Jenny is just an awesome friend like that. I love her!

Can't forget the dead bird we all stood by as we waited for pictures. Thanks for the pose, Cass & Jeremy, you look GREAT next to the dead creature with ants.

My first...and probably last bridal party picture...it's just not that common to get to be in weddings. I'm glad I had the experience.

The 3 Amigas

Can't forget to pose with the Hubbies! We all feel complete now. : )

Mitch is so cute. He wore the same tie that day that he wore at our wedding. I love him. AND, while I was busy being a bridesmaid...doing really hard work, like standing around and taking pictures, he went off to get me a soda from QT, and also brought me back a tongue tattoo. Haha! His says I love QT, and mine says Mix it Up. Haha! They only lasted for 15-30 seconds. : ) But they sure tasted good, and they were FREE.

I love this picture

Jenny is such a good mom. She was watching everyone's kids...while we were standing at a distance. : )

Tyson spent practically the ENTIRE night on the dance floor. : ) He was cracking us up with all of his moves.

I took a picture of Mike & Lins dancing because it made me cry. I'm SO HAPPY FOR THEM! I cannot even tell you how we've looked forward to her finding the man of her dreams. And they are so good for each other!

Since May 14th, and our experience dancing as a family on the dance floor with the bridal party, we've been singing, "Put your hands in the air, air, air, air...I put my hands up in the air sometimes, singing hey-oh, darling let's go....I want to celebrate and live my life, singing hey-oh...." Tyson knows almost all the words...especially the "dy-no-mite" part. : )

Tyson with his "best friend"...just yesterday he reminded me that Lindsay said he can marry her little girl when she has one...I love the relationship they have. Lins has always been good to my kids and they love her, too.

Tyson HAD to be by the bride and groom during the hokey pokey.

It was such a long, awesome, fun, FABULOUS day. Tyson did what everyone else wished they could have done.

Everyone should have a photo booth at their wedding. It's so fun!

Congratulations, Mike and Lins! I'm sorry this post is so long overdue. I love you guys! I had so much fun experiencing "my best friend's wedding". Thanks for letting me be a part of it! I'm so lucky to share these fantastic memories with you! We hope the rest of your 1st year together (and life together for that matter) is as beautiful as the day you got married!

THAT'S What I'm Talking About!!!!

We had a pesky little fly in our kitchen a couple days ago.  Tyson was concentrating on making his very own peanut butter and honey sandwich...with the crunchy kind of peanut butter.  All the fixing's were on the counter. He was on the stool, and each time he'd try to work on his sandwich, that silly fly would land on the island.  He stopped every time to bat at the fly with his hand!  About 15 minutes later he was finally done and got to eat his sandwich.

Later that day I was teaching piano lessons. I heard the toilet flushing, the lid slamming down and my favorite little 4 year old, yelling in triumph:  "THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!!!!"

When he came around the corner to tell me what happened, I asked him what it was that he was talking about, and he said, "I flushed the fly down the toilet!"  I was amazed that he caught or killed that pesky little fly, and then he divulged that he found a fly IN THE WINDOW SILL............. picked it up with a tissue............and flushed it with a vengeance.  He's so funny.

  He was completely satisfied with the events of the afternoon.  : )
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TODAY.  At the table for dinner.  Tyson was PRAYING (in the middle of the prayer, no less).  This is how it went:  "Heavenly Father, thank you for this day. (Eyes peek up and wander around). And please bless that Emmett will keep learning how to go potty in the toilet, and learn how to cross the street...."  (Fly lands NEXT to Tyson). WHAM!!!   He whacks the fly with his bare hand.  I exclaim, "He JUST hit a fly !!!"  The prayer is totally over.  The fly is stunned for 3.2 seconds, starts to stumble off, and WHAM!!!  Definitely dead now.  As I get Tyson a tissue I tell him, "THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT."      We let him wipe up the fly and FLUSH IT DOWN THE TOILET.

Mitch and I couldn't stop laughing as we were waiting for him to come back, and we shared a high-five for the greatness of the moment, and such a priceless kid.

Tyson came back.  We washed the germs off his hands. He sat down. He started the prayer VERBATIM with his previous prayer and then finished by thanking Heavenly Father for the food and to please bless it.

What a classic, epic, and hilarious moment in time.  And what a fantastic way to start our dinner!

Word Approximations

I had forgotten how much I loved this toddler stage.

Emmett is so cute.  He's talking so much.  About half the time, he's still only saying word approximations, but the pediatrician told me years ago that it still counts as a word.  Here are some of my favorites:

Me:  I love you!

Emmett:  Aye uh oo, ooo!

This morning he was eating a Toaster Strudel (healthy, I know!) and said, "Mmmm, ishious!"  (for delicious)

And when it comes to counting he gets all excited and points to everything on the page...

"Wuuuun, Wuuuuun, Wuuuun, Wuuuun!"

Recently he's upgraded his counting skills to saying, "One, Oooo, Eeee, Sits, Nine!"

And lastly...this picture of my boys says it all.  Emmett is a ham, and Tyson can be distracted but thoughtful at times.  Just this morning he was thinking about his age, "Mom!  I am four.  I'm still older.  I am older than a bear cub."  He also was relating to me that he's bigger than a golf-ball.  It's so funny how Tyson sees the world around him.

You Know Something is Seriously Wrong with an "Art" Museum when...

...you realize the McDonald's you're eating at for lunch afterwards has more visual appeal.

I don't even want to go into it, because I'm sick of thinking about what a flop our outing yesterday turned out to be.  Basically I saw that there was free admission yesterday to the Scottsdale Contemporary Art Museum, and that there was an "architectural display for all ages".  Around the corner was a comic book exhibit that sounded fun for the kids.  Let's just say there was a lot of false advertising going on.  Here are the honest critiques of some of the attendees:

Me:  You have this entire room with the sole purpose of displaying only this one piece?  That seems kind of useless."

Museum worker:  "It's art...all art is useless."

(Opinion:  Workers who take no pride in their jobs should be fired.  He needs to find a real museum to work at that incorporates some meaning, depth, and beauty into his life...clearly he's not being fulfilled by contemporary art, because it's a load of manure.)  I kid you not, there was more artistic depth in the blouse I was wearing, than in 99.5% of the museum, and for the record, if I shared such a terrible view of what art is, you'd better believe I wouldn't take my children to learn and experience those things.  Glad we know that we never need to go to another Contemporary Art Museum again--it's not our thing!

Other comments:

Myrna:  "I would have rather have gone with you yesterday [to the Children's Museum]."

Tyson to Mitch afterwards:  "We went to a super dumb museum, with only four rooms!"

Me:  "Well...maybe when Mitch asks us what we did today, I'll just tell him that we went to McDonald's...because that was the best part of our trip.  I think that maybe coming here today might have been better than letting the kids watch TV and movies all day...but I'm not quite sure."

Tyson:  "That was better than watching a movie I don't like."

Don't let these pictures deceive you.  It might look like we were having an awesome time, but this comic book exhibit only had potential to be great.  We made the best of it by paying the machine quarters for the kids to ride in it, and this place really was tons better than our contemporary art experience.  However, this exhibit still was not as good as our McDonald's experience (and the McDonald's didn't even have a play place for the kids).  LOL!  At least I didn't force my kids to watch a movie that they didn't like, though.

Proof that superman still exists. : )  And the villain's said the phone booth was out of order!  Pa-leeze!  You cannot stop my little super man!

When was the last time you hit a GONG?

Today we got to go to M.I.M.....that's not to be confused with Madame Mim, or "The Secret of Mim"...I'm meant Nimh.

Way out almost in the middle of nowhere is a relatively new museum called the Musical Instrument Museum.  Let me tell you, we were only there for 2 hours, and it was FANTASTIC!  I loved it!  Anyone who has ever loved music in the slightest should go there.  You will have a great experience.  We didn't even get to see half of the mammoth sized building, but the parts we did see were so much fun.

The "hands on" room was our favorite part!  My kids almost couldn't believe they could play the instruments after all the other rooms we visited that had so many wonderful instruments and artifacts they couldn't touch.  It didn't take long, though, before they dropped the "timid" facade and ran around like kids on Christmas morning.  It was so fun!

I can't remember what these were called, but the kids played on these the most.

The coolest GONG EVER!

Cheese!

This instrument is called the cricket.  It is actually carved in the shape of a large cricket, and it sounds almost exactly like a cricket chirping when you play it.

This instrument behind us had the largest/thickest/longest strings I've ever seen.  It plays 2 octaves lower than the....I can't remember which stringed instrument the plaque said, but at any rate, I was amazed at this ginormous, stringed, bass, creation of beauty.

What a perfect family outing!

Those Would Be MY Naughty Children....

 Looks like we can cross "Have a Marker War" off of our Summer To-Do List.

 No Joke:  I found my sons like this only 20 minutes before we were supposed to be at a baptism that I had been waiting for since I first heard about it......

Tyson decided to pause while he was getting ready and go into the craft room to color...with markers...and Emmett showed up.  Who do you think won?

Fortunately, they were washable, and we were only 10 minutes late to the baptism for my cousin Jason's daughter, and we had a great time.

Note to self:  HIDE the markers and good job buying the washable kind!