My toddlers.....

Alex can be so cute sometimes. Yesterday I was sitting on the couch with bare feet. He came over and started pulling on my toes and said "wee wee all the way home". He is coming up with new words and phrases every day. This age is such a hard stage, but can be so cute.
He found my tissue box from my dresser. He came over to me with a clean tissue and tried to wipe my nose. I thought it was really funny.
Anna's favorite thing lately is to have her hair in braids. She keeps asking me to braid her hair. Since her hair is very curly but also thin, it is very hard to braid. Her braids end up tiny, and of course they don't stay straight down. She is such a cutie sometimes.

Fallen Embers

Today while we were in the van, Dan read me the lyrics to this song he liked with a few tears in his eyes. While we struggle at times, we are both very much in love with each other.
Here's the words of the song.

Fallen Embers
Once, as my heart remembers,
all the stars were fallen embers.
Once, when night seemed forever
I was with you.

Once, in the care of morning
in the air was all belonging.
Once, when that day was dawning
I was with you.

How far we are from morning,
how far are we
and the stars shining through the darkness,
falling in the air.

Once, as the night was leaving
into us our dreams were weaving.
One, all dreams were worth keeping.
I was with you.

Once, when our hearts were singing,
I was with you.

Another milestone

We've hit another milestone with Alex. We officially taken him out of a crib and moved him to a toddler bed. I guess I should say that HE has officially taken himself out of a crib. So, to mark 20 months old, we are getting rid of the crib.
I really was not planning on getting rid of the crib so soon. In fact, I was thinking recently, that I would like to keep him in it until he's at least 3 years old. I have never moved my kids out of a crib until they were at least 2 or 2 1/2 years old.
Every time we put Alex in the crib, he would promptly climb out. And the mattress was as low as it could go. He started climbing out in the night as well. Since it really isn't that safe for him to be continually taking the leap from bed, we moved him to a toddler bed. I thought about getting a crib tent. But Alex is such a busy boy, I decided that it probably wouldn't contain him for much longer.
Now, I just put Alex in bed, and shut the door. He screams and pounds on the door. After a few minutes he calms down. I've tried rocking him, but he won't let me. He fights to get down the whole time. I physically can't handle rocking him--it is too hard. I've also tried lying down next to him in bed. He is such a light sleeper, that it wakes him up if I move at all. Sometimes he falls asleep in the recliner rocker in his room. If we try to move him, he wakes right up. Then it starts the screaming session again. I guess all is good until he learns to open the door--then it'll be time for a child lock. It would be much more dangerous for me to let him roam the house, than to lock him in.
Anyone want an old crib? I'll probably send it to DI this weekend.

Leslie's poem and more

Yesterday Dan started rearranging and doing a serious clean-out/dejunking of our bedroom. In the next couple weeks, we are upgrading our bed. YAY!!! We have a full size bed. We are upgrading to a king. I'm excited to have more space and not have to roll the same way as each other at night. We went through a lot of our stuff that was boxed in the closets. I found this funny poem that my sister Leslie wrote after running a cross-country race in Rexburg, ID. I thought it was pretty funny, so here it is:

Ode to a Rexburg Race

Why come to run a race,
In this desolate, hated place?
With snow so deep we crawl to run
In Rexburg, there is no fun

The gun goes off to start the meet
By the time its over we won't feel our feet
We struggle onward to beat the foe
We will win, even in the snow
Those ahead think they've won
So we pass them just for fun

The wind is blowing
My fingers are numb
All I can think of is "Rexburg is dumb"
And it keeps on snowing

I see a snowman up ahead
Oh, its just a spectator frozen dead
Four feet of snow, and 3.1 miles later
The race is done.
After our fight,
We all have won.

Throwing my bummies in the air
Into the ice water pond I dash
Skinny dipping in a blizzard
is the perfect way for a victory bash.
Shaking and frostbitten
We return to the motel
Hot tubbing nude doesn't go over well

Banned from the hotel, so to Utah we go
Leaving frozen fingers, toes and bummies in the Rexburg snow.


Those of you who aren't runners are probably wondering what "bummies" are. Bummies are running shorts that are pretty much like underwear. I've never worn them, and I never will.
And I seriously doubt Leslie was skinny-dipping in Rexburg either. It's just her sense of humor.

What's in your Cheerios???

Several weeks ago, the keys to our van disappeared. I searched from one end of the house to the other. When we bought our van, they only gave us one set of keys. I kept trying to get key copies made at the store, but they would never work. I guess you have to have special dealer keys for newer vehicles, not just a key copy. I didn't know that.
After a very frustrating unfruitful search, I had my sister Angie drive me to the dealer to get a new key made for the van. Luckily since I had a copied key, they were able to copy it onto a key that would work. Forty or fifty bucks later, I had a working key for my van again.
Today, Dan sat down and poured himself a bowl of Cheerios for breakfast. To his surprise, he got a prize in his bowl. My missing set of keys!! I guess Alex must have stuffed my keys in the box of cereal. The Cheerios got lost at the back of the cupboard, because the plain ones aren't anybody's favorite. They were stale, so he threw them out. I am so glad to have my keys back. Just yesterday, I was considering getting a new remote for the van. I guess I am spoiled, but I really hate having to unlock everything by hand. I'm glad that I didn't spend $50-$75 on a new remote.

Two weeks in a row

We've made it all the way through sacrament meeting without going out at all for TWO weeks in a row! Maybe the church toddler wrestling match might be calming down a little. Or I might be jinxing myself by saying this.
We've discovered Alex really likes stickers. I found an old sticker book that was Caleb's, and Alex thoroughly enjoyed it for a while. I think I'll go check out the dollar store for more sticker books.