3 Weeks in Boise

...the condensed version. After the wedding we drove up to Boise and had a small, surprise-early- 40th Anniversary party for my parents at my brother Aaron's house.

Poor Joshie was tired.
During the first week, the kids took a tumbling class at Aunt Tiffany's gym, which they loved,

and then we had a fun, quick weekend trip to McCall. I didn't get any pictures from that, unfortunately. Then Daddy had to go back home, and Hannah got sick, and then Joshua got sick, and then Hannah got sick again! And I was so tired my brains were curdling, but even so we managed to have a good time during the last two weeks. We played games (which is my number one favorite thing to do with my family), Hannah helped Grandpa Buzz plant the garden...

...while Joshua played with the hose,
they read with Grandma,

ate ice cream from the ice cream (wo)man,

and just generally enjoyed themselves.we even had a couple of outings, on to the temple, where they love to see the fountain,

and one to visit my good friend/chiropractor, Afshin. Hannah did great at her first chiro visit (a follow-up to the awful fall she had last year).

And now I feel like this post is getting awfully long so I'm going to save the most important part of the trip for the next post!

The Wedding

Sorry about the long break! We have done a lot over the past few weeks, so it will have to be condensed and broken up. First, we were privileged to be able to attend Seth's brother Ben's wedding in Salt Lake at the end of April. We were so happy to finally meet Allyson, who is a beautiful girl and a wonderful addition to the family. Congratulations, you two!

Hannah LOVED dancing at the wedding reception. She danced with any boy she could get her hands on.

Seth (and kids) with his parents and Grandpa Wright

Megan and me. It was so fun to see her after almost two years!

Joshua laughing at the paper cranes swinging from the ceiling

Happy Birthday, Hannah!

Today is Hannah's birthday. I can't believe it has been four years already. She is the joy of our lives. It has been so fun to see her grow up this past year. She is definitely no longer my baby (in the physical sense); Hannah has apparently inherited the rest of my family's height genes and is much taller than most children her age. Sadly, she will likely pass me up in height much sooner than I anticipated! On the happier side, she has grown into such a sweet, funny, and wonderful 4-year-old it's hard to feel too sad about leaving her "babyhood" behind.

Some things to love about Hannah:

1. She likes to make up words. Some of her favorites include metarian, tap-a-doer, and eckerjump. The funniest thing is she remembers these words and uses them over and over as if they actually have a real meaning.

2. She also likes to use big words, such as "meticulous" and "essentially".

3. She says really funny things to me in public, such as "chuuubby little mama!" and "Hi, sweetie pants!" (that one while swatting me on the backside).

4. The way she loves her brother and gushes over him. Sometimes it's as simple as "He's such a cute little baby!" and sometimes funnier, like "Oh, Joshie, you're so righteous!"

5. She is confident and brave. She loves giving talks in Primary and bearing her testimony in sacrament meeting. She loves to pretend to perform whatever art form she's interested in at the time -- dancing, ice skating, you name it.

6. Her femininity! She is quite certain she's a princess and has refused to wear pants for the longest time, because princesses don't wear pants. Luckily, she knows that a princess is kind and obedient, and not bossy. She's also very particular about what feminine role she's taking on at a given time -- sometimes we call her princess, and she says "I'm not a princess, I'm a ballerina!" But my favorite is when she says "I'm not a princess or a ballerina, I'm just a Hannah."

Well, as further proof that "just a Hannah" is a wonderful thing to be, here are pictures from the birthday festivities this weekend.

We went to a tea shoppe yesterday for a real tea party; both children were extremely well-behaved and we were so proud of them. They had fancy hats in the ladies' room so that's what the children are wearing in the pictures (don't laugh too hard at Joshie; they didn't have any boy hats!)

Today some of our wonderful friends and neighbors came over to celebrate with Hannah by eating brownie ice-cream cones and watching her open presents. It meant so much to her to have someone there to celebrate her special day with her.

It was our neighbor Kiera's birthday today as well! So she got a special candle in her cone too.

Happy birthday Hannah! We sure love you!

A Day at the Beach

Recently the kids and I visited the tide pools with our wonderful next-door neighbors. I just wanted to share some of the cute pictures. This was the first time we have been over to the beach since we moved here, and I had to roll my eyes at the kids' reactions. I for one LOVE living by the ocean, and I thought the kids would feel the same way. But it took about ten minutes of trying to convince Hannah that the fish in the ocean were not going to bite her, and Joshua kept saying "Sharks! Sharks! Sharks!" Luckily by the time we had to go, they didn't want to leave, and now Hannah keeps asking to go to the beach (and to go surfing), so I think it's growing on them.

I guess I should have called this post "a few days at the beach." We also went to La Jolla this past weekend to see the seals. Hannah ended up wanting to take a squirrel home (they will eat right out of your hand; they are pretty cute), and Joshua just wanted to climb over the wall and join the seals. He hadn't taken a nap that day and he was so obnoxious we were about to let him!

Goodbye Couch

...hello futon!

That's right -- after many weeks of frustration, fatigue, and tantrums, we have officially moved to the living room and given the children their own rooms. Or to be more precise, loaned Hannah our bedroom until she and Joshua are both old enough to follow "sleep rules" and just go to sleep when they get in bed, by golly! So Seth and I are once again studio-ers, which is okay since we have spent about half of our married life in a similar arrangement.

Happily, Joshua is doing much better at going to sleep and has even given up throwing his bear and water out of his bed. Hannah, on the other hand, spends an increasing amount of time playing and reading in her bed after she goes down, causing her to be grumpy and uncooperative the next day, which leads me to my question: To all you parents out there of non-napping 3-or-4-year-old children, what time do your kids go to bed? And do they seem well-rested?

As an aside, Hannah has been requesting a new baby at our house, so we keep telling her that we can't have one until she and Joshua both follow their sleep rules ALL THE TIME! Which shouldn't be a difficult promise to keep, seeing as I sleep on the futon and Seth sleeps on the floor ;)

Kristen, this is for you: here are the pictures of our living room that I've been promising you for months. I don't expect you to look at it right away, though...congrats on the new baby! We can't wait to meet her.

I'm in Love...

June 20, folks! (The concert, not The Jersey Boys.) I CAN'T WAIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Too Young For This

Since the day Joshua was born, our kids have adored each other. No real jealousy, sibling rivalry, anything like that. They are very protective of each other and each one thinks the other is the greatest, funniest, cutest person in the world.

Until we get in the car.

Here are some samples of what I heard every minute we were in the car today:

J: Grumpy!
H: I'm not grumpy!
J: Grumpy!
H: I'm not grumpy!
J: Grumpy!
H: (whining, almost crying) Mommy, Joshie thinks I'm grumpy! I'm NOT GRUMPY!


J: Ben!
H: (whining again) Mommy, Joshie thinks I'm Uncle Ben!
J: Ben!
H: (still whining) Mommy, help, joshie thinks I'm Uncle Ben!...(now yelling) He's touching me!!!

J: Raining!
H: It's not raining!
J: Raining!
H: (yelling again) It's not raining!


J: No!
H: Yes!
J: No!
H: Yes!
J: Yes!
H: No!

Etc.
Etc..
Etc...

Aren't they a little too young for this?