It's COLD

Well, I've been stuck inside all day because it's simply too cold to take the boys out, even just to go get in the car. It would take me half and hour to bundle them properly. It's so cold that your nostrils stick together when you breathe...and then they don't come apart. If any bit of skin is exposed it burns and can become very painful. I checked the weather on the internet and it said that Ogden is currently 24 degrees (at 8pm), Logan is 16 degrees, and Bozeman is -9 degrees (in Farenheit!!!) The wind is what makes it really miserable. I can't even open my front door because the wind blows snow drifts half way up the door-we're talking as high as my thigh. But on the bright side my front lawn has no snow, it's all piled in front of my door. So I don't want to hear anyone complain about the cold and I can tell you that when I come down for the holidays I will be nothing but grateful for the 24 degrees.

First Words - A Work in Progress

Braden is growing so fast! He has been really trying hard to say some words. Well the other day he started to say ball. It's the cutest thing ever. Today he started crawling and now I'm in trouble because although he's really slow right now, it will only take a little while before he's all over the place and into everything. Dalin and Braden are going to egg each other on when it comes to getting into trouble. I also need to get a gate for the stairs. I've been putting it off as long as I can :( I hate those dumb things. I have a feeling it's going to make Dalin mad too because he's used to being able to go up to his room and get things whenever he wants to. I just can't believe how time flies.

The Holidays

Where does time go? Thanksgiving is already gone and now I'm looking forward to Christmas. I love this time of year. Up here in Montana we have snow, of course. We only actually got snow two days after Thanksgiving which is very odd for this part of the country. The two days before it snowed it rained cats and dogs. That is also very weird. I guess we're in for a very mild winter up here because it's not that cold. Well, at least not as cold as would've expected it to be. Once the sun goes down, it's FREEZING like I've never felt before. It's a cold that bites your skin if it's not covered and leaves it burning for at least half an hour after you come inside. But during the day it's relatively warm and nice enough to take the boys out on occasion. Today the sun is shining and I love that. There's nothing better than a bright winter day after a night of snow and everything sparkles. Up here, unlike in Utah, the snow doesn't melt once it's here. I might melt a little during the day a little but, like I said as soon as that sun starts to go down (around 4:00pm) then it's fridged. Now I'm going to vent for a minute. The great state of Montana has made it a law that no town or city can salt their roads in the winter. Is that not the dumbest thing you've ever heard. There's a bunch of environmentalists up here and they don't want to kill any vegitation with the salt. So we'd rather kill hundreds of motorists instead. The roads are horrible all the time. And like I said the snow doesn't melt so it's like driving on a skating rink no matter where you are. Now I'm done venting and we'll move on. I don't have any pictures today, simply because I'm too lazy to take the time to do it. I'm exhausted lately becaue for two weeks now Braden has decided that he doesn't need to sleep....EVER. So, I guess neither do I. He's been waking up in the middle of the night and then won't go back to sleep. I've let him cry for over half an hour, I've rocked him I've sat in the room with him and nothing works. Finally last night I'd had enough so I just put him in his bed and thought "he'll just have to cry". Well Dan doesn't like that very much so after about 20 minutes or so he goes down and a few minutes later comes back and everything's quiet. Apparently all he did was put a bear in the crib with him and then he was fine. We'll see tonight if that's a fluke or if that will work. It better work because I need to get some ZZZZZ's. Well, that's it for now. See ya'll soon.

Feeding Braden

Dalin loves to help. The other day when I was feeding Braden, Dalin thought it would be fun to help. So I let him. We had food everywhere and after having the spoon shoved clear down his throat a few times Braden had had enough and I had to take over again, but it was a laugh. The problem I have now is that Dalin thinks it's fun to feed Braden anything from strawberries (a big no, no for babies under one year), to chips, crackers, goldfish, or anything else Dalin can find. Of course it wouldn't be a problem if Braden wasn't so inviting. He'll open his mouth to ANYTHING. Dalin was sooooo proud of his success in feeding his brother. Very cute.

Halloween

Dalin showing me his treat. He was so good trick-or-treating. He would knock on the door and say "trick-or-treat" and then when they would give him candy he would say "thank you" and immediately turn to me and Dan and say "come on". He didn't even have a melt down because he wanted to eat a of piece of candy every time he got it like last year. He just had fun running from door to door. Then when we got home he dove into his bag and ate a bunch of it while we played. Now I have hidden the candy and he can have a couple of treats a day or he'd want to eat nothing but candy.

This is Dalin's "fire". It's the light I put inside our pumkins and they flicker like a flame. He thought they were great and called them his "fire" and every now and then he would touch the flame and say "Oo hot!" even though they don't get hot at all.

Dalin was an elephant this year for Halloween. He picked it out himself and loved to look in the mirror at himself.

Braden was my cute little Tiger for Halloween. He just kind of went with the flow this year and loved to just watch all the excitement. He also loved to see himself in the mirror.

He's just so stinkin' cute!

Carving Pumpkins

Checking out the finished product.

Munching on a scooper and after eating a bit of the insides decides that it doesn't taste very good. If you look closely you can see a string of pumpkin on his chin.

Well, I was a little nervous about the whole carving pumpkins with two kids under 3 this year and fully expected that it would try my patients, but it turned out to be just perfect. First Braden helped me while Dalin napped then Dalin helped me while Braden napped. It was nice because I didn't have to worry too much about keeping Dalin from stabbing his brother or Braden fighting with Dalin. Plus, I got a little one-on-one time with each of them. Braden loves pumpkins and thought it was just great that he could stick his hand down into it and pull slimey stuff out. Dalin, of course, wanted to use the knife....much to my dismay. So I had to very carefully supervise him so he could carve his own little hole into the back of the pumpkin. After they were carved I put the candles in them(actually they're fake candles made of plastic that flicker like a real flame would). Dalin loved his "fire" and has now carried one around for two days. In fact he sleeps with it and kisses it good night. I have to sneek in at night and turn it off after he's asleep.

Cattails

So the other day we were out for a walk and found a small stream with cattails growing all around the banks. They were just giving off their seeds and there were hundreds of fluffy, white, cottony, floaties everywhere. If you pick up a cattail that's ready to seed then all you have to do is touch it and it bursts into a huge puff three times as big as the cattail was. And then the slightest little breeze will send them flying. The problem is that once they get on your clothes or in your hair they are impossible to get out. But it sure was fun. Dalin, being the wonderful big brother that he is, came and piled them on Braden's head. Braden thought it was hilarious until they got in his mouth and then he didn't like that too much. It reminded me of "The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" when Linus jumps into a pile of leaves with a sucker in his hand and comes out with leaves all over his mouth and sucker. That's what Braden looked like. The pictures just don't do it justice.

Me and My Boys

The other day after we all had our baths-well the boys did anyways-we played together on my bed for a while. We had so much fun and laughed and laughed. Dan took a ton of pictures for me because I don't really have that many pictures with me in them since I'm the one usually taking the picture. In every picture Braden was munching on his toothbrush (it's really just a bath toy because he loves to chew on them so much). I love evenings like this one.

Braden and his toothbrush!

Dalin getting tickled by the tickle monster.

Dalin getting super hugs.

Me and Dalin are wrestling and Braden is still munching on that toothbrush.

Once again that toothbrush.

Dalin is giving Braden the evil eye.

Finally a really good picture. Aren't my boys cute!

Dan's Family

Most of you have probably never seen Dan's family and in fact I've only seen them once or twice in my life. This is very sad to me and I wish I could see them much more often. The last time I saw Dan's nephews they were much younger so I don't feel like I even know who they are. Kim's little boy Lewis was about 2 years old when I saw him last and now he's 8. Teresa's boys are huge and I didn't even recognize Jake in the pictures. I had to ask Dan who it was. He was about 12 years old when I saw him last and now I think he's about 18 or 19. The only one who looks the same is Ross but just a taller version. Anyways this is Dan's family and little bit of me as well.

These are Dan's sisters Teresa and Kim

This is David, Lewis(Dan's nephew), and Kim Teresa has four boys. These are the middle two Harvey and Scott These are Teresa's other two, the oldest, Jake(with his girlfriend) and Ross the youngest.

These two pictures are Dalin playing "cow". Anytime you get down on your knees he tries to climb up on your back and ride you like a bucking bronco. He calls the game "cow".

TAGGED

Okay, it's been long enough don't you think!!!! Life has been really hectic and since I'm reading Breaking Dawn right now, I use every spare second left to read-which isn't much. It's taken me almost two weeks to read it and that NEVER happens. Usually I'll have a book read in a couple of days.

Anyways I've been tagged-so here it goes, although I'll tell you right now that I'm not tagging anyone back because I don't know that many people who blog. 1. List 5 fears -Something would happen to a member of my family -I'll never finish school -Going blind -I get snowed in at Christmas time and can't get down to see our families -Not being able to have any more children 2. List 5 Joys -Danny -My boys -Smelling autumn in the air -Spending time with friends and family -Learning 3. List 5 Obsessions/Collections -Having a clean house (sometimes I drive Dan nuts with this one) -Having my car be perfectly clean -Basketball/Utah Jazz (I really wish we could afford to get T.V. :( I miss watching the games) -Dalin likes to collect rocks -I don't collect anything because there's no point in having useless clutter around the house (I get crap for this one all the time too, but I'm really anal about the whole clean house thing) 4. List 5 Surprising facts - I would love to go to school for the rest of my life and get as many degrees in as many different areas as I can :0) --one reason I haven't gotten a degree is because I can't decide which degree I want to go after-I start one and then change my mind half way through. This is why I will get as many as I can one day. Then I don't have to pick just one. I just have to finish one and then start the next. -I suck at fantasy football, although many of you are saying that's not very surprising -I hate flying on airplanes - if I can avoid it, I will -I HATE doing the dishes (now that I don't have a dishwasher) and I'll let dishes pile up in the sink for days because I can't stand doing them, even though I hate having a dirty house -I wish I could play the oboe for the Utah Symphony By the way, although I've tried and tried I can't get this dumb thing to work right. I type it listed so that it's easy to read with one thing per line, but when I post it, it just jumbles it all together and makes it impossible to read. So sorry about that, I can't figure it out.

Sometimes Life Just Sucks

Well, this is going to be one huge vent because right now I'm very frustrated. I finally got a new camera, exciting right? It was for about a day and I took a ton of pictures and had it everywhere we went. But the day after I got it Dalin got a hold of it - BIG no no. So I scolded him and Dan (for leaving it out where Dalin could get it-also a big no no) after all, this camera is gold. I put the camera in my purse because I was going to the store and wanted to take it with me so I could capture my cute boys in the cart, but had to take a time out to put Braden to sleep and since Dan had left by this point I had to put a movie on for Dalin while I put Braden down. Normally it takes about 10 seconds to put Braden to sleep. You just lay him in his crib and he falls asleep. But on this particular day he was having a struggle because he's been teething and having a rough go with it. He cried and cried and finally I had to go in his room and sooth him. Well Dalin climbed up on the desk, got a hold of my purse, and went out the back door. The back door is significant because if he'd gone out the front door I would've heard him. We NEVER use the back door but I had that day because I was trying to clean up the kitchen and Braden was grumpy so I layed out a blanket just outside our back door and let him play outside for while where I could still see him and talk to him and get my stuff done. Dalin, of course, played too. Needless to say Dalin went out the back door, with my purse, and I didn't hear him. I thought he was still lying on the couch watching his movie, so when I came out and he was gone I searched the house but to no avail. So then I noticed the back door was open and put two and two together. Panicking I went outside and found Dalin clear down the road with some pink Barbie car and my purse dragging behind him. When I got him home I realized that, although my wallet was still in my purse the camera was gone. I looked for over two and a half hours and couldn't find it. We had all the neighbors out looking and no one ever found it. So I still have no pictures because my new, one-day-old camera, is lost in the abyss along with my memory card. This sucks!!! I can't get a new one because we can't afford it so I spent all night near tears and today I feel terrible. Life just sucks sometimes.

Fall

Well, no pictures today as I still don't have a camera. However, one is being delivered on Monday. It's my early birthday present from Grandma Doris. Thanks Grandma! I do have a great story for you though, and although I'm not yet laughing about it, I hope to one day. When I titled this blog I didn't mean Fall, as in Autumn, I meant fall, as in I took one the greatest falls of my life. Dan and I had just given Dalin and Braden their baths and we were coming downstairs so I could put Braden to bed and Dalin could have a snack. I came down first, holding Braden, and Dan followed with Dalin. Well I took a bad step and down I went. It was all a blur but the thing I remember most is lying there writhing in pain. What I did was step so that half of my foot was off the step, only my heal was on the step. Well, what I didn't know was that carpet can be quite slippery and my heal slipped, then came down with a very hard crash on the next step at which point I rolled my ankle and popped my knee out of joint. Since I was holding Braden I did every thing I could to cushen his fall so he wouldn't get hurt and in the process got nothing down to catch my fall so I landed with every bit of my weight, and all of Braden's bulk, right on my bottom. As I landed the force of the fall made Braden fall towards me and we cracked heads, at which point he started crying really loud, and then Dalin, watching all of this from above, began crying as well. Dan stood there for what had to be a full minute before he responded and then all he could say was "are you alright?" I wanted to slug him but instead I started crying because I thought I had hurt Braden. There we sat in a crumppled heap on the stairs all of us crying and Dan stammering because he didn't know if he should help me up, take Braden, or help Dalin. After I managed to compose myself and stop the boys from freaking out I assest my injuries and now a day later I have an ankle I can't walk on, a knee that throbs all day, a butt so sore I can't sit and a back so sore I can't move anything else on my body. Oh yeah, I also have the worst rug burn you've ever seen on my elbow. So If anyone else thinks they've had a bad day at least this post should give you something to chuckle about (you know you're laughing, you don't need to try and be kind). All I can say to myself is "what the heck were you doing you big clumsy ox!" I've said that to myself over and over today. And now when all my neighbors ask what I did (since I can barely walk) I have to tell them I fell down the stairs.

First Haircut

Braden finally got his first haircut the other day. It was out of control. He has super fly away, fine, straight, hair that does not lay down for anything. So it stuck out of his head about two inches or more. I finally decided he looked like a orphan child so I cut it. Dalin was over a year old when I first cut his hair so I wasn't prepared to cut Braden's so soon but it became a necessity.

Butter

Well, I've discovered Dalin's new favorite snack!! Butter. Yup, you heard right, butter. The other day while I was putting Braden down for his nap I heard Dalin rummaging in the fridge (something he does often). Well when I came out of Braden's room, Dalin was laying on the couch, watching T.V. and eating a cube of butter. It was sooo hilarious that I had to take a movie of it (I still don't have a camera). So here it is.

Cute Stuff!! Everyday one of my kids does something that makes me laugh. It's so hard not to have a camera because I miss a lot of good picture opportunities. This is one I want Dalin to see when he's older. It will make him laugh.

Repentance

Well I'm repenting for not writing in about a month, but we went down to visit family back in Utah for three weeks. That's my poor excuse anyways. We had fun seeing everyone, but I think the funnest part was camping with Alyssa's family at Bear Lake (even though I was so busy chasing kids that I didn't really get to talk to her family much). We were very glad that Bailey(Dalin's cousin) was able to come at the last minute because he loves to play with her. She's the only cousin his age. All his other cousins are over the age of 12 and they all live in England. After camping we went to my parents' house but nothing very exciting happened there because they were both back to work and very busy. Dan and I were able to take the kids to the zoo while we were there and boy did Dalin have a blast! At one point he said he wanted a drink so I took him over to the water fountain and right before we got there he started to freak out and cling to my leg. I couldn't figure out what he wanted so after a few minutes of calming him down he was finally able to tell me he was scared. If you've ever been to Hogle Zoo then you know that the drinking fountains are big lions and you have to stick your head in its mouth in order to get a drink. I took me a while but finally convinced him that it was a fake lion that wasn't going to bite your head off. Dalin's favorite part of the zoo was the train ride (he LOVES trains), the merry go round (he also LOVES rides), and the giraffes. They have a new giraffe area so now you can go inside and watch them eat and stuff. There was a cute little baby giraffe that was only a few months old and Dalin liked that. I guess he really liked the penguins too, but ended up throwing a fit because he wanted to swim with them and I couldn't make him understand that we couldn't do that. To anyone who wants to visit the zoo I would recommend going in the late afternoon/eveningish. It was perfect - not too hot and not at all crowded. Well after my folks we went to Dan's Dad's place in Idaho which turned out to be very uneventful and then over to his mom's in Logan, Utah. That was fun and Dalin loves to go to their house because he gets their 100% undivided attention so it's play, play, play all day. I would love to post pictures of our fun little adventure but we're morons and lost our camera somewhere along the line. I'm pretty sure we left it at the zoo because that's the last time we had it. So I've emailed the zoo to see if anyone took it to the lost and found (there's a chance, right?). That's the second camera we've had lost or stolen in the last three months. We just bought a new video camera so we don't have any money for a new digital camera as well. I hope we can find it, or my blogs might get kind of boring. I promise to write more often and I love your comments (I just found out the other day that people could leave them!) Duh!!!

The 4th

Well the 4th was a bummer for us. I had planned on taking everyone to the fairgrounds where they were going to have a rodeo and then a firework show after, but about 7:00 Dalin started getting really fussy and I could tell he didn't really feel very good. I took his temperature and he was burning up so I took him outside where it was nice and cool and we sat on the lawn for a little while and read some books. However, the neighbors have a two-year-old so they were lighting fireworks around 7:30. Nothing big, you know, just the store bought kiddy ones. Well, Dalin got curious, so over he goes but just as he gets to the sidewalk the firework starts in on an ear piercing screech. Well that did it! He freaked out and started screaming, not crying, screaming. So I brought him in the house and tried to put him to bed. But of course everyone in the neighborhood is doing fireworks now and he can still hear them so he's still crying. So I basically had to hold him until after 1:00 in the morning when the fireworks finally stopped. Not even the medicine I gave him would put him out. Then he woke up 4 times that night crying. So the 4th simply freaked out Dalin and then gave him nightmares. It was a fun time. But the day wasn't a complete waste. We took Braden for his first ride in the bike stroller and he loved it. Dalin wants to go for a bike ride almost everyday. This morning he woke up and the first thing he said to me was "bike ride". It's very cute. Plus Dalin and I played our own little version of pool ball. That was fun too. Dalin is a really good shot. If you'll notice in one of the pictures I'm standing on the opposite side of basket. Dalin can shoot the ball from there and make it most of the time. Well, I hope Dalin gets over his fear of fireworks, but somehow I doubt that will be anytime soon!

If you ever want to buy some great fireworks come to Montana. They sell the kind that you see in the big shows to anyone. So there were lots of people out in the field in front of our house lighting those off. So I guess the night wasn't a total waste. I got to sit in my bedroom and look out the window and watch a great show as I held my wimpering child.

Double Stroller

You'd think I was an alien the way people stare at me when I'm out and about with my double stroller. It's as if nobody has ever seen two kids before. As I've talked to people in our ward it's become clear that this insn't exactly a family town. More people here have dogs rather than kids. I guess you can't fish if you have kids to weigh you down. Needless to say this leaves people astonished when they see me walking all over the place with my giant double stroller. It's been a life saver though (thanks mom!) because I walk almost everywhere I go - gas costs about $4 a gallon up here. Well the other day I was out and about and saw a lady with a triple stroller. I didn't even know they made those! Well curiosity overcame my shyness and I had to go over and talk to her. She has a two-year-old son and then twin babies younger than Braden. Come to find out she lives just around the corner from us and now we've decided we're going to walking together three times a week. At least I won't feel like such a loner and people can really stare at us!

Pretty Trees

So the other day Dalin was eating a snack. He loves grapes (especially the purple ones) and has discovered that he likes to pull them off the vine by himself without help. At this particular time he had eaten all the grapes off the vine and then held up the empty vine and said "pretty tree". Then he proceeded to show us the leaves and flowers on his "pretty tree". It was very cute and now he knows that when he eats grapes then he gets the added bonus of a tree afterwards. He has a new favorite snack. Then, much to my dismay, I went in the living room where Dan was holding Braden and found that he was allowing Braden to munch on an empty vine. After scolding him I just had to take some pictures because it was cute. Braden also loved the grape vines and now they're his favorite treat too.

Beautiful Montana

Well, I have to say that if I could persuade my family to move to Montana I would consider living here for the rest of my life. It's so beautiful here! It's not at all dry and deserty like Utah and the rivers here are amazing. These pictures are taken at the Madison River and it's located about 20 miles from our house. But then if I really thought about it I would remember how much I love Utah even in the hot weather. I don't think I would ever consider living anywhere else for a very long time. But you can't deny the beauty of Montana. This fun little place was discovered one Sunday after church. Church is held from 1-4, a very bad time for two little boys who want their naps at that very time. So skipping Dalin's much needed nap is very difficult for everyone involved. So as soon as we had eaten we decided to go for a drive and off we went with no particular destination in mind. We drove down the old highway heading west from Bozeman and ran right into this! It's just off the road and used for fishing access. Dalin fell in love with it and of course loves to throw rocks.

Dalin loves to wear his slickers and splash in the water any chance he gets, but this was heaven. We've been there twice now and all you have to do is say "Dalin, do you want to go throw rocks" and he gets very excited because he knows exactly what that means.