And I thought just little girls had a thing for makeup...

At least he put it in the right place (kind of). :)

Boys, boys, boys

What is it with guys and wrestling? My boys LOVE wrestling w/ David and thinking they're beating him. Matt gets into it a lot now - he's turning out to be one tough little guy! I don't worry about them getting hurt too much anymore. It's too much fun to hear them laughing and enjoying their quality guy time together. :)

Another week gone by

Well, we've survived another week with David gone. He gets home tonight from Arizona - yay! The first couple of times he was gone I was thinking, "Oh yeah, I can totally handle this." I must of felt a little too prideful of my ability to take care of the house, kids, etc. on my own because this week I was reminded again how tough it can be. Nothing awful happened, but I was just worn out really fast. Having a somewhat sick kiddo and a sinus infection didn't help a lot, but it was more just being tired of being by myself. (I admire single mothers so much , much more so now that I've had a tiny taste of what it's like.)

With that said, I've also had some good moments where I've been overwhelmed with how much I love my kids. Both boys are so sweet and so funny! Matt is showing more and more personality every day, mostly because I think he's using more words and expressing himself more easily. He says "Mommy" over and over, whereas he didn't call me anything even just a couple weeks ago and it's the sweetest thing. (Except for right now when he's supposed to be going to bed but instead he's yelling out for me to come cuddle and sing him one more song... I guess that's sweet too, though.) He loves playing cars and even make-believe playing with Bryan's knight figures, which is really entertaining to watch. He's still obsessed with trucks and tractors and calls them out whenever we see one while driving, and he's finally started making animal noises as well (besides a growl). His absolute favorite thing these days is "Signing Time." He and Bryan both love watching the DVDs we get from the library. Bryan does the signs and remembers them all very well, and Matt likes to pretend. I'm thinking he'll catch on one of these days. :)

Matt and Bryan are playing pretty well together, mostly things like tag, hide 'n seek, dancing, and crashing their push-toys into things. Whatever keeps them entertained, right? As long as my things aren't totally ruined. That's kind of my thinking with our couch now, as well, which loses its cushions first thing in the morning so it can instead be used as a jail/fort/trampoline. David probably wouldn't be happy to know that I don't put up a fuss, but I've got to pick my battles, right? And playing with couch cushions seems pretty harmless compared to lots of other things they could be doing! I've surrendered to the fact that I've got two boys and things are going to be messy and crazy at times. It's a given. But I love them both so much and wouldn't trade the craziness for anything. All the little things they do, from a tender pat on the cheek to the squeal of giggles I get after making a funny face definitely make up for all the chaos.

(Bryan's new favorite accessory - David's raquetball goggles.)

26 Weeks

Today I'm 26 weeks or 6 months along in my pregnancy... 2/3 of the way done (more or less)! I always really look forward to being pregnant and envy other girls that are when I'm not. I guess I forget what a pain it can be (literally)! Really, it hasn't been that bad. I haven't had to deal with the typical things - heartburn, constipation, etc. But then I've realized also that pregnancies are seldom typical. Everyone has their own little things to deal with.

I've mentioned before that I have bad vein problems - we're talking REALLY ugly spider AND varicose veins! (If you don't know the difference, you're lucky!) I never thought the most important thing to me in my pregnancies would be compression hoes, but I couldn't live without them! Here's the really depressing part. They say that ugly veins don't go away after the 3rd child! Aughhhh! The thought of even wearing capris or a skirt without tights makes me cringe. I'm for sure going to have to have some procedures done at some point to help my legs get somewhat back to normal. Thankfully, at least, they don't hurt too much with the hoes. My ankles just itch like crazy by the end of the day!

My other problem is this nasty stuffy nose that won't go away! I've used every saline option out there, including the wonderful Neti Pot, but even that hasn't helped a whole lot. I think I actually have a sinus infection now, so my doctor's just prescribed me something for it (something I'd really wanted to avoid), but hopefully I'll have some relief soon.

Aside from that, things have been pretty good. Baby Girl kicks often, which is fun, and I'm spending more time than I should browsing girly clothes, shoes, and crib bedding online. We have it narrowed down to a few names that we like, but we still don't have "the one." I'm not stressing though. David is at least agreeing with me and not shooting down all my ideas like he normally does with names! As for getting bigger, I feel like I'm huge, but I know that I'm not as big as many women at 6 months. I think my babies like to hide. This is fine for now, but soon she'll be all up in my ribs and in other uncomfortable places which will surely make me wish I had a bigger belly to accomodate her growth. :) (Bryan just told me I look fat - like a big basketball! Thanks, Bry!)

What a difference...

...taking a shower can make!!

Yes, today was the first time I took a shower with both boys awake and no one around to watch them - a huge step for me! I used to shower when Matt took his morning nap, and then when he dropped that nap I usually waited until he went down for his afternoon nap or skipped the shower altogether (gross, I know). In PA I took advantage of having my sister there before she took off for work, and now w/ David's crazy schedule he's been home enough mornings that I've been able to take morning showers often enough. But last Friday was an especially frustrating morning for me as no one else was around and I just couldn't see how I could leave the boys to fend for themselves for the 10 precious minutes it would take to shower. Not that I don't leave them to themselves for that long during the day, because I certainly do. It's just the not being able to hear what's going on or being able to get to them quickly if I need to that's deterred me from showering in the past.

Until today! While Bryan was contentedly watching a morning show I just brought Matt up to my room and locked him in, making sure that all scary things, including our rolling office chair, were out of reach. If I'd locked Bryan in as well he would have opened the door within a minute or two and the two of them would be who knows where doing who knows what, so I had to keep them separated. It worked! I didn't take a super relaxing shower or anything, and my room was a bit messy when I got out and checked on things, but no one was hurt and nothing was broken. Success! It seriously made my day to have accomplished that simple thing of showering on my own, and I loved that I was clean and put together before noon, in time to get out of the house and run errands before afternoon nap time. I'm hoping this will be something I'll be able to do on a regular basis, at least until Baby Girl arrives in the spring...

(P.S. The picture, unfortunately, is not of my shower. I wish!)

Little sicko

Matty is sick - again! It seems like he can hardly go a week without coming down with something! It drives me nuts since I make such an effort to feed him healthy foods and do all I can to build up his little system, but it doesn't seem to make much of a difference when cold season comes around. This is his 3rd cold and 2nd ear infection in the last month, poor baby (or the same ones that just keep popping back up). There must be something more I can do to help him ward off the germs - any suggestions??

This time it was especially scary because he started wheezing like he'd done back in October when we had to have him hospitalized. Thankfully I knew what to watch for and got him into the doctor before it got really bad. His oxygen levels were only borderline and he responded really well to the breathing treatment they gave him, so they just had us get a nebulizer to use here at home and it's really helped him out. (Basically he just breathes in this mist for several minutes and it helps to open up his lungs.) He's a trooper and hasn't minded it much at all. So now the wheezing is gone, but he's still a mess of boogers and has a nasty cough. Grrrr.

January is just the worst for our family as far as sicknesses go. I remember being holed up in the house all month last year with one thing or another! Thankfully Bryan and David are okay, and I just have a perpetual stuffy nose now, but I think that's related to being pregnant more than anything. It could be worse. At least this time we avoided having to take Matt to the hospital, and he's bouncing back fast. I just hope he can get through the rest of the month without coming down with something else!

Our school boy - finally!

Bryan has been wanting to go to school for soooo long! Now that we're somewhat settled for a while, we were finally able to enroll him in a great preschool and he is LOVING it! It's wonderful for both of us, actually. He goes three days a week right after lunch, so I get to drop him off and then come home and put Matt down for his nap and relax. :) I love knowing that Bryan's doing good, productive things during my down time.

School is seriously the highlight of his life right now. He counts down the days and then the hours before he goes to each class, and then when I go to pick him up he doesn't want to leave! One day he saw me waiting at the door, but his teacher was still reading a book so he totally ignored the fact that I was there. His teacher even asked him a few times if he was ready to go, and he just sat there with a straight face and didn't respond. We almost had to physically remove him from the room! I hope his teachers didn't get the wrong idea. School's just so much more exciting than anything we do at home. :)

The only frustrating thing is that when I ask what he did or anything he always says, "I don't remember," or "I dunno." Is that typical of all kids, or just boys? He does say that his favorite part is going to the "centers" (a.k.a. play areas). That's fine with me! Learning through playing is what it's all about at this age, right? He doesn't start kindergarted for another year and a half, so he has plenty of time to learn what he needs to learn before then. Hopefully he's as enthusiastic about school then as he is now!

Matt's "lovey" :)

I've finally come to accept Matt's lovey of choice - my slip! It started months ago when he used to play with my undergarments while nursing. Even after he stopped nursing he still had a thing for my silky things. :) So one night, mostly out of desperation to get him to go to sleep, I got an old slip out of my dresser and gave it to him and he hasn't given it up since!

When I went to PA, I was determined to make him something a little more appropriate. My mom and I went to the fabric store to find something comparable to slip fabric (apparently it's called tricot) but they only had various nylon/polyester things, which seemed close enough at the time. Matt liked it in the story, anyway! When I got the fabric home, though, it just didn't seem nice enough and snagged really easily, so I decided to order away for something. I looked at different tricot options online but eventually started noticing all the cute minky fabrics (super soft and fuzzy). I thought, if it's soft and flimsy enough it will work, right? Wrong! I got a double-sided minky fabric and, with the help of my mom's friend, made a cute little lovey out of it. (Nothing fancy - I was going for really simple and flimsy.) But I gave it to Matt Christmas morning and he's hardly even looked at it, let alone cuddle with it. It was a total waste. He's COMPLETELY in love with the slip!I have to admit that while it's weird and a little frustrating for me, it's cute to see him so attached to something so silly. He loves to hold it up in the crook of his neck so it's touching his cheek, and it's become a game for him to find where he last left it when nap or bedtime comes around. He gets so excited! At this point I don't think I'm going to do anything else about it, as much as sometimes I'd like to. Thankfully he doesn't insist on taking it outside of the house, and I suppose it will make for a good, embarassing story someday. :)

Baltimore and Washington D.C.

One thing I love about my parents' house in PA is that it's within a couple of hours of so many great tourist spots! Baltimore's Inner Harbor is an hour from their house, and it's one place we usually don't visit so we figured it would make for a great day trip. David loves being in big cities, so he was especially excited. Besides seeing the harbor, ships, and shops, we decided to take the boys to the aquarium since it's not something we can enjoy here in Utah. (The aquarium in Sandy just doesn't compare to the real things on the coasts.) It was great! Matt got to ride around on David's back and was fascinated by most everything. Bryan loved the sharks, and I liked the sea turtle and cute friendly fish like the little guy below. Just check out those lips!The day after Baltimore we headed to Washington D.C. Though we've been there many times, it's always exciting to walk around and see so many famous sites. We were a little short on time so we couldn't see too many things, but for Bryan's sake, mostly, we hit the Air and Space and Natural History museums. All the Smithsonians are so impressive!
We ended the day by visiting the spectacular Washington D.C. temple. David and the boys stayed long enough to see the lights, and then David was nice enough to take the boys and let me do a temple session with my family, something we were able to do all together for the very first time. It was a wonderful way to end the day!

Christmas gift for Mom

This year my mom said that the one thing she wanted for Christmas was a painted family room. In the 12 years my family has lived there they've never painted, and Mom had watched enough HGTV shows to know that it was long overdue! So one day I took my mom shopping so David and Nate could surprise her with at least one wall painted. They did a fabulous job and she was absolutely shocked! I'd post the pic of her surprised face but I think she'd be too embarassed. :) When Jake and Heather came, Jake went to work with them and they were able to finish off the rest of the family room, kitchen, and foyer. My dad was more than happy to lend out his fabulous-looking coveralls, and the boys did the rest! Thankfully David's been on a painting kick since doing a few rooms at our house, so he didn't mind at all. In fact, he told me he wouldn't mind having his own pair of coveralls to wear here at home. They are pretty dang sexy! :)

Amish Country and Hershey, PA

We can't go to Pennsylvania without visiting some our favorite tourist spots, so the day after Christmas we headed to Amish Country, or more specifically, Intercourse, PA. (Yes, that's really the name!) There's a great little village of shops that feature products made by the Amish. Our favorite shop is filled with jams, jellies, salsas, dips and sauces, and they have crackers and chips all over so you can sample as much as you'd like! David and I couldn't get enough of the chips and salsas - everything from regular flavors to peach mango and rasberry salsa! Yum! Bryan got to decorate a gingerbread man, and also got his fill of crackers and jam. (Poor Matt would have loved all the samples, but he was a little sick and stayed home and bonded with Grandpa.) While we were driving we saw several horse-drawn buggies, and Nate snapped a picture of some Amish kids, although they don't like getting their picture taken (sorry, kids!). The countryside is beautiful and serene, and the Amish culture so fascinating!Later we headed up to the town of Hershey to visit Chocolate World. Bryan thought we were going to see a real town all made of chocolate (chocolate buildings, roads, etc.), so he was a little disappointed when he saw it wasn't quite like that. We did get to take a little ride that shows how the chocolate candies are made at the Hershey factory, and he got a kick out of that. Afterwards we went to a special Christmas lights display in Hershey and oohed and ahhed over the lights. It all made for a fun, sight-filled day!

Toone Family - Dec 2008

Here were our attempts to take some family pictures after our efforts to find a real photographer failed.

Nate insisted we take a picture with his collection of Russian hats - he's got a ton!
Heather and I showing off our baby bumps, although mine doesn't show too well here...

Home for Christmas

This was the first time in five years that my family was all together for Christmas, so the holidays were especially nice this year. After days of cooking goodies, carrolling, and wrapping gifts we were all anxious for Christmas to arrive! Heather and Jake arrived Christmas Eve night, just in time to see the boys before they headed off to bed to wait for Santa to "sneak on them." We had a yummy ham dinner and then read Luke 2 and sang through the program my mom had put together for her ward choir. It was a really nice way to keep us focused on the true meaning of Christmas. Christmas morning, Bryan dragged everyone out of bed a little earlier than the rest of us would have preferred, but that was okay. It was fun to see him and Matt react to their gifts.

The one gift David asked for - a Phillies hat to add to his hat collection (after getting a new plasma TV back in UT).
We all enjoyed our traditional breakfast of egg/sausage casserole and cinnamon rolls, and later in the afternoon we went to see "Marley and Me," which we all bawled through, of course. I wanted to tell the guy next to me that our dog had just died because at one point he actually said, "It's only a movie!" Sheesh!

All in all, it was a nice Christmas and a real blessing to all be able to be together as a family!