You have learned well my young Padawan

It's garbage day. Before I left for work I needed to go into the sleeping Malcolm's room to get his diapers. In the past going in has woken him up which makes my sleeping Ashley upset. I have found that if I unlatch Mal's door but not go in, then go in later quickly and quietly I can escape with the diapers and not wake Malcolm up. Or so it was.

This morning all was normal, I unlatched the door and went about my business. All was quiet, all was well. Later I rushed in there to grab the diapers and Mal was standing in his crib and said "Boo!" It scared me so bad I tripped on the footrest by the chair and fell. Mal looked down at me, laughed and laid back down.


Little stink!

18, almost 19 months old

Having my phone camera broken, has let me get my "nice camera" out that I tend to forget.  I did an impromptu photo shoot with Malcolm (and Afro) one morning.  Caught some good pictures.  See for yourself! (Man I want to change our blue bedroom...)

My Fav.  Love him!

Oh the faces!  What a nut.

Our Funny Little Man

Being a parent just gets better and better.  18 mo. olds are awfully cute, aren't they?  Malcolm's personality shows more and more.  He says so many things and comes up with some new funny thing every day.  I've managed to catch a few of them on camera.  I think to myself often that I want to capture the moment and keep it in my pocket and pull it out to relive whenever I want.  Such precious memories, so soon gone.

Malcolm dumped all the peas out of his bowl, put it on his head and exclaimed loudly, "Hat!"  

 Malcolm kept putting his fingers together and saying something that sounded like "pod".  It took me a while to realize he was saying "spider" and was doing the actions for Itsy Bitsy Spider.  He does the fingers together, then does the "wash" movement, and the sun.  He is also really great doing "If you're happy and you know it." He claps and stomps his feet and shouts "hooray!" Seriously, it's so sweet you'll get cavities.

Mal was playing in the Tupperware drawer like always. He found a green Tupperware that is a similar color to the one Laura keeps snacks in for Denali.  He started saying "ah-lee" over and over, then jabbered some more. Then said, "awah" (laura) and more jabbering and "ah-lee".  Pretty sure he was telling me all about Denali's snacks.  

Holding the "ah-lee" tupperware and an ice cube to suck on.

We sat him on a bar stool at the Titensor's (Laura's in law's) house, and then handed him his sippy.  Which he kept here between his knees.  I thought it was so cute, and so clever!

Ah, Afro, Malcolm's favorite play mate.  He chases him around and just loves that cat to pieces.  He often lays on him like this.  The best happened tonight, but ended before we could get the camera out.  He was laying on his back with his head on Afro like a pillow, and had his feet up on the coffee table, lounging while he played with little toys and jabbered. 

Little strips of wrapper like this from fruit snacks packages and Hi-Chews often get left around.  Malcolm  will take them and put them in his mouth hanging out like this.  He just leaves them there hanging out while he crawls around or plays. It's hilarious to watch him wander around with wrappers bobbing out of his face.  Silly kid.

Very excitedly pointing out his belly while we were having frozen yogurt.

Just a yogurt face.

We have a little shape sorter ball with holes of different shapes and the little shapes to put in it.  Malcolm was putting them in, then suddenly he stopped, put one in his mouth, and bent forward to stick it in the hole.  What a goof!

There's so many more great little things he does.  Like I said, I want to keep these days' memory forever.  

Southern Utah Getaway 2/9-10/13

This weekend, the Titensor's invited us for a little getaway.  We debated calling it off when we saw the weather report, but we're glad we kept it.  It may not have been as warm as other weekends, but we still enjoyed ourselves.  We headed down after the boys got off early on Friday afternoon.  We made it all the way to Santaquin before the weather got insane.  It started blizzarding while we were inside Dairy Queen, then cleared just as we were leaving.  Soon after though, we caught up to the storm and drove for a good long while in blizzard conditions.  We saw lots of cars slid off the road and one jack-knifed semi.  It was pretty hairy!

We made it to Hurricane at like 9:30 pm though, and enjoyed the cheap hard as rocks motel beds! How hard were they?

this hard:

Lol, that picture kills me!

The next day we headed to Zion National Park and saw some of the sites on the really short trails.  There was the occasional break int he clouds and we enjoyed what Vit D we could get.

I love their matching scowls!

Little Malcolm footprints

eating lunch in Zion Lodge

That afternoon we visited the Dinosaur Discovery center where they have tons and tons of dinosaur tracks.  It was pretty cool.

Then after dinner, we went to the St. George temple grounds and visitor center.  You know what?  They should totally have a Temple childcare center.  Just for out of town visitors.  Then you could travel as a family and have a place to put your kids so you can actually do a session or something in the temple.  You'd have to have proof you're from out of town and maybe it couldn't be at every temple.  I know, I know, there's way too much to work out to make that idea a reality, but it would be nice.

Laura and Andrew found a Mongolian Book of Mormon.  They took a picture with it to send to Andrew's brother who is in Mongolia on a mission.

We caught this one by having Ryan, Laura, and Andrew dance around just behind the camera.  Someone walking by said," I dunno if that made them smile, but it worked on me!"

We had some frozen custard next, then spent the evening with the kids in one hotel room, while we were in the adjacent one playing games and watching TV.

The last day, all our plans were fouled!  The antique store was closed, the Kolob area of Zion's was closed for the season, a DIFFERENT antique store in Cedar City has ceased to exist, and then it was a blizzard at the Mystical Kanosh hot springs.  We did manage some shooting in the morning, but we ended up making it home by 5 and so we went to dinner at my parent's house and watched Downton Abby.

seems I only got pictures of Laura shooting.  Weird.  Probably because I had to keep wandering away with  Malcolm in my pack away from the scary noises.

This is in the car on the drive home.  I don't know why they were holding hands while watching the DVD, but it was stinking adorable!

Malcolm's new shades.

pretty cool dude.

All in all, it was nice to get away and enjoy some time with the Titensors.  It didn't go as planned, but luckily the  6 of us are pretty easy going and can entertain ourselves in most places.

We're excited for our next trip coming up in March to Moab, Ut!