The Plastic Cup

Last night Ryan and I witnessed one of the funniest things we had seen in a long time! Carson is growing up so fast, 8 1/2 months old and crawling all over the place. Well the boys had left a plastic cup on the floor (one that you would throw away) and Carson spotted it and went for it. Licorice (the dog) was watching his every move, and right before Carson got the cup Licorice ran over and picked it up and walked to the other side of the room. Carson doesn't give up easily and headed after him. As soon as he reached Licorice, Licorice once agan relocated, with Carson following close behind. Several times Carson practically crawled over Licorice to get the cup from him. Licorice started boxing him out, turning his back to Carson over and over to prevent him from getting the cup. Licorice finally jumped up to Ryan as if to say "please save me" Ryan and i just laughed and laughed. Then Ryan took the cup from licorice and gave it to Carson. Licorice looked so betrayed. I felt bad and went into the kitchen to get a new cup for Licorice. When I gave it to him he immediately headed down the hall with him far away from Carson. A little later he came back and grabbed the other cup (Carson had now moved on from it) and took it down the hall too. I tried to get it on video, but it was dead. I love seeing our dog interact with the boys!!

Bubblegum Monster

We went over to my mom's house for her birthday and were faced with a box of 850 gumballs (minus all the pink and most of the white that were used for my niece's birthday party) These aren't the little gumballs, no, these are the big ones. I could barely chew them myself. So I allowed the boys to have 1/2 a gumball at a time. Grandpa got a sandwhich bag and filled it up with gumballs for the boys to take home which I put by my purse. As the evening went on I noticed that Dylan had disappeared. Wondering where he was I set out to search. I found him in the toy room laying flat on his stomach underneath the horse. At first I thought he was pooping (we are still working on using the potty EVERY time) and so I asked him. He put his hands over his mouth and said no. I kept asking him what he was doing and was getting no real response. I finally reached under the horse and pulled him out. That's when I saw the bag of gumballs that he must have been laying on. He admitted to eating some gum but kept saying over and over, "I not eat all them mom, I not eat them all gone." It was the funniest thing. Then as I looked in the bag I see a gumball bitten in half. Dylan says, "I break it in half with my teeth mom." At least he stuck to only 1/2 a gumball at a time. He is a sweetheart, it makes me laugh everytime I think about it!

Life is passing me by

Capturing my families memories is something I haven't done well with. I seem to let other unimportant things control my time, and before I know if I've forgotten. So many new year's resolutions. So here's a little story for ya.
When I was getting married at one of my bridal showers we tied blanket. It's flannel and cozy and Ryan has deemed it his own blanket and he loves getting all wrapped up in it. Well the children picked up on Dad's special blanket and request it for bedtime or naps or just snuggling while watching a show. It is definitely starting to wear out. It started with a couple of holes (that mom never fixed) which lent itself to a finger poking through, then a hand, and arm, and eventually a body. Brayden now uses it like a snuggie with his head poking through the hole and the rest of him all wrapped up. So before bed tonight he was snuggling in it with dad while reading books and when it was bed time he asked for it. Dad told him no, tonight he got to have it, but that he could take his jean quilt. (this is a blanket I made him for Christmas right before we were married) So he dragged the heavy thing down the hall and when I came to tuck him into bed he said, "I was looking to see if there was a pocket by me so I could put lamby in it and he could sleep there." I showed him where a pocket was and he said that it wasn't by him enough to snuggle. Then he asked if I could sew a pocket close by him. I laughed and said it sounds like he was trying to take over this blanket too. He smiled his Brayden smile and laughed a mischievous laugh. When I left the room he was rearranging the blanket to get a pocket close enough to him where he could put lamby in. I should check and see if he succeeded. Brayden is such a sweet boy and I fear that he puts up with so much from me. I need to do a better job simply playing with him and enjoying him as he takes in all that he does from life. He makes my heart smile! My goal this week: take a picture of our favorite blanket and add it to this post.

8 YEARS

Two saturdays ago, August 21st to be exact, I woke up to a blaring alarm clock in my bedroom. Carson was on one side of me finishing nursing, and Dylan on the other, who had shown up in my bed at who know what time. I yelled to Ryan, who was missing to come and shut off the alarm. Shortly thereafter he pops his head in and says, "I really can't right now, could do it?" and off he goes. My mouth about dropped off my face as I watched him leave me sandwiched between two sleeping babes while the alarm continued to blare on. Very much annoyed I got out of bed to turn it off. (which was on the floor because we have no nightstands). Much to my suprise I found a dozen roses with a poem awaiting me. Since my life is my own and I haven't figured out how to run it yet, that note is in a very safe place. So safe in fact that I can't find it (but I will add it when I do). I came out of the bedroom to the smell of Pizza cooking, and a small table (Brayden and Dylan's table) for two complete with candlelight set up on the balcony. Another note was awaiting which sent me to the Vitamix where I found a gift certificate to emeral smoothie waiting, along with a promise that each day I would recieve another clue. My love was recreating (in a way) the night he proposed to me. It's funny though, after 8 years and 3 children things tend to get shifted. Originally Ryan sent me on a all day scavenger hunt which ended up on a rooftop with candlight (by emergency candles he found in the car) and a Pizza was delivered. On the pizza box it said, "Will you... Be My... and written in pepporoni was "Best Friend" My first thoughts were, "thank goodness he didn't propose with pizza!" After the pizza dinner he hugged and kissed me goodnight and sent me to bed. A little confused (I thought it was going to be made official that night) I went to sleep and was awakened at 2 am by my roomates with a dozen roses. A friend was waiting to take me to the spot where Ryan and I danced under the moonlight after making the decision to marry. Everything was very simbolic. Ryan and I had decided to marry on 8-12-02. Our pizza dinner was at 8:12. He officially proposed on 8-21 (or 12 backwords) at 2:18 am (8-12 backwords). So when he tried to recreate it the original plan was to wake me up at 2:18 am. The night before he had rented a romantic movie (only for my sake) and had planned to outlast me by staying awake until 2:18. However, we were both really tired that night and he wasn't able to stay awake. So the alarm went off the next morning at 8:12 am. Our romantic balcony setting was quickly occupied by our two oldest boys who were very enthusiastic about have pizza for breakfast. It was a good day that ended with a picnic and soccer in the park. I truly love my family and especially my wonderful husband who works so hard all the time to provide for us. I can't imagine my life without him and look forward to celebrating our 8th wedding anniversary this January.

Kids in Charge

Today I told Brayden to try and put Dylan down for his nap. I said, "Lay with him him bed, look through some books with him, then wait a bit and you can come out." I thought it should be interesting to see what would happen. A few minutes later Brayden is coming out saying, "stay in your bed." Then I hear some crying by Dylan, and Brayden runs into the kitchen with his Lamb. He says, "I told Dylan if he stayed in his bed he could have my lamb, but he came out so I took it away." He'll make a great babysitter some day. I gave them a few more chances to pull it off, but it looks as though I will have to intervene. The last time they came out Brayden said, "It's okay if Dylan comes out this time, we put in a really scary tape, really scary!"

Dylan just loves his older brother. He follows him around and copies everything he does to a T. He can at times be a very stubbern and difficult child, but he easily wins you over with his sweet and sincere smile and personality. He truly wants to be a helper. When Carson was about 2 or three weeks old and was sleeping in a bed that is low to the floor I asked Dylan to go and see if the baby was crying. Next thing I know he walks into the room with the baby. I about had a heart attack, but everyone survived, thank goodness.

And speaking of our newest member of the family, Carson. I call him my angel baby. He has such a sweet personality. From the beginning he has stolen my heart. He is starting to smile and is filling out. My midwife comes this week, and I am excited to see how much he weighs now! The boys are doing beautifully with him. They are patient when I'm nursing, (expect when Dylan realizes I can't chase him and gets into trouble!), and both love to hold him and kiss him.

These three boys of mine!! I hope they grow up to be great friends!

Hopefully I can do better at blogging. Our family needs these memories!

My sweet boys

Dylan has always been a climber and when we were in Utah a few weeks ago for a funeral he figured out how to climb out of his pack n play, and open doors. I wasn't sure if it would carry over to his crib at home, but it did. Ryan and I can put him to bed and in 30 seconds flat he scales up the side flips his body over, lowers himself down, and has opened the door. I have been worried that he will get hurt so we took the mattress out for him to sleep on the floor. That didn't really go over so well. He kept climbing into Brayden's bed, making it difficult for Brayden to sleep. One night I came in and they were both asleep in Brayden's bed, then later that night Brayden woke up and I came in to him on the floor crying and Dylan was sprawled out on the bed with his arms tucked behind his head. The other nights we put Dylan in our room (must to his dimay) until they both were asleep then we moved him into his bed. We wanted to take the side of the crib off and turn it into a toddler bed, but with everything in the storage unit we had no luck finding the attachment. We ended up just taking the side of the crib off anyway, and I threatend to take away his blanky and sippy cup if he got out. Last night I checked on them and Dylan had fallen off the bed. I put him back and then before going to bed checked on him again, to find again he had fallen off the bed. I decided to leave him on the floor and went to bed. A couple hours later Brayden woke up and came into our room. He said, "Mom come with me, I need to show you something" He had spotted Dylan on the floor and needed to tell us. It was so funny even at 2 am. I truly love our children and feel such a privilege to be their mother.

A Yates Update

I was in the car today talking about blogging and I remembered why I started in the first place. I saw Leah Jensen's beautiful book that she made with all her blog entries for the year. That was a year ago and once again I have failed to make this everything I want it to be. However, better late than never, and here I am. So we are currently living in my parents basement in Coeur d'alene, ID. Ryan is working on opening his practice in Liberty Lake and we are hoping for that to come sooner rather than later. It is frustrating to wait on everybody else when all you want to do is get started. Also with the holidays and a funeral of my grandmother in Utah everyone's been busy. I received a calling as the beehive adviser and have really enjoyed it. This is one area of the church I haven't ever worked in. We are expecting our third child due the end of June and are very excited. Brayden says it will be a girl but mom and dad are conviced it'a boy. Hopefully we will be able to find out the end of January (pending I find a doctor by then). We had a great Christmas and are looking forward to and exciting year for our family!