Sassy Pants...

Often I look at Peyton and wonder, " How did I give birth to a 13 year old?" I don't know if I would necessarily classify him as an "old soul" because that sounds too nice. Ha ha! He is a SASSY PANTS!

Today I went into his room and found him in the clothes hamper. When I questioned him as to why he was in the clothes hamper he snipped, "Because I feel like it!" What? How are you 13? Many times I have had a glimpse of the teenage years from my little 3 year old. I have heard, "I don't like you" while slamming his bedroom door {and secretly i am thinking "i am really not that fond of you right now, thus the reason you're going to your room".} he he! The other day I went to talk to him after his 90th time in time-out for the day and he said, "Get out of my room!" Um, No. I pay the bills child. I was not prepared for this at such a young age. I am being put on the spot. I thought I at least had 10 years before all of this "back-talking" started. I am now struggling with how to explain to a 3 year old the concept of respect. He is a very "tit-for-tat" kind of child. If someone is mean to him, he is mean right back. Therefore, he thinks I am being "mean" to him when I put him on time-out so he says he needs to be "mean" back to me. Sometimes parenting is hard.
I guess I get what I deserve, right? Rumor has it that I was quite the sassy pants at the age of 3. I may or may not have threatened to bite my toy vacuum after the handle broke off. Yikes.
If only I would have known what was coming to me, maybe I wouldn't have been so sassy...and I haven't even had a girl yet.
Sigh.

Bats....

Peyton is really into superheroes right now. He actually has been for a few months now. He knows every superhero {some i didn't even know existed}. He recently saw a few scenes of a Batman movie, and is now obsessed. He saw the part where Bruce Wayne {i guess that's his name} was in a cave or something and all the bats flew passed his face. He then asked me where bats lived. I told him about when I was younger and we found out that over 200 bats were living in our chimney. He now thinks that we have bats living in our chimney. Me and my big mouth. :) At least he is not afraid of them {like he should be}. Tonight Peyton and Kael {mostly Peyton} were trying to figure out how to get the bats out of the chimney.

Peyton first surveyed the situation...in his underwear/pull-up. That's how he rolls. I think the kid would live in an "underwear only" colony if he could. He loves being in his underwear.

He then brings his sidekick, Kael in to survey the situation. Peyton then decides that they are going to need the help of a "mouse-ka-tool" {mickey mouse clubhouse} to help them get the bats out. So Peyton went off looking for his "mouse-ka-tool".

He found it! Two paper plates. He decided that if he hits the paper plates together, it sounds like the wings on a bat. I promise he thought that up on his own {i probably would never have thought that}. I guess this was supposed to help get the bats out??

He then put them really close to his face pretending to be Bruce when the bats hit his face.
What? :)

He had to give me a "cheese" smile.
:)

Once Kael figured out that Peyton was doing "cheese" pictures, he had to be in on the fun.
His "cheese" sounded more like "seeese" {and definitely not as cheesy}. I am surprised that he didn't run to the fridge door thinking he was going to get string cheese! :)

I don't know, we may have some bat visitors tonight....according to Peyton.

Naps...

I would like someone to please tell me why children hate naps? I personally enjoy them when I get the chance. Recently Kael's digestive issue has reared it's lovely little head and he has been sleeping terribly. There were some nights that he would be up between 1:30 and 5:30 crying. I felt like I had a newborn again. It was horrible. After a million doctors appointments, and no one could figure out what the problem was, it sort of went away on its own. I think. At least he is sleeping through the night again which makes us both a little happier. But ever since he was sick and having the extra attention at night, we have had to "retrain" him on sleeping in his bed. If his dad puts him down and says, "Lay down and go to sleep.", he does it. He doesn't even cry. For me on the other hand, he turns into some kind of gremlin. He makes these screams that make me crack right up. Even Peyton said, "What are those sounds Kael is making?" The screaming goes on for about twenty minutes until I either rock him to sleep or he gremlin cries himself to sleep. He still tries to climb out of the crib, he has not been successful since I took away his blankets, leaving him with only one. He gets so exhausted gremlin screaming and trying to get out of his crib that sometimes he falls asleep sitting up.

His poor little head was wobbling back and forth. It was so sad but so funny.

Of course I had to take a picture before I laid him down on his pillow.

I have sort of wanted Peyton to get out of the nap phase. If he takes a nap then he stays up so late. Some days he just can't help himself. He falls asleep while playing or while watching Toy Story, with his Toy Story friends.

It is so nice when they are both sleeping because I can get SO much done. They are not the most helpful if you know what I mean. They are always two steps behind me undoing what I just did. But sometimes when I have a 6 o'clock wake up call {thank you kael} it is so tempting to lay my head down and catch some shut eye.
I love naps. They are glorious. I just wish that someone would clue my kids in on that fact!

Texas State Fair {last October}...

I just came across these pictures of us at the Texas State Fair, so I thought I would document. Everyone that we met when we first moved to Dallas told us that we HAD to go to the fair. They said that it was like no other fair that we had been to {lets be honest, i don't frequent fair grounds. and especially not the davis county ones.} So my expectations were not too high. But I must say, I was blown away!

Look how small Kael was. This is killing me right now! Its hard to imagine he was this small! I love it.

This Dickies cowboy is a pretty famous guy around Dallas. You will see random replicas of this dude at various gas stations around town. Odd.

You can't go to a fair and not take a look at the 4H Club blue ribbon beauties...right? Like I said, I am new to the fair scene. :)

They had some cool cars that Peyton had to check out. I think he thought that this was the bat mobile.

Everything took a ticket. I believe that the tickets were 50 cents a piece. It was 6 tickets to ride the merry-go-round. For 3 dollars....we did this once.

Poor Kael, we couldn't afford for him to ride the merry-go-round {3 bucks people}. But at 7 months old, he was just as content with playing with the bars. {man i miss that} :)

I didn't get a picture of the iconic Texas Star Ferris Wheel. It is 212 feet and the largest in North America {fun fact for ya}. It was $6 dollars a person to go on the ferris wheel {12 tickets if we're talking tickets} It was going to cost us 36 tickets to take us all on the ride, being poor college students we had to pass. Maybe next time.

The fair was insane! They honestly most of the same rides as Lagoon in Utah. It was about as big as Lagoon too. This fair is known for its fried things. Every year people submit their ideas as to what would be good fried. In 2010 the winner was fried frito pie. Last year it was fried beer {explain that one}. They also had fried margaritas {don't worry we didn't partake}, fried twinkies, pickles, snickers, chocolate chip cookie, oreos.....and get this fried butter {which either was a runner-up in 2010 or 2009}. Disgusting. Apparently people said that it was really sweet. Still, I will pass. We had the traditional fair food, the hand-dipped corn dogs and funnel cake. Because we decided not to go on the Texas Star, we had a few tickets left over. It was either pay another $3 so Peyton could ride the merry-go-round or try a fried snickers. I went for the snickers. Who wouldn't? And I will just say that it rocked my world.

If you are ever in Dallas for the month that the state fair goes on {mid September to mid October}, you have to go! It was perfect weather, not too hot, not too cold. I remember when we were walking out people that were coming in had coats on. I had to laugh, coming from Utah we were used to the cooler temperatures. We had to leave before it got dark. The fair grounds are in South Dallas, and lets just say you don't want to be there during the day, let alone night.
It was really fun, and this year we will be excited to take Bryan's family there!

Random Behavior...

Recently, Peyton has a new found love for Star Wars. I am completely in the dark on this one. I have never really watched Star Wars and neither has Bryan. Besides knowing the main characters names, we got nothing. I just hope he doesn't want to get into those movies. I can't sit and watch them with him. :( Boring.

This is him being "Dark Vader". He walks around the house with either a backpack on his head or a big green bucket. He told me the other day, "Mom, I really wish that I could look like Yoda." I told him that I thought he was a creepy little guy and he responded, "No, mom. No, he isn't. He is a cute little green guy." :)

I know that I have said time and time again, that Kael....well to put it frank, is a disgusting little child. :) Bryan puts it best, "Kael is a puppy"....right down to the little pool of pee I almost stepped in while chasing him to put him in the bath.

I sent them outside to eat popsicles one afternoon and I looked out the window and there was Kael licking his popsicle, and then the door. Now that I think of it, I think I put this on the blog already. Oh well. It fits under the "Random Behavior" title as well. This picture reminds me of those screen savers that people have of a dog or a cat licking their screen. :)

This is a picture of Peyton hunting dragons at his friend Broc's house. Apparently hunting dragons can make you quite sweaty, he had to add the sweatband to the costume!


We don't have a sprinkling system on our 1/64th of an acre so we have to do the watering by hand. The boys love it because they love to run from their dad trying to spray them. One evening I came outside to this....

...two naked bums. Peyton knows how to strip down and Kael has just learned {remember the poopy incident in the backyard. fun.} They were both trying to get inside because their dad was spraying them with the hose. :)

For some reason Peyton loves to be in the yard naked. When we were moving in to our house and he had to go to the bathroom, we didn't have water yet so we told him to go outside. He loved it. He always wants to go outside now. I told him that we only reserve that for emergencies. On the same evening as above, he decided that it would be fun to play in the sand naked. Getting all the sand off...not so fun.

Needless to say, he hasn't tried this one again. I think he learned his lesson.

Kael has learned how to escape from his crib. Yes, we have it on the lowest setting and he can still get out. I think it is his monkey toes, he can scale those crib bars in 2 seconds flat. Really though, I think that he learned that if he pushes all his blankets to one side, he can stand on them and climb on over. {he uses a similar tactic when wanting to see what is cooking on the stove. i caught him the other day pushing a bucket over and tipping it upside down to climb on to get his macaroni that was cooking on the stove.} He is exhausting. Because I didn't really want to put my 16 month old in a toddler bed just yet, I decided that I would only leave him with one blanket while sleeping in the crib. So far it has worked.

The other day during nap time I found him all tuckered out from his efforts of trying to escape. He fell asleep standing up.

His poor little face was smashed up against the bars. So sad, but I couldn't help but feel happy that I have won....for now.

Life is never boring with boys.

Slumber Party....

Peyton and Kael had their first sleepover a couple of weeks ago. My friend Nicole is a nurse who works the night shift {bless her heart} on the weekends and her husband Jason had to go out of town to become scuba certified and she asked if we would watch her boys overnight. I knew that Peyton would be so excited, but I didn't want to hear about it all week so I didn't tell him until the day of. He was so excited that Broc was coming over to his house to sleep. I think that he had a smile from ear to ear.
Nicole has really good kids, they go to bed early and easy. {i think i need to send my kids over to her house to be trained.} She dropped them off at 6 o'clock and by 8 o'clock Bric was asleep and Broc wasn't too far after.

Before bedtime we turned on 'How To Train Your Dragon'.

All of them were mesmerized by the movie.

The last one standing.
All of them got bored with the movie except Kael. His attention span kills me, he can outlast Peyton any day.

Nicole was so worried about the morning because her kids wake up super early. Broc woke up about 6:30 and he was so good. He just sat out in our living room until I heard him and came out. He was so cute, he whispered everything. Nicole has him trained to be quiet! I thought it was hilarious. Peyton was so excited when he woke up because Broc was still at his house!

I would say that their first sleep over was a success!

Maverick Fans....

When we moved to Dallas, Bryan and I decided that it was pretty cool that we were going to live in a city with 3 big sports teams. We decided that while we live here we will embrace the teams. Ha ha. It sounds so lame I know, but we have been in Utah where all they have are the Jazz. {and we all know where that one is going. ha ha.} Even Bryan decided to root for the Cowboys, which as a lifelong 49ers fan is a little hard. But nonetheless, he decided to join team Romo. Bryan is not a big fan of baseball, but he has said that he would go to a game. Hopefully we will get him on the Rangers and baseball bandwagon. He he.

We definitely picked a good year to become Mav fans, that's for sure. Man those playoff games did a number on my fingernails. There were also a couple of moments that I wanted to jump up and down screaming, but couldn't wake the sleeping children. After the Mavs won the finals, the city of Dallas threw a big parade. As awesome as it would have been to go to the parade with 250,000 of our closest friends with two toddlers and a double stroller {on public transportation, mind you}, when the temps were 115 on the pavement.....I decided to pass.
Our friends, the Barnards are also die-hard Maverick fans. Aaron has been a fan his whole life, and his wife Kara {an old Jazz fan} is also a Mav fanatic. Her and her daughter Gracie came over to watch the parade in our air conditioned house.

The children didn't care as much for the parade, but I wore my Maverick jersey for the occasion.

Kara also wore her best Maverick attire, as well as Gracie {who is the cutest Mavs fan in the world!} They taught her to say, "Go Mavs!" and, "Dirk!" It is the cutest thing you have ever heard!

Peyton has fallen in love with Gracie. He says that she is his girlfriend. I guess things didn't go well with Uniqua {from the Backyardigans}, but in my opinion, Grace is much cuter! :)

It was so much fun! Kara is the sweetest girl in the whole world!

Fourth of July: The Fireworks

Usually we celebrate the 4th of July fireworks at Davis High. {i have converted Bryan} But, we are currently 1200 miles from Davis High, so obviously we changed it up a little bit. We went with some good friends to Costa Vida for dinner, which was a little interesting. Whenever the boys {Broc, Camden, and Peyton} get together, it is a pretty crazy time. They love to be together and run around. We have dinner together every Sunday and they're used to being able to run around at someones house, so they were a little crazy at the restaurant. After the Costa Vida goodness, we went to Jason and Nicole's house to get ready for the fireworks. Jason and Nicole made homemade ice cream for the fireworks. We loaded the kids up in the trucks and drove to an empty field about a mile from Jason and Nicole's house.

The boys loved being able to play in the back of the truck.
They were so cute in this picture, they were all saying, "cheese".
And then there's Bric on the left, who is always cute and sweet.
{Bric, Broc, Camden, and Peyton}

I want to introduce you to the best baby in the world, Rhett. He is Camden's little brother and he is an angel. He just plays in his carseat. He is so good.

Three little friends, Peyton, Camden, and Broc.

The great thing about Texas being so flat is that you can see 5 different firework shows from one place. The boys were watching some fireworks that they were setting off at the mall.

Jason and Nicole had a generator so that we could make ice cream while we waited for the fireworks to start. I don't think that the generator was working so Jason and Joel tried to fix the problem.

Bryan, Kael, and I watching the fireworks. We met 7 years ago, on the 3rd of July.

Our good friends, Jill and Joel Gibb, and baby Rhett. Joel is about to begin his last trimester in September, which means that he will be graduating in December. {tear} We won't talk about that.

A picture of our other good friends, Jason and Nicole Austin. The problem with the ice cream maker couldn't be fixed so they had to hand crank the ice cream. Honestly, I couldn't believe how fast they made it and it was some of the best homemade ice cream that I have ever had. They never disappoint, they are both great cooks! Jason has two trimesters before he graduates next May {another tear}.

We are so blessed to have such great friends. Both the Gibbs and the Austins have taken us under their wing and introduced us to so many people! We really love and appreciate their friendship and will miss them so much when they move. We know that we will have a friendship for life with them!
It was tough being away from family on one of my favorite holidays, but it was so fun to be with such great friends. We are truly blessed to live in such a wonderful country with such wonderful freedoms!

4th of July: Part 1

On the morning of the 4th it was already hot outside, so we decided to hit up the community pool. We joined six other chiropractic families and had a picnic lunch. It was so fun!

Our city has two water parks, one for big kids with bigger slides and this one for smaller children. It was perfect for all of our kids who are small.

Peyton just did his own thing, swimming around the pool where ever he wanted to go. Although, he was not a fan of the lazy river. He would get caught in the moving water and would scream, "No you stupid water! I don't want to go this way!" He's got personality, doesn't he? {sigh} He loved all of his little friends that were at the pool. He of course cried when we left, "Will we come back?" Sure, sure....I will say anything to get you to the car right now! ;)

This little guy kept me on my toes {shocker} and gave me about 29 mini panic attacks. Seriously. We mostly played in the kiddie pool that gradually got deeper, and he loved it. He would face plant-it in the water and get up and laugh. He didn't care if his head went under the water. He then decided it would be fun to crawl backwards until the water was over his head, and then he would stand up and laugh. When he realized that it got a little deeper he decided to go where it was waste deep to him...and then face plant it.....one problem, he then couldn't stand up because he was too buoyant to put his hands on the ground to help himself up. Panic attacks people. Panic attacks. Kael then discovered the big pool, where daddy was and walked right off the stairs. I knew that he was going to do this, so I was there to grab him. {one step ahead of you buddy. always one step ahead} It still makes me gasp for air and causes my heartbeat to go a million miles an hour. I had enough of that for awhile so I handed him off to his dad. Not a great idea. Once his dad figured out that he loved to go under water, it was a fun game for the both of them. He would throw him in the air and let him fall in the water, quickly catching him after he went under. I thought I was going to get a break from the panic attacks. {why are dads not narotic messes like mothers?} Anyhow, after about 3 hours of swimming Kael had enough.

We fought the entire way home to keep him awake. We were mildly successful until we pulled onto our street. He stayed asleep as his dad got him out of his carseat and I was even able to take off his wet swimsuit and changed his wet diaper, all while he was asleep.

He stayed asleep for 3 hours. Can anyone say, "family nap time"? Glorious.


He looks sweet doesn't he? He is on sale tonight for real cheap. After finding my shoes in the sink in a soapy water-filled bowl of cookie dough and after mopping the entire house, {our house is all tile} and coming out to find a Vaseline covered Kale and couch, I have had about enough for the evening. Thanks. Any offers? ;)