Z'Tejas and water....

Every summer my family visits Z'Tejas at The Gateway in Salt Lake multiple times. We were lucky enough to be around when they decided to go this time. My dad likes to sit out on the patio and hang out. He found out that it is a little different when you invite a 3 year old and a one and a half year old.

This picture sums up 98% of our experiences restaurant experiences. The other 2% include when we leave our children home or they are asleep {which either don't happen very often}. I am sure that most all of you can relate. Neither of them want to sit, especially Kael. He has made it quite clear that he is DONE with high chairs. He HATES them. At my parents house we have to put Peyton in the high chair and give Kael a regular seat. Odd I know, but Peyton doesn't really mind.
This was a quick dinner....thank goodness.

We then walked down to the fountains at The Gateway to let the boys run around. We made sure to pack swimsuits this time because Peyton can't stand to have wet clothes. He freaks if even a drop {literally} of water gets on his clothes. He mostly sat where the water was mist.

Kael LOVED the water! I love this face. I have no idea what he is thinking or doing, but it is funny!

Kael liked to put his face by the holes, I guess he liked getting it in the face.

A little chilly?

He is either showing his brother love or strategically placing his face of one of the water holes. I think it was the latter.

And we got a picture just after being pelted in the face. He loved it though.

Things we like to do....

Okay, so some of us don't like to sit on our Uncle's lap {ahem...my children} I am sure it has nothing to do with the actual uncle. :) It sort of reminds me of a picture from last Christmas, found here...although they are a little older. :)

Okay, so we can get a decent picture. But I guess with toddlers, you can't expect much.

I found out how to make them be good in a picture....just give them an iPad telling an Elmo story and they will sit perfectly still.

Marble Works! My mother is neurotic about children toys and has kept every single piece of our childhood toys since we were little. When I say neurotic I mean, I think she was purchasing these toys when we were children just for her future grandchildren. I remember her saying, "Do not loose those pieces! I want them for my grandchildren one day!" I do have to give her credit, after 4 children and moving 11 times, she still has most of our childhood toys....and all of their pieces! Peyton and Kael LOVE Marble Works. We decided to step it up a notch here at the Barber household and send the marbles down the slide into a bucket. Awesome.

It became more of a game....like skee-ball on steroids! Do you know how hard it was to get that little marble in the blue bucket on the right? Hard. I mean really there was no skill involved, just pure luck....but still...challenging.
:)

Kael thought that it was pretty fun. I think he even made the blue bucket a couple times. He must take after his father, the guy is a skee-ball master!

Sometimes we like to lick suckers with poisonous bugs inside of them....NOT. My younger brother Corey bought made my dad buy this sucker at the gas station. This just shows that Corey's judgment is STILL a little off. Just kidding Corey! :) And yes, that is a scorpion in the sucker...sick.

Peyton and Corey riding the 4-wheeler. My boys LOVE this machine. Just the simple roar of the engine can wake them from a deep sleep {seriously}. Every morning Cor-bud has to drive them over to see the horses. Kael calls every animal a "kitty". All morning long he will pull our fingers out on the deck so we can go say "Good Morning" to the "kitties" horses.

My dad was pooring cement on Saturday morning so the boys got to stick their hands in the cement.

My dad warned Peyton that he had to wash the cement off immediately or it would burn his skin. Lets just say that it took a little convincing for Peyton to stick his hand in that cement. Kael on the other hand was willing to leave a body print in the cement rather than just his hand. I think he thought it was water or something. I literally had to hold him back from belly-flopping in the cement....several times. :)

My boys are in heaven! Here is what Peyton has been telling people:

• "We are staying here for 3 months."
• "We're just waiting for my dad to bring our stuff here. We're moving back."
• "Mom, you can take Kael back on the airplane, I'll stay here at the white house!"

Leaving could be a challenge.

We made it....

Peyton finally made it to the "White House"!
All the way home from the airport he was asking, "Are we there yet?"

Once he was free from his car seat, he went running!

My dad had a surprise waiting for Peyton and Kael {peyton thought it was a light-saber. his current obsession} He never thought that it would be a big yellow slide off of the deck! My dad and the rest of the family had been working so hard to have it ready for when we arrived.

He was so surprised!

His cousin Claire had been staying with Grandma and Grandpa all week so she had become well acquainted with the slide.

She has even mastered climbing up the slide!

Even Cor-bud {peyton's nickname for my little brother corey} took a ride down.

Kael on the other hand was not so graceful {not shocked in the least}. He somehow got himself turned around in to 2.6 seconds that he was in there and came out and fell on his head. But don't worry, Grandma got the picture. Needless to say this little one was not such a fan of the slide from here on out. Although, he would go on it if he was on someone's lap {like mine, or grandma's, or Corey's...a bit of a tight fit. :) }

Peyton was so happy to be back at the "White House"! We had a little BBQ after we arrived. Bryan's family came over along with my grandparents and some cousins. It was so fun!

Flying to Utah....

Peyton has been counting down for about two months until the day that he could climb on the airplane and go to the "White House" {aka my parents house}. He was so excited to go and it was driving him crazy {and me} that the flight didn't leave until the afternoon. Although, I strategically booked the flight in the afternoon around nap time.
We decided to leave Bryan behind to finish up finals. He was going to be gone for about 15 hours each day anyway, so it didn't really matter where we were. He is appreciating the peace and quiet at home {and is kicking butt on his finals, might i add!}.
Back to the flying. We decided to leave a couple hours early because the traffic getting to and around the airport is ALWAYS bad, but we actually made pretty good time. At DFW they will allow someone to accompany you to the gate, especially if you are flying with children. However, we found out that in the summer when the flight loads are heavy they don't allow this. So we had to say goodbye to Bryan at security and I had to take the boys alone, which in the end wasn't really a big deal. We got to our gate 45 minutes before they started boarding. Which normally would be great, except I had a little 3 year old that wanted to get on any plane that he could.

He was ready to get on that airplane!

But we still had 30 minutes or so and we needed to kill some time. Thank you vending machines! They loved to sit and push all of the buttons.

Finally it was time to board the airplane. Goodbye 112 degree temperatures!
Peyton looks so big to me in this picture! {tear}

Kael wanted to play with the lights while we were waiting to leave.

Peyton was so excited to be on the airplane. As we backed away from the gate he said," Bye Dallas. Have a nice trip." He waved to all of the guys on the ramp. And about 3 minutes after I took this picture he was asleep. He didn't even make it to take off. This is exactly why I love afternoon flights. A few minutes after we were in the air, Kael fell asleep. Peyton slept for about an hour and a half and Kael got woke up by the pilot making an announcement about 15 minutes later. So I only had to juggle them for about an hour which wasn't too bad. I have to admit, as mischievous as my two boys may be, they are great at flying. They usually sleep most the way to our destination, which makes a mother who is flying all by herself very happy. When we reached Salt Lake, my dad was waiting for us at the gate to help me get to baggage claim. Thanks Dad! We are so excited to be here and away from those hot temperatures!

Licking the bowl....

It seems as though every time that I am in the kitchen I have little helpers. This time they caught me making dessert so I thought that I would let them lick the bowl.

He didn't get as dirty as I thought.

On the other hand, this one I am sure had it in his hair and eyebrows. Of course he hasn't really learned the concept of sharing so he had to have his "own" bowl. I had to put some of pie filling in the whipped cream bucket so he could have his own. The things we do to avoid fights, right? Even this young.
This child has really grown independent the last few weeks. Ugh. I know that it is good and it is supposed to happen, but boy is it hard. This child has a mind of his own, more so than Peyton did. Which makes me nervous. He will flat out ignore me....already. He acknowledges that I am talking to him and makes a grunting noise like, "to heck with you". Sigh. I have been trying to teach him where things are on his face, and he looks at me and says, "uh uh" while shaking his head. Meh, I guess he will figure it out one day right? He says about 12 words now, but I will try and teach him new ones and he says, "uh uh" and shakes his head. All-righty then, I guess you will do it on your terms. Honestly, I thought I had my hardest child already {hint: Peyton}, but I think Kael is going to give me a run for my money. Serious. Some days I wish that I could Fed-Ex them to their grandparents where they think EVERYTHING that they do is cute and sweet. I wonder if they would have thought he was cute last night when he pooped in the tub and then decided to pick it up and throw it on my newly washed rug (like the rug had literally been on the floor for 2 minutes). But once again, my husband offered me the comic relief by saying, "Who are you Kael? A monkey? Only monkeys pick up there poop and throw it! I've seen it at the zoo!" Then Peyton decided to chime in, "No dad, he is not a monkey, he's just gross." Ha! I couldn't agree more....but I love him.
Sigh. I hope I survive these toddler years.

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.