Happy Birthday Cal Cal!

2012-01-23T08:44:00.001-07:00

We celebrated Callan's birthday with the family yesterday. It's so hard to believe that a year has gone by since his crazy entrance into the world. He is such a sweetheart and we are so blessed to have him in our family! He is so mellow and fun to be around. He is learning and growing more every day and it is so exciting watching him discover new things.

We had a very low key party at our house. Everyone brought a picture of themselves when they were one and we played a matching game. The Grandmas tied with 100%!

The boys spent most of the time watching the 49ers game:)

Callan got spoiled with some fun toys and clothes!

Callan loved his cake! He's so lucky to have a big brother to show him how to do everything.

After his party he was SO ready for bed! And a miracle occurred: he slept until 7:30 this morning! We might have a party every night!

Itty Bitty Ball

2012-01-20T08:53:00.005-07:00

Easton started playing Itty Bitty Ball at the Legacy Center. This month was basketball. He had a lot of fun and I think he learned a lot. He had a few rough days at the beginning when he said he didn't have any fun because everyone was blocking his shots. :) But he learned to get around them.

There were about 60 kids in his class (and 4 classes altogether=they're making bank off of this). He was on the Lakers team, much to his dad and grandpa's dismay.

(Red Shorts)

Finally picked for Duck Duck Goose

He was always proud of his name tag.

Yesterday was the last day and Lenny the Lion came to visit. Not sure who he is... but they had fun.

I was so terrible at getting good pictures/videos. Every time I looked away to take care of Cal, Easton got the ball. I caught him right before he made a basket in this video.

Kazoo Concert

2012-01-15T17:47:00.006-07:00

Tyson and I went out for a short date last weekend and came back to find Easton and Callan playing the kazoo together. It's so cute! Callan just belts it out in his kazoo. I didn't take a picture then so I made them do a concert for us today. They're so cute!

Easton went on a last minute trip to Idaho with my mom, Kate, Kennedi, and Collette on Friday to surprise my cousin Shaylee for her birthday. My mom and sisters were going so we ran up there for lunch before they left and Easton said, "Grandma, it's really hard for me to be happy when aunties are gone." So he got to stow away with them. He had so much fun! He loves playing with his Idaho cousins. I told him to make sure he was extra good for Grandma and he said, "well, sometimes Deryk and I don't listen very well." :)

Callan has a sinus infection so it was nice to spend some one on one time with him and get some rest. I took naps during almost all of his naps and got the house all clean. But I don't know how many times we said, "I miss Easton!" He brings so much life to our house! We were glad to have him home.

Easton has been so funny lately. He's so smart it kills me (not to brag, but really he surprises me). The other day he came downstairs and said he needed a few things to make a graph. He has been enjoying playing games on PBSkids.org (since we finally had to buckle down and get our own internet after 5 months. The people we were secretly mooching off of moved - how dare they) and I think he's been learning a lot from them.

Callan is learning and growing so much too lately. He has the shortest little legs. He looks like a dwarf. He tries to climb everywhere and LOVES Easton. When Easton was in Idaho Callan crawled all over looking for him and whining. He was so excited to see him when he came home! He said mamama for the first time this week and likes to growl like the tiger in his bathtub and wave bye bye and goodnight. When I rock him he hums. It's great.

Tyson passed his test Friday so he has tomorrow off. He is going to spend it putting away all his hunting crap in the garage (thank heavens duck/goose hunting season is over!) and putting all his guns in his brand new safe that he got from his parents for his birthday. Such a smart gift! It's funny the things I get excited about now-a-days.

Other than that we just keep on keepin on:)

Another Week

2012-01-12T07:19:00.005-07:00

It's been another normal week at our house. And we can't wait for it to be over:) Callan cut another tooth the other day (his 7th). He is so nightmare-ish when he is teething. I thought he was just starting to develop a strong personality like his brother, but when he refused food Sunday night, I KNEW there was something wrong with the kid! A few nights of up-all-night and a few mornings of up at 4:30 later his tooth broke through. Yet he is still up all night.... hmmm... it must still hurt. So we get up together at 4:30 and get the house straightened up before the rest of the family gets up. We were doing the dishes the other day and I looked down and found him standing up in the dishwasher.

Easton had a dental appointment yesterday. Auntie Katie is a pediatric dental assistant and wanted Easton to come visit her. Right when he got there he got to put on a cape and headed back for x-rays. I was shocked at the x-rays. I've seen x-rays before, but you could see all his grown up teeth underneath his baby teeth. So weird! I guess I thought they were still forming? I could even see that he got my 2 huge front teeth. Sorry buddy.

Kate did a great job cleaning his teeth and Easton did really well.

The dentist came in and looked in Easton's mouth for a while and said, "Easton has what we call a typodontic mouth." Katelin and I looked at each other nervously and I was so worried about what he meant! Then he explained what a typodont is:

Apparently his teeth look just like the pediatric clay models they practiced on in school. Hooray! He got his dad's good teeth!

Then he got a mask, arm bands, and belt and he got to bring his whole outfit home!

This was a much better dental experience than our other ones! Easton has always done really well at the dentist, but as far as the office this was by far the best.

So if any of you live in the Bronx of South Salt Lake, Burg Pediatric Dentistry is the place to go.

Ice Fishing!

2012-01-04T19:46:00.005-07:00

We had such a fun time on our ice fishing trip with the Pages! We went up to Strawberry early Friday morning and stayed in the Lodge there. I was so surprised at what a nice set-up it was! There was so much room and we all had our own beds. We got settled in and dressed up and went out on the ice. Easton was pretty excited about his first ice fishing experience. It was a beautiful morning! So sunny!

As we walked out on the ice, Arlene and I got pretty nervous! I have been ice fishing before but there were a few feet of snow over the ice! With there not being any snow this year it was pretty freaky! The ice popped with every step we took. I swear it was not safe, but Steve tried to convince me that it's the safest when the ice is cracking because that means it's freezing and expanding. I wasn't easily convinced with my babies out there in the middle of it!

We drilled a few holes and let Easton dip down the rope he found in the parking lot. Pretty soon the popping sounds got a little out of control. Easton thought they were fireworks and when he found out what the sound really was, he was anxious to go inside! It was so loud and the pops ricocheted or something because it sounded like a Styx concert. So The moms and little ones went inside and had some cousin time and some nice long naps. The boys fished pretty much all day and caught 8-10 fish or so.

We went to dinner and had all the boys dressed up in their new Christmas clothes.

After dinner Grandma had a special present - Jake jammers!

We had so much fun! We ended up leaving late that night since we had our sunbeams "meet your teacher" thing early the next morning and I couldn't stand the thought of those little sunbeams coming for the first time and having no teacher:)

Monday night we celebrated my mom's and Tyson's birthdays. Tyson got some new church shirts and all kinds of gross snacks like beef sticks and flavored sunflower seeds.

Tomorrow is Tyson's real birthday. Happy 27 babe! You're so old. Sorry I will be at work all day tomorrow and you will have no dinner... Treat yourself to JCW's:)

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-26T20:51:00.013-07:00

We had such a great Christmas this year! Since Tyson and Thomas both had to work on Christmas, we got to celebrate with the Page side on Christmas Eve morning! It was so much fun! We had a delicious breakfast and we were so glad that "old grandma and grandpa Page" could join us. We got spoiled as usual!
The boys got some way cute winter clothes for our ice fishing trip this Friday and some perfect summer clothes for our Maui trip in February!

It was nice to spend the day in Payson with family. We headed home that night around 6:30. The boys fell asleep in the car so we had to wake them up to open a Christmas Eve present!

After the boys opened up their twinner jammies...things didn't go so well:) Tyson ran to my parents (who live 9 minutes away) to get the bike we had been hiding for Easton. I told him I would put the kids to bed and wait for him to come home to prepare all the stuff. I first put Callan to bed. He cried forever. I put Easton to bed and told him to look outside and see if he could see Rudolph's nose. Sure enough there was a red blinking light flying right over our house. After that he was so excited he couldn't sleep. He has been so confused about there not being any snow this year and when I told him the weather man said there wasn't going to be any this year, he punched my right in the eye. I cried a little. It hurt really bad. So then I was getting irritated. Callan was still screaming so I went to rock him. I think I laid him down at least 6 times and every time Easton would yell something out like, "Mom! I have to go pee!" and wake Callan up. I finally got them both asleep and was really angry by then. Tyson got home AN HOUR AND A HALF later and and blamed his tardiness on my family talking a lot. I later found out, after my mom told me that they saw him for less than five minutes, that he was buying all my Christmas presents.

Anyway... we got ready what we needed to and Christmas morning was a big hit. I was so excited I woke everyone up at 5:15. That's right, you heard me. I woke up about 10 times in the night and asked Ty what time it was. Finally at 5, Cal woke up and by 5:15 I couldn't wait anymore.

Easton was so excited about each present and we got some really cute video of him. But we didn't take any pictures for some reason.

Tyson went to work at 10:30 and I put the boys down for naps. We went to my mom's church at 1 to hear their choir performance. My mom did a great job putting it together!

After church pics

We waited for 3 hours for dad to get home from work before we could open the rest of the presents! Aunt Kels got Easton an owl hat and Callan a koala hat. They are so cute!

Opening up their Hawaii vacation airplane.

Callan and Easton both got some fun books. They love to read!

And now the embarassing part. We seriously over did it. We realize that now. It didn't seem like so much until it was all put together. This is Easton's stuff just from the Pages, us, and Santa. The Cook stuff didn't get photographed, sorry:) But he does love them!

Right before I took this picture Easton said, "Mom, I'm really lucky to have this bike. But I'm not lucky to get my picture taken every day."

The Cal Cal's stuff.

And mom and dad's stuff.

We feel so very blessed. However, we have learned our lesson. Next year will be MUCH simpler. We were so excited about this being the first year Easton could really understand everything! And we got a little out of control. He had so many toys he couldn't remember what he got or who anything was from! I read a cute thing on my friend's blog that I want to do next year to keep it simple. Everyone gets something to wear, something to read, something you want, and something you need. I think that little saying would definitely help me get a handle on things next year:)

Thanks for another great Christmas everyone!

Alive & Well

2011-12-23T07:21:00.009-07:00

I hate it when people don't blog for a whole month. It's so annoying... Sorry.

Just wanted to let you all know we're alive and well and enjoying the holiday season!

We've done some fun things that haven't been blogged about so here are a few...

We went to a BYU basketball game clear back in November with Grandma and Grandpa Cook

We went to watch Kennedi perform at the Festival of Trees. Callan danced the entire time and it was hilarious. Tyson had never been to the festival before so it was fun to look around at all the trees.

While Tyson and I were at the Timpanogos Hospital Christmas party, Grandma Page took the boys to see Santa at her work, Mountain View Hospital in Payson. I think the pictures turned out darling!

We had a ward party that was really fun, but CRAZY because there were so many kids! I think we waited in the Santa line for 45 minutes! My friend took pictures for me cuz I forgot my camera. It's not her fault my kids look special - they were OUT OF CONTROL that whole night.

We have met some good friends in the ward and have had some fun play dates with the kids like to the dinosaur museum and Chick-fil-a (my new favorite restaurant since they totally cater to moms).

We had a fun friend party at Casey and Kristi's and it was so fun to see everyone and catch up.

Tyson made it to Christmas break in school! Woohoo! It was about time, he was starting to struggle a little bit:) But I think he will go back in January refreshed and ready to go again!

We had a Page Christmas party at Stan and Lanna's house last weekend. The food is always delicious and it's so great for the boys the play with cousins. They love it!

Tyson and I went out on a date (such a rare occurance) with Hayden and Nicole. We gave them gift cards to Texas Roadhouse and the movies LAST YEAR for Christmas, and figured we had better use them this week! Sad that it took a whole year for us to find some time!

Tyson, the boys, and my family went to see Arthur Christmas yesterday while I was at work:(

We have spent tons time putting together neighbor and co-worker gifts and Christmas card s! Finally all done with that. I do love Christmas cards regardless of the hassle!

There's only one more chocolate left in Easton's advent calendar and we are soooooo ready for Christmas to be here!

Catching Up Again: Christmas Tree & Thanksgiving

2011-11-25T12:34:00.013-07:00

Last Sunday our friends Kristen and Weston invited us to go cut down Christmas trees on Weston's family's property. We had so much fun and Easton loved it! He found a stick and just kept dipping it into the snow and licking it off.

Easton got carried most of the time. It was some treacherous terrain! We were glad we left Callan with Grandma Page!
We both found such cute trees!

Turns out the trees are a lot taller than they look in the wild! We had to cut quite a bit off, but we finally got it together!

Also this week, in preparation for the Christmas tree, I took down this brown book case...

And turned it into some white shelves.

It's not really done yet, I have some other ideas. But it's good for now.

Thursday we drove to Oakley, ID for Thanksgiving. It was great to see the family on my mom's side. Since my great grandma passed away a few months ago, the great aunts wanted all of us younger girls to do a fashion show with all of great grandma's old clothes. We were really surprised at how fashionable she was! My sisters desperately wanted to keep some of the clothes to actually wear. I didn't get any pictures, but I'll get them from someone and post them for memory's sake.

Grandma & Grandpa Cook and the boys

Easton with his cousins Aspen, Bricelyn, and Deryk

As usual we had a talent show and Easton did a great job showing off some of his gymnastics moves including his forward roll.

And I'm sure you could have guessed Callan LOVED Thanksgiving. The kid loves to eat! He was so good for the whole trip. Here he is eating some pie with Aunt Kate and loving every minute of it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

9 Months!

2011-11-17T06:44:00.002-07:00

(10/24/2011)

Callan turned 9 months old last month! It's taken me a while to post this...he's nearly 10 months now! I can't believe it. He's growing so fast. He is still my little sweetheart. My mom calls him her little puppy dog. He'll just follow you around and climb up your legs and he is usually carrying something around in his teeth. He's so cute. He stands up on everything. He is always standing in his crib now when I go to get him after a nap or in the morning. He especially loves to stand up in the bathtub and if Easton is bathing he crawls in there as fast as he can and stands up by the tub so he can see him. He is still my little cuddle bug and I gotta say... he loves me more than anyone else:)

Here are his stats at 9 months 10 days.

Weight: 19.05 lbs (22.2%ile)

Length: 27.75 in (27.46%ile)

Head Circumference: 17.5 in (22.66%ile)

Let's see, what else... He has 6 teeth - 4 on top and 2 on bottom - and is working on a 7th on top. He doesn't handle teething well! That's ok though because it really is rare for him to be unhappy.

He and Easton both wake up between 5 and 5:30 every morning. It's so early that Easton started saying, "I'd like some chocolate milk this night" instead of "this morning" because it's so dark! Ridiculous. But I can get a lot accomplished before 8AM! And Callan usually naps pretty well. As long as his teeth don't get involved.

Callan and Easton got to go to their well checks together this time. So here are Easton's stats, too.

Weight: 31.31 lbs (46.73%ile)

"Stature" (haha): 37.2 in (45.13%ile)

BMI: 15.9 (45.88%ile)

We're having so much fun getting ready for the holidays! Hopefully it won't be too long before my next post.

(PS I have been a TERRIBLE commentor lately and I am SO sorry! I still read all your blogs, but I have to use Tyson's computer to pick up the neighbor's wireless signal and his doesn't let me comment! It's so weird and I can't figure it out. Even though I'm logged in and everything it says I'm not authorized to comment? Very weird. And I am sincerely sorry :)

We Like to Party

2011-11-08T21:09:00.007-07:00

Easton's birthday party all started with a cute girl in my mom's ward giving me a pirate party kit that she had. It was very darling and I knew right away that I would have to throw a pirate party. I wanted to invite a some kids from the ward so he could get to know them and maybe have them over for play dates, but it was hard to know who to invite! I didn't want to leave anyone out and there are like 30 kids his age in the ward! We ended up inviting 10 kids and they all came!

There only 8 invites in the party kit so I decided to make my own... why do things always end up taking way longer than I expect? Burning the edges takes forever!

We rolled them up and put them in plastic bottles with sand, seashells, corks, and twine.

The kit came with a darling banner (which I just realized we didn't get a picture of!) and it had paper treasure chests that we filled with chocolate coins. We had a big bucket full of sand for the kids to dig in. For some reason I thought they would all take turns with the shovel digging and seeing what they could find in the bucket IN MY LIVING ROOM. But no... it was pretty much a sand slinging free for all.

So we took things outside. It was a little chilly, but I don't think they cared. We cut strips of fabric for headbands and they each got an eye patch from the kit. It was impossible to make all 11 of them be in the picture.

They opened presents - and when I say they I mean everyone was literally tearing up presents and throwing them around the room. It was a little crazy. They ate cupcakes on the kitchen floor. Most of the cupcakes ended up on the floor, then on their shoes, then everywhere else. It was fun, but next time I'll listen to my mom's advice that 2 hours is way too long for a 3 year old party!

We had a family party Sunday night. And Easton got spoiled again.

Here he is with his loot the next morning - looking so irritated that I'm bothering him while he's watching TV. Thanks for the gifts everyone! He loves them all!

So far the 3 year old has been a little challenging:) He's so dang stubborn and now he really thinks he knows everything. I can't wait for the teenage years - oh man. Like a few hours ago I told him to go out in the garage and wait for me to load him up, but don't go in the street. To which he replied...

"Are you kidding me mom?!! I can go in the street! I'm big enough!"

I said no.... you're not. I'm just gonna grab Cal's bottle and I'll be out. I walked out to see him standing right smack in the middle of the road. Just waiting for me to come out. I started yelling at him and he said, "heh heh." Such a stinker. I told him it wasn't safe and yada yada yada and not to ever do it again.

And he said, "Fine. I'll just find somewhere else to live." Oh he's opinionated!

But he is fun. And I love him dearly. I've been trying to think of some things to fill our time lately. I thought we would paint his hand with acrylic paint and make turkeys. He HATED that. He doesn't really like to get dirty. All he wants to do is poke holes in boxes with sharp knives and scissors. Do I let him? Sometimes. It's all I can do sometimes for 5 minutes of quiet so I can accomplish something like the dishes!

Some of the many funny words he's picked up on lately are "suddenly" and "brilliant."

ie:

"I was just walking up the stairs and suddenly I tripped and stubbed my toe!"

"I was just sitting on the couch and suddenly I had a brilliant idea!"

Good thing he's so dang funny.

Happy Birthday!

2011-11-02T08:10:00.002-06:00

Happy Birthday baby boy! We can't believe you're three!!! We sure love you!

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T16:09:00.011-06:00

We have had a lot of fun with Halloween this year. It's much different with Easton being old enough to have fun! We got to go to both grandparents' trunk-or-treats and had a great time at each! We were supposed to have a party with friends Friday night, but it was cancelled which allowed us to go to my parents' truck-or-treat. So we took the veggies and dip we were going to bring to the party up to Sandy.

Picasso Pumpkin

Sick!

We went out of our way to find a pumpkin patch where you could pick your own pumpkin off the vine. When we got there the lady said, "Well they're pretty picked over. We have a few left over here." And she pointed to some terrible looking pumpkins on the side of the road! But I can't tell people "no" so we just picked out our pumpkins and pretended to be happy with them:) Now I'm wondering if the huge sign that said, "Pick your own" meant "choose" your own... hmm...

We carved them Sunday after naps. I wanted to use an idea I saw on Pinterest and carve lines of little holes down the lines of the pumpkins with a drill. Easton was all over that. But he wasn't about to touch all the yucky stuff inside!

After that we made carmel apples.

For Halloween dinner we had a yummy mummy chicken braid. I also played a Halloween trick on the boys by turning the rice and cheese sauce green with food coloring. (They were supposed to be purple and orange, but I didn't have red food coloring for some reason!) Tyson had a hard time eating it:) But it tasted great!

Here's the Halloween cuties before we went trick or treating. The green pumpkins are the ones that grew in our backyard thanks to our neighbor's vine that grew under our fence. I think they're so cute!

Callan wishing he could eat up Easton's loot.

Callan in his "My First Halloween" jammies.

Easton wasn't all that in to the trick or treating. He just wanted to go home and veg. So we had hot chocolate with marshmallows and watched "Scared Shrekless" which was really sick and weird.

Tyson took a picture of our glowing pumpkins for me:)

Easton wasn't quite ready for bed (sugar high) so he and Tyson are watching Snow White and the Three Stooges. I think I got it for a white elephant last year and it's kinda fun!

Here's the Halloween pictures we took a while ago off of our photo blog in case you missed them.

Cal Cal the Cow Cow

Cousin Crew Dogg in a pumpkin. Cal got in the pumpkin too, but it didn't go well...

Cosmo Crew Dogg

Happy Halloween!

It's Now or Never!

2011-10-28T06:18:00.018-06:00

I've been waiting and waiting for a better day to take pictures of the house for everyone to see... but I've come to the realization that it's never going to get any cleaner and there will always be another project. In October I get a little stressed about blogging because my yearly blog books end in October so if I don't do it now, it'll have to wait till next year's book. So here's our house!

Warning: these pictures were taken by me, not Tyson. Yes, I used a flash. The walls are gray, not purple or yellow, or whatever color they look...

Master Bath

Downstairs Bath

Living Room

TV... Area?

Kitchen

Master Bedroom

Easton's Bedroom

Had to copy these rain gutter book shelves from my cute cousin... :)

Callan's Room

By the way, I uploaded ALL these pictures onto our photo blog on accident first. It took forever!

Cornbelly's

2011-10-22T13:29:00.012-06:00

Let me tell you it has not been the best week at our house. I just hate sickness! Nothing gives me more anxiety than hearing my kids cough the same cough that is on that whooping cough commercial. You know-the one on TLC. Easton is getting over the croup. He can breathe easily now, but still has that nasty lingering cough. I spent the first few nights of the week sleeping (or not sleeping) with Callan on the couch. He SCREAMED all night long for most of those nights. He had a really snotty nose, but it didn't seem like croup. I finally took him in to the doctor to get his ears checked. But no. I don't think any of my kids will ever have an ear infection. I'm not that lucky. The doctor said it must be his teeth. I kinda figured since I can see two coming in, but man - the kid is a sensitive teether!

Well, the next half of the week didn't get much better. I spent those nights on the couch with Callan as well, but this time with croup! The poor kid. I don't think it's gotten him as bad as it got Easton, but in combination with the teething it's kind of been a beast. Tyson had a test yesterday so he wasn't too much help this week. Wait, I shouldn't say that - he was a LOT of help - just not as much as he would have been had he not had a test. Don't worry he passed. It's such a relief to get that phone call at noon every other Friday and know that we have an entire three days to spend together!

We decided to go to Cornbelly's Friday night. It was really last minute since the boys are sick, but we just can't stay cooped up in the house any longer! I figured an outdoor place would be ok.

I think Easton's favorite part was jumping around on the hay bales. We should have planned ahead better - he could have used a buddy! I guess mom and dad just aren't that much fun!

We waited in line for the cow train forever. When it was almost our turn Easton said, "I didn't really want to go on it. I was just kidding." Well, tough! We waited way too long to turn back now! He looked pretty bored for the whole ride.

I think my favorite part of the night was sitting on the bench waiting for Easton on the cow train. We forgot the strollers, but we had the baby carrier in the back of the car. My shoulders were killing me by the end of the night!

Callan's such a sweetie. He's so miserable yet still so pleasant.

And here are the little buggers that have been giving us so much trouble all week! Teeth numbers 5 and 6! They better come through soon!

And one more thing. I've discovered a miracle this week! It's this CD my grandma gave me a little while ago:

We've been having a lot of trouble with Easton and his naps. When he doesn't nap he is SO DANG NAUGHTY. I mean really bad. So I told him that mom and dad really want him to start taking good naps on his bed so he can start making better choices. I got him some gold fish crackers and told him he could read on his bed, but not to come out or else I would have to lock the door. I put in this CD and he was out like a light! AND it worked again today.

MIRACLE!

Need I say more?

An Apple A Day Does NOT Keep the Dr Away.

2011-10-14T20:20:00.005-06:00

On Wednesday at noon Easton was running around like his crazy happy self. Around 2 or 3 he started losing his voice. At 8 we put him to bed with a croupy cough and a vaporizer just in case. At 10:30 he woke up in a total panic. Couldn't breathe and was totally freaked out by the fact that he couldn't breathe so he was screaming in between attempted breaths. I took him downstairs so he wouldn't wake Cal and out on the porch to breathe the night air like I remember my parents doing for croup. He settled down slightly - enough to stop screaming and get a little air in. But after 30 minutes of trying unsuccessfully to get his breathing back to normal - I felt like he needed to be seen.

I put him in the car and googled Instacare on my phone. I drove frantically to 2 different Instacares (one clear out in Saratoga) and they were both closed! I thought they were supposed to be 24 hour things! Easton had fallen asleep at this point, but I didn't feel comfortable taking him home and having it happen again. I decided to take him to the ER (which made me realize how far away we are from an ER in the event of a true emergency...) and we waited and waited and waited. If anyone has any ER experience and can tell me what all the doctors and nurses are doing in their little computer cubicle while the patients sit there - please explain. They gave him a dose of dexamethasone and we finally got home at 2 AM.

A male nurse (who obviously didn't have children) heard Easton coughing, walked out to the waiting room and handed me this mask, and without saying anything turned around and walked back to his computer. Ticked me off just a little. But Easton kinda liked the mask. He's holding his hospital bracelet and his toy car they gave him when he was all done.

Thursday I had to work, but was able to get someone to work for me the second half of the day. Thank heavens cuz I was exhausted! Easton seems to be doing ok...hasn't had anymore panic attacks, but is still wheezing really bad and breathing way too fast. Kinda freaks me out.

I've been trying to fill the time at home with fun stuff - although let's face it - Easton doesn't really care about crafts. Maybe someday I'll have a girl who will:) We made these cute Hershey bar mummies and sucker spiders. Did you know that boys are actually programmed from birth to not care AT ALL about the presentation of their food? He just wanted the candy!

Hopefully he'll get better soon. The morning that this all started Easton and Callan shared a pudding. I had the spoon and just kept alternating mouths cuz I'm a genius like that. So I'm just waiting for Callan to come down with it. I spend my spare time cleaning everything with Lysol spray and Clorox wipes. I've been giving the kids baths morning and night - partly for germ control and partly so that they're contained in one space for more than 5 minutes. I've got a jumbo bottle of Germ-X that is living on the counter, I dug out the adult multi-vitamins, kids vitamin gummy bears, and nasty infant vitamin drops that have been collecting dust in the medicine cupboard, the fridge is stocked with OJ and chicken noodle soup, and I have vaporizers on in each room. Do I have issues? Maybe. Would I have a lot more issues if Callan ended up in the hospital and I didn't do everything I could to prevent it? Oh yeah. We need to avoid that at all costs:)

Tyson is working late again tonight. He's such a hard worker. And I'm going to bed to prepare for a busy day tomorrow. I would like to have a word with the person who decided that the elder's quorum flag football game, primary program practice, and relief society super saturday should all overlap.

Another Fun-Filled Weekend

2011-10-11T10:15:00.011-06:00

Tyson passed another test on Friday - yay! He is doing so well and we love it because when he passes he has the whole weekend plus Monday to spend with us! It is so great. Friday we went to Sushi Ya with Seth, Rachel, and Cody. I can't say the food was great (of course) but it was fun to see them again! After that Tyson worked until 10 and we went to hang out with my Idaho cousins who came down for the weekend. Easton was so excited to play with them! I can't believe I didn't get any pictures!

Saturday we went to the zoo with cousins. It sprinkled pretty much the whole time we were there but it was way better than the last time we went to the zoo in 108 degree weather!

Tell me that's not the cutest little cuddle bug you've ever seen.

After the zoo we drove straight out to Tooele to watch my sister Kelsey jump out of a plane. She sold her wedding dress and decided to use the money to sky dive. She's crazy.

Then we drove straight from Tooele to the BYU game! We had a lot of fun but it was sure a later night than we are used to!

Today's Eastonisms:

We've been playing "store" a lot lately. He gathers up his toys and brings them to me and I ring him out. He pays me some fake money and I say, "Have a nice day!" He always says, "I will! You make sure you give that money to someone who doesn't have any dollars!"

Yesterday at Kohl's he was asking me, "How much is this? How much is this? ..." We were in a big hurry so I kept saying, "Too much. Too much..." After a while he stopped and said, "Mom! This one is NOT too much! It's one much!"

Eating McDonald's in the car - "Easton did you just sneeze out a fry?"

"Ya. I had an issue."

Deal or No Deal

2011-10-03T11:05:00.004-06:00

"Dealing" with Easton is really pretty fun. I'm not sure where he learned his negotiating skills but he has become quite the deal maker. For example the other day he had taken off all the couch cushions and I asked him to clean them up. He said, "No! Here's the deal: I'm going to jump on this cushion for ten minutes and then I will clean it up. That's the deal." Every once in a while he'll give me a choice by asking, "is that a good deal mom?" And I usually say yes just because I'm proud of him for making a compromise. I probably let him get away with too much, but I think his reasoning skills are so funny!

Other stuff lately...

Caught Easton sucking his stomach with the ShopVac. Later that day caught him sucking Callan's stomach with the ZipLoc Vacuum.

There's been lots of wrestling going on. Callan's being initiated pretty early.

Easton has been asking me to turn up the radio when he hears his favorite songs:

"Country Girl Shake It For Me" by Luke Bryan

"Crazy Girl" by Eli Young Band... the best is when he sings the line, "silly woman, come here let me hold you..."

and "I got the moves like Jagger" by Maroon 5.

He knows a good song when he hears one. I love it.

We had an FHE about bodies and spirits in preparation for Grama Manning's funeral. We did that thing that everyone does where you have a glove for the body and your spirit is the hand and the body can't move without the spirit inside... you know. Well Easton decided he was going to use the gloves to help the men dig the hole in the ground at the cemetery. So not the point. It didn't go very well.

Callan is making a lot of progress with crawling. It won't be long until he's everywhere. Sometimes when he gets really close to reaching what he's after, Easton sits on him. I get mad at him of course, but secretly... I don't mind if he slows down the progress a little:)

Callan's top teeth finally came in. There's a pretty good space in between them so he'll probably have "hippo teeth" like his brother did for a little while. So cute.

In Loving Memory

2011-09-30T21:17:00.005-06:00

Dec. 12, 1917-Sept. 24, 2011

OAKLEY — Freida Mai Manning, 93, died Saturday, Sept. 24, 2011, in Oakley, Idaho, from age-related causes.

She was born Dec. 12, 1917, in Kimama, Idaho, the 10th of 12 children born to John and Amalie Schlager Mai. She graduated from Burley High School as salutatorian in 1936, from Henegar’s Business College in Salt Lake City in 1937, and began her career as secretary to the registrar at Albion State Normal College. Freida married Linford Hart Manning on March 23, 1940, in Twin Falls, Idaho. This marriage was solemnized Aug. 19, 1960, in the Idaho Falls Temple. Freida was widowed at age 43 when Linford died in 1961.

Freida served in many capacities in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, including Relief Society, Young Women and Primary. She was a member of EZ-Does-It Home Demonstration Club, Toastmistress, Gray/Pink Ladies and the Community Concert Board. She was named 1963’s Cassia County Mother of the Year and received special recognition from the Cassia County Fair Board for her prize-winning home canning in 1986. Most importantly, she was known for her selfless service, faith, endurance and love for family.

Survivors include four daughters, Linda (Joe) Newbry and Joan Allen of Twin Falls, Marjorie (Erik) Woodhouse of Oakley and Laura (Dan) Bradshaw of Eagle; 13 grandchildren; 40 great-grandchildren; eight great-great-grandchildren; and sisters-in-law, Ivy Manning Brown and Thelma Manning Pace. Freida was preceded in death by her parents; husband; stillborn daughter; son-in-law, Joe Allen; and a great-grandson, Brady Orville Heiner. Her deceased siblings include William Mai, Della Weimer, Mary Martin, Fred Mai, Lydia Miller, Sam Mai, Alex Mai, Pauline Wenz Perkins, Sara Mauer, Clara Payne Pitts and Rose Williamson.

The family extends sincere appreciation to IHC Home Health and Hospice caregivers for their loving care, kindness and friendship.

A service is planned for 11 a.m. Friday, Sept. 30, at the Oakley LDS Stake Center in Oakley. Burial will be in the Pleasant View Cemetery in Burley at 3 p.m. Viewings will be held Thursday, Sept. 29, at Morrison Funeral Home, 188 S. Highway 24 in Rupert, from 6 to 8 p.m. and one hour prior to the funeral service Friday in Oakley.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Mini-Cassia Community Concert Association, 991 Sandy Glen Lane, Burley, ID 83318.

Grama Manning, Mom, Callan, Courtney, East 2011

Grama Manning & East 2009

Grama Manning, Karston, and East 2009

Mom, Grama Allen, Grama Manning, Easton, Courtney 2008

Tyson, Grama, Courtney 2010

The boys and I traveled to Idaho and back today for my Great Grandma's funeral. How many kids can say they were at their Great Great Grandma's funeral? I thought that was pretty cool for my boys. Some of my memories of Grama include:

Her Thanksgiving pies (and one particular instance where she forced me to eat rhubarb pie at her house. No one else was there so I have no witnesses and no one believes me.)

Dressing up in the clothes in her attic and her letting us take some things home from her attic when we left her house.

Her tiny house altogether: there were gold flakes in the white door handles, I remember how it smelled, I remember picking raspberries and putting them in empty ice cream tubs, hanging on the gates of the horse corrals... I remember lots about that house, which surprises me.

Her cards-she always took the time to write long personal messages on birthday cards.

And lots more, I don't have the time to think of everything right now, but just know she was loved and we're happy she's in a happy place!

I can't help it!

2011-09-24T08:27:00.007-06:00

I love it when they match!

Callan's top right tooth finally broke through yesterday and the left one is SO CLOSE! It has been quite the process. Poor little guy has been so sick to his stomach! Has anyone else experienced this with teething? I know it sounds weird, but I just think it has to be related! He is spitting up like crazy and he's never really been much of a spitter. He just seems so uncomfortable and his hernia is poking out big time cuz you can tell it's just full of gas. I switched to Similac "Sensitive for Spit Up" formula which so far hasn't helped at all. I've given him Tums, Mylanta, Mylicon... don't know what else to do for the poor guy! It's mostly at night and when he tries to lay down for a nap - and man I feel bad for him if it's anything like the acid reflux I experienced every time I tried to lay down when I was pregnant with him! Hopefully the other tooth pokes through and it all goes away!

It Won't Be Long!

2011-09-19T15:52:00.002-06:00

Callan is growing up way too fast! He's trying to crawl. He gets up on his hands and knees but can only scoot himself backwards until he gets backed into a wall. At his last Dr's appointment at the end of August he weighed 18 pounds! He LOVES food. Today he was just dying to try some of mine and Easton's mac and cheese so I gave it to him half a noodle at a time and he was in heaven! He ate a ton of mac and he had already had a bottle and a whole bowl of peas. He and Easton love to eat their Gogurts together every morning. He's working on his top teeth and we hope they come in soon to put him out of his misery! He'll be 8 months old on Saturday and we think he's such a sweetie!

Labor Day and 9/11

2011-09-11T19:46:00.007-06:00

On Labor Day Tyson actually had to labor. Lame. My family was going boating so we asked if they could go early in the morning so Tyson could come for an hour before going to work. The weather was TERRIBLE! It was freezing and windy and choppy! I felt bad because if they had gone later it might have been nice!

Tyson braved the waves and wakeboarded from Saratoga to Lindon.

Kennedi, Collette, and Easton jumped in for the quickest swim in the history of boating! Easton was already out by the time I could get a picture. He's no dummy!We ended up going to home to our house and having a picnic inside on the floor. I think summer is over! After Tyson was done working we headed down to Payson to meet up with everyone at Great Grandma and Grandpa Page's barbeque.

Tyson and Crew-dogg

Cal Cal

Ryan, Micaela, and Easton

Easton had a great time running around with all his cousins and it was fun to catch up with everyone!

This week has been another busy one. I feel like I've been working a ton and Tyson has been so stressed about school. His school is set up differently than most colleges. Rather than taking several courses throughout a semester, they take one course every two weeks. So they go to the same class all day every day for two weeks and then test on the material every other Friday. If you get below 90% it's considered a fail and you have an opportunity to retake it the following Monday. If you get 3 fails you're OUT. The good news is Tyson passed! So now he gets to spend tomorrow at home with us. Yay!

On Wednesday I went to my friend Desi's sealing. She was a beauty and I'm so happy for her!

Friday after Tyson passed his test I was ready for a DATE! Dates have been few and far between lately and I'm going to change that! We went out to Ihop and ran some errands. We got Costco cards and we feel so privileged like VIP.

Saturday I worked. We watched the BYU game.

Today we spoke in church on The Family: A Proclamation to the World. It went pretty well. That's one topic I felt like I could handle. After church we all took a nap! That happens once in a blue moon. Then we came up to Sandy to visit the 9/11 Healing Field at Sandy City Hall. They have a flag for each person who died and a little card on each flag giving the person's name, age, and a little bio about them. They do it every year and it's really neat.

I pretty much think I'm the luckiest mom ever. My boys are so sweet. Cal has had this stupid cold for weeks that he just can't get over, but he's still so pleasant most of the time and has a way of making your day with his smile! He is SO close to crawling it's freaky. He gets up on his hands and tippy toes and tries to scoot away. It won't be long before he's all over the place!

Easton is just as fun as ever. We are kind of in an in-between phase with his nap. He desperately needs his nap but it's not worth the hours of fighting that it usually takes. Not sure what to do...I'm open to suggestions. His latest line is, "Mom, just get used to it. Boys break things."

It was the best of times, It was the worst of times...

2011-09-02T12:56:00.003-06:00

Tyson officially started school this week! I ran outside to make him take a "first day of school" picture on the front porch. Doesn't everyone do that? I think he was in the middle of saying, "Knock it off." He wasn't very happy about it...

We have DEFINITELY been feeling the stresses that come along with grad school. We've had trouble getting our student loans, payed hundreds of dollars in car repairs this week, and have to make our first mortgage payment. I swear there's nothing more stressful than finances!

BUT...

It's hard to even get frustrated with all the financial mess because we realize we have been SO BLESSED! Everything has worked out so far and I know that it will keep working out. Somehow. I don't know, maybe I'm just blogging this to try and convince myself:)

Anywho... life really is going great. Just to make you smile - I had this conversation with Easton this morning...

E: "Mom let's play I Spy. I spy something that is brown and you have to be really quiet inside."

Me: "The church?"

E: "Yes! ...But... can I be loud in nursery?"

Me: "Well, maybe just a little loud. Not too loud."

E: "Well last week Hayden was being really loud."

Me: "Really? Is there a boy named Hayden in your class, just like Uncle Hayden?"

E: "Ya, but this Hayden is tiny."

Me: "Oh. Is he your friend?"

E: "Ya. But he pushes me."

Me: "Oh well. It's probably just an accident."

E: "Well after he pushes me he goes to his mom and his mom says to stop pushing me."

Me: "Oh does his mom stay in there with him?"

E: "Ya. But you don't stay in there with me. You just leave me there all alone."

Me: "Ya that's because you're a big boy."

E: "Well Hayden is my same size - he's big enough!"

I guess it's not that funny now that I've typed it all out...it just amazes me what goes on inside this kid's head!

Quick Update

2011-08-26T20:00:00.006-06:00

I hate this not having internet thing. I feel so behind I don't even want to post cuz it'll just be jam-packed and I don't have time! So this will be really quick!

Monday: I worked. I've been picking up some extra shifts because we're really freaked out about our newly acquired student loan debt. The boys went boating with Tyson's fam.

Tuesday: We had one last family outing before dad became a full time student! We hit up the 2-buck Tuesdays at Thanksgiving Point - only this year I had it figured out! We got there 20 minutes early so we were first in line. We saw everything we needed to see in a quick hour before it got too hot and then we had a picnic on the grass outside and totally avoided all the crowds. It was great.

Wednesday: Tyson started orientation. That night we went to Park City to get him a more professional looking wardrobe. He now feels like a million bucks and he looks way cute - not that he didn't before.

Thursday: Tyson took the Oath of a Pharmacist - swearing to devote his life to serving the community in pharmacy etc... He received his white coat at a special ceremony. We are so very proud of him. We doped Easton up on Zyrtec before the ceremony. Unfortunately we forgot about the crazy effect it has on him. HE WAS WIRED. OUT OF CONTROL. Just look at his face.

Friday: Today. We are all sick except for Tyson. Cal threw up 3 times this morning and East is coughing so hard he's losing his voice. It's the cutest little raspy thing I've ever heard. Took the kids to the Dr. since we're losing our insurance soon and I don't want to be dealing with this in a week. But they just have viruses. Glad we don't have much to do and we can just sit home and eat Lipton Noodle Soup and oranges. Yum.

Funny Things:

Easton loves playing with bungee cords and "hooking" things. While playing with one the other day he yelled, "Look mom! I'm a hooker!"

Easton whole-heartedly believes that he opens and closes the garage by himself by saying "Abracadabra!"

While on a walk last night Easton suggested we walk to the park. When asked why explained that "the park is a wonderful place to join people together."

Kills me.

Hoping to Laugh at This One Day...

2011-08-17T10:56:00.003-06:00

We are getting more and more settled in every day and are LOVING our new place. It is so nice to have this much space! But let me tell you, we had some SERIOUS ISSUES with getting the upstairs painted! We picked out a gray paint “with brown undertones” and we both loved it. I had purchased a Groupon right when we found out we were closing for $120 worth of Kwal paint for $60. So I thought it was this great deal. We bought 4 gallons of this “Stiletto” paint that we loved. After we painted the first coat it didn’t look all that great, but we figured the second coat would make it better. After the second coat dried for a day I showed up at the house and was horrified. There were seriously rectangles from the paint rollers all over the walls! And where it was cut in was a completely different color! There were various shades of brown and gray rectangles everywhere! I was so mad! I texted a picture of the walls to my painter friend and he said, “did you stir the paint?” Ohhhhhhhhhh, is that what those wooden stick thingies they give you are for????? No, we didn’t stir the paint! I don’t know why I didn’t think of this before!

At that point we had had some other issues with Kwal and had used up our Groupon. Plus Kwal’s closes at 3:00 on Saturdays! So annoying. So we went to Lowe’s. They said, “no problem - we have the formula for that color right here in our computer.” We got 4 gallons of Stiletto from Lowe’s. We took it home and Tyson stirred the crap out of it. The more he stirred, the more the brown in the paint pooled into the middle. There was an obvious problem with the formula. We took it back and they think the rust color wasn’t compatible with the base paint. We picked a whole new color (which is remarkably close to the original stiletto) and started from square one. Four gallons of Slate Pebble. We finally got it all done in time for the carpet to be laid, but decided to save the bathrooms until later since they didn’t need to be done before the carpet.

We finally got around to the bathrooms last Wednesday. I took the kids over to my mom’s while Tyson got started. Then I came home to this.

Apparently he knocked the can (the last remaining can) off the bathtub and it popped open and spilled all over the linoleum and filled the bathtub. Fantastic. Tyson couldn’t go anywhere because his feet were covered in paint. He just had to stand there and watch the paint spread. Luckily I got home within 5 minutes but had to take a picture while we was stranded before helping him:) We decided to just use the paint off of the floor since it was all we had left. So the floor became the paint tray. We didn’t dare dip in the master bathroom and run down the carpeted hallway to the other bathroom to paint. So we threw away the rest of the paint and Tyson had to get yet another gallon. (Up to 13 now - just on the upstairs!)

By the way - this is latex paint. If you dump a bottle of paint thinner on latex paint, it makes it extremely hard to get off! The places that I didn’t poor paint thinner on peeled right up! The rest has taken hours of scrubbing! Just a little FYI in case this ever happens to you:)

PS - we don't have internet - have you noticed? This is coming to you from a Starbucks very far away from my house:)

4 Years and Counting

2011-08-08T19:20:00.008-06:00

We celebrated our 4th anniversary last week. We both feel like we've been married forever. And that's a good thing. Tyson got me these super cute shoes for our anniversary and look what I found in them the other day...

Tyson and I borrowed his parents' trailer and took off for the night to Scipio. Tyson had been itching to go there and look for deer and I was happy to go along. We haven't had a kid-less night since our second anniversary so it was well overdue. The entire canyon was BEAUTIFUL. Tyson woke up early and went to look for deer while I slept in until 9:30! It's been years since I've done that!

[don't judge - it was still dark when he took this]

I brought my swimming suit so I could get some sun while he was out scouting - unfortunately there was still snow...

When we got home from Scipio we had to drive up Payson canyon to look for a photo spot for someone and Tyson took Easton to catch frogs in the "frog pond." Easton named his frog Hopper. His mom would not let him bring Hopper home.

While we were driving down the canyon Easton said, "Do you see that sign mom? It says cow crossing. It means every time a cow crosses the road you have to stop the car." He says Aunt Kels taught him that one. It's amazing how much information this kid retains. He's a sponge.

After that we had a birthday get together at our friends' house. It was fun to catch up with everyone even though we were in and out pretty fast. We had just enough time to catch a picture of all the boys! So funny trying to get them all to smile. I wish I could post all the pictures. They're a crack up!

Easton, Callan, Boston, Ace, & Van

We went to our new ward for the first time yesterday. We have five nurseries! Easton had a great time! Our neighbors brought us cookies and invited us to go with a group from the ward to the Highland Splash Park today. We had lots of fun! Callan got his swimming suit on and splashed his feet in the water. You wouldn't believe how many kids came up to ask me what was wrong with his belly button! Some kids even came right up and poked it! It was funny at first...

We ended up having to leave the Splash Park after a lady rudely told Easton to move off of a certain rock so that her baby could walk on it. He was SO offended he walked around the whole park with his arms folded and head down sulking. I don't really blame him - she wasn't very nice. And he was there first.

Getting all settled in our new house! I'll post pictures soon!