little brother

I guess today Talmage officially became 'the little brother.' Here's why:

Andrew: "Mom, (in a whiney voice that is seeking sympathy) Talmage is bothawing (bothering) me and distwacting (distracting) me."

Mom: "He just wants to play with you and see what you're doing."

Andrew: "Well- put him in his cribby."

Mom: "If I put Talmage in his bed, then you have to sit on your bed. That would not be as much fun as playing together."

Andrew: "Okay, I will give him these toys to play with instead of my blocks."

Valentine's Day

These are my VALENTINE'S!

Kimball and I have been doing a 14 days of Valentines this year, and it's been fun for us. After dinner, the boys run and get our jars and bring them to us to open one. They've had just as much fun with it, and I decided next year that we'd include them by making them a jar of love notes, and kindnesses. The Sunday before V-day, Louise and Carlie put on a 'Queen of Hearts" dinner- so cute and over the top!

Nearly everything was red.

We had the cutest menu of red salad and luscious lovers lasagna and even pink artisan bread.

At each place setting was a card with a name on it. It said, "something I love about (Kimball)" After dinner, we passed the cards around and each wrote something that we love about that person. (Free printables here: http://simplykellyb.blogspot.com/2012/02/party-fit-for-queen-of-hearts.html)

Andrew is ready to feast.

After dinner it was time for clean up, and the kids got a free ride on the couch.

Monday, we made lots of Valentine's for all of our cousins and grandma's and grandpa's.

Andrew took a picture of me cutting and stapling... He told me when to smile, and told me, HOW to smile, I smiled one way, and he corrected me and told me, "No mom, do it like this." He must be imitating someone he knows closely :)

Benson had fun writing all of his classmates' names on his Valentines. Lots of excitement for his preschool Valentine party.

You're my favo'RED'

You're sweet

Be my baby

Grandma Jones came to visit with Valentine's. Each boy got candy, a puzzle, a new pair of themed underwear, and Talmage got an awesome new stacker toy. He's loving it.

Had to get a single picture of Talmage on his FIRST VALENTINE'S DAY. PS- isn't he getting so big? Like 'ready to graduate from the infant carrier' big.

Then dad came home from work and immediately the boys were asking him to get them a drink of milk from the fridge...they couldn't wait for dad to see his surprise in the fridge.

A fridge FULL of Dr. Pepper and a sign from his wife saying, "Kimball, you are the 'Pep' in my life."

Then we had pizza with a heart on it for dinner.

Benson made a really cute mobile at pre-school that we hung up to decorate. He also had such a cute Valentine party at Miss Debbie's. We are really loving pre-school.

And then the sugar... The first one was the fun dip. This was a first for them both and it was a hit.

LOVE

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Birthday Kimball

He's the big 32- and I'm not talking about Jimmer!

We love you so so so much Kimball! Happy Birthday to the greatest person I know!

Talmage 6 months old pictures

My little doll boy.

We already knew that he is a smiley guy, but we learned how much he loves the camera.

Emily Loveland did an awesome job- and we had such a great time too. No stress!

Em had to snap this candid shot.

We were all done, but she picked up her camera and he SMILED for her.

I made this quilt for him a couple of months ago as a play quilt. It went significantly faster than I thought, and even though it was kind of a whim, we both really like it. It is a black and white cow print on the back that's made of minky.

Love him.

He's a dream.

Happy New Year!

2011

is over.

It's been a wonderful year so we celebrated. It's always hard for me to fathom how far away my childhood or highschool graduation or mission or wedding day is getting, but I will embrace it- because I look forward to another year. We anticipate some big changes for everyone and hope it's as memorable. I plan on documenting it right here.

In Kimball's mind he couldn't think of a better way to start the new year

than with a glass of Martinelli's.

Sick ducks

I have done...

SO

MUCH

LAUNDRY!

The day after Christmas, we put the kids to bed. I awoke to some muffled kid sounds at 2:30 am. I got up to go to the boys room and on the way, saw Benson on the couch. I began talking to him, and he began barfing at me. I caught most of it with a blanket-luckily. It's not the first time that Kimball has been alarmingly awoken with a cry of help from me. Benson was ghost white. We bathed him for the second time that night, and went into his room to get him new clothes, only to discover that that had been the second time that he threw up. Hence the picture. He ended up throwing up through the night and into midday. Sleeping and resting. The next day he seemed much better. It was about one pm., I'm ready to head out, Talmage is in his carseat, diaper bag on my shoulder, and Andrew threw up all over the floor. What!! We had another long day and night of lots of 'episodes'. By Friday everyone seems pretty normal and we hope that mom, dad, and the baby are spared.

I took this picture on Thursday night when Andrew was still mopey. Kimball and I were talking and Andrew just climbed right up on the stool and put his arms around daddy. I literally had the camera sitting next to me and glad I could snap this little moment.

punked

I got punked by my three year old last night. We were putting the boys to bed, I was on Andrew and was already putting him in bed while Kimball was brushing Benson's teeth. Andrew and I were laughing and tickling and wrestling on the bed. Kimball reminded me that I was supposed to be winding him down- not up. I told him that I'd 'turn him off' as soon as Benson came to bed. Kimball finished with Benson and brought him to the bed. I said to Andrew, "Okay, Andrew, where is your off button? Let me find it." I turned him over to pretend to push his pretend button on his back. I did it and Andrew laughed and said, "mom, push my button again." I TOTALLY FELL FOR IT! I did, and he immediately made the sound that boys do best- tooted. Kimball and I literally rolled over in laughter. Just so it's clear- he's never ever seen that trick before. He's been totally pre-programmed. Never a dull moment here.

Christmas 2011

Santa came!

Talmage was the first one to the tree, I set him there so that I could video the boys coming from their room. They were so cute. There's nothing like children smiling and giggling.

Let the paper begin to fly. This year we actually were in a hurry. We had church at 10 am, and we had to be done, fed, and dressed by then. They boys didn't mind getting things handed to them, one right after another.

We heard things like, "thank you", and "I love it!!!" and "OHHH!"

That is a hug Andrew is giving to his movie "Cars 2."

After church we came home, changed, and then headed to Salt Lake for Christmas at the High's. Everyone has a stocking and we get neat little things in there, like chocolate, clementines, 2 $ bills, little toys, jewelry, flashlights, etc.

You can see the cute little horses on carousels hanging from the piano. Pops puts them up each year and they are right at the childrens' eye level. They love the music and watching the horses go up and down, up and down.

Wouldn't be Christmas without the homemade cinnamon rolls, queens mix, fruit and egg nog.

some new kicks.

Later that night, we went to my parents to have a simple dinner and exchange name gifts. This would be our last night with Laura and Dan's family- dread.

We let the kids exchange first so that they could go play, and then the adults could exchange gifts. This year we had Stephanie and her family on Skype. We'll definately do that again, then she could actually see what was going on instead of just hear the craziness.

I had Laura's name and I for sure knew that I was going to get her a cutting mat, ruler, and rotary cutter (sweater) so that she would be 'set' to sew when she was far away from home. She gave that gift to me two years ago, and I have used it like a million times, and wonder how I EVER tried to sew without those things.

The greatest gift of the day- a beautiful happy boy!

Transformers!

What great blessings we have! What a wonderful holiday!